Disney's The Little Mermaid (2023) - Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay

[AlbertV]

As Disney is still going with their live-action adaptations of their animated hits, the next one in development is The Little Mermaid. While the central role of Ariel has yet to be cast, three major characters have been cast. Melissa McCarthy is set to play the evil sea witch Ursula. Wonder's Jacob Tremblay will be playing Flounder and Awkwafina is playing Scuttle. Rob Marshall, who recently directed Mary Poppins Returns, will be directing the film. That film's co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda will be penning a few new tunes with Alan Menken but also have some of the classic songs from the animated film.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/jacob-tremblay-awkwafina-little-mermaid-1203257076/

Edited May 22, 2023 by AlbertV

[AlbertV]

R&B singer Halle Bailey is the new Ariel in The Little Mermaid

http://www.darkhorizons.com/halle-bailey-is-ariel-in-disneys-little-mermaid/

[Secret Executioner]

Seeing the controversy this choice sparked I wonder if we'll get a blue-eyed redhead as the lead when they remake Frog Princess... 

[Drunken Monk]

While I think she’s a perfectly competent actress and may even be ideal for the role, I can’t help but feel that, in some cases, the whole “race switch” thing is a marketing ploy. Shock factor and such.

With all that said, I’m all for Bailey in the role. I hope she kills it.

[DrNgor]

If Disney is making an effort to make all their casting ethnicity-appropriate, wouldn't a red-headed Danish actress with a good singing voice be a better fit for a character based on a Hans Christen Andersen tale?

[DragonClaws]

 

Some people just get off on pulling things apart, for the sake off it. They find it far easier to be negative than positive. We can all be very negative, but I'm talking about people who just pick things apart without reason or logic.

 

Disney could have made a live action film set in the Little Mermaid world or universe or franchise. Or even gone for a sequel, and people would have moaned about the casting. Sure the young audiences who will eventually see this, will be much more forgiving about the casting.

[DarthKato]

Yeah, I don't think so. I'll just stick with with the original movie until Disney decides to give us an accurate version of Ariel. So I guess that will probably be never. 

[DrNgor]

Early reviews agree that Halle Bailey is good, the rest is just OK.

https://us.yahoo.com/entertainment/little-mermaid-review-halle-bailey-130000694.html

 

https://us.yahoo.com/entertainment/review-halle-bailey-keeps-disneys-130048165.html

 

[legendarycurry]

Here is my somewhat lenghty review that I just posted on letterboxd, saw it a few hours ago. I'll paste the whole thing:

"In comparison to previous remakes such as the "Why is this a thing" that was Beauty and The Beast, the "Same movie with an instagram filter" that is Faverau's Lion King and the "We have Aladdin at home" that Guy Ritchie brought us, The Little Mermaid stands among them as the best of the bunch by quite a margin in my opinion.

The things that this version brings to the table: the performances and interpretations from a majority of it's actors of previously established characters, as well as the addition of small moments and sequences that contribute bits of development and substance, are all in the film's favor.

Halle Bailey sings wonderfully and adds her own take on the character that both is rooted in the Ariel many love, and simultaneously has a both literal and figurative voice of her own. I would argue that Halle Bailey's version of Ariel is like the Whitney Houston version of Dolly Parton's " I Will Always Love You" one which retains the essence but adds enough unique qualities that it wouldn't be strange if some preferred this over the original. Javier Bardem does a good job in this and he manages to sell a fatherly bond with Halle Bailey nicely. The young lad that plays Eric seems earnest and the extra moments and fleshing out he gets is nice, giving him something to work with beyond " handsome man with dog" however, Eric, much like his 1989 counterpart, is very milquetoast character, one which it is hard to make exciting it would seem, despite the actor giving it his all. 

Much internet discourse has been made about whether or not the talking animals in this film work as more realistically presented, and I argue that in this case the designs range from charming to downright cute. The Sebastian you see in this film was one the audience was happy to see every time he showed up, and the voice acting here is very solid. I can see this becoming the Sebastian that a new generation of young ones gravitate towards. Awkwafina's performance as Scuttle is very expressive, true to character and in my opinion jut the perfect dose of annoying/endearing that the character needs. Flounder is a bit lost in the shuffle, but he is a cute little fella, you know cute in that very specific way that a objectively ugly dog is cute, this is a compliment. 

The weakest performance in the entire film belongs to Melissa Mcarthy whose take on Ursula is too much of an imitation to justify being a choice. I know some people like it when remakes stick very close to the original, but I prefer when an actor can add something to a role that has been done prior, rather than just do too much of the same thing. She does her best Ursula impression, but you know it is underwhelming when the tentacles have more personality than her portrayal. The actress playing Vanessa managed to pull it off with very little actual screen time, for some reason i was always fascinated by the Vanessa character despite her brief onscreen time in the original.

All your favorite songs are here and the one song nobody gives two shits about is not ( le Poisson, a song actually cut from all VHS versions in Sweden of the original film, alongside with Ursula's impaling) As someone who never heard this song growing up and felt it was underwhelming when I saw an uncut version in my late teens I don't care that a song about a Frenchman cooking crab is excluded.

Sadly, some of the musical choices in the movie are really what takes this from " I recommend to fans and non-fans alike" to " I enjoyed this film". To be clear I am not talking about choices like sea creatures not playing makeshift instrument during songs because I don't care about silly things like that, I am and adult! ( An adult who bought a collectors edition cup at the cinema because it was cute and sparkly, but still).
The choice to include 3 whole original songs was a huge mistake if you ask me, because the song chosen are just bad. These three songs go from feeling like corny crap that made audience members scoff (Eric's song) to a completely redundant song that is actually sung in Ariel's head after she loses her voice , before finishing off with a song that combines the flow of MC Awkwafina with the awkward staccato rhythm associated with Lin-Manuel Miranda. I was uncomfortable watching it. This was the type of song that the annoying 14 year old kids in the audience, who were deliberately making noise and laughing at people shushing them, actively clapped along to because of the dank maymays. 

Visually the film looks nice and it creates the feeling of being underwater quite well. The endgame Ursula looks like, as some would say " PlayStation cutscenes" but to be more original and fresh I will call it " Xbox 360 rendering"

Seeing the runtime of over 2 hours had me curious and worried as to how they were going to inflate this movie like a blowfish considering the 1989 film was 80 minutes or so. Surprisingly it ran smoothly except for the times the movie came to screeching halt during original songs. the only time it felt like padding outside of the bad songs was when they turned a few seconds of Ariel going ham with a carriage into what felt like 2 minutes of an "action scene". I mean the camera was shacking a bit I think that means it is action, at least if you ask the producers of the Bourne films , heyooo!

This a movie that I think could have become the one Disney remake that actually proved that they can work to those who are very rightfully skeptical, but thanks to those crappy extra tunes and the choice of casting Mcarthy I don't think it will be successful at doing so. If you have people in your life young and old that will want to watch this film occasionally or routinely over the 1989 animated film, I see nothing upsetting about it, and I say this as someone that think the original is excellent, but just make sure to do a fan edit where the original songs added to this is removed to save your loved ones from having a bad time, and maybe start a campaign to release the " recast of McCarthy cut" ( please don't do that, leave Mcarthy alone).

7/10 bubbles

"