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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Dominique Hines

‘What a splash!’ Halle Bailey debuts ‘epic’ The Little Mermaid trailer at the Oscars

Halle Bailey debuted The Little Mermaid trailer on Sunday night to wide-scale praise.

The actress, who plays Ariel in the highly-anticipated upcoming film, attended the 95th Academy Awards to unveil the new full-length teaser live.

Bailey and co-star Melissa McCarthy, who plays the villainous Ursula in the live action remake, looked every inch a Disney princess in a teal, tulle gown as she hit the red carpet.

In the clip, viewers are brought “under the sea” to revisit the famous characters in the bright and sharp remake of the 1989 animated film.

Sunday night was not the first Oscar link for the film as the original received an Academy Award for original song and score for Alan Menken.

Menken updates his score, and has written a new song featuring lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The film will also include four new original songs.

Disney unveiled the first The Little Mermaid trailer  in September, with Bailey saying that participating in the film “was the most beautiful experience of my life.”

Looking like a real life Disney princess, Halle Bailey hits the Oscars red carpet in an ethereal gown (Getty Images)

When it was announced that a black woman would play Ariel, it created a Twitter firestorm of racism with a barrage of trolls using the hateful #NotMyAriel hashtag.

While Bailey was also inundated with praise and support for the role, the backlash was so intense that Disney had to disable the comments section on the YouTube trailer.

At the time, the actor told Variety she turned to her grandparents, who had faced overt racial adversity, for advice.

Bailey said: “[They told me], ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community.

Melissa McCarthy, at Sunday night’s Oscars, plays the villainous Ursula in The Little Mermaid remake (Getty Images)

“For all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you.’”

Following last night’s trailer drop, things seem to have shifted as there have been largely supportive tweets and YouTube comments.

Disney fans have hailed the 2:20 min clip as “epic”, “beautiful” and “stunning”.

The Little Mermaid premieres May 26.

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