“The Little Mermaid” (2023) Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #TheLittleMermaid
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. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life — and her father’s crown — in jeopardy.
It is well documented that these Disney Live-Action remakes of their animated classics have been a mixture of hits and misses, I would say they are more in the misses column than in the hits column. It is safe to say that I came into my screening of “The Little Mermaid” with a high level of skepticism as The Lion King which is my favorite animated Disney movie felt like a CGI fiasco more than anything. Mulan also on my top list was a hit in my book, and The Little Mermaid is my second favorite animated film from Disney, I wasn’t holding my breath thinking Disney was going to blow my mind but to my surprise, they did, and in a big way with the music, and the overall tone of the narrative of the story.
Story-wise the core story of The Litte Mermaid stays the same, but the welcome changes are in the tone in the dialog and the music. Mainly with the intent to appeal to a new generation, both the dialog and the music get modern welcome modern revisions. With many of them being handled by Puerto Rico’s very own Lin-Manuel Miranda. You can hear the influence of his Caribbean heritage play a role in the sounds used for many of the new music compose of this Live Action version of “The Little Mermaid”. While I completely agree this may not sit well with everyone, I must admit I did enjoy them myself, where I constantly saw myself dancing and singing to the old classics and even the new ones.
Performance-wise this is where the movie truly shines. Halle Bailey is a revelation as the Live Action version of Ariel. She made Ariel her own, she gave Ariel new life, and her voice stood out beautifully with every single song. Melissa McCarthy was superb as Ursula, she absolutely embodied the character and without a doubt, she cannot deny how much fun she had playing this character. Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian felt just like the animated character, whereas Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric had great chemistry with Halle Bailey.
If anything, what did not work for me was as beautiful as the visuals looked, the CGI/Blue/Green screen effects are noticeable as if the attention to detail in the technical department was kept to a minimum.
In the end, this 2 hours and 15 min runtime of the Live Action version of “The Little Mermaid” is a well-worth watch for fans of the old classic, and for a new generation to fall in love with. The music will surely have you singing and dancing. And the amazing cast clearly understood the assignment with their superb performances with Halle Bailey’s voice leading the crew.
