The Little Mermaid - Movie Review

So the little mermaid is Disney's latest attempt at taking an animated classic and translating it to live action cherry on top let's take the lovable sidekick characters and make them look like what Metallica was singing about and Enter Sandman.

Now funny post-viewing experience this because when I got out of the movie I was like yeah that was cute it was surprisingly enjoyable but on my drive home when I was getting my thoughts together for my article the little nitpicks started they started to stack because there are a lot of them not gonna list them all in here but there are some worth mentioning.

What I liked

I'm gonna go ahead and list out what I liked about this movie because I'm gonna give you some sugar before this spice right what I liked Halle Bailey I thought she was great as Ariel she's sweet she's endearing has that Curiosity albeit that naive curiosity she's adorable and most importantly has an amazing voice but it's not just her Prince Eric: Jonah Howard King , I thought he was great as well more so in here than the anime because the animated movie is like hey that's the pretty guy you got a kiss in three days get at it this movie actually did a good job at fleshing Prince Eric out we talk about his hopes and dreams we find out a little more about him so I was glad to see that just for him as a character but that also really worked in me feeling their connection and that's that's the heart and soul of the movie this it's the nucleus, it's the core of the this entire experience is the love between these two characters the animated Little Mermaid is a complete and total classic but you got to admit by the end you kind of had that feeling of like oh yeah they're infatuated in that shotgun wedding at the end of a weekend in Vegas kind of way it's still three days in this movie so it still happens fast but you still I saw the Sparks there I got the chemistry so when I say I have nitpicks for this movie and they're there I absolutely totally mean it but what I liked being them in their chemistry that's a huge part of the film so it's what brings the movie Up does outweigh what brings the movie down but what brings the movie Down is there it's actually a perfect embodiment of the phrase Death By A Thousand Cuts I feel like anybody who doesn't like this movie they they got there by a Thousand Cuts a thousand little nitpicks that just stacked up by the end and it was too much I get it.

What I didn't like

I'll start with the more glaring things and I again not going to be everything but the most glaring thing is the fact that animation just has a style and a punch to it it has a stylistic way about it that I think the Little Mermaid just lends itself to not that this movie never looked animated there are some moments Under the Sea looked about as live action as that Mary Poppins penguin segment but you do see that in the Under the Sea musical segment man original Under the Sea segment that was it was like a cup of coffee in the morning that got you going under the sea segment here kind of gave me that feeling of that was that was pretty good karaoke example in this segment with Sebastian's listing off the marine life that plays instruments in the animation you see the marine life playing the instruments because why would you not in this live-action version when he's listing off the various marine life that plays instruments you see these big sea turtles walking it's just one long shot to see turtles walking because why would you not show sea turtles walking while listing off marine life that plays instruments makes sense it's like if the animated Under the Sea felt like a cup of coffee to get you going in the morning, this live action Under the Sea kind of felt like taking a piss in the morning it's not waking me up it's just kind of it's routine we're just getting through it to get to the next thing and they seem like a little nitpick so maybe they are but to me they're details that change the world and the characters in the world like Ursula not hiding the fact that she says pathetic when she's singing about people who come to her for help "pathetic" and outwardly just saying "pathetic", changes both Ursula and Ariel Ursula because she's less crafty and Ariel's a bit more of an idiot because she wasn't like did you just call people pathetic wait are you calling me pathetic your weird little skeleton dungeon in the bottom of the sea was kind of a red flag but now I'm leaving bye that's why I talk about a few of these Thousand Cuts.

Also in a world of Disney playing it safe Ursula doesn't turn mer-people into the little the little seaweed monsters anymore they just die which I imagine for the original animation it was Disney being like we can't kill people we'll just turn them into little seaweed slaves on Ursula's bathroom floor because that's less dark but no it's far worse I don't even care what anyone says that scared the piss out of me when I was a kid actually I haven't even talked about Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.

Ursula

MelissaMcCarthy as Ursula was the thing I was most concerned about in here because I heard that I was like I feel like I know what I'm getting I'm getting Melissa McCarthy but she looks like Ursula but she's still Melissa McCarthy being Melissa McCarthy to her credit it 99% of the time she was legit playing Ursula she did not annoy me there was one scene I can think of in particular where I was like that was a Melissa McCarthy moment it was a moment that just existed to remind you that you're watching a family comedy.

Now Ursula's I've always found her funny but Sinister funny she does a pretty good job at that but this one scene I was like well that was just Melissa McCarthy funny-funny it felt out of place it felt weird this wasn't in the original but we're gonna put it in here it's like but it feels shoehorned and feels weird it feels out of place like example: the new musical segments in here that were not in the original they're made up for here but it feels like it was made up it feels like music that was made up over three decades later that doesn't really fit with the music in the movie there's a Synergy with the musical score The Little Mermaid musical segments it all works together it works in tandem to create some audible musical experience that feels consistent and okay we have these new songs that come in that don't feel consistent doesn't feel like the same world could have cut a couple of those out could have saved yourself you know 10 15 minutes of this 50 minute longer than the original run time it's 50 minutes longer did it need to be no to its credit it does use some of that time to flesh out Eric and you know like I said before you feel that Chemistry Between Eric and Ariel and that's part of that extra time was it 50 minutes of that not at all it didn't need to be 50 minutes longer it's about 50 minutes anyway if you take end credits out of the equation the fact that these end credits are longer than the old end credits probably 45, still fact remains.

This movie felt like it was at war with itself a few times just in terms of timing and pacing within a scene it's like they feel like they have to have the dialogue in this scene from The Animated original but it doesn't flow as well weird thing is at the very end I had heard this and I was like come on no yep there's no wedding at the end I know spoiler for the end but you're you know the story of Little Mermaid but you know at the end of Little Mermaid there's this wedding they have to stop the wedding it's not a wedding in here it's an engagement party and that just feels different granted the real clock you're up against is the sun you when the Sun goes down we lose but a wedding is such a stone wall that it works in tandem with that concept of the sun going down it really feels like zero hour it's like this when the day ends we lose we have to stop the wedding this this forever bond that Eric's going to enter that we just can't let him enter and that's the bummer for this article because I started the article off like, oh yeah I liked Ariel and Eric and I really felt that chemistry I thought Halle Bailey was great and listen yeah also let me and nitpick about these things but my nitpicks went on for so much longer in the article some of them are bigger than others absolutely but I maintain the charm of what did work seems so small but it is the core of the film it's Ariel and Eric and if you can stick that Landing you can have a sweet enjoyable film for families that's just covered by a lot of annoyances but I'll say it's a good time no alcohol required at matinee price a huge bummer that the cook segment LEP was not in here what a great segment from the animated Little Mermaid and if you're really, if you're looking at it in a world where Disney stories should have a lesson it's a great lesson, a great example of perspective we see it as a kitchen we see it as Food Network, Sebastian would see it as a House of Horrors they cut it out Disney Live Action you know they play it safer than the animations did maybe they felt like well we made all the marine life look real so now it looks like we're we're killing them we're killing their people but I mean it shows Scuttle in the movie eats a fish no one cares flounders like Scuttle you eat my people we're still friends I guess I don't care so you know it's weird a little inconsistent there all right so the Little Mermaid have you seen it what did you think about it whatever you thought comment below and let me know.