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A life long cinephile from the Bay Area in Northern California. Aside from having written for various outlets since 2019, I've been podcasting since 2020.
(Currently Co-Hosting the Geekly Goods Roundup)
When I'm not indulged in a ridiculous amount of media consumption or losing track of days on my Nintendo Switch, I can be found at concerts or playing basketball.
Disney’s live-action remakes of their animated classics have been an endlessly divisive topic of debate for years. Unfortunately, the discussion for Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid has been no different. In some ways, The Little Mermaid has brought out the absolute worst in “fans” across the globe. Despite all of the discourse though, The Little Mermaid accomplishes what the “good remakes” do. That is, it gets the little things right. And not only does it do that, but the film manages to bring a little something new to the table, even if it’s quite subtle.
Breaking The 3rd Dimension
In the best possible ways, The Little Mermaid takes full advantage of its live-action format with some truly stunning and exciting visuals. There were a lot of complaints from the initial teasers and trailers about how dark and muddled the film looked. However, it definitely played differently actually watching it.
The darker sections appropriately reflected the themes of Ariel feeling trapped and hopeless early on. They also vastly contrast the beautifully bright “Under The Sea” set piece and the above-world fun in the sunlight. Despite a little bit of CGI over-stimulation, the underwater camerawork is fluid and very active. The cinematography shines much brighter above the water with some gorgeous wide shots. Minus some minor editing concerns and my displeasure with the big finale, The Little Mermaid overall looks vibrant and epic.
Home Run Casting
Halle Bailey has a very natural charm about her that plays very well for the adventurous but naïve mermaid Ariel. She has incredible vocal range and impresses with her non-verbal abilities as well. Portraying someone with no voice is no small feat! Melissa McCarthy did a solid job as Ursula but didn’t quite bring anything new to the character. She delivered a solid performance, yet it definitely felt like the original cartoon the most. Even her dialogue was almost verbatim.
Much to my surprise, my absolute favorites were the voice performances of Daveed Diggs & Awkwafina as Sebastian the Crab and Scuttle respectively.
Others and I notoriously were pretty harsh on the new character designs, but I’m happy to say these were overblown minus Flounder. Sebastian had this adorable Marcel the Shell-like feel to him that made him not only believable, but fun to watch as well. Awkwafina was in fine form as Scuttle with hilarious delivery and a pretty awesome new tune courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Jacob Tremblay (The Toxic Avenger) sounded great as Flounder but personally, his character design still didn’t quite work for me. Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric was remarkable when he was playing off Halle Bailey’s Ariel, but not quite as strong elsewhere.
A Little Something New
Another pleasant surprise was how much this version of The Little Mermaid brought in new material. There were about three new songs and a completely reworked scene that honestly worked much better than the original 1989 cartoon. The extended sequence of Ariel exploring the town and mingling with humans was wonderful.
Honestly, my main gripe with the film was the final act. Some things just don’t translate well from 2D animation to live-action and the big climatic moment near the end was one of those. Also, while I truly believe Javier Bardem (Dune) is a talented actor, I do feel he was miscast here as King Triton. He isn’t terrible by any means, but he missed far more than he nailed it. At least, through my eyes. When all is said and done, I had a smile on my face throughout and was entertained through and through. The best way to describe this new “Little Mermaid experience” is that it is enjoyably imperfect.
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A life long cinephile from the Bay Area in Northern California. Aside from having written for various outlets since 2019, I've been podcasting since 2020.
(Currently Co-Hosting the Geekly Goods Roundup)
When I'm not indulged in a ridiculous amount of media consumption or losing track of days on my Nintendo Switch, I can be found at concerts or playing basketball.
