Why The Little Mermaid 2023 Is 52 Minutes Longer Than The Original
Rachel Hickman The runtime of Disney's 2023 live-action The Little Mermaid remake clocks in at 52 minutes longer than the 1989 animated movie – here's why.
The Little Mermaid live-action remake’s runtime is a hefty 52 minutes longer than the original animated film, though the 2023 movie earns this extra time. Disney’s 2023 The Little Mermaid movie clocks in at 2 hours and 15 minutes, making it the studio’s longest live-action remake yet. Meanwhile, the beloved 1989 animated hit only ran for 1 hour and 23 minutes, meaning Disney’s new Little Mermaid movie is filled with plenty of extra sequences and extended storylines to enjoy.
An increasing number of the studio’s big franchise movies have been leaning toward two-hour runtimes, including Disney’s live-action remakes of animated classics like The Little Mermaid that appeal heavily to more restless young audiences. While The Little Mermaid comes nowhere close to the 3 hour and 12 minute runtime of Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water, the 2023 Halle Bailey-starring film is the studio’s longest live-action remake yet, surpassing the 2 hour and 9 minute runtime of previous record-holder Beauty and the Beast. Still, The Little Mermaid uses its extended runtime wisely, as the remake digs deeper into its characters while adding new songs and moments that were missing from the original movie.
The Little Mermaid Remake's Longer Runtime Gives Eric & Ariel A Bigger Romance & Backstory Exploration
The Little Mermaid live-action remake is 52 minutes longer than the original so that it can have more time to explore Eric’s backstory, make Ariel and Eric’s romance feel more natural than the original movie, and introduce extended sequences with its characters and scenery. The original Little Mermaid movie didn’t dive too deep into Eric’s past and characterization, so the 2023 film spends significantly more time contextualizing his backstory and approach to his relationship with Ariel. The Little Mermaid also adds more scenes exploring Ariel and Eric’s romance, giving them ample time to form a natural connection rather than the more rushed relationship of the original movie.
Another explanation for the longer runtime of The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake is that there are more songs in the 2023 version of the movie. The new additions to The Little Mermaid’s soundtrack include the songs “For the First Time,” “Wild Uncharted Waters,” and “The Scuttlebutt,” which are performed by The Little Mermaid cast members Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, and Awkwafina, respectively. The songs clock in between two and four minutes long on the Disney movie’s soundtrack, thus taking up approximately 10 minutes of the 2023 remake’s longer runtime.
The Little Mermaid's Long Runtime Continues A Disney Live-Action Remake Trend
The Little Mermaid having a much longer runtime than the original animated movie isn’t a new development for Disney. Rather, each live-action remake since Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland adaptation has been longer than the Disney original. For example, Alice in Wonderland was over 30 minutes longer than the 1951 movie, the 2015 Cinderella remake was nearly 40 minutes longer than the 1950 original, the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast was 45 minutes longer than the 1991 animated feature, and 2019’s The Lion King movie was 31 minutes longer than the 1994 classic. Disney’s live-action remakes continue to be longer than the originals, but The Little Mermaid has the largest runtime difference so far with 52 minutes.
