Disney’s live-action remake, which features a diverse cast and Halle Bailey as Ariel, is a responsible correction with good intentions but little enjoyment. Read on for an in-depth The Little Mermaid movie review.
Movie Details:
Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Simone Ashley, Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Noma Dumezweni, and Art Malik.
Director: Rob Marshall
Budget: $250 million
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date: 1 26 May 2023 (India)
Adapted from: The Little Mermaid
Run Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Where to Watch? At the theatres!
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
Story:
Ariel, the youngest of King Triton’s daughters, is a charming and vivacious young mermaid with a desire for exploration. Ariel visits the surface out of a desire to learn more about the world above the water and falls in love with the handsome Prince Eric. She follows her heart and strikes a deal with Ursula, the wicked sea witch, to experience life on dry land.
The Little Mermaid movie review:
The new live-action “The Little Mermaid” is everything a viewer shouldn’t desire in a film: obedient and protective but still clinging to the audience’s favour. It smells of duty and good intentions. They’re absent: pleasure, amusement, intrigue, risk, flavour, and kink. The film declares, “We tried!” Aiming not to offend, horrify, provoke, or imagine. This is not supposed to be a serious occasion, a crab sings, gull raps, and a sea witch swells to Stay Puft dimensions. But it seems to have been created with the hope of being taken too seriously. You can’t even laugh about it anymore.
Hans Christian Andersen originally wrote the story, and when Disney adapted it into a cartoon musical in 1989, Disney Princess Syndrome—in which one form of enslavement is replaced by another, an even trade reinterpreted as liberated love—was substituted for the sadness and existential wonder of the story. However, the artists had a blast with the nonsense.
The mermaid Ariel, who is rescued from a shipwreck in both films, longs to leave her widowed father’s undersea kingdom and enter the embrace of the earthbound merchant prince. Although her father forbids it, the sea witch Ursula grants Ariel’s desire, giving her three days to get the prince to kiss her and stay human or to live out the rest of her days as Ursula’s slave. Somehow, laughter and music follow. That was largely made possible in the original by Ariel’s talking Caribbean crab protector, Sebastian, and her ditzy seagull friend, Scuttle.
Screenplay:
This remake adds some modern misfortune (we are told that humans pollute the water). Additionally, it adds additional 52 minutes and three new songs, switches out wacky for demure, and substitutes soundstage-style sets and screensaver graphics with expansive animated land and seascapes. Even though they are calling it “live-action,” most of the action is CGI. No organic buoyancy exists. Ariel can communicate in the water but not on land, so whoever plays her needs a voice that can. It was easy to accomplish it in the animation. Ariel can appear perplexed, captivated, heartbroken, coquettish, scared, aghast, or ecstatic. Additionally, her scarlet mane was so captivating on its own.
Ariel is now under the care of singer Halle Bailey. And it’s not like she can’t keep up with the illustrators of the original. It’s that she’s not being asked to in this film. The physical Ariel does not get silent for more than an hour. And when she does, any initial carbonation Bailey had is lost. This Ariel is forgetting that she needed that kiss, thus “cunning” is no longer an option for Bailey.
Bailey is one half of the R&B combo Chloe x Halle with her sister. They have a menacing, comical attitude to music that Bailey is unable to completely exploit in this film. She only has two songs, but one of them—the traditional “Part of Your World”—manages to let her tremble a little towards the conclusion. However, what is expected of her is not very different from what Jodi Benson performed in the previous film. However, Bailey was ostensibly cast because her Ariel would be different.
Performance:
Bailey’s hair is long, copper, and black with twists, waves, and locks. The entire movie has, what, been exposed as racist? Diversified? Javier Bardem, who portrays King Triton as Ariel’s wistful father, speaks all of the king’s lamentations in an English accent with a Spanish inflexion. Her mermaid siblings are a multiethnic, runway-ready General Assembly rather than the Broadway chorines of the original.
Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), the prince, is white and English, and he now appears to have more of a plan than Ariel. Among “more” are lunches with his Black mother, Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni), and her top aide, Lashana (Martina Laird). The queen has adopted the prince, according to the script, which is ascribed to David Magee, John DeLuca, and the director Rob Marshall (since someone knew enquiring minds would need to know).
Melissa McCarthy, who plays the bosomy, tentacled Ursula—now Triton’s exiled, enraged sister—adds a touch of melancholy to the role’s malignancy. She seemed to be enjoying herself, reminiscent of Bette Midler, Mae West, and Etta James. The only truly terrifying image in the film is of her sprinting at the camera in a slithery flood of arms and rage. McCarthy, meanwhile, seems to be mired in a shot-for-shot and growl-for-growl homage to her animated counterpart and Pat Carroll’s vocalisation of it.
Final Verdict:
In the animated version, a girl wished to quit the entertainment industry. She and her sisters essentially put on a show for King Triton’s amusement. The American Songbook’s Disney wing was the target audience for the songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Vegas and vaudeville were invoked in the voices and evocations. The entertainment options on dry land were much drier, but Ariel was fine with that. This new “flesh and blood” adaptation is about a girl who wants to leave her colour behind in the family rainbow and sail out into “uncharted waters” with her white prince.
As you watch it, you understand why the remainder of the film is so secure. Because having fun can be perilous. This song is the only instance of unrestrained, unadulterated joy in the entire film. It is clever, complicated, energetic, breathless, and thoroughly American. And I’m looking forward to seeing how Disney will make amends for it in 34 years.
So, this was all about The Little Mermaid movie review. Bollywood Hush rates the film 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Click here to read the Fast X Movie Review.
