The Little Mermaid (2023)

Director: Rob Marshall

Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy

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.

There’s been so much controversy over the casting of Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel, the mermaid, but as for me, I didn’t mind. On the contrary, I thought she had an exotic look which suited the character perfectly.

I must confess to never having seen the animated ‘The Little Mermaid’. As a result, I have nothing to compare the film to and was able to view it as a film on its own. Of course we know this live adaptation would never have been possible without loads and loads of CGI, so I was expecting that. It does look amazing on screen, but I must admit I didn’t find the underwater scenes believable. The sea life looked amazing, but the mermaids and the sea king did not look believable. ‘Aquaman’, for example, was much more believable.

So, Halle Bailey stars as a mermaid named Ariel. She lives in an underwater kingdom ruled by her father, the Sea King Triton. She lives in harmony with her fellow mermaid sisters, and the sea life. King Triton has his faithful informant in the form of a crab named Sebastian, who is also asked to keep an eye on Ariel. Why Ariel especially? Because this little mermaid has an obsession with humans. She firmly believes they are not as bad as they’re made out to be, and collect human possessions found in shipwrecks. She also desperately wants to go to the surface, but is forbidden to do so.

Ariel gets her chance to meet a human on a stormy night when a seaman ends up in the ocean after his ship crashes on the rocks, and she saves him. The man turns out to be a Prince named Eric. He is a down to earth guy who shows little interest in royalty, and prefers to mingle with his crew. Having been saved by the mermaid, he makes it his destiny to find her, and so the adventure starts – for both characters.

The antagonist is Ariel’s aunt, Ursula, a sea witch with a human face and the body of an octopus. Ariel bargains with her beautiful singing voice so Ursula can give her human legs and allow her to go to the surface. Only, once there, she is unable to speak.

There certainly is much to love about ‘The Little Mermaid’. There’s action, adventure, musical segments, good cinematography and great visuals. But something lacked here. Maybe it felt all to familiar and not original enough character wise. Ariel’s story was very similar to ‘Luca’. Sebastian reminded me of Zazu from ‘The Lion King’. The seagull reminded me of Dory from ‘Finding Nemo’. The sea king looks like ‘Aquaman’. Once on the surface, Ariel had three days in which to get true love’s kiss from the Prince… sounds an awful lot like ‘Shrek’, doesn’t it? Oh, and ‘Nemo’ is there as well! The film in general reminded me quite a bit of ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

So you see, it felt like ‘The Little Mermaid’ was sort of a ‘best of’ compilation of previous animated films. Ok, so its easy to criticize the film, but you have to admire what they’ve accomplished considering the subject matter. There were many visually beautiful moments. There were funny moments. And the climax is a visual treat. Maybe a bit too much, but nevertheless exceptionally well done.

I did find the film a bit too long, so much so that I actually became bored for a moment. This is also a film that will appeal more to a younger audience – especially young girls who have always fantasized about being a mermaid!

At the time of writing this review, ‘The Little Mermaid’ already earned $569 million on a $250 million budget. It is still too early for award nominations.

Would I watch it again? I don’t think so. I’d much rather watch ‘Luca’.