Film The Little Mermaid (2023)
The original Little Mermaid movie came out in 1989 and I was born in 2001, so the movie was there for all my life. It wasn't even just a movie to me anymore. I had pillows, toys, notebooks, bags, etc. that had the original Little Mermaid on it. It was more like a lifestyle than a movie. It was my favorite thing in the world. But this adaptation easily surpassed the original for me. 😃 Nostalgia is strong, but The Little Mermaid (2023) was just magical. The characters and central romance were people you'd actually care about, which is the most important part.
Film Better than most remakes, but still not much to write home about
You ever have that movie that you don’t watch for an extended period of time, then find yourself coming back to and say to yourself “Wow, I’ve forgotten how much I loved this movie”? That’s how ‘’The Little Mermaid’’ is to me. In fact, I’d go so far to say it’s in my personal top 5 animated Disney movies. To that end, the notions of a live action remake of this movie intrigued me, even as I saw the.... lacking turn out from Disney in that capacity over the past couple years. But, I decided to give this movie a chance nonetheless, and while I can't say I didn't enjoy some of it, it most certainly isn't on par with the original.
The best part of this movie is definitely the acting. All the actors are definitely bringing their A-Game, especially Halle Bailey herself, who does a great job, especially with a movingly good signing voice. John Hauer-King had the unenviable task of acting a rather bland character, and manages to make him fairly investing to watch. Melissa Mc Carthy does a good job as Ursula, and is a pretty good signer at that, but no one can truly match Pat Carol’s downright deliciously evil performance. Javier Bardem has the gravitas needed for Triton, and there are some good quiet moments where he considers his actions, and Bardem is allowed to really invest himself.
The effects in this movie, while not terrible, aren’t much to write home about either. I feel that the producers took the lessons of [1] to heart, and tried to make the animal characters have more emotion, and while the actors do fine, and a few animations look okay, the basic problem is the animals are so far from human expression that it’s just no fully possible to render them enough. It's not painfully un-emotive, like the earlier example, but it's still lacking. The underwater world is also surprisingly lackluster, with the world looking remarkably plain and unimpressive. The only two scenes where the world looked really good were the “Under the Sea” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, but I compare the grand sweeping shots of Atlantica, and it seems really unassuming. That being said, the theater I saw this at admittedly had a bad projector, so it may have something to do with that; I’ll watch it on Disney+ when it comes out, and maybe there will be a difference.
Suffice to say, one of the most important aspects of ‘’The Little Mermaid’’ were the songs. I’d say most, if not all the original songs do real good, and it helps in that regard that all the actors are good singers. As for the new songs, they are mostly fine as well, providing some good emotional insight for the characters, especially one for Eric, which provided some much needed characterization. The exception is “Scuttlebutt”, which can die in a fire; it progresses nothing for the story and seems to exist for no other reason than to provide Daveed Diggs and Awkwafina a chance to rap (even Ariel during the scene covered her ears during it).
Unfortunately, the writing is where it flounders some (pun fully intended). The things they change in the movie honestly don’t have much bearing on the main story, and are in some cases rather nonsensical. There are a few cute moments between Ariel and Eric, and they do try and build their romance from the ground up, with some good character moments between the two, instead of just having Ariel fall in love with him spontaneously. I’d say when it tries to retell the original story, it works well, but is more hit and miss when trying to add new elements to it.
In all, I’d give this movie a “B-“. It had enough good in it for me to not regret seeing it, but not enough for me to recommend seeing it in theaters; watch it when it comes on Disney+.
Film Made from inferior parts, and it shows
After finally coming to its nadir with Peter Pan and Wendy, the live action Disney remake is now just scraping the bottom of the ocean with The Little Mermaid, which could succinctly be summarized as reheated leftovers that, unlike pasta, don't taste better the next day.
The Little Mermaid is widely considered to be the movie that kickstarted the Disney Renaissance, and it is not hard to see why: A beautiful score, relatable protagonist, brilliant animation and design (I heard tell the teams had to draw over a million bubbles by hand), all coupled with that Disney formula of telling fairy tales in a family-friendly way, and it was magical. It was not surprising such a beloved film would be given the live action treatment. However, all of the charm has been sucked out of the movie in return for its remake. About the only thing that even comes close to the original is the overacting and pomp of Melissa Mc Carthy's Ursula, which channels the late Pat Carroll with aplomb.
Design-wise, the original's bright and colorful ocean has changed to become bleak and almost terrifying, the dark shadows feel more like Ariel is going to stumble on sleeping C'thulhu in that sunken wreck. The animal sidekicks, particularly Sebastian's realistic crab, just look terrifying. It was true that Flounder's eyebrows and Sebastian's lips aren't realistic from the original animation, but I highly doubt realism is a huge factor in a story about mermaid and sea witches.
Plot-wise, the movie deviates only slightly from the original, but it just serves to make more plotholes than they solve, tries to add plot elements that weren't even necessary to add and explore the roles of characters who didn't even need to be in the movie, such as Eric's controlling mother. It came off more as trying to answer questions and "problems" no one else even cared about.
Acting-wise, aside from Mc Carthy, none of the actors do a great job. Ariel's Halle Bailey is a decent enough singer but her acting leaves much to be desired, and the songs she sings were clearly not written for her vocal range or expression, she is far too reliant on Melismatic Vocals. Sebastian overacts and exaggerates his accent to the point of parody, Eric was so forgettable he might as well be called Plot Device, and Javier Bardem as Triton has an expression on his face that screams "when is my paycheck coming?" As for Scuttle, included with a rap by Awkafina...dear reader, do not listen to the Scuttle rap. You will be grateful.
In all, this is a shallow cash grab without the heart of the original, the magic and joy that comes with a childhood fairy tale. It's so desperate to pretend to be more than it is it ends up being nothing. Just watch the original.