The new ‘Little Mermaid’ is a tail of two worlds
Here's how the 2023 remake stacks up against the 1989 original
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It’s always funny to me when I hear people describe 1989’s The Little Mermaid as a movie about a girl “who gives up her voice for a man.” Disney’s era-shaping animated classic is about a lot of things – teenage rebellion, authoritarian parenting, dramatic nighttime flute playing, hot crustacean bands, the dangers of not reading the fine print of a contract. But when I was a little girl obsessively rewatching The Little Mermaid on VHS, it was never a movie that made me feel like I had to give up a part of myself to find love. In fact, it wasn’t a movie that made me think I needed to find a man at all. It was a movie that made me want to be a mermaid.
It’s the underwater kingdom of Atlantica that looms largest in my memory of The Little Mermaid, partially because I loved the animated prequel TV series that was set there, but also because so many of the movie’s most memorable sequences take place underwater – from Sebastian’s hilariously portentous opening concert to the colorfully aquatic antics of “Under the Sea.” Thanks to the fluidity of animation, Ariel’s mermaid world is impossibly appealing in the way the best fantasy realms are.
What’s fascinating about Disney’s new live action Little Mermaid remake – which made a real splash when it debuted on Disney+ last month – is that it reverses that experience. In live action, Ariel’s underwater world is dreary and forgettable, filled with murky CGI, uncannily “realistic” sea creatures, and bland portrayals of Ariel’s sisters and father. Instead, it’s Eric’s kingdom that shines, with its vibrant colors, bustling townfolk, and island flair.
Charitably, of course, you could say that choice is intentional – that making Ariel’s world drab and Eric’s fab is a way to visually convey why she wants to be human. But I think that’s only half true. Fleshing out Eric and his world are definitely intentional choices from director Rob Marshall and screenwriter David Magee. But Ariel’s lifeless underwater realm feels far more like a limitation of imagination and CGI budgeting than it does a bold storytelling choice. (At least Eric’s kingdom has subjects, Triton seems to be the king of empty caverns.)
It speaks to the weird space these Disney live action remakes operate in as they tread the line between evoking nostalgia and trying to offer something new. The best-case scenario for this kind of thing is Halle Bailey’s performance, which does a stunning job echoing the playful spirit of the animated Ariel while giving her a more measured, less impulsive backbone too. Alongside Angelina Jolie as Maleficent and Lily James as Cinderella, it’s one of the best bits of Disney live action casting to date. And retelling this classic mermaid story with a black lead at its center is a welcome way to expand its reach even further; to give it a reason to exist beyond simple nostalgia.
The same goes for fleshing out Eric as a character too, which – terrible Troy Bolton song aside – recenters this version of The Little Mermaid as a true two-hander romance. Reframing Eric as a curious adventurer helps sell his swift connection with the similarly adventurous Ariel. And the movie feels most alive in the scenes between Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King, particularly a sweet sequence where Ariel discovers that Eric has his own collection of gadgets and gizmos aplenty. In the original, you’re mostly rooting for Ariel to win her princely prize. Here, you actually see why Eric and Ariel make sense as a couple.
The trouble is, Marshall’s Little Mermaid doesn’t quite know how to let go of the past to make room for that new focus. The original Little Mermaid is very much a father/daughter story, with Ariel’s connection with Eric as more of a subplot. Marshall’s version switches its focus to the central romance but can’t figure out how to rebalance the father/daughter stuff so that it works alongside it. In the animated original, we catch glimpses of Triton’s own playfulness and understand how tragic it is that he can’t share that side of himself with his daughter because he’s so overprotective. In the live action version, however, we get a disastrously disconnected performance from Javier Bardem, who aims for gravitas but winds up feeling totally out to sea in the murky CGI world around him.
Like so many of these Disney live action remakes, The Little Mermaid somehow seems like it’s both over and underthinking its adaptation choices. The movie makes Eric’s kingdom feel fresh and new by swapping out the original European design for a more unique Caribbean-inspired motif. But then it inexplicably sticks Ariel in the same simple blue dress for nearly its entire runtime, denying viewers one of the chief pleasures of a princess movie. What was the thought process there? And how did the same creatives who decided all the CGI sea life must be “realistic” also decide to subject us to the sonic torture of “The Scuttlebutt” at the dramatic crux of the story??
The delightful sits alongside the baffling in Marshall’s adaptation, which is so often the way it goes with these Disney live action remakes. And while Bailey’s enchanting performance does a lot to weave those disparate parts together, this new Little Mermaid is ultimately missing the confidence and cohesion of the original. It’s a perfectly enjoyable watch and it still probably sits in the upper echelon of the Disney live action remake canon. But while it sells the human world as a place you want to be, it’s lacking that mermaid sparkle.
Stray observations
What’s up with the new backstory about Eric being saved from a shipwreck and adopted as a baby? I thought for sure we were in for a big reveal about his connection to the mermaid world, but it never really goes anywhere. I’m curious if there was a subplot that was cut or if Disney was trying to lay groundwork for a sequel.
Melissa McCarthy does a solid Pat Carroll impression as Ursula, but the fact that her performance is so similar to the original also makes it weirdly forgettable. That’s the catch-22 of these Disney live action remakes, I guess.
One thing I wish this movie had remixed more is in the big action climax with Kaiju Ursula (Kaijursula?), which doesn’t totally work in this movie or in the original.
While “The Scuttlebutt” is terrible and “Wild Unchartered Waters” is meh (at least when Jeremy Jordan isn’t singing it), “For the First Time” is such a bop.
Speaking of songs, I wish these live action remakes would utilize the songs written for Disney’s Broadway musical adaptations. “If Only (Quartet)” is one of my favorite musical theater numbers.
Next time on Girl Culture: I’ll be ranking David Tennant’s debut season of Doctor Who and sharing my review of the Loki season two premiere
As usual a very thorough analysis