Film Review – The Little Mermaid (2023)

· by · in Eddie's Space, Film Reviews, Film reviews: Fantasy. ·

Title – The Little Mermaid (2023) 

Director – Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns) 

Cast – Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, (voices of) Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay

Plot – Mermaid Ariel (Bailey) makes a deal with her scheming auntie Ursula (McCarthy) to give up her underwater ways to enter into the world of humans where she has met and fallen in love with young prince Eric (Hauer-King). 

“You shouldn’t have to give up your voice to be heard”

Review by Eddie on 28/08/2023

Just like any of the other recent Disney “live action” remakes of classic properties such as Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, The Little Mermaid begs the question as to why? Even if by no means is this colourful yet lifeless and generic re-imagining a complete write-off, more so a dull and pointless one. 

Clearly the answer as too why Disney is hauling out its old and well-loved properties is to turn a quick and effective buck, something that once more worked to a decent level for the Mouse House with The Little Mermaid nabbing box office receipts from around the world in the vicinity of just over $550 million dollars, but with such middling to bad returns on investment in a creativity and long lasting nature sense, there must be a point when Disney and its usually forgiving audience have had enough of these mid-tier new versions of classic tales. 

Having to admit to a cinema sin that I have never actually watched the original 1989 version in its entirety, I was willing to go into Rob Marshall’s updated version with an open mind, accepting I was neither the long term fan or target audience of such a film but at over 2 hours in length and bathed in questionable CGI (why such an expensive film like this looks so cheap is beyond my comprehension), a series of famous but somehow pedestrian nature song numbers and a cast that doesn’t really ever glue to the characters or each other like you would’ve hoped for, this new age version of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale is an increasingly uninteresting and forgettable offering. 

Following the well-known adventures of young mermaid Ariel (here played by newcomer Halle Bailey) and her desires to enter into the human world that just so happens to include a whirl wind romance with Jonah Hauer-King’s young Prince Eric, Marshall’s film does little in the way of creative or innovative thinking to bring this fantasy fable to life with everything from the script, the performances and song and dance numbers all taking place in a way that feels both familiar and at times rather stale, totally against the magic and whimsy at the heart of Christian Andersen’s source material. 

Neither fantastical enough outside of its opening 20 or so minutes for the younger audiences to gravitate towards or dark or meaty enough for more mature audiences it’s hard to know exactly who this version of the tale was being specifically aimed at? It’s not as though what occurs throughout is offensively bad (a staple of Rob Marshall’s recent offerings that includes Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns) but there’s nothing memorable here, nothing noteworthy in its fun or playfulness and an overall sense that Disney has reached for low hanging fruit here and gotten exactly what it desired, outside of another $500 or so million at the box office.  

Final Say – 

A bland and curiously cheap feeling big budgeted new version of a classic tale, The Little Mermaid is at all times watchable but it’s hard to escape the feeling that such a magical concept deserves a much more imaginative and joyous incarnation than what we get here. 

2 1/2 forks out of 5 

19 responses to “Film Review – The Little Mermaid (2023)”

  1. I’ve only seen Beauty and the Beast from the live action versions and was thinking the same – why? Are any of them worth seeing?

    • Mate I would honestly say no. I don’t think any of them have done anything better than the animated versions did. Their all generic and relatively soulless.
      E

  2. Why, why, why? Because Disney today has no imagination, no creativity, no spark of inspiration. Its literally eating itself, and without wanting to get into all things ‘woke’, the liberal left has hijacked this into becoming something even more self-destructive: not just copying the past works but de-constructing them, mocking and disparaging them.

    Imagine Lucasfilm in ten years remaking the original Star Wars Trilogy 1977-1983 movies while at the same time mocking them and laughing at them as out-dated and irrelevant. Actually don’t imagine, its likely just a matter of time…

    • That’s a scary thought mate!

      I hope the middling overall profits from this film and so-so reception force Disney to stop just barging forward with these endless processions of remakes and re-imaginings. It’s out of control.
      E

  3. Good review! I found that this live-action remake was better than Pinocchio and Peter Pan & Wendy, but that’s not saying much. I still prefer the original 1989 animated film over this one. Bardem was definitely a miscast in the movie and most of the iconic scenes from the story were handled better in the original. Still, I found McCarthy and Bailey to be up to the task and made the feature’s highlights.

    • I found this film neither offensive or overly engaging, just one of those films that happened. It was certainly more entertaining than Pinocchio and Peter Pan and Wendy at least!
      E

  4. My kids thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but none of them have been fans or even watched the original, as far as I know (my youngest three). I enjoyed it enough that is wasn’t a total wash, it could have been better but was tolerable, but I also don’t believe I’m the demographic they were targeting. 55 year old guys, I think Star Wars is more geared toward us, if anything Disney.

  5. Disney (specifically Walt Disney Pictures) has been reluctant to take any chances on original content since the box-office bombing of The Lone Ranger in 2013.
    They’ve been mining their back catalog since then.

    • I can’t deny what you say mate. It’s a really interesting time for the company I wonder what their next steps will look like. Feels like a fork in the road type moment.
      E

  7. I Think Halle Bailey as Ariel In the live adaptation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid Is the Worst Casting Of all time

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