Walt Disney World has released first look photos & video offering a pre-opening preview of “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure,” a newly-reimagined stage show debuting at Hollywood Studios in less than a week! This shares the preview photos & footage, offering a glimpse of what you can expect from one of WDW’s main “Cool Kid Summer” offerings.
As a reminder, “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure” is a reimagined theatrical production set to replace Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The latter was a casualty of the COVID closure, and over 5 years later, is going to be replaced by this reimagined production. It’s similar in spirit and substance, with differences in style and some songs.
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is inspired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios classic movie, and will debut in the newly-refreshed theater in Animation Courtyard. The show was originally slated to debut last fall, but will now open on the same date as Villains Unfairly Ever After in Summer 2025, as indirect capacity replacements for MuppetVision 3D. (That’s right–it takes TWO stage shows to fill the comically-large shoes of the Muppets!)
When the new Little Mermaid Musical Adventure opens, the stage show will feature stunning new set pieces, cutting-edge effects, and a bold new design that captures Ariel’s imagination and emotions through her unique view of the world around her. Watch as Ariel follows her dreams to be part of the human world. This little mermaid’s adventure is brimming with familiar moments—like encounters with King Triton and Ursula—and stirring scenes.
Unsurprisingly, it’s also brimming with music–hence the name. Throughout Ariel’s journey, get swept away by moving musical numbers like “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” “Kiss the Girl” and more!
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is now in Cast Member previews, and will officially open on May 27, 2025. While a soft opening over the weekend is still possible, we’re not expecting any other previews beyond those for Cast Members. In any case, these first few showings have yielded first look photos & video of the new production at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Here’s a look:
The video footage of The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure shows the various performers and pupeteers appearing on stage, as well as the multi-media that supplements the stage show. Here’s a first look:
Walt Disney World shared a preview of The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! The show will include new puppets, props, scenery, effects, songs, and more. pic.twitter.com/gMoz4NkOQD
— Drew Smith (@DrewDisneyDude) May 23, 2025
As mentioned in our Photos & Video First Look of Villains Unfairly Ever After, I usually make a point of avoiding spoilers before experiencing theme park offerings in person and therefore maybe am not the best judge of how video looks. It’s often not an accurate reflection of the in-person experience, which could be why I was underwhelmed by that stage show.
Or maybe not, because I watched this footage of The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and came away feeling pretty positive. The newly-reimagined show looks fantastic. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and judge the finished product based on a video, but it appears to be a nice glow-up, with the stage show getting a major modernization and upgrade. Kudos to the Disney Live Entertainment creative team on what seems to be a job well done. The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure should be a huge asset to the DHS attraction lineup!
I cannot wait to experience this and, more importantly, take Megatron to see it. (I can already tell she’ll love this, whereas the Villains show is probably not age-appropriate just yet.) Part of my excitement for this is obviously parental bias. There’s also the fact that we’ve seen Voyage of the Little Mermaid many, many times over the last few decades, so I’ve sort of already seen this (or a version of it) in person and can fill in the gaps in my mind. But that’s not all of it.
Watching the videos of The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Villains Unfairly Ever After back-to-back just underscores how much more complete of a production the former is, with greater variety in the presentation and just a better energy. It’s fairly undeniable that the Little Mermaid show benefits from more performers and puppeteers, and just being a meatier production.
Prior to this, Walt Disney World shared a few other updates on The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure in the last two weeks. For an even meatier first look at the show and its creation, see the above 10-minute long ‘Making of’ video from the official Disney Parks YouTube channel.
In that, Disney Live Entertainment pulled back the curtain on the gadgets and gizmos aplenty in store for guests in The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. It also shows Ariel herself, Jodi Benson, surprising Cast Members and bringing viewers along in this exclusive behind-the-scenes video.
Walt Disney World also updated the official attraction page, revealing that the showtimes for The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure will be continuous from 9:15 AM to 7:15 PM. This is unlike Villains Unfairly Ever After, which got specific times despite being a shorter show.
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure has also been added to the Lightning Lane roster. We’ve updated our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for 2025 accordingly, but the only thing you really need to know is that this won’t be a good use of your line-skipping allocations (unless you’re visiting in the first week or so that it’s open).
Ultimately, we’re looking forward to the Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure even more so after this sneak peek. We loved the old Voyage of the Little Mermaid show, viewing it as quintessential 1990s Walt Disney World, and a show that still held up despite a bit of datedness. The reimagining should address that last part at the very least, while giving the attraction a new lease on life. Well, at least until the current ‘lease’ on Animation Courtyard expires and a blockbuster new land announcement is made at the 2028 D23 Expo.
I’m also still a bit bitter that it’s taken over 5 years to get a reimagined replacement for Voyage of the Little Mermaid in this space, which is over two years longer than all other venues. Honestly, this doesn’t really impact us all that much personally. We would’ve watched VotLM maybe once per year during that time (perhaps more if there was an ‘escape the storm’ scenario). And our daughter is just finally starting to age into this type of show.
However, I recognize that we are not the only parents with small children who visit Walt Disney World…and the clock has been ticking for many of them over the last ~5 years. Walt Disney World’s lackadaisical approach over the last several years has been frustrating for these families who only have so long before their kids grow up and age out of the ‘sweet spot’ when stuff like this is truly pure magic.
It’s annoying that the only things done with a sense of urgency are upcharges, cutbacks, and Disney Vacation Club construction. For everything else, there’s the implicit expectation that we, as fans, should simply be appreciative about whatever Walt Disney World “gives” us. It’s easy to see why so many Walt Disney World fans have developed a sense of schadenfreude, and are actively rooting for Epic Universe to present a meaningful challenge to Walt Disney World (mild understatement), even if they’ve never visited Universal Orlando.
It’s no secret to anyone in WDW management that wait times are high at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That people leave the park early many days due to a sense of defeat, not completion. That more balance is needed in the attraction and entertainment lineup. Yet despite all of that, Walt Disney World chose to allocate resources to developing stage shows for Jollywood Nights (among other things) as opposed to expediting The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. And I say this as someone who really enjoyed Jollywood Nights last year and am excited to do it again!
A couple of years from now, we’ll have forgotten all about how long it took to bring back a Little Mermaid production as we enjoy it for the two-dozenth time with our daughter. And in fairness, none of this is the fault of the Disney Live Entertainment team or the passionate creatives that poured their hearts into this lovely-looking update. If the preview photos & video are any indication, they did a great job with The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. We cannot wait to see it!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure? Excited to have a new stage show, or bitter that this space has been dark for over 5 years? Excited to experience this during your summer-time trip to Walt Disney World? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!