The Little Mermaid

These live-action remakes of classic Disney animated films continue to be an interesting case study of tapping old IP for new dollars. If my theater on a Friday night (with some of the rudest teenage girls seated next to my wife and I) are any indication, The Little Mermaid is going to make all the $$$, but much like any of the other remakes; are you ever going to watch this one over the animated original? Perhaps that's not really the point I suppose, but one has to question if there is reason for these to exist outside of "make more money"? My guess is no. 

That preface aside, The Little Mermaid is an obvious logical choice to get this treatment aside from something that just came out *looking at you Moana live-action remake*. None of these remakes have been particularly game-changing or incredible, mostly serviceable shot-for-shot re-dos of the movies they are based on. The Little Mermaid is no different, but yet it stands taller(ish) as one of the "better" ones we've seen. 

This is thanks to some fantastic casting (mostly) with Halle Bailey being the single best and most special element of the film. Outside of her incredible singing voice, she captures the naiveté and innocence of Ariel making for one of the most accurate and effective leads in any one of these remakes. Melissa McCarthy eventually finds her own pizzazz as well, making an impression as Ursula, while Awkafina as Scuttle is an inspired and hilarious choice paired along with Daveed Diggs' Sebastian. Everyone else is fairly "meh" and Javier Bardem seems like he's sleeping through the role of King Trident, but the aforementioned well-casted stars help elevate everything since they're in most scenes. 

Key moments and songs are still here with "Part of Your World", "Under the Sea", and "Kiss the Girl" being absolute highlights. Outside of those, this is a scene-for-scene remake that goes on for too long and the only added element that is worth anything is a pretty quick Awkafina song/rap that gets some laughs. Prince Eric's ballad about finding the lost love is yawn-inducing and adds to a runtime that should have not been north of 100-110 minutes, much less 135. 

My theater enjoyed the hell out of it (you would have thought it was Endgame TBH) while I relished in the highlights and Halle Bailey. But like most other live-action remakes we've seen, there's not a whole lot of reason for them to exist, even if they are generally pretty harmless. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10