The Little Mermaid: A Spoiler-Filled Discussion
***As the title would suggest, full spoilers for The Little Mermaid follow***
It's no secret that I don't enjoy the vast majority of the live action remakes that Disney does of their animated movies. A lot of the criticisms of one manage to apply across the board to the vast majority of them, and there is no indication that Disney will correct them because they have no financial incentive to. That said, despite the problems, The Little Mermaid is in the top half of these adaptations, almost entirely on the backs of the cast.
What Worked
The realm of what worked is pretty limited, however, the degree to which it does work makes the movie an enjoyable experience. The cast is all phenomenal, from Halle Bailey's Ariel to Melissa McCarthy's Ursula to Awkafina as Scuttle and Daveed Diggs as Sebastian. The only weak point in the cast comes from one song (trust me, that'll be addressed below) but besides that, everyone is stellar and can carry the movie as a character study.
I'll include it here because it is kind of spotty and can go both here and in the negative, but some of the visuals look pretty cool. Specifically most of the stuff on land looks great but that's because it is mostly practical with fantastic costuming.
What Didn't Work
The problems with the movie are mostly the same as one would expect from the live action remakes at this point. The new songs don't feel like they fit with the feel of the original music. It's easy to pick out the new songs and they don't even add enough to the plot to make them worth it. The most egregious is "Scuttlebutt", a rap performed by Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs that does not add much of anything to the plot.
The visuals underwater are also not great, especially when compared to other recent movies like Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and even 2018's Aquaman that featured long sequences underwater. This is coupled with the decision to use photorealistic fish and other sea life that is inherently less expressive than their animated counterparts. Songs like "Under the Sea" reference things that the fish are doing (like playing instruments) without having the fish actually play the instruments which is a similar issue to "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" in The Lion King.
The third act feels a lot like the third act of Wonder Woman, in so much as the final conflict comes out of nowhere, is a CGI assault on the senses, is not well developed up until that point, and could be cut from the film and the film would be better off for it. Full disclosure, I have not watched the original movie in probably a decade and I do realize that this does come exactly from the original movie, however it still feels weirdly executed here.
How Should You Watch This Movie
The problems with the movie come in places where it impacts the viewing experience on a more technical level. The acting is fine, but visually the movie, especially the underwater sequences, are lackluster. Aside from that, the sound mix is good enough where it can override this issue go an extent and make the movie worth seeing in theaters, even if one waits for a matinee instead of going to an evening showing.
★★★★
