The Little Mermaid: another lacklustre attempt
Rather than being “late to the game” I have been intentionally avoiding Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. The studio hasn’t wowed me, or it would seem anyone, as of late and with the clips and snippets I saw prior to the film’s release, it felt like another cash-grab from a creative team that is scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. However, with a night to spare and nothing else catching my eye, I sat down and decided to watch it … so, I guess, here we go.
First off, unlike a lot of Disney films, I don’t have much partiality to the original animated version – I actually have a preference to the original story written by Hans Christian Anderson – but I do remember the story well. One of the daughters of Triton, Ariel, has a fascination with the human world so much so that she saves a prince from drowning and falls in love with him. Wanting to be with him, she trades her voice for legs and is given a duration by which she has to share a true love kiss with the prince, or she forfeits her life to the sea witch, Ursula. As you can imagine, the days come and go, and after some interference from Ursula, the balance is disrupted. Of course, Ursula is defeated and Ariel and the prince live happily ever after, restoring the balance – a traditional end to a Disney fairytale.
So what about the live-action?
I wouldn’t say the story was changed dramatically from the original. A few new songs were incorporated into the score and more time was given to explore Eric as a character rather than simply the prince. The ending was changed slightly, but nothing dramatic. However, while I would say the film tried really hard at times to become a one-for-one repetition of the original animated film, there was enough that made it feel like could stand on its own.
But the new was much more engaging than the old.
Halle Bailey did an incredible job starring as Ariel, bringing fresh life to an old character. She embodied everything that made Ariel as she was, but also gave her own flare to the role with a lot of her movements and mannerisms, especially when her voice was taken from her. The actor who played Eric also did an amazing job. He added an extra layer of complexity to the character and turned him from love interest to duo-tagonist – he was as much a part of the story as Ariel was. Even the inclusion of Grimsby being more than comic relief and the minor role of Eric’s adoptive mother was enough to give personality to his desire and plight. Their stories combined were such an engaging narrative, seeing two people longing for freedom in different ways, but coming together in the middle without truly understanding why. Honestly, it would have been nice to see a film just focused on the two of them, but Disney seem almost allergic to reinventing something when they know nostalgia buys tickets.
And therein lies a lot of my issues with an otherwise gem of a film.
Visually, it’s fine. The sets and scenes are nothing stand out and the special effects for the merfolk are actually quite good. The background and layering are sometimes off-putting, and I really wish they found some other way to incorporate the animal characters, but it wasn’t as offensive as I thought it might be. What was, however, was the inclusion of the older characters. Triton was flat and felt out of place in every scene he was in, the visuals around him also felt odd. I liked both the designs and inclusions of the other sisters, but they were underused. I thought Ursula was going to be the stand-out for me because she was the only thing that grabbed me from the trailers, but Melissa McCarthy’s performance was just fine. She leaned a little too heavily into the roots of the original character at times and that made me wonder, why didn’t they just cast a drag queen to begin with? There are so many that would fit the role perfectly, so why not?
Nostalgia seems to have become a trope at this point, something that too many creative teams believe is enough to make a good film. But in my opinion, it was the nostalgia-pandering that turned the whole viewing experience into lukewarm frustration. I’ve watched pretty much all of the Disney remakes now, and all of them take me through the same motions: I see the mimicry and replication, I know the lines and scenes they’ve ripped straight from the original, I sigh, I roll my eyes, and then I sigh even harder when I see what could have been if they just decided to make something actually new.
I really don’t know why the studio seems averse to new or original projects as independent films with new concepts and ideas have seen a surge in popularity over recent years. Yes, it might be risky, but people want different things, and yet Disney seems stuck in the past, playing the “safe” option wherever and whenever possible. I haven’t seen their most recent animated feature yet, but even looking at their releases for the rest of 2024, we are in for a series of remakes and sequels which I can’t say I have high hopes for anymore.
