The Wonderful World of Disney: The Little Mermaid Live! (ABC) - General Discussion

[In2You]

3 hours ago, ancslove said:

An interesting experiment, but didn’t really work.  And oddly enough, I think playing the animated movie probably did more to take the wind out of the sails of the upcoming Live Action than just doing the full stage show.

I don’t know why they didn’t do more speaking scenes live.  They had a Grimsby in Fathoms Below!  Why not keep him and do more of his scenes with Eric and Ariel? And actually cast Triton and show him onstage worrying about Ariel and regretting everything.  

I know dialogue has often been a weakness in these events, but then they should just keep choosing sung-through musicals like JCS.

We won't even see the live action movie until at least 2021 so I don't feel like this horrible special had any effect on it.  By the time the movie hits theaters this will have been forgotten.

[Was-MArsenault]

I'm really glad I didn’t watch this.

[revbfc]

I know I’m a day late to this party, but I just needed somewhere to vent.

If you’re playing Sebastian the goddam crab, you WEAR A FUCKING CRAB COSTUME!!!

[Camera One]

I agree it felt very disjointed.  I actually thought all the performers did a reasonable job.  I like the Broadway musical so I liked Prince Eric's songs.  It was a bit of adjustment seeing the kid from "The Good Wife" playing him, though.  I expected Queen Latifah to have her second song from the musical, though.  The microphone problem was the worst with the singer from "Glee".  I could hardly hear her.

I too would have preferred a straight-up movie, or at least a live stage version of the entire musical.  The whole setup felt like those talent shows and very amateur-ish.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

13 hours ago, ancslove said:

The weird thing is that 90% of the time, they aren’t netting huge stars for these Live! events, anyway.  They’re usually grabbing one or two big names, and then filling the rest with smaller stars, who often are already contracted or otherwise involved with the network in question.  

Like this one, you’ve got Queen Latifah, and then the one-scene cameo of John Stamos.  And then lesser-known ABC/Disney actors Auli’i and Graham, plus Shaggy, who isn’t quite a mainstream household name.  

In the past, Vanessa Hudgens and Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough and even Stephen Moyer had a level of name recognition and very dedicated but more niche fan groups, but none of them are A-list. 

I usually don't understand the logic behind the casting for these live shows but I kind of get Vanessa Hudgens. She was very popular with the tween crowd due to High School Musical so I think they assumed they could get 20-somethings who loved HSM back in their youth to tune in and watch Grease.

I guess that's what they were hoping for by casting Shaggy since he was inescapable in the late 90s/early 00s, but I don't have any nostalgia for him.

I assumed they cast Stephen Moyer because of True Blood.

[opus]

I liked it, despite some annoyances [“such and such song in 2 minutes “ was really stupid]

So there’s a theater play where Ariel is part of a duet at a time when she has no voice?

[Unraveled]

The Broadway version of "If Only" (a number that does not appear in the original movie) is actually a quartet. Sebastian and King Triton are the other two singers. In musicals, people sing to each other instead of talking or they sing their thoughts like a soliloquy. So Ariel can't talk during the moment, but she still has thoughts. In "If Only," I would think each of the four individuals are thinking aloud.

[SimoneS]

The Little Mermaid crushed it for ABC. It got an amazing 2.6 in the key 18 to 49 demo. Disney/ABC must be thrilled.

[Was-MArsenault]

12 hours ago, SimoneS said:

The Little Mermaid crushed it for ABC. It got an amazing 2.6 in the key 18 to 49 demo. Disney/ABC must be thrilled.

Did it not do well?

[SimoneS]

3 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

Did it not do well?

It did great.

[Was-MArsenault]

2 minutes ago, SimoneS said:

It did great.

Oh sorry. I got confused.