The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. With...
I know I shouldn’t really be optimistic over any of these live action Disney remakes but is it so wrong to hope sometimes? With that in mind, I don’t know if I’m actively stretching for an excuse to like “The Little Mermaid”…..or if the film itself was…..fine?
Scrabbling for pennies here.
The cast as a whole varies greatly with Halle Bailey being the clear, undeniable standout: radiant in her stances and adjusting wonderfully to the physical and emotional foils the role requires, her Ariel keeps the whimsical wonder of the originals while finding refreshing new avenues to chart course. Jonah Hauer-King makes for an Ok prince, Melissa McCarthy‘s portrayal of Ursula has a mischievous spin to it which is undermined by the weird changes to her character and the rest of the ensemble often struggle to catch up.
Rob Marshall's directing is somewhat unconventional: as much as this movie sports such an manufactured aesthetic that doesn’t fit the scope and scale of what this story calls for, he understands theatricality and his direction implants lots of energy into sequences that try to make it work to varying degrees. It’s use of cinematography and editing are fairly solid and impose many great shots composition-wise, the musical score was surprisingly excellent, it’s not as drab and colorless as other reviews made it out to be and despite being an hour longer than the original, it still moves decently enough and the tone is never inconsistent.
Synergy is present enough in regards to the musical score and songs; the classic songs are still there and accounted for while the new songs are entirely 50-50. Sometimes they fit, other times you could do without them and other times, they don’t guide you through the experience like a musical should.
As far as the narrative at play for this movie, it’s interesting: while not entirely removed from what was shown back in 1989, it also sports a vision that attempts to echo closer to the original tragic story by Hans Christian Andersen. Yes, David Magee’s script provides parallels on the typical story-beats of kids trying to break away from their parents shadows while asserting their own identities and yes, the original movie might’ve did that a tad bit better but in some ways, the admirable simplicity of the original story is still present……to a fault.
I will say the love story is a MILD improvement compared to what came before. The chemistry they share is lacking a little but between the new wrinkles in Ariel’s character and actually giving Eric a personality, the relationship that blossoms as a result is very welcome; it keeps the core relationship from the original film intact while retooling enough to where they ACTUALLY get to know each other here and thus, makes a vital area of Ariel’s journey of self-discovery somewhat more earned.
Unfortunately for every halfway decent story beat, there’s a needless complication that actively ends up taking something else away from either a characters motive or the original story as a whole: stuff like Triton and Ursula being related, taking away Ariel’s memory of implanting the three days rule, the denial of showing a passage of time to begin with, switching up the ending of the movie. I know, it sounds like I’m nitpicking here but even as someone who ONLY LIKES the original, it’s hard NOT to overlook how baffling it sounds and the tension that’s lost as a result.
These are constant annoyances that keep piling on on top of continuing the annoying CG-hybrid realistic trend from previous live action remakes and it just keeps hitting home to me here why animation is so important to some stories; its instance on uncanny valley mimicry here rips away the potential vibrancy and emotion of not just underseas but the actual musical numbers themselves despite their best efforts. When it’s not the CG-realism or shoddy VFX causing significant damage, it’s either the inconsistent way light behaves underwater or the clean sound design which, while sounding crisp and clear, turns Atlantica more into a well-miced soundstage than an actual kingdom.
Maybe this is on me since I’m not as attached to The Little Mermaid as I am other Disney properties but for every Disney remake that makes you question ‘What the hell is the point?’, there’s one or two that does it’s job well enough to where you just HAVE to take the win. So you know what: I’m taking the win for this movie. Yes, it’s pointless, the new changes don’t add or change entirely anything and it’s just strictly passable in comparison to what came before….
….but at least, it didn’t feel as if I was having my time constantly wasted. This one is FINE.
