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The Little Mermaid Musical Adventure at Hollywood Studios: How the brand-new show was created

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Published  June 25, 2025 6:30pm EDT
Walt Disney World
FOX 35 Orlando
Disney World's The Little Mermaid: Behind-the-scenes

Disney World's The Little Mermaid: Behind-the-scenes

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure debuted in May 2025 at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios. FOX 35's Stephanie Buffamonte went behind the scenes to see how creators used technology, puppetry and stage performance to bring the show to life.

The Brief

    • The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure debuted in May 2025.
    • FOX 35 is going behind the scenes to see how creators used technology to bring the show to life.
    • The show has a blend of 3D animation and live elements.

What we know:

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is bringing new magic to this Disney classic. The new 20-minute show debuted last month at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios.

Dig deeper:

The new musical uses a mix of 3D animation on the screen, puppets like Sebastian and Max, and real-life characters like Ariel and Eric. Guests can become part of their world, thanks to the cutting-edge technology. Creators used motion capture animation to bring characters that you see on screen, like Ursula and King Triton, to life. Performers wore suits that had sensors on them and performed blocking choreography of those scenes. Then, about 30 cameras mounted on the ceiling captured all of that movement into data that was imported onto the 3D models that we created for each character.

The show has a blend of 3D animation and live elements. For example, Sebastian is in digital form the first time you see him, and then in a flash, he comes to life as a puppet. Every single one of the puppets that you see in Under the Sea is based on real dancer movements. Those movements were captured on video, and then that was used to animate all of the digital fish in the show.

Chris Iannuzzi, the puppetry director with Disney Live Entertainment & Katrina Mena Rick, Senior Creative Producer with Disney Live Entertainment | CREDIT: Disney

What they're saying:

Chris Iannuzzi, the puppetry director with Disney Live Entertainment, has been with Disney for 34 years. He worked on the original Little Mermaid show, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, many years ago. At the time, he was working as an usher for the theater, but one day he was asked to be a puppeteer. That question turned into a decades-long career, and now he is one of the masterminds behind the new show at Hollywood Studios.

"Puppetry to me came accidentally, and when I did discover it, it was something that I think I always knew I loved, how we could take the inanimate, a character that we thought could only be imagined through an animation, and then bring it to life," said Iannuzzi.

Katrina Mena Rick, Senior Creative Producer with Disney Live Entertainment, said this musical was a passion project as she’s always connected with Ariel.

"I'm first-generation Cuban American, and I never felt like I fit in. So if I were to go to Cuba, I'd be American, and here in the United States, I'm considered Cuban. So I've always felt like I was in this world where I never fit in, and so Ariel felt that way growing up. She was misunderstood," said Mena Rick. "Her character as a young girl was that she was tenacious, she was courageous, she was strong, and she dreamed big. So as a little girl, I held on to those values. And honestly, if it wasn't for that character, I get emotional just saying it, I wouldn't be here today,"

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO:

The Source: FOX 35 Reporter Stephanie Buffamonte took a behind-the-scenes look at this new show. She spoke with the two Disney Live Entertainment employees who brought the show to life, Chris Iannuzzi, the Puppetry Director and Katrina Mena Rick, the Senior Creative Producer.

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