The Little Mermaid: A Re-Imagined Remake…It holds its own.
Directed by Rob Marshall
“My little mermaid, isn’t she beautiful. I got her off one of my trips to Colgana. Here take her. No go on, take her, honestly. Besides, I have to make room for more stuff.”
prince Eric
Disney’s latest live action remake of one of their classic movies, The Little Mermaid, brings its own charm to the screen. A little less complete than the original, the remake boasts in a few changes. As the story goes, Ariel longs to leave the sea and pursue life on land, much to the dismay of her father, King Triton. While on Land, Prince Eric feels trapped and wishes to venture farther than his parents would allow. He makes this known during one of his voyages as Ariel stumbles upon his ship. She realizes that they have a lot in common and falls in love, not just with being a human, but a human man. Wishing to live out her dreams of going ashore, she bargains with her estranged Aunt Ursula – a sea witch – to give her a chance at becoming human. Unfortunately, this bargain is veiled with a high cost as she comes to find out.
With a run-time of one hundred and thirty-five minutes, the film is longer yet still seemed incomplete. In contrast, the original film had been wrapped in a mere eighty-three-minutes and was more absolute in its execution. Uneven pacing resulted in scenes that moved too slowly or extremely fast, especially when she arrived on land. For her costuming, Ariel was given a meagre two dresses that were less flattering than expected, whilst Eric wore one outfit in the whole film. Contrastingly, the animated fared better with multiple costume changes. This flaw detracted from the characterization of both Ariel and Eric and caused the story to suffer, visually, on account of this. Another common critique concerning the film was the use of CGI, as it made the underwater scenes appear stagnant with muted colors. This pursuit of realism hindered the expressions of the animated characters as they just seemed to have no real emotions. The final action sequence near the end of the movie was underwhelming, because of the minor struggle between good versus evil. It wrapped quickly and Ursula seemed to be of little concern.
Regardless of this, Halle Bailey made out to be an excellent choice for Ariel, especially given her stellar performance of “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” and the added song called “For the First Time.” Jonah Hauer-King proved to be a more emotionally available Eric, and their relationship development was a treat to see; I just wish we would have seen more. The chemistry between them seemed more encapsulating than the Ariel and Eric in the original. His song, which was not in the original, “Wild Uncharted Waters” added a bit of depth to his character. The musical scores were beautifully composed by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda. They produced a beautiful album to accompany the film, though “The Scuttlebutt” was not my favorite addition as it did not seem to mesh well with the other songs. Javier Bardem as King Triton seemed lackluster and his relationship with Ariel lacked the warmth of the original film. Daveed Diggs did wonderfully as Sebastian (minus the accent) and proved to be a good choice for the anxious crab. Melissa McCarthy as Ursula performed well and her human version, Jessica Alexander proved to be as villainous as her.
The Little Mermaid is a great attempt at a live-action film, but its issues range from poor costuming, uneven pacing, and the use of CGI. Despite that, the songs were beautiful and the relationship between our leads flourished. Even though it lacks the succinct nature of the animated version, the live action is an adequate attempt at a fresh new look at an old story.
The Island Cinephile 
