“The Little Mermaid (2023)” Review
Halle Bailey knocks it out of the park as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid,” a live-action remake of the 1989 animated film of the same name. Her vocals are amazing and bring new life into such iconic songs from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
After years and years of being underwhelmed by Disney’s live-action remakes of their classic animated films, only three have really left any positive impact on me: “Pete’s Dragon,” “Peter Pan & Wendy” and “Cruella.” Now, that number has increased to four with “The Little Mermaid.” I honestly was shocked how much I enjoyed this film, especially considering that its director Rob Marshall has disappointed me in the past with “Into The Woods” and “Mary Poppins Returns.” Nevertheless, “The Little Mermaid” is a good reinterpretation of the animated classic and, while it has elements that hold it back from being a great film, it is far superior to other remakes that Disney has been churning out.
Following the same plot as the original, Ariel (Halle Bailey) is a young mermaid who lives in the kingdom of her father King Triton (Javier Bardem). However, she is drawn to the surface world and the ways of the humans, even managing to save one of them, Prince Eric (Jonah Haur-King), from drowning after a nasty storm. Longing to walk among the humans, Ariel makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to become one at the cost of her own voice. With just three days to kiss Prince Eric before becoming a mermaid again, Ariel and her aquatic companions must find a way to make this change permanent so she can have her happily ever after.
What works about “The Little Mermaid” is that it has what most of Disney’s remakes have lacked: passion. At the heart of it is Halle Bailey’s powerful performance as Ariel that, dare I say, manages to outdo the incredible Jodi Benson who portrayed Ariel in the original film. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who objected so strongly to Bailey’s casting, especially on the grounds of race, should be never taken seriously again and/or exiled to a remote island. Not only does Bailey bring such an energetic spirit to Ariel but she manages to make the role her own, especially when it comes to her singing ability. Even this film’s harshest critics can agree that Bailey’s singing deserves to be heard in surround sound in a movie theater.
While Prince Eric was a well-defined character in the original film, especially when compared to Disney princes of the past, Jonah Haur-King brings even more personality and intrigue to the role. In this film, he doesn’t just love being out at sea, he also dreams of exploring new lands which is what he and Ariel connect over. Haur-King is even given a song of his own and he is really wonderful.
Musically, the original film is one of Disney’s most iconic with amazing music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman which means that any new songs added would have a lot riding against them. Fortunately, Alan Menken returns to score the film and compose new songs with the great Lin Manuel-Miranda as a lyricist. While I can’t say any of these new songs are better than what Menken and Ashman wrote, they’re still very good and infectious. In particular, Prince Eric’s song “Wild Uncharted Waters” is excellent and, despite being rendered mute for a chunk of the film, Ariel has a song she sings in her head about the wonders of the human world called “For The First Time” which is excellent. Any reason for Bailey to continue singing is cause for celebration.
While I haven’t been a fan of most of Rob Marshall’s films, it’s important to remember that he knows how to make a compelling musical sequence, even making one of the best musical films of all time with “Chicago.” In “The Little Mermaid,” Marshall doesn’t have the luxury of expressive animation and this has increased his creativity. In “Under The Sea,” he focuses on how the fish and other aquatic creatures move and uses this to make a captivating musical number. In “Part of Your World,” Marshall keeps the camera close and intimate with beautiful lighting to enhance Bailey’s performance.
With live-action, there are limitations that just don’t exist in animation. With animation, animals and objects that normally don’t have much expression can suddenly have a liveliness to them. It’s this dilemma that has rendered remakes like “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” obsolete. However, the computer animators did some incredible work with characters like Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle. Despite the fact that these characters are photo-realistic, they still have personality to them and their actions improve the performances of Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina.
However, despite an improvement towards the film’s protagonists and a beautiful environment brought to life with wonderful effects, this remake feels stale when it tries to follow the original story beat-for-beat. Nowhere is that more apparent than with the film’s villain Ursula. While Melissa McCarthy does a fine job imitating the legendary Pat Carroll and even does a solid rendition of “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” that’s all it feels like. An imitation. Because of this, McCarthy’s performance feels lifeless and even results in the climax, which features a gigantic Ursula fighting Ariel and Eric as wrecked ships move about in a whirlpool, being underwhelming.
Javier Bardem also suffers from this sluggish infection with line readings that fall flat and lack the warmth and power of the original. In the animated film, there’s a scene where, after King Triton destroys Ariel’s collection of human relics, he momentarily looks back in remorse. It’s a little moment but it does quite a bit in fleshing out Triton’s character. Such subtleties are gone with this performance.
Where the film excels is when it tries to be different and explore its protagonists’ desires and dilemmas. The original film is a short 83 minutes in length while this live-action adaptation runs at 135 minutes. While this increased runtime has resulted in bloated and boring pacing in other remakes, “The Little Mermaid” takes advantage of its length by focusing much more on how Ariel sees the human world and exploring Eric’s kingdom. This builds their chemistry and shows Ariel’s excitement. When scenes like this are elongated and improved, the film is entertaining and justifies its existence. When the film goes back to saying lines from the original, it feels predictable.
“The Little Mermaid” doesn’t manage to outdo the original film but it certainly has enough improvements made to the story and enough life in it to warrant seeing it on the big screen. If more of Disney’s remakes had the energy of this film, I would be more excited whenever one of these films is made.
