By: Andrew Wing

The Little Mermaid is a 2023 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) from a screenplay written by David Magee (writer of Life of Pi and Mary Poppins Returns). Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Lucamar Productions, and Marc Platt Productions, it is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 animated film of the same name, itself loosely based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same title by Hans Christian Andersen.

The film stars Halle Bailey (Grown-ish) in the titular role, alongside Jonah Hauer-King (A Dog’s Way Home), Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting, Soul), Awkwafina (The Farewell, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Jacob Tremblay (Room, Luca), Noma Dumezweni (Mary Poppins Returns, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind), Art Malik (True Lies, John Carter), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Dune), and Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids, Spy).

Similar to the plot of the 1989 animated film, The Little Mermaid follows a mermaid princess Ariel who is fascinated with the human world and makes a deal with a treacherous sea witch Ursula to trade her voice for human legs in order to impress Prince Eric, who she saved from a shipwreck before time runs out.

Plans for a remake of 1989's The Little Mermaid were confirmed in May 2016. In December 2017, Disney announced Marshall was being courted to direct the film. Bailey, Hauer-King, McCarthy, Bardem, Diggs, Tremblay, Awkwafina, and the rest of the cast signed on between July to November 2019. Production was expected to begin in London between late March and early April 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming ultimately took place primarily at Pinewood Studios in England and on the island of Sardinia, Italy, from January to July 2021. Composer Alan Menken, who worked on the original film's soundtrack, returned to compose the score and write new songs alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda, who serves as a producer with Platt, John DeLuca, and Marshall. The film is dedicated to the late Howard Ashman, who co-produced and co-wrote the songs from the original film.

The Little Mermaid premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on May 8, 2023, and was released in the United States on May 26. The film has grossed $499 million worldwide against a total production budget of $250 million, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2023.

THE GOOD

I won’t lie, The Little Mermaid was not a movie I was excited to watch going into 2023. In a year where we are getting Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Dune: Part Two, I’m sorry, but a live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1989 animated film of the same name, a movie I watched a lot during my childhood, just isn’t going to do it for me. Now I am not saying that like all of the other idiots who have been complaining about Ariel being played by a person of color in this film ever since the actress Halle Bailey was cast. Rather, I just wasn’t looking forward to seeing another live-action adaptation of a monumental and legendary Disney animated film from the 1980s and 90s. However, I do have a girlfriend who loves Disney movies, and I was intrigued, to say the least, so I went and checked it out in a packed theater! So did this 2023 remake prove me wrong for having my doubts? Or did it prove me right in my belief that these live-action remakes need to stop? Keep reading to find out!

Can I say both? But no, this movie was certainly better than I had expected, but I still am not a fan of these live-action remakes because more than anything they just feel like cash grabs, but we can save that for later on in the review. As for what I liked about The Little Mermaid though, there’s only one place to start and that is Halle Bailey. Bailey, the 23-year-old singer-songwriter, was just great in this. Her voice is truly incredible and I don’t see any way that she doesn’t become a massive star. It really did feel like I was watching an all-time vocal performance. I know that might sound a bit premature, but I was skeptical heading into this and her first song, “Part of Your World”, literally gave me chills and that was the case for every other song she did following that. It’s not a performance that is going to get any Oscar nominations, but I just can't wait to watch how her career plays out!

Other than Bailey, the only other things I really liked about The Little Mermaid were the musical sequences in general and the performances from Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian, and Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle. McCarthy was perfectly cast as Ursula and you could really tell she was enjoying playing the legendary villain. As for Diggs and Awkwafina, they were both just hilarious in their vocal performances, and I kid you not when I say that every line of dialogue those two had made me laugh out loud!

THE BAD

Alright, let’s dive into (pun intended) my problems with this movie. First and foremost, my biggest issue with this movie is just how it looks. The CGI work and all of the underwater motion capture scenes just look bad. And what made that even worse was how the movie was shot when it was out of the water on land because they just were not seamless at all. More than that, the live-action animals and sea creatures they tried to involve just don’t work, and I think it would’ve been smarter to honestly cartoon them or something. All of the visuals just made me appreciate a movie like Avatar: The Way of Water (see Ted’s full review) that much more because of how well it ties together the underwater and above-water scenes.

I wish that was it, but I, unfortunately, have a few more complaints about The Little Mermaid that I just have to get off my chest. The first one is that I just was not a fan of Jonah Hauer-King’s performance as Eric. Sure, the dude had a good voice, but his main song was kind of cringe and I just wasn’t buying him. But even though I might not have loved his performance, I can still respect it, but what I can’t respect is Javier Bardem’s performance as King Triton. Javier! What are you doing in this my man? You gave literally one of the greatest performances of all time as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men back in 2007, and now you are doing this to just cash a paycheck? Come on man, you are better than that!

Continuing with the trend of asking people what they were thinking when it comes to The Little Mermaid, I have a question for all involved. Why on Earth is this live-action remake that we all know is MEANT FOR KIDS almost an hour, 52 minutes to be exact, longer than the 1989 original? I was flabbergasted at how long this movie was, and sure this might reflect poorly on me as someone who is reviewing the movie, but I’ll admit I dozed off at points during the last ten to fifteen minutes of the film. I’m sorry, but it was ridiculous and there should be a rule in place saying that remakes can only be so much longer than the original. Sheesh.

THE VERDICT

Not even an all-time vocal performance from Halle Bailey saves The Little Mermaid from being what it is, which is a painfully average movie. It’s a fun kids movie and there is some good nostalgia for adults too, but the bad CGI, poor visual effects, and the way-too-long runtime make me never want to see this movie again.

I just cannot stand these remakes. None of them have been terrible, but it’s frustrating to just continue to see Disney cash in on their IP by giving us average movies with zero creativity that don’t feel special at all, which is the part that annoys me the most.