Review: The Little Mermaid
Watch And You'll See, Some Day I'll Be, Part Of Your World!
THE PLOT
The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. With Mermaids forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life, and her father’s crown, in jeopardy.
SPECIAL NOTE
“Man Plans, God Laughs” is a phrase that has defined 2023 for me so far. At the start of the year I was confident in seeing how I could expand my reach as an amateur film historian and an active film critic with membership in two groups - Central Florida and Puerto Rico.
However 2023 has had other plans for me. A major, personal, life-changing test has happened to me that has affected various parts of me - including my mental health. I’m sure if you snoop around my social media stuff you might start to put two and two together as to what’s up. But regardless I’ve chosen to stay off social media until I get my head straight and my life back on the right path.
Until then my movie reviews over at my Substack newsletter will continue to post each weekend. Unfortunately I can’t make screenings for a good bit or update my Oscars projections, but I will be keeping up with movies as they come out.
I’ll see y’all at the movies…
QUICK REVIEW
Here we go again, just weeks after we have yet another Disney Animation Classic’s live action remake. This time its a big one in the theatrically released The Little Mermaid. Starring a diverse cast that features a phenomenal Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Melissa McCarthy as Ursala who is clearly having a blast with the role, Daveed Diggs voicing Sebastian, Awkwafina voicing Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay voicing Flounder, among others.
Obviously when it comes to these remakes the question is do they justify their existence past just being big cash grabs? The answer is obviously no. Especially given how incredibly faithful an adaptation it is.
Does it do some things worse than the original? Yes. You just can’t capture the magic that animation can bring in this form, the film is a bit overlong, and it features a song from Prince Erick that made me feel nothing.
Does it do some things better than the original? Yes. The romance is much better written and Erick actually has a personality and motives in this version. There’s also a new song featuring a rapping duet between Sebastian and Scuttle that I enjoyed a lot. And I found the humor with Sebastian to hit much better here than the original.
The movie overall has some wonky CGI and effects, but this was never going to be the next Avatar: The Way Of Water. But the music is great for the most part, and the performances are fun.
Basically this isn’t going to be the live action remake that changes the game in how these are viewed from the skeptics, but if you’re a fan of these or a massive fan of the original film you should enjoy yourself. And I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The positives and negatives balanced themselves enough that I came away considering this one of the top tier remakes, and the best from the lot in a while. I give an A- to the remake of The Little Mermaid.
INTIAL GRADING
