Disney Abandons Risk For Nostalgia (The Little Mermaid 2023 review)

 

Another Disney remake but this time on the big screen. The big question is if it is a hit or miss? Disney's reputation towards remakes of their iconic animated classics is self-explanatory and hopefully, The Little Mermaid can be seen in a positive way. Do I feel that way? That could be a loaded question. 

This iteration of Ariel is CGI-heavy, more so than most of the remakes have utilized, especially for the first half of the film. At times it does feel a little wonky when compared to films like the Avatar sequel and Wakanda Forever, Mermaid does not stand a chance at being immersive in how real it looks because... it doesn't. However, the visuals are indeed striking and the colors pop enough to get the attention it needs. Still, the original animated film had more color, to begin with, and like most live-action iterations of a fairy tale, muted colors can take away the magic of scenes. Another comparison between this and the original is the sea creatures, such as Ariel's friends, Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle. Like the Lion King remake, the CGI animation does not capture the animal expressions as they did in animation. I have come to realize that doing that might be harder and it would turn out uglier than expected. It's hard to find a middle ground animating talking animals in a live-action Disney film. 

Other than these few nitpicks, Mermaid is still magic. Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman's music live on with a few additions by Lin Manuel Miranda. The new songs are not the best but they manage to fit within the narrative well to provide depth they were made for. One of them is a solo number for Eric that is slightly underwhelming in tone and melody but Jonah Hauer King's vocals make up for it. Another would be a song that portrays Ariel's reaction to the world which is a better expansion through the eyes of the protagonist as it shows her excitement and fear of the world she traded for when losing her fins for feet. 

Halle Bailey's performance as this iconic Disney princess paves well for her acting career as this is her debut role while solidifying her talent as a great vocalist. Her rendition of 'Part of Your World' proves how much of a showstopper this song was back in 1989 but hearing it today with Bailey's killer voice is an experience worth shedding a tear or two. The same can be said for Melissa Mccarthy's rendition of 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' but that brings about a different set of emotions when she belts out the villainous chorus. Daveed Diggs as Sebastian does recapture what the Oscar-winning 'Under the Sea' was back then but the theatricality of this sequence is, unfortunately, a close second to what the live-action Beauty and the Beast managed to do with the bombastic 'Be Our Guest'. 

With that said, these roles are seemingly relying on their musical numbers rather than their scenes. In a way, these actors played it safe with their performances, whether to subdue expectations or to pay respect to the original source material but that is the thing with remakes, you are supposed to take risks. My main problem is that, unlike the previous remakes, Mermaid probably has the least drastic changes to the story. There are some expansions on certain characters but it is no Maleficent. With the opening of the film itself, including a quote from the original short story itself by Hans Christian Andersen, the expectation to have a sour ending was at the peak of my expectations but that, of course, did not happen. 

It does stay true to the original which might appeal to longtime fans and maybe might bring in a new generation of audiences, The Little Mermaid does not fail to remind people what Disney is all about. With everything that is going on legally in Hollywood and just in Disney studios itself, it is hard to understand why such a once-enjoyed brand is being tarnished for petty reasons. The film allows the sense of wonder and escapism to be accessible again with this reiteration and fans or newcomers might enjoy it all the same if they keep an open mind (or if they don't have the original film fresh in their memory).