Little Mermaid is Disney's longest live-action remake
The Little Mermaid floats ashore next month as the House of Mouse's longest live-action remake yet.
According to AMC Theaters, this marine world musical clocks in at 2 hours 15 minutes, meaning Cruella (at 2 hours 14 mins) now sits in second place, followed by Beauty and the Beast (2 hours 9 mins) and Aladdin (2 hours 8 mins).
Most of the others, including Maleficent and Dumbo, don't even reach the 2-hour mark.
Related: The Little Mermaid is making a big change from the Disney original
Disney's reboot of the 1989 animated film with the same name, will see Halle Bailey take on the titular role as Ariel, a mermaid that seeks out the help of a magical sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to fulfil her dream of becoming a human.
The Little Mermaid director Rob Marshall recently told SFX why McCarthy's history as a drag queen - her alias was Miss Y - helped land her the role of villain Ursula.
"You could have knocked me over with a feather when she said to me: 'I started as a drag performer,'" he revealed.
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"That was the first thing she said to me: 'I was in drag shows. That's how I started, I had this character with a big cape.' She's described the whole thing. And she goes, 'So I understand where the beginnings of this character started.' And then we just talked."
He added: "She's a wonderful actress, people forget that. They say, 'Oh, she's funny.' This character is an injured character, and she was able to find all that depth and emotion, in addition to all the other colours."
Apparently, iconic queen Divine provided the central touchstone for McCarthy's live-action sea witch.
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Marshall explained: "We really used Divine as our inspiration, because that’s where it started."
"But the thing about Divine is that she's bigger than life, and this character is bigger than life, but at the same time, Melissa was able to bring humanity to it."
The Little Mermaid is set to be released on May 26. The original animated version is currently available to stream on Disney+.
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