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The Little Mermaid (PG 135 mins) Directed by Rob Marshall **½
Deep in the ocean, somewhere not too far from the Caribbean, is an undersea kingdom ruled by King Triton.
And every “coral moon” – which I guess is either once a month, or every three months, King Triton gathers together his beautiful young daughters, each of whom have some sort of guardianship over one of the seven seas.
Ariel, the youngest and the feistiest of the seven, is missing. Ariel has been forbidden by dad to go to the surface. And, of course, that is where she is.
Ariel is fascinated by “the humans” and hangs out “up top” whenever she can. She collects treasure from the wrecks that litter the sea floor and generally has an obsession with us and what we get up to with our inventions and our legs.
Tonight, Ariel has witnessed a shipwreck. She helps in the rescue, keeping herself out of sight, until she finds herself on a beach at dawn, with a handsome young prince whose life she has saved. Ariel is smitten. As is the prince, although he’s not really conscious and is staring at Ariel through a fog of near drowning.
DISNEY
The cast and filmmakers of Disney’s The Little Mermaid talk about transforming the beloved animation classic into a live-action tale.
So, do you think true love is going to let being different species keep these two apart? Of course not. Not even if an evil witch tries to stop them.
The Little Mermaid, of course, is a remake of the 1989 film. Which itself is based, loosely-where-it-counts, on the 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen. Who must be responsible for more western childhood nightmares and trauma than pretty much anyone who ever lived.
The 1989 film was a smash-hit. It is one of a few Disney releases in the late 1980s that are credited with bringing Disney’s animated film production into the modern age and making it into the money-making behemoth it is today. Which is why, I guess, Disney is revisiting all that legendary old IP and attempting “live-action” remakes of some of a previous generation’s favourite films.
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In the lead – and carrying nearly every scene – new Ariel Halle Bailey is the very best thing about Disney’s live-action take on The Little Mermaid.
About which, meh. The only live-action remake that has added anything new or really improved on the original so far was the 2016 Pete’s Dragon. Which was maybe aided by being based on an original that was never really regarded as one of the classics. The rest have mostly been more or less than OK, but never actually bad. The original stories and the formidable Disney machine would never allow it.
The Little Mermaid is probably going to be remembered as a mid-field entry.
In the lead – and carrying nearly every scene – new Ariel Halle Bailey is the very best thing about the film. Bailey has a phenomenal singing voice and she can switch from graceful to goofy on a dime, making the physicality of the role convincing, even if there’s not much anyone can do about the grotesquely flawed motivations that power her story.
Around Bailey, Javier Bardem is an underused treat as dad Triton and Melissa McCarthy is a scenery chewing beast as Ursula the witch.
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There are plenty of moments and scenes that work beautifully in The Little Mermaid, but none of it adds up to much more than a piece of merchandise, produced by a corporation too big to risk originality.
The problem here – and it’s not his fault – is Jonah Hauer-King as the prince who Ariel is prepared to sacrifice everything for.
Ariel is written and played as a teenager – maybe a 15 or 16-year-old. But Hauer-King looks and acts like a man staring hard at his late-20s at least. Though there’s only three or four years between Bailey and Hauer-King in real life, in The Little Mermaid you’d swear the age gap was a decade at least. It adds an eww factor to the film that no special effects or songs can effectively gloss over.
Awkwafina, Art Malik and – especially – Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, are all more than solid in support.
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Though there’s only three or four years between Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King in real life, in The Little Mermaid you’d swear the age gap was a decade at least. It adds an eww factor to the film that no special effects or songs can effectively gloss over.
The Little Mermaid is not a failure, although it is over-long and too focused on ticking every box that fans of the 1989 film want to see. Veteran director Rob Marshall (Chicago) is a risk-free pair of hands here. And perhaps that is symptomatic of the film.
There are plenty of moments and scenes that work beautifully – and the film comes to life during a couple of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s new songs – but none of it adds up to much more than a piece of merchandise, produced by a corporation too big to risk originality.
The Little Mermaid is now screening in cinemas nationwide.
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