The man recently guest-starred in Rosie O’Donnell’s Emmy winning talk show to raise money for the Actors Fund during this uncertain time of artistic floundering. During the video (via Slashfilm), Menken gave a little update on the live-action The Little Mermaid, and it seems he has made great progress. Wow, that is definitely a sizable amount of work! Prior to this, we did not have much information with regard to the aquatic compositions in this new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s beloved tale. Considering the fact that the ’89 The Little Mermaid film had characters breaking into a number every eight minutes, it’s interesting that we are getting even more songs. Granted, the runtime should exceed the original’s, and having new material to back that up is always a fresh sea-sprayin’ welcome. It is always better to be fresh than to rehash. On a side note, I hope all the newts, carp, plaice, bass, chub, flukes, rays, ling, trout, blackfish, the smelt and the sprat have been doing fine, with their orchestral recording sessions being held via Skype. You know, to promote the whole social distancing thing. Who knows how long it took those poor creatures to get in sync, considering the echoes and delayed signals underrr the sea…sea… ea…