When it was released in 1989, Disney’s The Little Mermaid was a creative breath of fresh air for an animation studio thought to be well beyond its glory days. The bouncy, colorful fairy tale, fueled by instant-classic songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, kick-started a renaissance for Disney animation, taking it beyond the drab days of The Rescuers and Oliver & Company and into an era that included Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.
But like those three classics – each one rightfully considered a gem in the Mouse House’s crown – The Little Mermaid has now long been milked for all possible profit through theatrical re-releases, home video sales and sequels, amusement park rides, and Broadway musicals. It now receives Disney’s last squeeze: a creatively inferior, bloated live-action remake that trades the energy of animation for cinematic karaoke.
Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods) brings Disney’s version of the Hans Christian Andersen story to the big screen once again, adding nearly an hour of padding, several new songs, and big-name stars. But while this version falls prey to many of the shortcomings that befell similar remakes, it learns just enough from the worst failures to maintain watchability. And it has a secret weapon that, in brief moments, actually allows it to soar.
That secret weapon is newcomer Halle Bailey as Ariel, the precocious mermaid who falls in love with a dashing prince. Bailey swims onto screen with a charisma and energy that is instantly captivating; even before she’s belted out her first number, nailing the showstopper “Part of Your World,” she’s firmly established herself as a star, with a curiosity, passion, and humor too often is missing in these films, which often only allow their heroines to be reserved and dull.
Ariel is one of the most iconic Disney princesses, but also one of the thinnest from a personality perspective. Ariel is precocious and impetuous in the animated film, ready to throw it all away for a crush on a man she’s only seen glimpses of. To its credit, the remake fleshes Ariel out just a bit, giving her a desire to explore the world and prove to her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem), that humans and mer-people may co-exist. It’s not revolutionary, but it makes the character a bit richer without sacrificing the teenage desire for freedom that makes her so beloved.
The film largely follows the original’s story. Ariel is forbidden to swim to the surface and glimpse the humans; she disobeys and, in the process, saves Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from drowning. She falls for him and he’s captivated by her siren song. Desperate to be with her true love, Ariel makes a deal with Ursula the sea witch (Melissa McCarthy), trading her voice for legs, and trying to capture a magic kiss from Eric within three days.
There’s an automatic creative bankruptcy in hewing so closely to the original story, especially when the animated movie wasn’t exactly a to-the-letter adaptation of the fairy tale, which has a famously bleak ending. There’s material that could be explored, changed or reimagined. And yet, audiences would likely revolt if Marshall didn’t include a rousing “Under the Sea” dance number, a romantic “Kiss the Girl” interlude or let Ursula vamp around her cauldron. And so, Marshall largely plays the hits, recreating not only the musical numbers but whole lines of dialogue and several shots.
The result is a mixed bag. Animation is not just real life in ink and paint. There’s a whimsy and energy to the way it breaks the laws of physics, and the ability to exaggerate and anthropomorphize animals gives non-human characters a great deal of expression and personality. Translating that to “live action” (which is actually just CGI animation) loses much of that. As with The Lion King’s “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” a great deal of vitality is lost when “Under the Sea” is performed by realistic-looking sea creatures instead of animated characters (although the song finds its sea legs in its back half, when Marshall stages a jellyfish rave that borders on the abstract). “Kiss the Girl” is a nearly shot-for-shot replay of the animated movie, and yet some charm is lost when cute and cuddly animated animals are replaced with more realistic ones. And while Marshall’s film has more color and visual imagination than most of these drab-looking Disney remakes, it can’t compete with the original’s bright colors and fast pace.
And yet, those Menken and Ashman songs are really good. And with a vocal powerhouse like Bailey, they still play; “Part of Your World” largely recreates the animated film’s staging, and yet maintains its power because of the star’s performance. Visually, “Under the Sea” can’t compete with the original, but Daveed Diggs is so much fun as Sebastian the crab that it still mostly works. McCarthy’s Ursula that feels more like imitation than imagination, but she belts out “Poor Unfortunate Souls” with the requisite amount of camp.
Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid.” Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This Little Mermaid is, as said earlier, almost an hour longer than the original. And many of the attempts to pad it out don’t quite work. The story gives Hauer-King’s Eric a bit more personality by making Eric just as isolated by his parents as Ariel is, with the same desire to see the world – the film admirably allows them to build a friendship instead of just puppy-love swooning – but a subplot involving his strict stepmother drags. A new wrinkle in Ursula’s plot that has Ariel forgetting she needs to be kissed is confusing and pointless. And none of the new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda work; Eric is saddled with a wet blanket of a ballad, and a song capturing Ariel’s thoughts once she’s lost her voice both undercuts the sorrow of her remaining silent but also distracts from a performance by Bailey that would be much stronger without the music. And one may wish Ursula had cast a spell on the audience so that it was possible to forget “The Scuttlebutt,” a rap featuring Ariel’s bird friend Scuttle (Awkwafina) that is just as ill-fitting as that sounds.
One addition that does work is Eric and Ariel’s extended day out late in the film. Transferring the story from the vaguely European settings of the original to a vaguely Caribbean one gives Marshall some room to let the characters out in gorgeous environs, and a foray to local market culminates in a sweet dance that helps prime the audience for “Kiss the Girl.” But it’s not long after that the film returns to Ursua’s schemes and then indulges in a messy, CGI-lathered action sequence that turns some of the original film’s most original moments into an incoherent, sloppy mess.
The Little Mermaid is a mixed bag. There are moments of energy, charm and humor, but they constantly butt up against the reminder that this was done much better — and shorter — nearly 35 years ago. Certain supporting performances work – Diggs, Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay (as Ariel’s fish pal, Flounder) all acquit themselves well – while McCarthy is simply adequate and Bardem feels oddly muted. Hauer-King gives Eric a personality but is also saddled with the worst songs in the film. There are fun visual flourishes, but they’re largely just carbon copies of what was done better in ink and paint. It never discovers a reason for its own existence, other than to placate audiences and make Disney money. And audiences will likely be entertained – even though even my 7-year-old daughter has already informed me that she prefers the animated version – and Disney will make money. As art, it’s a failure; as product, it gets the job done.
Except for Bailey, who will likely be able to build on this to a successful career (next up, she’s in Warner Brothers’ The Color Purple musical). And she deserves it. While most everything here feels rote and content with mediocrity, she swims away a star. She’s the one thing in this film that feels exciting, new and vibrant.
