The Little Mermaid

 

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It’s a weird feeling that is becoming ever-increasing nowadays as studios, primarily Disney, decide to take animated classics and make ‘live-action’ versions. On the one hand there are many that lend themselves to being brought into the fleshy, 3D world we live in, whereas others might be best suited to be left alone. This phenomenon has a tendency to cause strong and conflicting feelings within the hearts of audiences, with some being for, some being against, and some being of the opinion that we won’t know how we feel about it until we see it. The latter is how I’ve felt about Disney’s latest classic to receive a revamp: The Little Mermaid.

 Young Ariel is a spirited mermaid with an obsession for the world above the waves. Forbidden by her father to venture to the surface, Ariel satisfies her curiosity with collecting trinkets from shipwrecks. But when the lure of the surface becomes too much, she defies her father’s wishes and saves a human prince from drowning. Quickly falling in love with him Ariel goes to Ursula the Sea Witch for help and is granted legs and a chance to become human. But the deal comes with a price and Ariel has only 3 days to get true love’s kiss or else belong to the Sea Witch forever.

Honestly, I was expecting to dislike this much more. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this revamp of a classic. It was a mixed bag of highs and lows, ebbs and flows, but overall a very enjoyable night out at the movies.

The story takes a on a bit more of a cultural narrative, exploring the traditional beliefs about mermaids and sirens much more openly than the original animated classic. I also enjoyed the symmetry between the two royal families of the land and sea. Both Eric and Ariel are similar characters, as well as their parents and there’s a nice look at the discourses in politics between the generations as well as other cultures. Triton’s multicultural family is a little bit of a PC handwave, but at least it does make an effort to explain why some of his daughters are Asian, African, Caucasian, Mediterranean etc.

The performances were all fine, but nothing outstanding. Indeed the two people who shine in this movie are Halle Bailey who brings a new life to Ariel, although I felt that her performance was shaky until she got onto land, and Awkwafina who does the voice of Skuttle and brings a lot of fresh comedy to the show. Javier Bardem as Triton was formidable and impressive, but didn’t have fatherly warmth, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian was funny, but a copy of Samuel L. Wright with a higher voice, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula – one of the greatest Disney villains ever – needed a little salt. This saddened me the most because I rather like Melissa and I absolutely adore Ursula. McCarthy’s performance was almost a carbon copy of Pat Carroll’s, minus some notes on the diva scale. For the first half of the film it felt like McCarthy just wasn’t having any fun being this fantastic character, but I will say that she did a very good job of ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’ and that’s when she started to really sink into the role.

Image credit: Mickeybog.com

Then we have the special effects. Creating the vibrancy of an underwater world has gotten a lot easier over the years, as nature documentaries and underwater geographical exploration has brought wondrous images to the surface that can now be recreated in fantasy films. While the colour and splendour of under the sea is definitely gorgeous here, the interaction between the characters and their surroundings still seems a little off. There’s still a level of ‘fake’ that slides about the screen during the first half, set underwater. The way the merpeoples’ hair moves, for example. Perhaps it’s because we’re already primed with the knowledge that green screens are everywhere, but it’s hard to get beyond the weird CG film that coats everything in the more fantastical, otherworldly scenes, and this sadly does influence the cinematic experience.

This all sounds worse than it actually was however. At the end of the day, I had a really nice cinematic experience from this movie. It delivered wave upon wave of nostalgia and voyeurism, the addition of a few new songs were a nice surprise, and while the performances felt lacklustre in the first half, everyone came into their own in the end. I honestly do think that everyone involved did a really good job and deserve congratulations because this is a tricky film to flesh out of the realm of animation, and I do believe that everyone did accomplish that.

For a nice night out at the movies, you could do worse than The Little Mermaid.

Director: Rob Marshall, 2023

Cast: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, & Melissa McCarthy.