I suspect that the one overriding question you will be asking yourself repeatedly throughout Disney’s The Little Mermaid is “why is this a thing?” Why make an adaptation of an adaptation? What purpose does this serve? What ayahuasca fever dream were the studio execs in that made them think this was a good idea? Here’s the thing. This new adaptation of an adaptation that is The Little Mermaid isn’t bad. In fact, it’s pretty good considering some of the other missteps that Disney have had when trying to recreate the magic of animation in live action form. What you won’t be able to shake, however, is that niggling feeling at the back of your mind questioning why it exists.
The cynical among you will say it’s a shameless cash grab. The PR spin will say it’s for a new generation. But this Rob Marshall directed version does nothing particularly new with the original adaptation from 1989. Except maybe make it longer. And not quite as great.
The Bad
If you haven’t seen the animated The Little Mermaid in a while, you may have forgotten that the run time of the original animated film featuring Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder, Ursula, and Prince Eric is only 83 minutes. 83 MINUTES! Including credits! That movie MOVED. Twelve minutes in and the audience has already been introduced to everyone, from Ariel and her posse, to King Triton, Prince Eric, Max, Grimsby, Ursula, and Flotsam and Jetsam. Not only have we met everyone, we know their “why.” Ariel wants to be a part of the bigger world. King Triton just wants to listen to his daughters sing. Sebastian is a composer (bet you forgot about that!) and just wants to make music. Prince Eric wants adventure. Ursula wants King Triton’s throne. The movie wastes no time setting anyone or anything up. There was no fat in that story, which is expected, since a single second of screen time required 24 frames to be meticulously hand drawn.
This new version of The Little Mermaid, however, is 52 minutes longer. And with that longer run time comes a lot of fat. The major set pieces play out generally in the same places as the original animated feature, but just further apart. Breathing room has been added between the big sequences that unfortunately lead to a bit of a lull. Three new original songs have been added to the absolute detriment of the overall story. And to make things worse, two of those songs are absolutely forgettable, with the third sounding so much like Lin-Manuel Miranda that you would swear it came right out of Hamilton. I love me some Lin-Manuel Miranda, but he really is no Alan Menken or Howard Ashman.
The Good
It’s not all doom and gloom however. Daveed Diggs as Sebastian is perfect casting. Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay both work as Scuttle and Flounder respectively. Melissa McCarthy is fine as Ursula. Ditto Javier Bardem’s King Triton and Jonah Hauer-King’s Prince Eric.
But the real selling point of this version of The Little Mermaid is absolutely Halle Bailey’s Ariel. I found myself unable to take my eyes off her. And although Jodi Benson’s Ariel will always be the one I automatically see in my mind’s eye, Halle Bailey absolutely knocked it out of the park with her portrayal of Triton’s youngest daughter. She is unquestionably this generation’s Ariel.
Her version of “Part of Your World” feels more heartfelt and more pained. You feel and see the sadness and the longing in her Ariel every time she talks about life on land. You believe that she falls in love with Prince Eric at first sight.
(I won’t get into the discourse regarding the colour of Halle Bailey’s skin other than to say King Triton’s collection of daughters look like a Benetton ad anyway and an African American Ariel works just fine in this context. So shut up and sit down you racist twats.)
Dancing (and Singing) Fish!
The movie’s insistence on “accuracy” really does bring it down a notch or two. When the merpeople appear out of water, they lose all their majesty and look like half dried cats. Javier Bardem’s long flowing locks and glorious beard look great underwater (a testament to the visual effects artists), but look pathetic as soon as he pops his head above water. The uncanny valley of a realistic talking flounder fish, or crustacean, or gannet, also takes a little bit of getting used to.
Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid also nails the music, for the most part. However, even here, the “accuracy” problem rears its ugly head again. In the animated version of the film, Sebastian’s “Under The Sea” is a bright, colourful, and fun dance number involving a whole band of undersea creatures playing underwater instruments, while shaking and shimmying to a calypso Caribbean groove.
In this new version however it feels just a little less fun. A little less colourful. Everything looks gorgeous of course (as is expected from a movie that reportedly cost two hundred million dollars to make), but it never really spills over into the fantastic. Only Sebastian seems to sing and no ridiculous underwater instruments make an appearance. There are no flute playing newts, or harp playing carp. No bass playing plaice (and sounding sharp!) or tub playing chubs. No Duke Ellington looking fluke fish. There is no hot crustacean band. Even the turtles shuffling/dancing along the seabed floor look too realistic to be having any fun. All of it just never comes close to capturing the magic of the original animated feature.
Good Enough
And that seems to be the perennial problem with all these Disney live action remakes. They never seem to be able to capture that “magic.” This The Little Mermaid is fine if you’ve never seen the original. But in 2023, with instant access to the first, the number of people who’ve never seen the animated feature film has to be very small.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid falls squarely in the “good enough” category. This isn’t the worst of the studio’s live action remakes. In fact, it is probably one of the best. But does it do enough to justify its existence? The extra run time is easily felt. The extra songs do nothing for this version. And at the end of this movie you would have seen a wonderful story, told quite well, singing songs you know a little too well, 135 minutes older, and still left wondering why this was a thing.
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