'The Little Mermaid' Review: Halle Bailey Carries Live-Action Update that Barely Floats Above Water
The Little Mermaid
PG: Action/peril and some scary images
Runtime: 2 Hours and 15 Minutes
Production Companies: Lucamar Productions, Marc Platt Productions
Distributor: Disney
Director: Rob Marshall
Writer: David Magee
Cast: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy
Release Date: May 26, 2023
In Theaters Only
It can’t be overstated how revolutionary Disney’s The Little Mermaid was for the feature animation studio in 1989. The top-notch quality of the 2D animation with colorful underwater scenery, expressive character animation, and iconic musical numbers saved the animation branch and launched the Disney Renaissance. Today, Disney is on an abusive and greedy live-action remake bender. The one-two-three punch of 2019’s Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King had me so light-headed I purposefully avoided whatever remake they released afterward. Then, Halle Bailey of Chloe x Halle was announced as our new Ariel, a casting decision too based to resist. Out of all the live-action fare that sank under the sea, The Little Mermaid (2023) is delightful enough to swim up to the surface… more or less.
Princess Ariel (Halle Bailey), the youngest daughter of Merman King Triton (Javier Bardem), is curious about the human world. Feeling lonely under the sea, she collects many human artifacts with her best friend Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) for her private personal collection. The only source of information is her clueless Northern Gannet friend, Scuttle (Awkwafina). Triton, who hates humans and has a strict no-surface-dwelling rule, enlists his right-hand crab Sebastian (Daveed Diggs), to watch Ariel. After seeing a shipwreck, Ariel saves Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), a kind-hearted prince from a Caribbean kingdom, and falls head over fins for him. Pissed that she disobeyed him, Triton destroys Ariel’s collection, leading her to seek the help of her Sea Witch auntie Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). She strikes a deal with Ursula to become human—losing her voice in the process—if she kisses Eric in three days. If she fails, she’ll become a mermaid again.
Halle Bailey. Enough said. Good night, everybody! This is her feature leading role debut, and she carries the film. She embodies Ariel’s personality perfectly. For all those racist weirdos going, “Oh, she’s Black. She can’t be Ariel,” Bailey proves it’s all about capturing the essence. She shares fantastic chemistry with both her human counterparts and CG-creature friends. Her wide-eyed innocence, curiosity, charm, and loneliness are told through her facial expressions and voice. No shade to Emma Watson, but there’s a clear difference when you cast a trained SINGER as your lead. “Part of Your World” is one of the most iconic Disney songs of all time, but somehow Halle Bailey’s rendition CLEARS Jodi Benson’s. Even typing that out feels insane. I’m not trying to pit two Ariels against each other, but Bailey’s majestic voice left me completely breathless.
Guy Ritchie and Jon Favreau's inexperience with theater were reflected in the final products of Aladdin and The Lion King. However, director Rob Marshall understands theatricality, as shown by his previous works (Chicago, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns). With The Little Mermaid, he supplies refreshing direction. Many musical numbers go the extra mile to be unique, shot composition-wise, without directly recreating the animated classic. Numbers like “Part of Your World,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” and the new Lin-Manuel Miranda song “For the First Time” stand out.
This iteration took refreshing liberties with the on-land kingdom. Here, Eric is the (adopted) Prince of a fictional Caribbean kingdom. All kinds of people live there, but Caribbean cultural customs are thrown into the forefront. It makes Sebastian’s accent more authentic to the film’s setting. As a critic from a Haitian background, I was pleasantly surprised to see this representation in a Disney film.
To give props to Ariel’s family links, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy are excellent in their respective roles. Bardem delivers his own intimidating, commanding flair as King Triton. His coldness makes the scenes between Ariel and Triton more emotional. Also, the story emphasizes Ariel and Triton’s dynamic, which feels more well-rounded.
Melissa McCarthy astounds as Ursula. She delivers a great blend of her signature comedic style while flawlessly nailing the late Pat Carroll’s dialect and personality. McCarthy is the most spirited cast member; she’s the most like her animated counterpart and steals the show whenever she’s present.
I could copy and paste past criticisms of the other live-action Disney adaptations for this section. At this point, I’m a broken record whenever I go on a live-action vs. animation tangent. Admittedly, The Little Mermaid is one of the best of the fare to date, but the same problems persist:
These films don’t need to cross—let alone approach—a two-hour runtime.
Realism dilutes the impact of expression that only animated films can capture.
All this applies to Ariel’s sea creature friends. Sebastian is just a crab, Flounder is just a fish, and while Scuttle went from a male seagull to a female Northern Gannet, she’s just a bird! Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina attempt to give these characters personality, but their expressive restrictions affect the “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” numbers.
The ocean CGI quality isn’t bad… most of the time. The bright colors and VFX during the daytime scenes provide decent lighting, although underwhelming in the wake of Avatar: The Way of Water. However, the lighting during night scenes is so grounded that it's hard to see what’s happening. The “Kiss the Girl” sequence and the film’s climax needed that extra oomph of fantasy in its imagery and effects. So, you know, don’t see this in 3D. You might as well be watching pure darkness.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is no Howard Ashman or Alan Menken. His new music trying to conjunct with the classics is jarring. Giving Prince Eric a song that says how down-bad he is for Ariel is a decent move, but boy, that number is underwhelming. Miranda also goes out of his way to update several tunes and lyrics for political correctness purposes. As well-intentioned as they are, some changes work, some are unnecessary, and some NEEDED IT. Obviously, “Under the Sea”’s bridge required an update because no sea creatures can play instruments.
Halle Bailey’s captivating performance and some of Rob Marshall’s creative decisions keep The Little Mermaid (2023) from sinking like the other Disney live-action remakes. While falling short for obvious reasons, this update has enough theatricality and energy to provide solid family entertainment.
