The Little Mermaid

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Little Mermaid is a live action adaptation of the 1989 film of the same name. Ariel, a mermaid and youngest daughter of King Triton of the Seven Seas, longs to connect with the human world. Upon falling in love with a young human prince she makes the choice to take a dangerous deal with a sea witch in the hopes of falling in love above the sea. This film is one I found really interesting, because it made me think how different the viewing experience is for someone who grew up loving the original versus someone who is entirely new to The Little Mermaid story. Growing up I really loved the animated feature, it is one of my all time favourite Disney animated features. I really felt the first act of the film captures that selfsame magic, it invites you to this really vibrant and colourful undersea kingdom that looks bright and fantastical. The character of Ariel is almost immediately perfect; watching her thrill over learning about human culture or daydreaming about somewhere that wasn't below the waves really placed the audience with her well. The thrill of her and Flounder escaping a shark or watching Ariel and Eric work to save people from a sinking ship that has caught ablaze heightens this movie and makes you invested in the more adventurous elements of the story. But beyond that there is a real light charm that comes from the animal characters and King Triton trying to understand his teenage daughter that I think families will really connect with.

Rob Marshall lends himself well to the film and has a vision that really means those underwater sequences all come across well shot, but also there is a real extravagant sense of style applied across the film that knows how to tighten up and get intimate when it needs to. I thought probably the strongest element of the feature was the visual effects; it's no mean feat crafting realistic underwater environments and realistic tail movements for large chunks of film. The film has a variety of interesting looking characters such as Sebastian or Flounder; but the visuals can get so real they border on decent horror: see the shark scene or Ursula's giant transformation. I also loved Alan Menken's score for this which juggled the joyful nature of the piece with the more intensive moments. The original songs also play quite well, I even think I like 'Part of Your World' and the Reprise better than the original.

 

Halle Bailey, who played Ariel, is about as perfect a lead as they could have gotten; she leads this film with such a genuine sense of wonder and a powerhouse singing voice. Javier Bardem, who played King Triton, really does exude the gravitas and power of a underwater king; I loved how coy Bardem could deliver lines when he was trying to be a good Dad in front of Bailey's Ariel or Diggs' Sebastian. Art Malik, who played Sir Grimsby, was a real treasure right through the surface world storyline; Malik brings a kindly figure who is always trying to guide the prince to a truly happy outcome. Jacob Tremblay, who voiced Flounder, is such a charming character; Tremblay brings a really optimistic, if not a little cowardly, spirit to Ariel's fishy friend. Jessica Alexander, who played Vanessa, really brings the best antagonist performance of the feature; Alexander's wild displays of exuberance after ruining Ariel's chances actually feel quite intimidating to watch.

However, the best performance came from Daveed Diggs, who voiced Sebastian. This uppity crustacean is the perfect right hand to King Triton when first we meet him. Diggs really captures that exasperated tone and I love how much of a people-pleaser he is towards Bardem's Triton. As the feature goes along you come to really appreciate Sebastian's dry wit as the problems Ariel faces continue to escalate. Diggs also sings marvelously, his rendition of 'Under the Sea' and 'Kiss the Girl' are absolutely carried by his amazing vocals. Sebastian is one of those characters who should be a total grouch but he becomes the big soft heart of the film the more you watch.

The Little Mermaid is exceptional when it is treading what I want to describe as 'safe ground', the beautiful sequences we've seen before in the animated feature done to a masterful standard. But there's a lot in here that has been added that is what really makes this film struggle along. This has happened in a few Disney live action remakes now, they look at characters that previously haven't been expanded on and start exploring them more because they hope it might give the plot a new mark. In this feature Prince Eric is suddenly such a busy character; he's adopted, he's trying to restore the economy at his port, he has his own expedition collection, his Mum has a fear of the sea gods and in amongst all that we actively explore the general culture of his island. This is all fed to us in such dull, exposition heavy dialogue that I came to associate above the sea plotlines to be boring which isn't good when act 2 and most of the third take place there. Prince Eric also doesn't share much chemistry with Ariel either, she is too expressionless when she 'can't talk' and his personality doesn't come off as lively or interesting. You struggle to find their point of connection. When the film ends with the most over the top depiction of humans and the sea kingdom coming together I felt like the audience was being fed the big theme in such an overbearing way. The whole feature was nearly twenty minutes longer than it needed to be and unfortunately almost all of the new elements were what messed up the pacing so badly.

While I found the musical numbers to often be very good there were a number of new numbers that just didn't work either. I found it a strange choice narratively to continue to have Ariel singing after she lost her voice, the fact it was all in her head didn't change the fact this made the impact of leaving her voiceless not as strong. I also really didn't need the big Prince Eric solo number, it was over the top and languishing, his singing wasn't strong and the over the top posing made me feel like I was watching 'Agony' from Into the Woods. Awkwafina rapping 'Scuttlebutt' was one of the more cursed things I heard, and the style of the rap really clashed with the rest of the musical numbers.

Jonah Hauer-King, who played Eric, just doesn't have the personality to be the lead against Bailey; for that matter I would have liked maybe an ounce of real chemistry from Hauer-King too. Melissa McCarthy, who played Ursula, had impossibly large shoes to fill from Pat Carroll and given her more comedic background I'm not surprised they didn't fit; McCarthy gives mean and pauses for jokes a lot and her Ursula voice feels more befitting of Patty & Selma from The Simpsons. Noma Dumezwemi, who played The Queen, was such a stoic figure with constant expressionless delivery; Dumezwemi was a large factor of why I didn't find the surface world storyline interesting. Awkwafina, who voiced Scuttle, was just such a distinctive voice that really didn't gel with the thing she was voicing; I know Scuttle is an annoying character but Awkwafina just got too much for me at times and wasn't as funny as I often find her to be. Martina Laird, who played Lashana, is one of those side characters given a way more prominent amount of screen time than they really need; I found Laird to be an unnecessary use of time that just slouched the pacing further.

The hardest sell this film has is convincing me Ariel could fall for someone as boring as Prince Eric. I would give The Little Mermaid a 6/10.