Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid releases in theaters today with a record-breaking long runtime for a Disney live-action movie!
Continuing its trend of remaking the animated classics of yore, Disney is getting set to unveil Halle Bailey's Little Mermaid to the world.
The big-screen blockbuster will retell the tale of the 1989 adventure under the sea, albeit with some notable changes updating it for the modern day. These include lyric changes to some iconic Little Mermaid songs such as "Kiss the Girl".
Reviews for The Little Mermaid's live-action retelling are very good so far, scoring an admirable 72% critic rating and an 85% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes!
How Long Is The Little Mermaid 2023?
The underwater epic is confirmed to be 135 minutes long (2 hours and 15 minutes), making it one minute longer than the previous record holder, 2021's Cruella.
This 135-minute mark is significantly longer than the 1989 original, which came in at a lean 83 minutes.
While Cruella is not technically a remake of an animated classic, it is still considered an adaptation, making it on this list.
The full list of Disney's live-action remakes/adaptations and their runtimes can be seen below:
- The Jungle Book (2016) - 1 hour and 46 minutes
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) - 2 hours and 9 minutes
- Dumbo (2019) - 1 hour and 52 minutes
- Aladdin (2019) - 2 hours and 8 minutes
- The Lion King (2019) - 1 hour and 58 minutes
- Mulan (2020) - 1 hour and 55 minutes
- Cruella (2021) - 2 hours and 14 minutes
- Pinocchio (2022) - 1 hour and 45 minutes
Why Is The Little Mermaid So Long?
While 2 hours and 15 minutes sounds long, especially compared to the length of the animated original, it seems the norm for Disney and its live-action remakes.
Pinocchio aside (as that movie was made for streaming on Disney+), Disney's remakes have all clocked in right around that two-hour mark.
What will be interesting to see is what The Little Mermaid does with all that extra time, as it's nearly an hour longer that the original 1989 film.
There has been much made a deeper dive (pun totally intended) into Ariel's journey in this film, including a whole new musical number. And if Halle Bailey's Ariel is getting more to do throughout the film, then surely the rest of the stacked cast will be as well.
That along with the other two original songs from Lin Manuel Miranda and composer Alan Menken, and one can easily see why this live-action remake will be as long as it is.
The Little Mermaid can be seen in theaters starting May 26.
