‘Ursula is everything’: Melissa McCarthy loves her ‘conniving’ villain in Disney’s ‘Little Mermaid’

April 26, 2023

Melissa McCarthy enraptured the CinemaCon crowd just like her undersea witch wraps her tentacles around a poor little mermaid.

At the convention for theater owners and studios, McCarthy took the stage on Wednesday to introduce her musical number “Poor Unfortunate Souls” – the showstopper for McCarthy’s evil Ursula – in Disney’s upcoming live-action “The Little Mermaid” (in theaters May 26).

“It was truly such an honor to play one of Disney’s most delicious villains,” McCarthy said. “Ursula is everything. She’s dishy, she’s a conniving broad. Maybe that’s why I love her.”

McCarthy plays Ursula as bold, brassy and with a gravelly voice in her big scene, a more stylishly sinister take than in the original 1989 animated “Little Mermaid.”

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Ariel (played by Halle Bailey) wants to go to the surface world, and Ursula cuts her a deal to transform into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel’s angelic voice. And when Ursula tells the mermaid that she must receive true love’s kiss, her tentacles make a heart shape.

Her tune is “one of the most fabulous songs ever,” McCarthy said. “I’m pretty thrilled.”

Chris Pine joins Disney’s animated ‘Wish’ crew

Also at the Disney presentation, Chris Pine was announced as a new cast member of the upcoming animated musical “Wish” (out Nov. 22), a culmination of the company’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Pine will play King Magnifico, ruler of a magical kingdom where wishes really do come true. The film stars Ariana DeBose as Asha, and one of her songs from the film made its debut at CinemaCon, where Asha dedicates herself to making others’ wishes come true (“Here I make this wish, for something more for us than this”). She has a pet goat named Valentino that sticks its tongue out at a statue of Magnifico, so Pine’s character is probably not a magnificent guy.