The Little Mermaid Live! will be a "hybird" animated film and live musical

The Hollywood Reporter

Director and executive producer Hamish Hamilton called the Wonderful World of Disney production, starring Auli'i Cravalho as Ariel, an "interesting hybrid" between the original 1989 animated film and live performances of the film's musical numbers. "There will be visual signatures all the way through that will reinforce the original feature," Hamilton explained at the TV press tour, adding that the actors will not re-voice the movie -- they'll only perform the original songs. "The original feature will exist exactly as it always has, and then when we come to a song we will transition from the original to the new," he said.