Since the official announcement of the live-action movie, which was made in the summer of 2019, millions of fans spent the last four years in anticipation to watch their favorite redhead princess on the big screens again. “The Little Mermaid” was released in May 2023, but it already created some discussions.
Fast forward to now, the movie has been out for a couple of weeks and has been an overall HUGE success with the public and critics, but not without the viewers valid points.
Here are some positive and negative comments that were made in regards to the newest Disney live- action!
THE POSITIVES
The biggest win of this classic remake has been the choice of actress to play our favorite mermaid. Halle Bailey portrays the most perfect Ariel, while also delivering beautiful (and sometimes heartbreaking) singing during classics such as “Part of Your World” and new tracks like “For the First Time”.
Performances made by other actors such as Jonah Hauer-King (that brought our dear Prince Eric to life), Daveed Diggs (who did the voice of the iconic Sebastian) and Jessica Alexander (who stole the show as Vanessa) were also widely complimented by fans.
Speaking of new tracks, the movie features four (!!!!) newest songs that were all co-written by icon Alan Menken, who worked on all the songs from the original animation, and the amazing Lin Manuel Miranda.
These songs were the best choice to flush out characters in ways that the 1989 classic did not go over, with standouts being a new reprise of “Part of Your World”, and “Wild Uncharted Waters”, an emotional track that summarizes the conflicting feelings that the character Eric goes through perfectly.
The CGI and special effects subject was something that most people were scared about when going to watch this film, but Disney being Disney found a way to create the most stunning and carefully detailed clips that made us fans wonder if they may have filmed the scenes underwater (spoiler alert: they did in fact film some scenes in a green screen pool, but everything else is the result of amazing special effects!).
THE NEGATIVES
Even though the special effects have been complimented by everyone, there is one aspect of it that has not been well received by the public…
The CGI for animals has always been a tough subject when it comes to Disney’s live actions due to them looking “lifeless” and “lacking expressions and emotions”, and unfortunately one character in specific, Flounder, did not escape those allegations.
One thing that also had people talking was Ariel’s sisters. In the original animation, they feature more lines and even sing at the beginning of the movie, but in the live action they only have very few lines and barely interact with their youngest sister for most part of the film.
This was said by many to be a “waste of opportunity” since so many talented and well-known actresses, such as Simone Ashley (who plays the sister Indina and previously starred in season 2 of Bridgerton) and Lorena Andrea (playing the sister Perla and was featured in Warrior Nun) were cast to play the sisters, and Disney themselves released a novel that explored each sister’s personalities, which would’ve been interesting to see on screen.
Last but not least, Disney faced some backlash for revealing that they altered some lyrics to iconic songs from the original film. The songs who suffered alterations were “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and “Kiss The Girl” and, even though they were mildly changed, a lot of people felt the absence of them and wish they hadn’t changed anything.
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The article above was edited by Ana Beatriz Aith.
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