The Little Mermaid (2023)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, May 25

PG Running Time: 135 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Halle Bailey has arrived, creating a Disney Princess in Ariel who will likely be revered for a generation.

  • Rob Marshall has crafted a film that offers just enough winning moments to drown out some of the film’s major stumbles.

  • For many, this is going to be The Little Mermaid families watch again and again.

NO

  • May I interest you in a classic Disney animated film of the same name?

  • Halle Bailey is so good that many people are going to overlook the scattershot visual effects, unnecessarily long running time and disappointing new music from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

  • Naysayers will call this a “cash grab.” And those criticisms are only going to continue as Disney struggles to make these live-action remakes stand apart from their animated predecessors.


OUR REVIEW

Halle Bailey is a star. If you need any proof at all, look no further than her take on the legendary Disney ballad, “Part of Your World,” as part of the much anticipated, live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. Bailey understands the assignment, flawlessly introducing her character to audiences with the perfect blending of curiosity, innocence, and a growing sense of hope and the pursuit of independence. This moment is key, because for anyone familiar with the iconic 1989 animated Disney classic, that song is one of the most beloved entries in the Disney songbook. 

Bailey nails it in her first film appearance and musical performance. She steals our hearts from the first tempered, youthful revery to the soaring, maturing heights of the final verse. This Ariel is an Ariel audiences will fall in love with, and Bailey may be defined by this role for the duration of her career.

That’s the “good.” The “bad,” or less favorable reality of this wonderful sequence is that the movie peaks at this moment, about 15 minutes in. Nothing else reaches the emotional resonance or power that Bailey’s take on “Part of Your World” provides. And with Rob Marshall’s take on The Little Mermaid nearly one hour longer than its animated predecessor, this makes for a long sit with a movie struggling to find its complete voice.

Inspired, and perhaps a bit more true to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale than the animated story, The Little Mermaid begins above the sea, which possesses all the wonders and mystical possibilities Ariel, the proverbial mermaid, longs to have as part of her world. 

For those unfamiliar with the basic elements of the story: Ariel is one of seven daughters of King Triton (Javier Bardem), whose wife was killed by a human above the surface. As a result, merfolk are banned from swimming to the surface, but Ariel is determined. Her friends - a damselfish named Flounder (Jacob Tremblay), Sebastian, a red crab with a Jamaican accent (Daveed Diggs), and a rapping gannet known as Scuttle (Awkwafina), try to keep her in check. However, Ariel’s heart wants what it wants.

Above the sea, she discovers Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), a wealthy prince, whose lavish lifestyle offers him the luxury of living in a palatial mansion next to the ocean. After a boating accident, Eric is rescued by Ariel, whose ethereal singing voice is the sound the nearly-drowned human first hears after he comes back into consciousness. When Ariel refuses to avoid the surface, her father’s anger drives her away from her family and intermittently into the waters inhabited by Triton’s estranged sister, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), a sea-witch who secretly wants to rule the undersea kingdom.

She also strikes a deal: Ursula will grant Ariel her wish to have legs and live above the surface in the hopes of falling in love with Prince Eric if Ariel gives up her voice to Ursula, rendering her essentially mute.

All of this is handled fine, I suppose, but the excessive running time renders the film slow to develop. The visual effects work is a mixed bag, like the film. As some scenes underwater look great with vibrant colors and impressive CGI characters, the film falters with human movement or in the way objects float around. Not every movie can be Avatar, I get that. Yet, one would think that this film would have a more consistent look and feel than what we ultimately have shown to us.

Diggs is quite funny, Awkwafina’s performance is engaging, but also offers the same voiceover performance she has given previously in films Raya and the Last Dragon and The Bad Guys. Bardem offers some emotional heft as the King and McCarthy, oddly absent for large stretches in the film, eats up the scenery brandishing a gregarious accent and larger-than-life personality. 

Perhaps the general frustration comes with Marshall’s approach to directing and storytelling. He struggles to find a consistent throughline. His movies often feel choppy, episodic and drawn out, with intense scenes colliding with softer ones. There is a really good movie that exists here - but this is also the movie we end up with. Bailey and Hauer-King do develop strong chemistry together and Bailey’s ability to effectively convey emotional depth when unable to use her voice proves significant in pushing this film forward. 

Marshall commissioned Lin-Manuel Miranda to create new music for the film, and because, apparently we can’t have nice things, Miranda’s songs are among the weakest the talented songwriter and performer has created. The less said about Scuttle’s rap ditty, “The Scuttlebutt,” the better. 

One potential shining spot, “For the First Time,” is an original song designed to feature Bailey’s powerhouse singing voice. However, the song plays in the background of a scene where Bailey cannot speak…or sing. Somehow, Marshall saw the performer he had in Bailey, knew that Miranda had crafted an original song moment for her and never found a way to give her a chance to present that song on screen and elevate the film with another emotional high.

Honestly, that feels like a major miss. 

So, let’s return to where we started - Halle Bailey is a star. As Ariel, a reinvented Disney Princess has been born for a new generation. And though the film stumbles and fumbles around unnecessarily, that presence, that voice, and this performance makes The Little Mermaid a film you likely should, at some point, make part of your world. 

CAST & CREW

Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina

Director: Rob Marshall
Written by: David Magee
Based on the film “The Little Mermaid,” written by Ron Clements, John Musker
Adapted from the fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid,” written by Hans Christian Andersen
Release Date: May 26, 2023
Walt Disney Studios