Among the multiple Disney animation renaissances throughout the company’s long history, few are remembered as fondly as that of the late 80’s and 90’s. Disney’s animation hot streak of the time saw the likes of Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, Hercules and Pocahontas all released within just a year or two of each other, but even before all of those popular offerings, it all started with 1989’s The Little Mermaid. A loose adaptation of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, Disney’s The Little Mermaid touched up the tale of a mermaid falling in love with a human through a few spectacular flourishes, and an ending that was a little more Hollywood, and a little less abstract. It was a hit both critically and commercially, and it started off a whole new wave of modern Disney classics.
So, clearly, that needed a remake.
Okay, in fairness, 2023’s new live-action take on The Little Mermaid at least has the decency to be one of Disney’s better remakes. It doesn’t feel quite as aggressively unnecessary as The Lion King’s remake, it doesn’t smack of being the missed opportunity that was Aladdin’s remake, and it doesn’t feel as charmless as Beauty and the Beast’s remake. 2023’s new The Little Mermaid is instead a watchable, fairly pleasant new take on a story that nonetheless didn’t need to be remade. It predictably fails to match pace with 1989’s original The Little Mermaid, but at least some of its new additions are not bad, and at least it’s not a chore to watch, which is more than I can say for your run-of-the-mill Disney ‘reimagining’.
The Little Mermaid has big shoes to fill with its cast, and Disney pulled out all the stops here. Major talent like Javier Bardem as lead heroine, Ariel’s father, King Triton, Melissa McCarthy as the villainous sea witch, Ursula, and Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs as Ariel’s animal companions, Flounder, Scuttle and Sebastian, respectively, all come together to assemble a lot of star power for this remake. Despite their reliably great performances however, they’re all quickly overshadowed by the real showstopper in The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake; Halle Bailey, who headlines this Disney tentpole as the new live-action Ariel.
Ariel’s race change from her original Caucasian animated version is pretty conspicuous, on its face. Even so, Bailey is a vocal dead ringer for animated Ariel actress, Jodi Benson, who has dutifully played the role of Ariel for decades across all spin-offs and related Disney media, since 1989’s original animated The Little Mermaid. Bailey’s delivery as Ariel feels a bit more sharp at times, but outside of that, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two vocal performances in most instances. Truly, Bailey was born to play this role, and despite the character’s shift in melanin, one really couldn’t ask for a more faithful live-action version of Ariel.
“There’s a striking presence to this live-action Ariel that actually does manage to rival her comparably excellent animated inspiration.”
Bailey’s vocal delivery and overall performance aren’t even the biggest draws in her leading role either. Instead, it’s the musical scenes where Bailey really steals the movie and runs with it, even giving Jodi Benson a run for her money with an absolutely exquisite new performance of, “Part of Your World.” There’s a striking presence to this live-action Ariel that actually does manage to rival her comparably excellent animated incarnation, with Bailey successfully reintroducing Ariel to a new generation of viewers through a sense of renewed inspiration and agency. It’s actually kind of a shame that Bailey has to be mute for The Little Mermaid’s entire second act, because her vocal performance is one of the best parts of this remake, bar none.
Even having to try and keep up with Bailey’s star-making lead performance however, The Little Mermaid’s other lead actors do respectably, even if they sometimes leave less of an impression. Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula is a bit less showy and a bit more conniving, with McCarthy ultimately not doing a bad job with Ursula’s big musical moment in, “Poor, Unfortunate Souls”, a new rendition that sacrifices some sinister flavour in favour of more charismatic shadiness. Likewise, Bardem’s Triton commands a lot of fitting presence as the king of the seas, though his underwater monarch is also a bit hampered by a script that leaves him feeling even more neglected in the storytelling at times. Finally, Jonah Hauer-King rounds out the humanoid personalities as love interest, Prince Eric, and he’s… Fine. Eric is especially overshadowed by Bailey’s Ariel here, with Hauer-King fumbling his way through an all-new song, “Wild Uncharted Waters” that doesn’t land at all. It’s a shame that the live-action Disney princes still routinely flounder, a fact that’s even more distracting in a movie where the sidekick character is literally named, “Flounder.”
Obviously, a central draw of The Little Mermaid’s remake is its live-action visual presentation. Disney aficionados will no doubt still prefer the animated original though, as it’s more colourful, engaging and artfully presented than this new live-action version. Even so, I do have to commend Disney’s new live-action The Little Mermaid for remaining a treat for the eyes, and standing out more than most other live-action remakes from the House of Mouse.
The Little Mermaid’s underwater world is where this remake is at its best. By contrast, the scenes on the surface, almost all of which take place in and around Prince Eric’s castle, don’t have quite as much flair, with the possible exception of iconic song moment, “Kiss the Girl”, and even that’s downscaled compared to the animated original. There aren’t many moments where cut costs are evident though, which is ideal for a $250 million Disney blockbuster. Ursula’s lair presents a particularly fantastic array of colours and eldritch sorcery, for example, even in live-action. Likewise, another of the most iconic song sequences in this movie, “Under the Sea”, also presents a delightful selection of colours and motion, one that almost does manage to compare to the sheer visual ecstasy of the animated original’s version.
As impressive as it is that anatomically correct live-action versions of animal companions, Flounder, Scuttle and Sebastian are all rendered true-to-life however, they suffer from the same issues as the photo-realistic animals in 2019’s The Lion King; They’re expressionless, and therefore less relatable as personalities. Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs nonetheless all do a ton of heavy lifting to give these respective characters some personality through their voiceovers, with Scuttle in particular getting an exclusive new rap number in this remake that needlessly vandalizes what’s otherwise a downright phenomenal selection of music. No one asked for this.
Fortunately, with the animated original’s composer, Alan Menken returning to once again oversee the soundtrack, The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake remains an audio delight… Mostly. True to form for most of Disney’s live-action remakes, The Little Mermaid’s new original songs are a bust (not just that Scuttle rap, sadly), and returning fans will just want to hear their old favourites anyway. Fortunately, on that note, most of the classic The Little Mermaid songs are performed beautifully by this remake’s cast, creating lovable new musical sequences that are boosted further by Rob Marshall’s lively, affectionate direction. Marshall has directed multiple musicals already, between Chicago, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns, and even throughout underwater scenery, his skill with the genre continues to shine in The Little Mermaid. That being said, not even Marshall can uniformly match the outstanding emotional swells of The Little Mermaid’s animated inspiration.
Some live-action Disney remakes push the boat out, pun not intended, and really try to reinvent their original animated stories. 2016’s The Jungle Book is perhaps the most successful example of this. In many cases however, most live-action Disney remakes operate more conservatively, presenting barely-altered versions of their animated originals that are further sanitized, and made more audience-friendly for the current era. 2023’s The Little Mermaid very much follows that latter template, feeling like a design-by-committee remake in terms of its storytelling, one that touches up a few lines of dialogue, and adds a few all-new scenes. Is it fundamentally a different movie than its 1989 animated inspiration though? Not at all.
For better or for worse, the core plot progression of 2023’s live-action The Little Mermaid is practically beat-for-beat the same as the animated original. Like I said, there are new scenes here and there, but they’re mostly small and inconsequential, much like Prince Eric’s all-new love anthem, and that Scuttle rap that I can’t forget, no matter how hard I try. None of it is bad, just like it wasn’t really ‘bad’ in 2019’s The Lion King remake, when you get down to it. It’s just unnecessary, and that reality still hangs over too much of the live-action The Little Mermaid’s plotting, particularly now that its animated inspiration is easier to access than ever, thanks to Disney+.
“True to form for most of Disney’s live-action remakes, The Little Mermaid’s new original songs are a bust (not just that Scuttle rap, sadly).”
It’s disappointing that 2023’s The Little Mermaid remake didn’t make a bigger splash when it comes to the plot, pun still not intended. Sure, instances like 2010’s Disney remake-that’s-actually-a-sequel, Alice in Wonderland were so aggressively altered that they ultimately alienated most audiences, but surely, 2016’s remake of The Jungle Book has shown us that there can be a middle ground? Instead, The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake is too afraid to rock the boat with its storytelling, if you’ll also excuse that pun. You’d think that redefining a classic love story with a strong female lead would be fish in a barrel. Okay, that pun was intended.
The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake may be a cut above most of its ilk, but it’s still a mostly unnecessary retelling of a story that was already refined to perfection in 1989. Granted, it’s also true that this remake doesn’t do anything to tarnish the legacy of its animated predecessor either, particularly when it contains so many standout musical sequences, and so many great performances, especially from new lead star, Halle Bailey.
If you were somehow hoping that this would be the long-awaited redeemer among Disney’s increasingly disappointing crop of live-action remakes however, The Little Mermaid is still not it. It’s a technically impressive, acoustically catchy production that fails to be a true reimagining, but will still prove adequately entertaining to children and adults alike. It’s a sad state of affairs for Disney’s remake catalogue when hitting the middle standard is considered a success, but here we are.
So, your exact level of affection for 2023’s live-action The Little Mermaid will no doubt depend on your level of affection for the 1989 original, and your level of tolerance when it comes to Disney spending resources on remaking movies that already have accessible and beloved animated incarnations that you can easily watch on Disney+. Within the current economy of movies and streaming, Disney’s live-action theatrical remakes feel even more like a strange anomaly with each passing year, but at least The Little Mermaid doesn’t invite audience wrath, even if it also doesn’t invite audience passion.