Let’s just get it out of the way here: This is not the trailer for Disney’s Little Mermaid remake, with music by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of a whole slew of live-action adaptations that the studio has planned. Nor is it the trailer for Universal’s Little Mermaid retelling, which was set to star Chloë Grace Moretz, until she dropped out of the project last year. But wait, don’t close the tab just yet—you’ll still want to watch the trailer for this indie retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, if only to scope out Disney’s competition.
This version of the story comes from Conglomerate Media and Kingsway Productions and sets the action in Mississippi, where a young girl (Loreto Peralta) and her reporter brother (William Moseley) follow a lead on a woman who might be the real Little Mermaid. She’s played by Poppy Drayton as a circus sideshow who has legs, sometimes, apparently, which we’re confident will all be explained. And look, Shirley MacLaine is there, too, telling stories about mermaids to youngsters, and we are already 99 percent sure she is actually the little girl from the story when she grows up.
Fine, this trailer is a little cheesy, we’ll admit. But you have plenty of choices when it comes to Little Mermaid stories, and setting this one in a circus makes it interesting, at least. Plus, if you’re looking for a grittier version more in keeping with the spirit of the original tale, there’s always the Polish horror musical Little Mermaid retelling instead.
