THE FILM
TITLE: The Little Mermaid
RELEASE DATE: 08 May 2023
WATCH DATE: 29 Jun 2024 (theater), 25 Mar 2024
TYPE: live-action feature film
ACCESS: streaming on Disney+
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THE PEOPLE
DIRECTOR: Rob Marshall
Chicago, Into The Woods (2014), Mary Poppins Returns, Annie (1999)
PRODUCER: Rob Marshall, Marc Platt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, John DeLuca
WRITER: David Magee
ACTORS: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy
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THE STORY
RUNTIME: 2h 15m
STORYLINE: a young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her tail and voice for legs to join the world of humans and must fall in love with the prince to break the spell
GENRE/THEMES: fantasy, romance, adventure, musical, fairytale
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THE CRITIQUE
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
I was actually surprised - this is a fantastic live-action remake. Not perfect, or redeeming of the past live-action failures, but a great redirection from them back to the heart and magic of storytelling.
When the cast was announced, I was initially skeptical of Halle Bailey as Ariel. Of course, there was all the conversation about the racial difference - the original little mermaid is pale-skinned with red hair. However, once the film established the setting of the live-action film, it all became clear. The creators pulled Sebastian’s Caribbean character from the original and used that as the context of the whole story. It’s brilliant story re-telling! This is the kind of filmmaking Disney needs to bring to future live-action remakes. Keep the heart of the story, but expand it, develop it, take it deeper, push its limits. The Little Mermaid (2023) is set in the Caribbean! And the controversial casting gets silenced immediately.
I was also skeptical of Melissa McCarthy's Ursula; Pat Carroll's original is hard to beat. But McCarthy brought flair and attitude to the role. ACTOR wasn't my favorite casting choice for Eric. His appearance seemed out of place in comparison to the rest of the cast but still brought a great performance.
The musical aspect of the film is well adapted from the original. The new musical numbers are fun - Eric’s “Uncharted Waters” is a great focus on his character and the male lead, and though the style is not my favorite, the rap number with Scuttle and Sebastian is a culturally appropriate addition to the film.
The special effects were impressive! Half of the film being underwater and half the characters having tail fins and tentacles four legs was a VFX challenge. The majority of the scenes involving those elements were realistic and believable - most notably Ursula's tentacles!
My main problem with the film is the attempt at female empowerment. While the story is obviously about a little mermaid, I see so much deeper than that. The Little Mermaid is a story about a young person who is desperate for something, sells her voice to get it, and finds herself in need of a savior to get out of the deal she made. Her father sacrifices himself for her freedom, and the prince defeats the villain to rescue the one he loves. The villain’s defeat brings her father back to life, and she understands that he has always had the power to grant her what she longs for. When Ariel defeats her own villain in this live-action remake, it distorts the core of the story too deeply. It is the industry’s attempt to empower women - but it backfires. Eric’s character is suddenly helpless, weak, and pointless to the store aside from being a love interest. We all can identify with Ariel’s longing, and also her need to be rescued from the situation and trap she’s found herself in. The need to be rescued is fundamental to our human condition. We’re designed that way. And as creative expression, film can bring that part of humanity to life in a meaningful way, like The Little Mermaid (1992).
We need a father and a king to lay his life down for us, like King Triton. We need Eric to kill the sea witch. In our desperation for fulfillment, we’ve made a deal with the devil, lost our voice, and traded our soul. We cannot get out of this on our own. We need a savior. So God, a king, sent his son, a prince, to come rescue us. He sacrificed his life to take our place in the devil’s deal. In that battle, the prince defeated the devil and was resurrected to life. His name is Jesus. The themes and roles of this story are everywhere if you look for them - even in an animated Disney movie like The Little Mermaid. And these are the kinds of stories people want to hear, to know that they can be rescued from the situation they found themselves in. We don't need female or male empowerment, we need hope. And Hope is so much more empowering.
Though not without its flaws, The Little Mermaid 2023 stands above previous live-action failures from Disney, and hopefully establishes better filmmaking moving forward.
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THE RECEPTION
NOMINATIONS
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THE IMPRESSION
IN A SINGLE WORD: enchanting
MOST STRIKING ELEMENT: expansion of the story
REWATCH: yes
RATING: 4 // 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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