The Little Mermaid (2023)

May 28, 2023 9:41 AM

A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.
posted by ellieBOA (10 comments total)

Saw this today and am very glad I did: gorgeous looking film, beautifully acted, and with a refreshing new take on the story. Javier Bardem turns out to be the MVP of a top notch cast: you'll need to see the film to find out why. Make sure to bring a box of Kleenex!
posted by Sheydem-tants at 10:12 AM on May 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

I loved It, i needed more ariel/eric to be sappy about.
Would i have changed a few choices, sure. But this was frightfully honest and straight forward and that Is kind of refreshing.

Also the Mermaids a straight from Barbie, and you Will not hange my mond about that
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:57 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

The sister mermaids were so barbiecore!
posted by ellieBOA at 3:20 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just saw it! This move is SO GOOD. I loved the new songs (except for Eric’s weak and uncatchy ballad), Melissa McCarthy is clearly just loooooooving vamping around as Ursula and Bardem has the gravitas to be king of the ocean. And Halle! She was Perfect. Absolutely perfect; unlike the cartoon you can now see why they fall for each other as her zest for life and fearlessness is evident much more than the cartoon (and his character is rounded out better too). Beautiful visuals (as evidenced by my daughter pointing and shouting “I WANT HER TAIL”). Bring Kleenex indeed.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:57 PM on June 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ok apparently I’ve got more to say :P there were so many complaints about it being too dark and I didn’t find that all, more like they were strategic about how light was streaming in from above or through windows, so it was very atmospheric and there were plenty of scenes that were very bright. I loved that it was now set in a Caribbean island; the under the sea sequence was delightfully dreamy (star fish dance sequence!), same with kiss the girl; and flounder and Sebastian were absolutely fine, I don’t get peoples complaints at all. The animators were going for realism is all. A cartoon flounder would have been out of place.

As for Halle I read one review saying she wasn’t feisty enough? What the hell. She was amazing. Her character completely shone through - not easily scared, completely curious, Joie de vivre, and in some moments this strength would pour out like her fighting with land-Ursula for the necklace (whatever actress played land-Ursula was wonderfully vicious) and dragging herself across the hull of the boat to steer it to stab Ursula herself. The scene where she wanders through the marketplace or takes a giant bite of soap with gusto is just so refreshing, yet still retains this Disney Princess air. I actually like this one more than the original!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:33 PM on June 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh the sisters were great too, it always annoyed me in the original that only Ariel was “pretty”; they were all different backgrounds because they each ruled over different oceans in the world.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:37 PM on June 3, 2023

I feel like a lot of the critiques of Halle Bailey were coming from not the best angles! Agree with you about Eric’s ballad, it was so flat compared to the others.
posted by ellieBOA at 4:53 AM on June 4, 2023

My real annoyance is there lack of distinctive costume to copy. Ariel's blue dress is way to similar in bodice and colour to Cinderella's work dress. I don't know how that got passed the marketing department.

I Need more ariel/Eric fluffyness
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 12:05 AM on June 5, 2023

I cant wait for the animated remake of the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid”
posted by hwestiii at 5:16 PM on July 1, 2023

Watched this (finally!), and it was really beautiful. Loved seeing so many new-to-me actors, and Bailey was great.

LMM's new songs were meh.

The underwater hair drifting around was amazing and a little distracting. When the merpeople appear in the closing scene they looked weirdly caked with makeup -- but the land dwellers didn't -- which....I am glad it didn't go on longer.

We gave it a thumbs-up.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:36 AM on September 4, 2023