THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Some things are too good to be told more than once. That is mostly how I feel when Walt Disney started remaking their animated classics. While some quickly surprised me, some honestly disappointed me afterwards. I feel pleased yet again when I say the latter isn’t the case for The Little Mermaid.
PLOT
The 2023 version follows similar beats from what was done in 1989 but has its own tweaks to better differentiate. The story follows Princess Ariel, the seventh and youngest daughter of King Triton, the underwater ruler of Atlantica. Unlike other Mer-people and the vast creatures of the sea, the princess has strong curiosity towards the surface and collects artifacts that come from above her. While her father is against it and forbids her to do so, due to blaming humans for the death of her mother, the only friends who support her are the sergeant major Flounder and the northern gannet Scuttle. One night, she gets an unlikely opportunity when she saves the human Prince Eric from a violent storm that causes his ship to crash. She is able to bring him to shore before his crew. The only thing he can remember of her before she returned to the sea was her beautiful siren/singing voice. She would act more absent minded than before which would only spark her father to be suspicious. He would then ask his crab advisor Sebastian if he knows the reason of her behavior. Since he was present with Ariel when encountering the ship, he would accidentally reveal she had saved a human’s life. Mistaking her fascination with humans to be an obsession, the king destroys her daughter’s grotto of artifacts to punish her. After such a devastating moment, she would be approached by two eels, Flotsam & Jetsam who belong to the Sea Witch Ursula, Triton’s estranged sister. When they take the mermaid to her lair, she makes a deal she believes too good to ignore. Ursula gives her three days to retrieve true love’s kiss from Eric in order to be human. The only catch is losing her voice and if she can’t pull it off, she will belong to her forever. As she goes through with it, she heads to the surface voiceless but with new human feet. When found by other humans, she is taken to Eric’s castle and meets the prince again. Although he doesn’t recognize her, he allows her to stay in the castle as long as she needs. She does become close with him due to the fascination over his items and going sightseeing. However, Sebastian notices she is forgetting what she has to do to be free of the curse, a cheat planted by the Sea Witch. With the help of Flounder & Scuttle, they try to get the two to kiss each other, but it gets thwarted by Flotsam & Jetsam. Realizing how close Ariel was at succeeding, Ursula takes matters into her own hands by dawning the human disguise of Vanessa and uses Ariel’s voice to make the prince believe she is the one who saved him. As this is happening, Triton regrets how he was towards his youngest daughter and searches all over Atlantica for her. When Scuttle realizes Vanessa is the sea witch, she warns Ariel and encourages her to stop their immediate engagement party. The Princess is able to prove the prince she saved her when she regains her voice. Just when the prince realizes the truth, Ursula drags her back to the sea. The king would confront his sister and demand his daughter to be free but with their contract being unbreakable, he volunteers to take her place. When that happens, Flotsam & Jetsam sting him to death and Ursula claims his powerful trident. As Eric reaches the sea to save his true love, the eels get killed in the crossfire. This would fill the sea witch with rage and use the trident to grow into gigantic proportions, causing a thunderstorm that brings a shipwreck to the surface. Ursula almost kills Eric but is killed when Ariel improvises, impaling her with the wrecked ship. When she is defeated, the storm concludes and Triton is resurrected. Having newfound respect for humans due to Eric’s involvement, he respects his daughter’s wish and eventually decides to make her human. The film would end with the prince and princess having their happily ever after by traveling the sea together via ship.
THOUGHTS
I don't really have fatigue with Disney's trend to remake their own films, but I just have a hard time being invested since nobody asks for them when the trend went to full gear with 2010's Alice in Wonderland. The trailers always pull me in by the end of the day because I end up getting a taste of familiar joy I had in my childhood. That is all I wanted walking into this which makes me glad I got a good portion of it when making the time for this. Rob Marshall, whose directed musicals and a fair share of other Disney movies before, delivers in making an entertaining adventure. The production design definitely delivers when roaming around Eric's home island, but the visual effects are all in being spectacular for the underwater perspective of Atlantica, seeing the vast amount of sea creatures in the process. This iteration still has a payoff for still being able to explore theme of believing in yourself in order to for the things meant to be will be. This is strongly intact thanks to a talented cast giving memorable takes of these characters. It was a big deal when it was Halle Bailey to be announced as Ariel due to not looking the part, but in this era of filmmaking, the quality of talent is more important than the appearance. Bailey makes the role her own and nails it in making the princess such a bright individual so curious of the world beyond. We still root for her because she's headstrong with what she wants and doesn't want to be restrained from it. Due to originally making music with her sister Chloe, Bailey takes my breath away whenever she sung. She was on point with both versions of 'Part of your World' that discuss exploring new opportunities. She didn't have to do backup vocals for 'Under the Sea', yet she made it work. She even has us invested in her with her new song 'For the First Time' which expresses her inner joy of getting to be human. She was also impressive on having us believe she couldn't talk as long as she did. The whole physicality of this performance outdoes all of the emotion her predecessor Jodi Benson did with her voice originally. Seeing the latter share a scene with her, reacting to her misuse of a fork felt like a torch passing moment that I wouldn't have any other way. When Disney started the trend of remakes, the only fancast I was onboard with from the moment I heard it was Henry Cavill as Eric. Jonah Hauer-King may have not that stature, but he still does the role justice by the end of it. Jonah still has us like the character for being a true equal to Ariel, being an adventurer that wants to explore endlessly. His own song 'Wild Uncharted Waters' solidifies how ambitious he is and you can't help respecting him for being such. He and Ariel are still a perfect match for relating to the need of exploring, while also not judging them for who they are. Eric wasn't terrified of Ariel being a mermaid and she didn't want to be with him for his wealth, only for their hearts. Halle & Jonah arguably peaked with their chemistry during 'Kiss the Girl' because whether or not you saw the original, you just know they're meant to be. Seeing them protect each other from Ursula during the climax was another moment to prove how much love is worth fighting for. I was in shock that they flipped the script in having Ariel being the one to officially slay her aunt, which I honestly didn't mind because it again showed how determined she was to be happy. Seeing them sail away together, there is no doubt they'll continue to be for the rest of their lives. This love story is obviously what sells the movie overall, we're reminded they're not the only characters. I didn't think twice on who would ever play Triton, but Javier Bardem was a solid choice in the long run. The guy was valid on hating humans, but he still couldn't help it being overprotective towards Ariel, not wanting to lose her like he lost his wife. That loss has an obvious effect on him and he's not gonna bare going through it again. Little would he expect his compassion to protect his family would only push them away. He undoes his mistake when willingly surrendering his power to save Ariel, not knowing the possibility of coming back. It was still a tough call for him to give her what she wanted because it's always gonna be hard for a parent to watch their kids grow up and he knows she'll have an eventful life he won't be part of. He let her go anyway because taking away her happiness is now what he intends and hearing what Eric did reminded him not everyone is the same. Knowing this, he can leave peacefully with the fact Ariel is in safe hands. I can say a similar thing about Eric's adoptive mother Queen Selina, played Noma Dumezweni. Since she doesn't have Triton's power, she comes off a little overbearing by insisting her son to stop expediting to look for something he might noy mind. She's a realist in this case and doesn't want him to be set up for disappointment. She slowly comes around by the time Ariel sets foot on land. She was stunned like everyone else when the truth was out of where she came from, but at that point, she understood how much she meant to her son and was disappointed she couldn't fix that until she came back. Like the king, she'll live happy knowing Eric will sail happily with her soulmate. Before her life changed for the better, it was again nice to see Ariel had friends who respected her interests. Awkwafina may have made Scuttle extremely dimwitted than before and Jacob Tremblay accurately makes Flounder an anxious fish, but they both are loyal towards Ariel and they proved it whenever they tried helping. Daveed Diggs arguably brought more to the table as Sebastian. He's the most simple minded compared to everyone else because he's too comfortable how his life is and doesn't tend to change that. Because of that, you can quickly hate on him for not really giving things a chance until Ariel was in a bad predicament. Although 'Under the Sea' is still a neat song to tell us we should appreciate what we already have, which Diggs sings spectacularly, he does right by the princess when helping as well since it was his fault her grotto was destroyed. Diggs would also sing 'Kiss the Girl' beautifully due to reminding people to make a move on those they intimately care for before it's too late. He definitely was the brains of the group that gave the princess better chances and you gotta appreciate that more than ever. He may be annoyed of Scuttle, but at least they were on the same page on helping Ariel, which they all did successfully did. Last but not least, the villain Ursula has grown to be iconic the way Ariel has been with the story alone. With an impact left by Pat Carroll's all time voice performance, it was definitely not going to be an easy feat. However, Melissa McCarthy absolutely makes the character her own as well, perfecting how manipulative she is known to be. She gives a great cover for 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' to prove how persuasive she is, exactly what she would to Ariel. Her goal was to have power all for herself, motivated from being banished by her brother. He likely would've not expected her to make a pawn out of his daughter, but it comes to show he did the right thing banishing her in the first place. And she was pretty close being a conqueror in her own right. She was goddamn terrifying when she grew, which made it a relief she would be stopped so quickly. I also want to give a shoutout to Jessica playing the alter ego of Vanessa. The whole time, she sold me with the deceptive presence she was all about. If I was in Eric's shoes and I didn't know the story I was in, I probably would've picked Vanessa too because she's that attractive. But in the end, Ariel is still the better woman because she is not a monster the way Ursula proves herself to be. I didn’t mind this movie after enjoying what was done, but my nostalgic heart does not excuse the issues I had story wise. If they weren’t repeating the same mistakes, they were only making new ones. Like I still don't think it’s smart for Triton to have Sebastian look after Ariel instead of another merman. How is a crab going to be more successful than that? If the king has the power to teleport via cape of fish, he could’ve sent more than Sebastian to look for her. The Princess still goes out of pocket putting her life in danger over a fork. Learning about humans is not worth dying for and this is partially what her dad is trying to point out. And how exactly is Flounder comfortable with the presence of Scuttle when we first see her, she’s trying to eat a school of fish? Yeah I doubt they’d be friends if it weren’t for Ariel and I say the same with Sebastian. And let’s be honest, why are sharks only near shipwrecks? That may be a hot spot for them to eat food, but they could swim other places for food. And you know what, I got to point out now it was a bad idea for Eric to bring his dog Max along when he knew he caused a wreck before. I know he couldn’t have known the storm would happen, but he could’ve been a little cautious by doing this. In all honesty, I have a hard time buying the fact Ariel swam around the coastline and run up the hill to the coastline. She may have feet instead of a tail at this point, but she is not as fast as Jesse Owens or Sonic the Hedgehog. And lastly, Ursula could've avoided the death of her eels if she didn't send them to go after Eric. Try ignoring these flaws then you’ll still enjoy it for what it is. To wrap up, 2023’s The Little Mermaid is an entertaining re-iteration of a timeless love story that warms our hearts to this day. If you enjoyed the 1989 original film with all your heart, I hope this one gives you comfort as well.
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