ABC's musical special The Little Mermaid Live! aired on Tuesday night, balancing out the joy of seeing a beloved Disney classic brought to life with the horror of seeing what they did to Flounder. Moana's Auli'i Cravalho played the titular mermaid Ariel, alongside Graham Phillips as Prince Eric and Shaggy as a disappointingly under-costumed Sebastian.
But it was Queen Latifah's Ursula who stole the show, Her Royal Highness descending from the sky wreathed in writhing tentacles as she launched into the character's signature song 'Poor Unfortunate Souls.'
Though the Queen's stage presence and voice are already magnetic enough to portray the bombastic sea witch, her performance was further enhanced by clever use of pyrotechnics, smoke machines, and several vials of glitter. Queen Latifah's rendition of the song was also slightly different to the one most are familiar with, adding a few extra verses in which Ursula laid out the particulars of Ariel's contract.
Overall, it was a terrific re-imagining of a much loved song that fully lived up to the original, and you should definitely watch this and just pretend the rest of it didn't happen.
Topics Disney
