The Little Mermaid review – Going through the oceans

When it comes to the Disney live-action remakes, a question I always find myself asking is “why would I watch this instead of the original film?” The answer varies from movie to movie, but the rule of thumb is that the best remakes are the ones that balance retelling a familiar story with introducing new elements that elevate or transform the experience.

In the case of The Little Mermaid, Disney’s latest reimagining draws nearly all its strength from the familiar – the things we grew up loving about the original 1989 classic. The new The Little Mermaid is not a perfect film, with its imperfections stretching across its overall execution, but it nonetheless succeeds in justifying its own existence. And credit where it’s due, because that’s a tall hurdle to jump given how beloved Disney’s animated movie is.

In this version, Ariel (played by Halle Bailey) is a young mermaid living under the sea who yearns to see the world above it. This is much to the displeasure of her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem), who grows more intolerant of Ariel’s dreams, especially when she saves the life of Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), the young prince of a Caribbean island nation, and falls head over tail for him. Ariel is intent on venturing onto dry land and pursuing Eric, discovering the means to do so through a deal with the devious sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). The choice dismays Ariel’s friends Sebastian the crab (voiced by Daveed Diggs), Flounder the fish (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle the northern gannet (Awkwafina). The result is an adventure and love story for the ages, as the worlds of surface and sea collide, and not just at the shoreline.

As far as live-action remakes go, The Little Mermaid is less concerned with reinventing the propeller as it is with smooth sailing. The animated original’s narrative, characters, and emotions are all left intact with only minor changes here and there. How these changes somehow managed to bloat the film to a two-hour-plus runtime, I’m not sure. The tightness and cohesiveness of the 1989 film is sorely lacking.

Without spoilers, the most prominent changes introduced with the new live-action film are additions to Eric’s character, and expanded world-building to explore the relationship between the human world and merpeople. Eric’s fleshing out make sense. Not only is he more outright compelling, but he exhibits a world view and motivation that makes him more attractive to Ariel from an emotional standpoint. It’s no longer just a case of love at first sight. However, the world-building does very little to strengthen the narrative, especially when it only seems to justify King Triton’s animosity towards humans – and establish that surface-dwellers’ view the ocean as a dangerous place devoid of forgiveness.

So what does the 2023 remake have going for it? Unquestionably a breakout performance by Halle Bailey, which sets a new standard for live-action Disney princesses. Bailey knows what the brief entails, and believably and consistently reflects the raw wonder that comes with being a fish out of water. Literally. Any actress would have to work hard to portray sincere excitement when discovering a fork (a.k.a. dinglehopper), and Bailey nails it. Selling it even more is her unmatched singing voice. Disney animated movies from the late 80s and early 90s leaned heavily into Broadway territory when it came to their music (see the work of original composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman), and that approach is present throughout Bailey’s numbers.

Backing Bailey up performance-wise is McCarthy, whose Ursula may not bring anything new to the character, but is clearly having the time of her life. She easily outshines everyone else in the cast, bringing boiling melodrama to the surface in every scene she’s in. At the same time, Javier Bardem opts for a more reserved King Triton, while Jonah Hauer-King has good chemistry with Bailey.

Visually, The Little Mermaid is impressive, with a lot of detail and attention given to rendering a vibrant and colourful undersea world. Though, it can be a bit dark at some points. Meanwhile, poor Flounder hasn’t taken the transition to “live-action” well. Whereas Sebastian has managed to remain as expressive and lively as ever, our fishy friend is unable to emote and therefore is far from the lively character we knew growing up.

As for the music, Menken and Ashman’s incredible work has remained intact thanks to the strength of the cast’s singing abilities, on the whole. There are also new songs written by Menken in collaboration with Lin Manuel Miranda, and while many of the new tracks fit very neatly into the musical motif of the film, a Miranda-esque rap given to Awkwafina’s Scuttle very much does not, and has been maligned for obvious reason.

In the end, I’d say I appreciate The Little Mermaid 2023 more than I like it. It’s still debatable whether there’s a need to revisit animated Disney classics, but audiences both young and old can enjoy many of this remake’s elements, such as Bailey, McCarthy, the music and scenery. It’s a fun time just like it always was, though not nearly as focused or captivating.

The Little Mermaid is in cinemas now.