The Little Mermaid (2023) - Movie review
This movie is kind of a big deal for me and I've been waiting to review it properly for awhile now
I’m not kidding! This review has been sitting in my drafts since the release date! 😅
also the amount of times I've tried to do something different & record myself and was just like...
so let me just stick with what I know and what I'm comfortable with…my notebook and keyboard
I love Disney...no secret there, it's basically defined my life and what lead me to want to be an animator (I still want to, something I need to get back into before I'm too old & DIE!!)
so it’s always been my dream to work on a Disney picture
now I know the discord about the live action movies (well most of the live action movies) is at they are unnecessary cash grabs.
and while I do agree to some extent, (Jungle Book & Cinderella are the exceptions since they add to the original story and flesh some of the characters more), one thing I can say about them is that its give people who grew up with these movies a chance to work on those with those characters and stories that inspired them.
And that's where I come in...
I can finally say...
I'VE WORKED ON
A
DISNEY MOVIE!
AND MY NAME IS IN THE CREDITS!
the company that I worked for was award a few sequences in the movie and I was able to work on them as a prep artist!
Even if it was just a small part, I wanted to take it seriously and do the best I that I could (there were some…lonnnggggg nights 😭 but grateful for the experience)
Honestly this meant the world to me, it still makes me so happy and proud
regardless of this fact, and the fact that I like this movie more than others (honestly, I don't think you'll be able to tell after reading this review😅), I will still be unbiased and honest with my thoughts 😁
Let's jump right in!
THE ARTBOOK
Of rather lack of…
Yeah I’m one those people that like to buy the artbooks of their favourite movies, series or game and trust me when i tell you i was checking DAILY for any news on an artbook for this movie!
Cause stupid me was thinking...
“This is a Disney live action production, and for one of their big titles! and because there’ll be underwater scenes, there's gotta be an artbook!”
when i found out there was none…
That we would get nothing…
Well okay i heard there was a small program book that had on set photos and concept art given out during an event in Japan BUT STILL!! nothing officially released
I was so bummed out…but also worried and let me tell you why
i was worried that not a lot of love was given to this project. That maybe production was rushed and because of that there was nothing to show.
Usually in artbooks you see the different concepts, iterations, styles of the characters, locations and costumes followed by comments of the production designer or makeup artist. Maybe the book would even have a forward from the director or one of the creatives or voice actor from the previous work
You get to see inside of the creative minds, why some decisions were made and overall how we got the finished product.
WE DIDN’T GET ANY OF THAT!
And that’s why i got worried.
OR I could be wrong and there’s an artbook for this movie out there somewhere and i missed it! If anyone knows it’s whereabouts, please message me in comments or call this number at…
The Cast
Oh boy, strap yourselves in for this one, it's...pretty lengthy 😅
Prince Eric - Jonah Hauer-King
I knew NOTHING of this individual when this movie came out but i quickly became a fan! Honestly, I think he’s my favourite live action Disney Prince so far (I’m so sorry Richard Madden as Kit from Cinderella, he’s such a close second!)
which makes sense as Eric has always been my favourite Disney Prince, i mean….come on…
The eyes and he loves dogs
But I really do think Jonah did great as Eric, and his chemistry with Halle as Ariel was just great! Really! Which is honestly all i ask for with these live actions iterations. His singing wasn’t all that bad either, I love the song they gave him, Uncharted Waters?! The man is SMITTEN!
Halle got him with ONE look (and one note) and he was love sick!
My oooonnnly issue with him, it's not even the actor, it’s his character and the change they made with him but more on that later
Ursula - Melissa McCarthy
I wasn’t a big fan of this casting when announced and after the seeing the movie, my opinion didn't really change.
She was fine…i guess.
I mean the look is great, I just wish Melissa had a little more sass and attitude to her performance. Overall it just felt kinda safe
There’s this scene where she literally throws a temperature tantrum..it just seems like a “Melissa” thing/moment and not sure why it was kept in the movie. Honestly to me it seems they needed a scene to wake up the audience as this scene happens right after Kiss The Girl
also in this scene, Ursula's tentacles are sentience....? That just opens up a whole can of worms. I don't know why they didn't use Flotsam and Jetsam for this scene instead of making a change from the original that complicates things when you think about it
I have issues with a decision her character makes but again…we’ll get there
Scuttle - Awkwafina
oh boy...
I wish we got someone else for this role, really
No offence to Awkwafina, it’s just…i didn’t want to hear HER.
It could have been that between Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-chi, Quiz Lady, The Bad Guys that I was just tried of hearing her very distinctive voice
Again i know it’s basically going back to animated version but i would have loved for an older, more experienced voice actor for scuttle
Sebastian - Daveed Diggs
I was worried about this when i heard him in the trailer and it didn’t get any better in the movie.
He sounded terrible!
Now if you didn’t know, in the animated version Sebastian is a crab with a Jamaican accent. He speaks patois (Jamaica’s language) and think of it as broken English (my parents are Jamaican so i know what I’m talking about)
Now in the 2023 version, Diggs take is a very toned down version of patois which makes sense cause if they went full patois, trust me…NO ONE would be able to understand him, it would have been the recent Bob Marley movie all over again
Now in the animated version, Sebastian had a more faithful Jamaican accent and at least to my knowledge, no one had an issue understanding him. Plus i feel it helped to give his songs more...how should I say this...
“flavour”
which makes me wondered why they didn't go a bit stronger with the accent here
Diggs performance is…so bad, he literally sounds like someone doing a horrible impression of a Jamaican.
My parents were like
His accent and even his performance is so watered down compared to the original, i’m kinda shocked they thought it was okay.
Also not making him a composer makes no sense to me. It was such an integral part of the character and added even more believability to his songs. Taking it away and just making him Triton’s "majordomo" is honestly criminal
Speaking of Triton…
King Triton - Javier Bardem
This was the biggest disappointing performance for me. Sebastian i already knew was gonna suck from the trailer but Triton…ooff.
I felt like this performance should have DEMANDED my attention
and it didn’t.
I think what was missing for me were these small moments that would have rounded the character more
Like in the animated version, when he’s done destroying Ariel’s grotto, he makes this face
Like clearly it hurt him to do that but his pride & anger and stubbornness is just running rampant.
Now in the live action, look at this
Like are you her Dad or her bodyguard?? He's so stoic and lifeless here it's just...infuriating
Then there's the scene where he comes back to life after being saved by Eric and Ariel,
I just...sighhh...
Speaking of Ariel...
Ariel - Halle Bailey
I’m not going to go into the controversy surrounding her casting because if you’ve seen the movie, she literally proved all the nay sayers wrong
And I have to admit, i was one of them 🫣
i didn’t mind them taking a different route with the character, i just thought it would have worked better in a different movie not tied to already existing property/film
And the fact this movie didn’t make a billion dollars, maybe i was on to something…?
but anyway, Halle was great! There were some scenes where she actually sounded like Ariel! I’m not kidding! Listen! listen to her talk here!
I think she embody the character so well and the best thing Disney did here was cast a SINGER for this role!
The problems i have with her have more to do with changes they made to her character and the costume
THE MUSIC
Now my boy Alan Menken makes a come back, well he didn’t really go away but he comes back to score the movie and as usual…i love it, it's great!
My favourite tracks are Eric’s Library (honestly i wish this was longer, i love it so much!) and Ariel’s Goodbye
Now…I can’t talk about the score or talk about the music without talking about…
Him.
Lin Manuel Miranda.
First let me start by saying i think he’s great, not my cup of tea but i think that’s fair. I think he does follow in the foot steps of the late great Stephen Sondheim but obviously with his own flavour and for this movie, i think it worked and in at least one case, it didn't
I think his additional songs for Ariel and Eric were great!
For The First Time is my favourite track of the whole film, i kid you not. Halle just sounds so awesome! And Jonah singing Uncharted Waters?! More of my Disney princes getting their own solo/ballads please!
Except for Dan Steven singing as the beast, no more of that...
Now there is one song I was not a fan of
And from what I've seen, I'm not the only one
the scuttlebutt song was STRAIGHT TRASH.
It was just so…annoying and then you have Awkwafina’s voice on top of it...
And then it went into a RAP!
I’m not sure why this was added. I don’t know if they needed a “catchy” song for the kids so they came up with this but that’s why you have Under the Sea!
Why do you think people still remember and sing that song to this day? I would bet my life no one is going to remember the scuttlebutt in t-minus one day.
It’s just..it’s that bad…really…
Speaking of Under the Sea…
Why did they keep the lyrics of the under sea animals playing instruments but NOT SHOW THEM…?
Sebastian even says WATCH THIS
Watch WHAT sir???
Okay but Ariel and the blow fish, SO adorable!
this version of Under The Sea just felt so water-down (no pun intended) compared the original and i hate to keep doing that but I mean...
But i guess it makes sense since this Sebastian is not a composer 🙄
Now earlier in the review when I talked about the casting i mentioned i had a few issues with them in regards to the story…let’s talk about that now shall we 😏
THE STORY
Now obviously this is a remake of the original & in some cases it's a shot for shot
Honestly, I’m okay with this one, it’s too iconic not to recreate this. Funny enough, Halle said this scene almost broke her neck! Cause she has dreads in the movie, LONG dreads and based on the size (even without them getting wet) look heavy.
So now imagine them soaking wet and you have flip them back.
YEAH.
My neck hurts every time i watch the scene
GETTING OFF TOPIC HERE
Basically as a Disney remake, they work to make changes from the original that didn’t make sense then or didn’t work then and wouldn't work now
like in the remake of Beauty and the Beast, they take out any mention of the Beast’s age or how long he and the servants have been cursed because before in the animated version they mention those things and it doesn't line up
In this version, as mentioned before, they don’t make Sebastian a composer which hurts his character
They remove some of that fatherly love from Trition’s character which makes his relationship with Ariel feel even more strained even after turning her human himself. To me, he didn’t really earn that redemption
But one of the biggest changes is making Ursula related to Ariel & Triton.
That was never stated in the animated version and complicates the moral of some of the main characters in the film…like Ariel.
FUN FACT: it’s actually stated in the book, Poor Unfortunate Souls by Serena Valentino that Ursula and Triton are related but since that book is not canon it doesn’t count but it's a good read though!
Now this may not seem like a big deal but just take into consideration that Ariel murders her Aunt 😬
Don’t get me wrong, i get there’s no family love or memories or all that but Ariel doesn’t seem like that type of character that would just commit parricide(murder of a close relative), i mean Ursula IS her aunt.
I didn’t see a problem having Eric take out Ursula as he has no connection with her whatsoever and it helps soften Triton’s heart against humans as Eric was the one who killed the monster trying to kill his daughter!
I would have keep Eric taking out Ursula as i don’t think that takes away from Ariel’s independence or strength. We’ve seen Ariel show her strengths many times throughout the movie, she outsmarts the shark, saves Eric and MAX! Might i add! (I love that addition so much! Much a cute scene!), she seconds making a deal with Ursula, she shows Eric the true treasure from his voyages & she FIGHTS Ursula in her human forum
Like Ariel is OUR GIRL. She got this! She’s already proven herself
Having Ariel and Eric switch places for the end battle feels like a very obvious change they would make and at least to me, it doesn’t feel like the right one.
Gotta give them props for keeping Ursula as a big giant kaiju though!
Another change they made was Ursula's deal.
Holy crap i think this is the longest review I’ve ever done
but there’s so much i wanna say about this movie
You know what…
INTERMISSION! 🍿
Okay where was i…
Ursula’s spell!
I don’t get it, i don’t get this change.
If i understand it correctly, i think the change was done so that Ariel didn’t seem like all she wanted was the kiss…buuuuuttt....
In the original, yes her wanting to be with Eric was mostly the main reason why she made the deal, but she also wanted to be where the people are (yes I did) and you see that! When she’s enjoying the puppet show, dancing in the courtyard, pulling Eric to see something that catches her eye and the carriage ride!The human stuff! What she originally wanted in the first place
And funny enough, the remake does this exact same thing! Except that now they added the stupid addition of the spell which makes no difference and has no effect on the story.
Also this scene probably has my favourite moment, Ariel teaching Eric her name! Honestly who ever came up with this scene, wrote it & shot it...
It’s just so STUPID CUTE!
It’s the changes of the characters and their decisions to make the movie work "on" that I don't really agree with and think the movie would have been better off with out them
COSTUME & MAKE UP & VFX
This part of the review won’t be too long cause I don’t have much to say but feel strong enough about them that I wanna talk about it
I just want to start off and say we were ROBBED.
Look at this! I came across this fan art of Ariel in her glittering dress and geeezzz
IT’S STUNNING.
Yes fine, it is a tad bit revealing for the movie and it doesn’t quite fit the style for the time however, why didn’t we get the movie equivalent of this?
I do find it baffling! that we only got 2 looks when she’s human and while i love the shade of the blue for her blue dress, it would have been nice to see for the final look something more…dazzling.
All of our princesses have their dazzling looks whether it’s Belle’s yellow ballgown, Cinderella’s ball Gown or even Jasmine’s classic blue look…
THEY GOT THEIR LOOK!
And…most…I can’t say all because Belle’s ballgown in the live action was underwhelming, also i think it was cg in some scenes. I’m serious! Look at it! There’s something off about it, like there’s no contact shadows & the movement doesn't feel natural
Anyways, we robbed! We needed a proper dress!
Also not a fan of her hairstyle at the end of the movie either. It makes her look like of more of a child, and my girl had dreads! You had options! You could’ve had a style that was fancy for the occasion but practical to fit her personality.
Urghhhh….
I recently saw on Twitter & YouTube complaints about her mermaid look
AND LOOK.
I am obsessed with her mermaid look! I have no issues with it whatsoever and personally, i wanted to see more of it! And in the daylight! Like look at this,
She looks so great! and the way she moves!
One of the complaints I saw was that it’s not the classic teal tail and purple bikini top.
In other areas where i almost was almost begging for complete copy from the original, i didn’t want that here.
I love things that have to do with people underwater and love to see different people’s takes on mermaids and i really liked their take on Ariel’s mermaid form here.
I think it’s perfect and it works. I don’t think the bikini top would have worked. I was concerned how that would translate to the merchandise but that translated pretty well too!
Also in regrads to her mermaid look, i thought the VFX looked great! I thought that they would have keep everything up to her belly button but when you watched the BTS, basically the only thing that was kept was her head!
Well her face and arms
There was also times in the movie where the cg for the hair didn’t move properly, like in Part of World. If you time it right you can see where her hair is frozen for a frame or two so it looks really weird 🫣
...
Okay that was a lot and I apologize
I wrote down notes of everything I wanted to cover, to keep myself on track...
I just didn’t think the end result would be…
Almost 5 pages?! Okay maybe not really, but it feels like it doesn’t it? Feels like you've been scrolling FOREVER!
If you made it this far…you…you a real one!
I just had a lot of thoughts and i hope it all made sense
And as much as seems like I don't like this movie, that's not the case and it's actually my second favourite live action Disney remake
Cinderella will always be #1 for me and I don't think will be topped anytime soon
I mean, did y'all see the Snow White Trailer?
YIKES.
Well I hope it was at least a fun read and honestly I would love to hear what you guys thought about the movie!
Please leave a comment and be a part of the scuttlebutt!
😀💀
