Halle Bailey Keeps The Little Mermaid From Flopping About
I am running out of interesting ways to describe how un-special Disney live action remakes have become and regrettably The Little Mermaid 2023 is hardly different. This remake isn’t offensive, it doesn’t ruin the original story with its changes, but I can’t help but notice the changes don’t make anything better. This film clocks in at 2 hours and 15 minutes, roughly an hour longer than the 1989 film and somehow it turns that hour into filler.
In traditional Disney live action fashion, the whimsy is sucked clear out of this picture. Despite the presence of mermaids, Disney’s aggressive commitment to photo real animal behavior means we have no instrument playing fish, just some fancy swimming. The hyper realism of all of the animal characters ruins any chance at visual charm this piece might have. Flounder, a photo realistic fish, is unable to really sync his lips to words and his constant bobbing above and below the surface creates a somewhat unnerving visual. Scuttle is especially jarring.
Disney also had the brilliant idea to use CGI animation to move hair underwater making all hair look… well… awful. Random pieces of hair move awkwardly throughout dialog and music — often looking superimposed above the actual wigs themselves — and creating a weird, cheapening effect on a film that otherwise looks passable. Melissa McCarthy is done especially dirty by these hair and makeup choices. (Her eyebrows appear to be CGI’d onto her head and her wig is no better.)
The costuming was simply adequate. When Ariel turns human she has only one dress. When she earns her legs she puts on the same (wet, faded) dress she had been wearing before. Ursula’s human form (unnamed in this film, if I recall correctly) is in a dress made of fabric so shiny and bright that it looks like plastic. The mermaid tails, tops and armor pieces look great.
Largely, the casting in The Little Mermaid 2023 works. Halle Bailey is a charming Ariel who acts her tail off and has the pipes to back it up. Jonah Hauer-King looks like he was cut out of the cartoon and made 3D and his chemistry with Bailey is truly a highlight. They have a wonderful scene on their first date out of the palace in a marketplace. They honestly carry this thing.
Melissa McCarthy does her best Ursula impression and aside from a few moments it’s very unexceptional. Despite looking very hot in this film Javier Bardem doesn’t seem to want to be in it. This is especially disappointing given that his character is the only one with a real arc. Awkwafina basically grinds the film to a halt whenever she’s in it.
Unsurprisingly they add a bunch of weird, complicated nonsense that the characters arbitrarily move past until we get back to the main story beats again. At the end of the day I’m really not sure who this film is for. The film is too simple in plot to feel like an adult retelling of The Little Mermaid but the shipwreck scene seems more at home in Titanic than a children’s film. The new music isn’t very good. There’s a sequence where Ariel sticks her hand into a fire but I’ll be danged if Bailey doesn’t make it all seem kind of charming. They use music cues from the musicals but none of the songs.
This one didn’t offend me as much as previous live action remake installments, but it didn’t wow me either. Congrats to Bailey on a great performance, go see it just for her, but honestly beyond that I give The Little Mermaid 2023 (Walt Disney Pictures; PG; 2hrs 15 mins) a 2.5 out of 5.
