An important note for those venturing back to the depths of the sea for Disney’s new live-action “The Little Mermaid”: there is no newt playing the flute, carp on the harp or rock trough.
Those worried about a fishy revamp of the 1989 cartoon classic have good reason to be skeptical. The recent boom in re-imagining the Mouse House has been mixed at best. But directed by Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) and featuring new songs by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the expanded “Little Mermaid” revamp (★★★★ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday) is a different animal from The OG, a movie Family friendly, it’s only 83 minutes long. And though not all is well, Halle Bailey floats wonderfully on this “mermaid” as a naive underwater child who dreams of exploring the surface.
Together with her friends, Guppy Flounder (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) and chatty seabird Scuttle (Awkwafina), Ariel collects Whozits and whatzits in her collection of human trinkets from the bottom of the ocean – for real girl, nobody Need 20 Something She sings about wanting to see what’s out there on Earth, and Bailey won her hearts early on with a powerful take on Part of Your World.
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In this version, though, there is a split between humans and individuals. That’s why Ariel’s father, King Triton (Javier Bardem), warns her about the surface dwellers, and when it becomes clear that her wanderlust won’t go away, he assigns grumpy crab Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) to keep an eye on her.
The love story at the heart of The Little Mermaid is the same as it ever was: Ariel saves human Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer King) from a fireship accident and develops a burning crush. (So did he after hearing her wonderful voice.) Enter Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), a conniving sea witch with plans to rule her brother Triton’s kingdom. She strikes a sinister deal with Ariel to make her human for three days, and the baby has to share true love’s kiss within that time frame or she’s Ursula forever.
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Ursula also takes her voice, but there’s a different wrinkle to the spell in the new movie, which opens up the human world much more than the ’89 outing did — and gives the Prince an actual character this time around, as well as a song of his own (“Wild Uncharted Waters”). A welcome aspect of this remastered narrative is letting Eric and Ariel really get to know each other – even though she can’t talk – so that by the time the romantic boat trip and Sebastian are claiming to “kiss the girl,” their feelings for each other ring true. And it’s not random.
Bailey is particularly good at conveying her character’s evolving emotions through facial expressions rather than speech. That and the fact that she’s able to belt out like a Broadway star will appeal to a new generation that’s seeing “Mermaid” for the first time.
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The Hauer-King is a powerful Disney prince, who gets a useful backstory in the updated movie, but McCarthy is just fine as the evil Ursula. The smoky-voiced performer is ubiquitous with an array of witch styles, and her big number “Poor Unfortunate Souls” misses the deliciously campy vibe of the animated version. muffled by the forced conflict between humans and sea dwellers.)
Get ready for a whole online discourse about computer-generated animal characters, though they often blend better into land and sea environments than their counterparts in recent re-reads of “The Jungle Book” and “The Lion King.” Sebastian doesn’t really look like any crab you’re likely to see on the beach, but Diggs gives him a flair because Ariel’s supportive buddies have a lot to do here—Scuttle even gets a chance to rap some narrative explanation with the added tune of “The Scuttlebutt.”
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Perhaps it’s because Menken and Howard Ashman’s 1989 numbers are so deeply ingrained in the culture, but the new songs, while good on their own, don’t quite rhyme with the original tracks. And the live-action element hampers a song like “Under the Sea” — not only is the instrumentation taken from the fish, but some of the joy is missing as well.
While “The Little Mermaid” is excellent as Billy, it would have been better to fall where it was wetter the first time around.
Rank:All Disney live-action remakes
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