Little Mermaid - Best it could of been?

Me and my friend are currently argueing.

He thinks Disney did the best they could with the resources they had. Where as I believe they could of done way better with Little Mermaid. Whether it be sets, costumes, or special effects.

What do you think? Could Disney have done better? How would you fix this show??

How would you change Ursala's Death (very anti-climactic)
How would you change Ariel's transformation at the end of Act 1 (incredibly pitiful)

It could have been much, much, much, much, much better. There's no question.

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Could HAVE.
Could HAVE. Could HAVE. Could HAVE. Could HAVE. Could HAVE. Could HAVE.

HAAAAAVE!!!

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I think it looked like a middle school production they put together in 2 hours. If seemed very lazy an not well thought out.

Well, let's hire a director who is famous for Opera and has never done a Broadway Musical cause kids love THE RING.
And a set designer, costume designer, a book writer and a choreographer who have never done a Broadway Musical.
And throw a poop load of Money at them and see what happens.

Hey, it's making the dough.

Unlike Mary Poppins, it failed to alter the storyline well, yet at the same time, unlike Beauty & the Beast, it failed to use the great source material given to them. Honestly, the costumes and sets are nice, but they still could have been better, and bigger. However, given the situation at the current time, with no theaters open on Broadway for Mermaid, nothing opened up, and it was squeezed into one of the smallest theaters on Broadway for musicals. Therefore, this challenged both the set and costume designers by having to deal with a restricted space, and thus, a musical which could have been the most successful musical of the year given the most amazing movie ever written at the time, became an okay musical which failed to step up to the plate such as the other Disney musicals.

-- "He thinks Disney did the best they could with the resources they had."

Oh dear, I think he's sadly mistaken. Disney Theatricals has more "resources" (i.e.- money and power) than any other entity in the business and they failed to use them here. They should be ashamed of what they did with The Little Mermaid on Broadway.

It really is a travesty.

And then removed the best new song written for the show.

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Doug Wright HAD done a Broadway Musical before, and brilliantly. Grey Gardens? Disney is known for taking Pulitzer Prize winning dramatists and turning them into poop. David Henry Hwang?

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I think Disney got a little too brave with this one. When Beauty and the Beast went to Broadway, they basically put the film on stage and fleshed it out a little, They added things rather than changed them. When Mary Poppins came to the stage, they departed from the movie, but it worked. Some things were cut, some things added, some things remained the same but were presented in different ways (supercali, spoonful of sugar etc). They tried with the Little Mermaid and it just didn't work. They took out too much of what the audience EXPECTED to see, which with a Disney show, is pretty important. Sure, it's selling on the name, but if you ask a lot of kids afterwards, I bet they'll point out what they liked about the movie that they missed in the show.

I remember hearing rumors in the development process which actually sound better than the final product, like having actor's playing fish having "fish-heads" with tails and fins coming from around the head and a bodysuit to blend in with underwater surroundings, or even puppets would have been effective.

Yes, Vanessa should have been there, that scene of her hypnotising the Prince with Ariel's voice as she walks along the beach is one of the most enchanting scenes in the movie, and having Sherie Rene Scott cast made her a perfect fit as she could then have played Ursula and Vanessa.

Saying, that, the "new" Ursula has grown on me, but the old one is one of the things we all WANTED to see.

I'm still not sure about flying the mermaids, it should definitely have been used in parts, BUT there could have been a much more creative way than heelies.

Like most things, this could have been better, yes..but I did enjoy it. It was kid-ish, and the kids and families loved it, no matter how bad the sets and costumes were.

They should have chosen ALADDIN instead. Much easier to do and a lot funnier.

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Let's say they incorporated Vanessa in the Contest scene, then Eric falls under her spell and decides to marry her, what would Ariel have done? Wouldn't that make Ariel look stupid for just standing there while Vanessa steals Eric right in front of her, and also knowing that's her own voice Vanessa is using?