| The Little Mermaid (2023) | |
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Rating: 7.2/10 (154,402 votes) Director: Rob Marshall Writer: David Magee, Hans Christian Andersen, John Musker Stars: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy Runtime: 135 min Rated: PG Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy Released: 26 May 2023 |
| Plot: A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince. | |
Director Rob Marshall is no stranger to musicals, having spent the past two decades delivering films such as Chicago, Nine, Into The Woods, and Mary Poppins Returns, so his appointment as director for this latest live action version of a Disney favourite pretty much placed it in safe, and confident hands. However, over the course of the production it was impossible to not see the negativity levied at it from some quarters of the online community, with gripes over casting, creative choices being made with the songs (including the inclusion of new ones), and the somewhat dubious CGI glimpsed in the trailers. Thankfully, the end product delivers well, thrusting the film into the upper tier of live action adaptations, albeit with a few flaws to prevent it from being a complete hit.
The story remains the same, the mermaid Ariel (played by Halle Bailey) is the youngest of King Triton’s (Javier Bardem) daughters, and has long desired to find out more about the surface world. When she rescues the dashing Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer King) from a shipwreck, she falls for him deeply, and makes a pact with the banished sister of Triton, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to be experience life on land. However, the sea witch’s deal has some caveats, and Ursula is determined to ensure that they are not met so she can take Ariel as her servant, and destroy Triton.
In the central role of Ariel, Bailey absolutely shines! Her voice is stunning when delivering renditions of the fan favourite songs that have carried over, but in her entire acting presence she more than sells it all. When she gets her legs and lives on land, completely voiceless, all her reactions have to be done via facial expressions and body language, and she genuinely captures the sense of wonder and joy (and, indeed, sorrow) that the part requires. It is impossible to not be charmed by her throughout, and she more than lifts the film – she owns it. That is except whenever Melissa McCarthy appears as Ursula. Now I’m not much of a fan of McCarthy – she can be good, but usually I find her less than average in her roles. However here she is an absolute diva, chewing up the CGI scenery around her, and absolutely stealing the limelight in a joyously wicked manner, doing the character some true justice as the sea witch you love to hate. With that pair of characters taking up so much of the limelight, it would be easy to overlook some of the extended cast, but thankfully with the exception of Hauer-King as Eric, who feels a little flat and unengaging, and Bardem who doesn’t quite feel like he was on the same film as the rest, the support cast are fantastic. Daveed Diggs voices Sebastian beautifully, Jacob Tremblay is charming as Flounder, and Awkwafina once more captures my attention as Scuttle.
The CGI choices are a tad odd at times, and some elements don’t fit well (and, again, Bardem seems to be one area this struggle is visible as he never seems to make any impact). The undersea world looks strangely cartoonish at times, but given I’ve never been to an undersea mermaid kingdom I’m quite willing to overlook it as I don’t know what it should look like.
But, overall, the whole thing works. It captures the magic of the Disney original tale, plays a little differently at times, throws in some new songs from Lin Manuel Miranda (which has resulted in me having Scuttlebut stuck in my head ever since), and makes full use of the over two hours run time to deliver a solid slice of cinematic fun for young and old.
With the poor performance of some of the live action offerings, it is uplifting to find another one that reminds us of how they can do them justice. With a strong box office opening showing there is a desire for fun family adventure, here’s hoping this is a film that (cough cough) has legs!
