By Jose Anguiano
May 27th, 2023
That’s a scene from “The Little Mermaid” tv series episode “Wish Upon a Starfish” which featured and African American mermaid in case anyone wanted to bring up that discourse.
In an age where people accepted Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite him being Caucasian in the comics, it’s insane that we need to have this discussion because Twitter is the definition of Peter Pan syndrome.
With that said, 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” was nowhere near as bad as 2019’s “The Lion King” or 2020’s “Mulan”.
Those remakes either played it safe using expensive shot for shot recreations or they did not understand the idea behind the character in the first place.
However, Disney still has a long way to go before they can live up to the legacy of their animated catalog when translating them to live-action.
As of 2023, there are five Disney remakes that range from tolerable to good – “Christopher Robin”, “Pete’s Dragon”, “Cruella”, “Cinderella” and “The Jungle Book”.
What separates these remakes is that they tried to bring something different to the table without requiring the audience to see the animated original.
Given the backlash the 1989 classic received over the years for its semi-dated depiction of feminism, a remake of “The Little Mermaid” was inevitable.
But first thing’s first before diving into the flaws – pun intended.
Defending Halle Bailey
From the announcement of her casting, Halle Bailey received backlash on the internet based on the change alone.
Some argued that the movie needed to be as accurate to the original story as possible, even though Disney movies have a reputation for putting their own stamp on incredibly dark tales.
Did you know that Jiminy Cricket died in Carlo Colodi’s “Pinocchio”? Yet he lived in the 1940 as became of the most memorable sidekicks in Disney history.
1967’s “The Jungle Book” was nothing like Rudyard Kipling’s novel outside of the character names.
And don’t even get me started on 1997’s “Hercules” which depicted Zeus as a loving family man to the point where the “God of War” video games were more historically accurate.
The point is if people had a problem with accuracy, why did no one fumigate over the film’s happy ending? Why was race bending a fictional character worse than discarding Hans Christian Andersen’s tragic narrative?
Besides, like Will Smith in 2019’s “Aladdin”, Bailey one of the best elements in this mixed bag.
She’s expressive in her own unique way on land and sea. She’s as curious as a cat, quiet as a mouse, and yet she doesn’t let anyone stand in the way of embellishing her passions. Her new inner musical numbers are a great transition of the expressive animation to live-action once she gets her legs. And best of all, she can sing.
She’s not a popular celebrity shoved into a role that requires years of training like Emma Watson in 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast”; she has a vocal range that can rival Jodi Benson.
Anytime she was on screen, everything clicked.
As for the “Kiss the Girl” number that sparked outrage for the changed lyrics, it was all for naught because outside of one line, the scene played verbaitum as in the animated film.
The Good
Melissa McCarthy as Ursula is fantastic.
It’s hard to live up to the late Pat Caroll after she reprised the role in so many spin-off media like the “Kingdom Hearts” video games, but McCarthy puts her effort into capturing the spunky attitude and conniving plotting.
Like “Aquaman”, this had an uphill battle to fight since not a lot of movies outside of “Avatar: The Way of Water” take place in the ocean, although this does have the same budget.
Director Rob Marshall knows how to frame the scenery and stage the musical moments like “Under the Sea”, even if the original is superior.
The underwater effects have some nice shots like when Ariel goes to Ursula’s lair, and it gets darker when she enters a giant sea creature skeleton.
Sebastian and Scuttle are the most enjoyable of all the creatures thanks to the strong voice acting from Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs.
And too its credit, this did expand on Ariel and Eric’s relationship.
The Bad
Unfortunately, everything else about this remake drags down Bailey’s performance and her chemistry with Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric.
Javier Bardem as King Triton is a complete bore because the character is supposed to be an overbearing father, yet he comes off as too restrained.
While the addition of his diverse children has good intentions, it makes one think of whether or not Triton had a batch of concubines from different oceans.
For a movie that’s 50 minutes longer than the original, the pacing is horribly choppy, jumping from one scenario to another without rhyme or reason.
This wouldn’t be a problem if the original wasn’t the most tightly paced stories that Ron Clements, John Musker and Howard Ashman crafted.
As great as the ocean looks, the sea creatures fall into the uncanny valley of “The Lion King”.
It works for creatures like Flotsam and Jetsom, but Flounder looks like the pufferfish eating a carrot meme with a child’s voice, and can’t be taken seriously.
All the new story additions outside of the more developed romance don’t add anything to the story aside from a few Lin-Manuel Mirandas songs, and even then, they clash with Ashman’s lyrical style.
Finally, the climax is completely botched because so much is hidden behind fog and rain.
This is supposed to be the culmination of the entire story and yet it feels like traveling in the abyss without the light of an angler fish.
It does a disservice to one of the most climactic final battles in Disney history.
Verdict
2023’s “The Little Mermaid” is the perfect definition of a middle of the road live-action Disney remake.
It’s not bad enough to warrant all the outrage, but it’s not good enough to break the chain of mediocre cash grabs.
While it did update the criticisms people had with the 1989 original, it came at the cost of everything else that made it a classic.
It’s one step forward and two steps back.
If this is the movie to break the financial streak of these unnecessary productions, just remember that everything except the race bending character was responsible for it if anyone wants to bring up the “go woke go broke” excuse.
The Disney remake fatigue is finally starting to set in despite all the money they’ve made in the past decade, but it’s too early to know if this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If you’re curious about what all the fuss is about, this is worth a gander.
But if you want something with a bit more bite, either watch the 1989 original, the 1984 film “Splash” by Ron Howard or the 2009 Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece “Ponyo”.
As for this remake, Scuttle put it best – it’s a dinglehopper.
Cinematic Bandicoot 
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