The Little Mermaid (2023)

[TigerLily20]

I just got to see this with my sister, over all we loved it and is definitely one of the better Disney live action movies.  I will echo what has been said a million times, Halle killed it and her voice is amazing, and Melissa just looked like she was loving her role and she also did very well.  My only nitpicks on how the characters looked, not gonna lie the hair could have been just a tad bit more on the red side, felt more of a red tint and almost looked brunette at times.  Maybe not fire engine red but just a bit more in the red direction, I mean come on we are talking mermaids here, I'm not looking for anything realistic lol.  Also in the spirit of fairness, Prince Eric's eyes should have been blue...like blue blue, slap some contacts in that boys eyes...but over all, we really enjoyed it.

[heatherchandler]

On 6/5/2023 at 8:02 AM, proserpina65 said:

A 57% drop in domestic box office and dismal foreign results does not bode well for Disney's profit on this one.

I’ve read that it’s technically a flop.  It did ok domestically but not great overseas.  It remains to be seen but they don’t think they will recoup the movie budget plus marketing budget, which is like $140 million.  

The Little Mermaid dropped 58% domestically and is still making next to nothing internationally. And let’s just say that film is essentially guaranteed to not only flop, but also to be a massive flop for Disney and could ultimately be one of the worst performing movies in their entire history.”

I know all movies spend crazy money on marketing, but IMO it’s getting kind of obscene, in general.

eta-they call it a flop not a bomb, also the marketing was only $140 million, not $250 million

Edited June 15, 2023 by heatherchandler

[Spartan Girl]

It’s just really hard not to side-eye the excuses for the movie not doing well in China. “We’re not racist, but the original fairy tale is so ingrained in our minds.” Yeah, and that didn’t stop the other remakes from making a billion dollars globally.

And the other excuses that people hate “forced diversity” and that Halle doesn’t meet their “beauty standards”…that isn’t a dog whistle, that’s a big fat fucking bullhorn.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[MissAlmond]

On 6/16/2023 at 6:10 AM, Spartan Girl said:

It’s just really hard not to side-eye the excuses for the movie not doing well in China. “We’re not racist, but the original fairy tale is so ingrained in our minds.”

Oh! I see. They loved the original fairy tale. So they were always cool with The Little Mermaid not winning the Prince but instead turning first into foam and later an earthbound spirit doing good deeds for hundreds of years. My bad. 🙄

Edited June 17, 2023 by MissAlmond

[proserpina65]

On 6/17/2023 at 4:09 PM, MissAlmond said:

Oh! I see. They loved the original fairy tale. So they were always cool with The Little Mermaid not winning the Prince but instead turning first into foam and later an earthbound spirit doing good deeds for hundreds of years. My bad. 🙄

Well, that IS vastly superior to the crap Disney-fication of the story, but yeah, completely NOT reason.

Looks like the live action remake is going to end up a major flop for Disney,  though. 

[supposebly]

On 6/17/2023 at 2:09 PM, MissAlmond said:

Oh! I see. They loved the original fairy tale. So they were always cool with The Little Mermaid not winning the Prince but instead turning first into foam and later an earthbound spirit doing good deeds for hundreds of years. My bad. 🙄

Or I'm sure everyone was ok with certain interpretations that assume Andersen wrote this story after and because his secret gay lover got married to a woman.

[tv echo]

[Cress]

they're making us wait until September? So annoying.

[BetterButter]

 

[Cress]

It's finally streaming. The bonus content has an extra song Impossible Child, and a behind-the-scenes look at how they choreographed Under the Sea with dancers. I also like being able to watch with closed captions.

[tv echo]

Halle - For the First Time (From "The Little Mermaid")
DisneyMusicVEVO  Sep 6, 2023

Javier Bardem - Impossible Child (Outtake) (From "The Little Mermaid"/Audio Only)
DisneyMusicVEVO  Sep 8, 2023

Edited September 10, 2023 by tv echo

[SlovakPrincess]

Not gonna lie, Javier Bardem did get me to tear up a little at the end.  

Halle Bailey is a gem, and she even did great in the scenes where Ariel can't talk (I imagine it's hard not to just lapse into a vacant smile at times when your character can't say anything).  I like the actor they chose for Eric, and I loved the little touch they added where - confused as he is as his girlfriend morphs into a fish - his first reaction is to hug her closer.  Melissa McCarthy was a lot of fun in the role of Ursula.  

As with the original, Ariel's naïveté in basically bargaining away her life is extremely frustrating (Ursula barely tries to hide that she's completely evil) ... but I'm an adult watching a kid's movie, so I'm probably nitpicking what is meant to be a simple story lol.    

[Bookworm 1979]

I really enjoyed this movie (watched it for the first time this weekend).  I thought it was really sweet that Ariel gave Max the dog a little push when he was swimming to the lifeboats to help him get there faster.

It was definitely a better live action remake than Beauty and the Beast and I'm not angry I watched it.  I'm sure I'll watch it again.

[Sarah 103]

"Impossible Child" sounded like "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" from Wicked. I liked the song "Impossible Child" and I'm sorry it was cut, but I can also understand why it was cut. I still think it should have been in the movie.

[Cress]

I did like Ursula though I wondered why she was always lounging upside down in her lair. I guess it was to emphasize her campiness and her thinking of herself as a wronged victim.

The supporting characters get fun little moments too, like Grimsby being on Team Ariel and kicking the engagement ring away. His chat with Lashawna about letting Eric leave in a carriage is cute too.

[tv echo]

'The Little Mermaid’ Breaks Records On Disney+ As One Of The Most Viewed Disney Movie Premieres Ever, Garnering 16 Million Views In Its First Five Days Streaming
TheWaltDisneyCompany.com/News   September 11, 2023
https://press.disneyplus.com/news/disney-plus-the-little-mermaid-records-16-million-views-in-first-five-days-streaming 

Quote

The live-action reimagining of the studio’s Academy Award®-winning animated musical starring Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy is the most viewed Disney movie premiere on Disney+ since Hocus Pocus 2, garnering 16 million views in its first five days streaming.

Its success on Disney+ follows a strong theatrical run this summer. The movie—which was directed by Rob Marshall and opened over Memorial Day weekend to $118.6 million in North America—was one of the top five highest-grossing films of the summer domestically with nearly $300 million.

The Little Mermaid—which also stars Javier Bardem, Daveed Diggs, and Awkwafina—is also among 2023’s top ten films worldwide to date, earning $570 million at the global box office.

Edited September 15, 2023 by tv echo

[SlovakPrincess]

On 9/10/2023 at 1:22 PM, Bookworm 1979 said:

I thought it was really sweet that Ariel gave Max the dog a little push when he was swimming to the lifeboats to help him get there faster.

That was great!  Nice little touch to show us more about Ariel’s character.  

[Camera One]

I thought this remake was mildly entertaining.  For me, it fell somewhere between the live action "Beauty and the Beast" (which felt like a pale and uninspired retread of the original) and the live action "Aladdin" (which was slightly more interesting than this one).

The visuals were pretty and the casting was solid, but the first half of the movie under the sea wasn't very engaging because it just went over the same points without adding anything.  I found the pacing a bit odd and it lacked the flow that the original movie had.   I couldn't tell that several days had passed between the shipwreck and Sebastian finding Ariel.  "Under the Sea" felt thrown in and unnecessary when it just felt natural in the original.  

I expected them to add more to flesh out Ariel's interest in the above world, or Triton's history with Ursula, or even Ariel's sisters, but none of this was explored.

I found it more interesting once this movie diverged a bit from the animated one (basically, once the story went on land).  Ariel and Eric connecting over his collection, with her wordlessly impressing him with what she knew was good.  They did a solid job of showing how their friendship developed.  Though Ariel not having her memory of the witch's contract made her very passive.  The Caribbean setting was interesting, and I was surprised it was set in our world  vs. a completely imaginary world.

I always looked forward to Alan Menken's new songs, but these ones disappointed me.  The musical performances were fine, but not captivating.  He recycled some of the melody from Aladdin's deleted song for Eric's musical number.  

Overall, I found the movie likeable enough, but like the other live actions, don't really hold a candle to the animated version. 

I actually want these live-actions to do well in the box office/streaming, though, since I think live-action sequels might actually be more interesting.  I would be more excited to see a live-action "Little Mermaid II" or "Aladdin II" to see where the characters go from here now that they have been established.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Camera One

[paramitch]

I finally watched this on Disney+ recently, and was surprised to really love it. I went in feeling a bit skeptical, but I was a convert by the end. Star Halle Bailey is wonderful -- she's beautiful and graceful, like a cartoon Disney princess come to life, a wonderful actor, and she has a gorgeous singing voice. The movie's writing honestly improves on Ariel and her father, and especially Eric, who now actually is a person with real yearnings and interests. This time around, he doesn't just fall for Ariel because she's cute, but because they are kindred spirits who don't fit in.

The visuals are stunning overall (see my slight critique later on), and the stakes are higher -- Ariel no longer feels like a moody teenager, but like a young woman who simply seeks different things. Her connection with Eric is much richer (and much less shallow), as is her conflict with her father. The script and lyrics also quietly update/address aspects like consent and even give Ursula a more nuanced reason to be mad at the King, and Melissa McCarthy is a lot of fun, and a surprisingly great singer. The big production numbers -- "Part of Your World," "Under the Sea," and "Kiss the Girl" are beautifully presented (and Daveed Diggs is a terrific Sebastian). I didn't think "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was as quite good as the original, just due to Rob Marshall's directing choices, but it was still a lot of fun, and while Eric's new song isn't a headliner, it's a solid number that adds a lot to his character.

On the minor down side, a little Awkwafina goes a very very long way here for me (very, very, very), and while the visuals are stunning, there are also moments of "Uncanny Valley" around them, and I often found that I preferred the cartoon film's direction to Rob Marshall's. Some little key visuals just fall slightly flatter here in comparison (especially in the final 5-10 minutes for me), just a bit. I missed the wave raising Triton up to hug Ariel goodbye, and kept going, "No rainbow? Really?!"

The faces of Sebastian, Flounder, and the other sea creatures are also, for me, not quite expressive enough. Also, am I the only one who was constantly worrying about poor Flounder and Sebastian because they look so delicate and fragile here? So I found myself constantly flinching when characters would throw Sebastian or little Flounder around, tap on Sebastian's shell, etc. They just look so real and tiny it's more worrisome than watching it happen to cartoon creatures.

Last but not least, my main (very minor) criticism is that the movie really sort of doubles down several times on the characters emphasizing how "safe" life in the sea is, and it's so weird, because the ocean is a giant seafood platter where everyone's eating everyone else all the time! I mean, Scuttle (Awkwafina's bird character) EATS more than one fish in its introductory scene, yet we don't hear a tiny scream and Flounder and Ariel don't react at all while it's guzzling the fish down! I just wish there had been one throwaway line explaining some kind of rationalization or acceptance of a "circle of life" idea -- it's just weird that Sebastian is all freaky about fear of being eaten on land when they are constantly in danger at sea before our eyes (Sebastian and Flounder are both endangered or almost eaten multiple times).

BUT -- I thought it was lovely overall. It's on the long side, but I really enjoyed what was added, and I do think it is an improvement on the cartoon version (still one of my favorites, flaws and all), and had something worthwhile to say.

On 5/26/2023 at 4:07 PM, Lady Calypso said:

I did like the updates they did to not just the songs, but some of the characters as well. Eric feels WAY more fleshed out, and Triton/Ariel's relationship works better here. And Ariel/Eric's relationship feels more developed here than it did in the animated film, just by adding small changes. 

I loved the changes and expansions there most of all. Making Ariel and Eric feel like young adults and not petulant teens, and giving both of them their own complex yearnings and personalities -- and most of all, connections -- really makes the romance so much more rootable than in the original.

On 5/30/2023 at 11:33 AM, angora said:

I thought that was interesting too. You could really see how confused and troubled he was, which made Ursula's actions even creepier. It was clear that her spell wasn't just using Eric as a means of hurting Ariel, she was hurting Eric too.

(snip)

By and large, one thing that the Disney remakes *have* consistently done right is flesh out the romances. 

Yeah, Scuttle's song was a miss, but I thought Eric's was beautiful, and I liked the one that conveyed Ariel's inner monologue when she came to the human world. 

I so agree with all of this -- I loved the handling of Eric as a character from beginning to end. He becomes a much stronger supporting character, and a rootable companion for Ariel. He is also more heroic through the ending -- he loves her for who she is, he was also much more an equal victim to Ursula in the end, which again was such a smart choice.

On 5/31/2023 at 6:03 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Melissa? Never doubted her for a second. Thank God this movie just let her be her fabulously evil self—heck, she was MORE evil this time around, straight up killing her victims and making Ariel forget she had to kiss Eric. Maybe that was a pointless change, but again, Ursula was doing that for shits and giggles, so I’ll allow it.

Speaking of Triton…I thought Javier was just okay. Cartoon Triton scared me as a kid, but his version was more of a tranquil fury. 

I did find Javier curiously muted as her dad, but once I adjusted, I really liked him, and especially loved his sorrow at realizing what a mistake he had made with his daughter -- also loved his unhesitatingly sacrificing himself for her in the end.

On 6/5/2023 at 4:48 AM, Sarahsmile416 said:

I loved Jodi Benson’s cameo as one of the market vendors - and that it was her that handed her the dingelhopper and told her “she might need it”.  Perfect!

I was so tickled to see Jodi Benson's cameo in the marketplace, and it was so sweet and well-done! Stuff like this and her appearance in Enchanted really made me happy. I love that she was not forgotten.

On 6/5/2023 at 6:38 AM, Spartan Girl said:

Jodi is an absolute sweetheart: not only was she kind and supportive to Halle, but the lovely dress she wore to the premiere had the names of all the departed OG cast/crew embroider on it: Howard Ashman, Samuel Wright, Buddy Hackett, Pat Carroll, Renee Auberjonois…😍😍😍😭😭😭😭

That dress was so gorgeous and so absolutely lovely as a gesture! I got a little teary seeing all the names up close. What a sweet and classy gesture. She may have played a Disney princess, but she is a queen.

On 6/11/2023 at 6:55 PM, TigerLily20 said:

My only nitpicks on how the characters looked, not gonna lie the hair could have been just a tad bit more on the red side, felt more of a red tint and almost looked brunette at times.  Maybe not fire engine red but just a bit more in the red direction, 

I totally admit that, on the shallow end, I did wish Ariel's hair here had been a bit more red -- it's really more strawberry blonde, although we can see the threads of red in the closeups. It's not a huge deal, she's ridiculously gorgeous, but I would have felt she was perhaps a bit more "Ariel" with the redder hair.

On 6/17/2023 at 1:09 PM, MissAlmond said:

Oh! I see. They loved the original fairy tale. So they were always cool with The Little Mermaid not winning the Prince but instead turning first into foam and later an earthbound spirit doing good deeds for hundreds of years. My bad. 🙄

I know, right? 

And look, I love the original fairytale -- I'm a fairytale fan whose fantasy works have reimagined several. But while I love the original ending, as with Roxanne (vs the classic presentations of Cyrano de Bergerac) I was absolutely delighted to get a happier version on film too. This way we get the sad or the happy versions depending on our moods!

On 9/10/2023 at 10:22 AM, Bookworm 1979 said:

I really enjoyed this movie (watched it for the first time this weekend).  I thought it was really sweet that Ariel gave Max the dog a little push when he was swimming to the lifeboats to help him get there faster.

It was definitely a better live action remake than Beauty and the Beast and I'm not angry I watched it.  I'm sure I'll watch it again.

I loved those little touches that made Ariel friends with Max immediately (and what they told us about Ariel wordlessly) -- her petting him secretly onboard the ship, her helping to save his life (and the shot of the sweet dog paddling desperately and her giving him that push was so affecting), then Max later instantly adoring her -- and that even featuring in the very ending when she returned to Eric -- was so sweet!

Meanwhile... yeah, I'll say it: I was one of the few, the proud, who loved the Beauty and the Beast live-action remake. Sure, I see the flaws, mainly led by the fact that even autotuned, Emma can't sing. I don't care. Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, and the fantastically overqualified Oscar-nominated servants all make up for it, the visuals are lovely, the new songs are gorgeous, and the ballroom dance and the final 5 minutes (especially the servants' final moments before immobility) move me every single time.

(Although I'm still salty she doesn't kiss him as the Beast. It's the whole point of the story.)

[tv echo]

The Little Mermaid got 1 nomination for 2024 Costume Designers Guild Awards... 

Costume Designers Guild Reveals 2024 CDGA Nominations: ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’ & More
By Erik Pedersen     January 4, 2024
https://deadline.com/2024/01/costume-designers-guild-awards-2024-nominations-1235694710/ 

Quote

See the full list of nominations for film, TV, shortform costume design and costume illustration below. The 26th CDGA ceremony is set for Wednesday, February 21, at NeueHouse Hollywood.
*  *  *
Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film
Barbie – Jacqueline Durran
Haunted Mansion – Jeffrey Kurland
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – Trish Summerville
The Little Mermaid – Colleen Atwood & Christine Cantella
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire – Stephanie Porter

Also, The Little Mermaid got 1 nomination from the Set Decorators Society of America for its SDSA Film Awards 2023...

https://www.setdecorators.org/sites/setdecorators/pdf/2023_SDSA_Awards_Film_Press_Release_Nominations_Annoucement_1-5-24.pdf 

Quote

SDSA AWARDS FILM 2023 NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

LOS ANGELES, January 5, 2024—The Set Decorators Society of America, An International Organization, announces the nominations for the SDSA Awards Film 2023, celebrating excellence in the art of Set Decoration for films released in 2023, selected from four (4) categories.
*  *  *
Best Achievement in Décor / Design of a Comedy or Musical Feature Film
AMERICAN FICTION
Set Decoration by Kyra Friedman Curcio SDSA with Production Design by Jonathan
Guggenheim
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET
Set Decoration by Selina M. Van den Brink SDSA with Production Design by Steve Saklad
ASTEROID CITY
Set Decoration by Kris Moran with Production Design by Adam Stockhausen
CANDY CANE LANE
Set Decoration by Jan Pascale SDSA with Production Design by Aaron Osborne
THE LITTLE MERMAID
Set Decoration by Gordon Sim SDSA with Production Design by John Myhre

Edited January 7 by tv echo

[Shanna Marie]

I finally got around to watching this (the length was daunting, and I was skeptical about the concept) and I found it utterly delightful. I'm still not certain it was necessary, as the original is just fine. Most of the changes that worked were about the story, not the medium, and changing to a different medium didn't really add much. But the cast was excellent. Halle Bailey brought me to tears with just about all her songs because she nailed that sense of longing. I guess the main benefit from live action was that actual human actors are always going to be more expressive than even the best animation, and so a lot of the emotions hit me harder in this version. Plus, the wet, white Mr. Darcy shirt has a very different effect on a real human body than on a cartoon.

I liked that Eric got more of a personality and even a song, and him having his own collection showed that he and Ariel really were kindred spirits. I also liked Ariel getting more songs because it always bugged me that the character whose main trait was having a gorgeous singing voice only got one song.

On 11/23/2023 at 11:54 AM, paramitch said:

The faces of Sebastian, Flounder, and the other sea creatures are also, for me, not quite expressive enough.

That was the thing that didn't work for me. It was jarring to see these photorealistic sea creatures talking, singing, and dancing, while still looking like real sea creatures. There seems to be this paradox with animation in that the closer it comes to looking real, the less expressive it gets. They can do wonderful things with cartoony-looking humans, but when they try to do more realistic computer-animated humans, you get that dead-eyed, blank-faced uncanny valley effect. The more cartoony fish in the animated version or something like Finding Nemo are far more expressive than these, simply because you can't convey human emotion on a realistic fish or crab face.

I found myself wondering if this might have worked better going closer to what they did with the live-action Cinderella, where it wasn't so much a remake of the animated version as it was a retelling of the same story with some Easter egg-type references to the original. She still had her mouse friends, but they were just mice who didn't talk, sing, or sew clothes. But the animated Cinderella didn't add much to the fairy tale (other than the talking mice). The Disney Little Mermaid was pretty much a complete rewrite of the fairy tale, so it might have been tricky to do a new version with a story that wasn't the Disney one or the original fairy tale. Sebastian and Flounder play a pretty big role in the plot, so it would be hard to cut out the talking crab and fish, and would we want this movie without "Under the Sea" or "Kiss the Girl"? You'd have to totally rewrite the lyrics to have a different character sing them. Maybe a mer-person friend trying to help Ariel? Disney heroines so seldom have supportive female friendships.

On 9/24/2023 at 11:49 AM, Camera One said:

I actually want these live-actions to do well in the box office/streaming, though, since I think live-action sequels might actually be more interesting.  I would be more excited to see a live-action "Little Mermaid II" or "Aladdin II" to see where the characters go from here now that they have been established.

I felt like the ending was setting up a sequel because they could have lots of other adventures. I also got the impression that she might be able to switch between mermaid and human (like the Once Upon a Time Ariel), given that her father wanted her to come back to the Coral Moon ceremony, and she'd have to be a mermaid to do that. Plus, there was the bit about Eric's backstory that seemed to be setting up something but that didn't go anywhere. Since they raised the point of him having been a shipwreck victim adopted by the king and queen and since he got interrupted when trying to tell Ariel about that, I thought it was going to end up being meaningful, like maybe it was his family that killed Ariel's mother and the shipwreck was caused by Triton's revenge. Generally, when a character starts to tell another character something and gets interrupted, that info ends up being important and causing trouble. But I guess it was just to give him empathy with Ariel. A sequel would allow them to find out who he is, who his parents were, find out where he came from, etc.

[Sarah 103]

@Shanna Marie I am not normally a fan of Disney sequels, but I really love your idea for a second movie that is Ariel and Eric having an adventure and trying to find out more about Eric's biological parents. Maybe the Coral Moon can somehow play a role in it. Ariel sends out the word that she's looking for information, and at the Coral Moon her sisters tell her what they have found.