lumos ac nox

• The Hans Christian Andersen quote about mermaids having to suffer without tears in the beginning sequence
• Ariel saving Max by pushing him towards the boat
• The clarification on Ursula’s backstory regarding her “when I lived at the palace” comment
• Ariel noticing Eric’s compassion before his beauty
• Ariel being such an open-minded free thinker that she holds a different opinion from everybody she knows about humans, despite the fact that a human was responsible for her mother’s death
• Ariel being more conflicted about Ursula’s deal, acknowledging that it’s wrong
• The fact that Eric has a collection just like Ariel does, the fact that they’re both explorers
• Eric and Ariel finding ways to connect without her speaking! Pouring over maps together, communicating with gestures and smiles.
• Eric stopping the carriage to move the goats, and Ariel disappearing while he has his back turned, because she’s so intrigued by the market that she can’t help herself
• Ariel constantly discarding her shoes and eventually trading in her boots for sandals
• Eric showing Ariel star constellations and her telling him her name by pointing out Aries. The line “That’s a beautiful name,” replacing “That’s kind of pretty.” Eric saying her name is written in the stars.
• When Ariel and Eric are saying goodbye after their day together and she hops down the stairs to put his hat on his head and give him an earnest, sweet, open smile
• Grimsby kicking the wedding ring out of sight so Eric couldn’t give it to Vanessa
• Ariel being the one to defeat Ursula! Ariel, as a mermaid, unable to stand, slipping and sliding down the deck, hefting herself up to spin the wheel with all her strength.
• Ariel having a tea length wedding dress! I love her gaudy puffy 1989 dress but this felt more in tune for her character, light, airy, free, youthful.
• The union of Ariel and Eric representing an alliance between mermaids and humans, and an appeasement to the sea gods, so that the port will be successful again
• The nuance in Ariel’s relationship with the ocean. She acknowledges that leaving is a sacrifice and a loss, even while understanding that it’s the right thing to do for herself. The balance of feelings made it very emotional when her family came to the surface to tell her that they would always be there for her. A poignant depiction of growing up, really.

Jonah Hauer-King is Halle Bailey’s hype man!

“Under The Sea is the most complicated production number we’ve ever done. There is one live actor and everything else is digitally created. We thought, how do we do this? How do we begin? And I remember thinking about Fantasia (1940). I thought of Walt Disney and I remembered when he did Fantasia, the Nutcracker Suite sequence, he used the Ballet Russes as a template. He used their bodies to help him create the dancing flowers or the snowflakes or the mushrooms. I thought we should work with a dance company. So we brought the Alvin Ailey company over to London to work with them to create this musical number and we asked them to actually replicate these different sea creatures and how they moved. So that our CGI artists would have a body to work from and to mold from. It was insanity in a way. But I will say, at the end of the day, having that beautiful dance company there with us and being able to work with actual dancers was really the key. I think that was the key to getting into this [musical number] and figuring it out.” - Rob Marshall THE LITTLE MERMAID (2023) Dir. Rob Marshall

“I write a letter when I have a crush so intense that I don’t know what else to do. Rereading my letters reminds me of how powerful my emotions can be, how all-consuming. And Margot would say I’m being dramatic, but I think drama can be fun.”

It’s ideal for Headquarters, of course. My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It’s unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call — as if they’d ever have wanted to — and now Dumbledore’s added his protection, you’d be hard put to find a safer house anywhere.