I remember when “The Little Mermaid” live-action movie was announced in 2016, way back when I was a freshman in high school. I also remember the first wave of racist backlash the movie received in 2019, when Halle Bailey was first announced as Ariel.
Finally, after four years of production, “The Little Mermaid” is finally in theaters.
To be fair, they had the pandemic to contend with, but everyone who worked on this movie is incredibly dedicated to still care about this movie at this point.
This was arguably the most anticipated of all of the Disney live-action remakes due to all the controversy. So when all the early reviews came back glowing with praise, I was excited to see what the hype was about.
“The Little Mermaid” was never my favorite Disney movie growing up because I found the plot pretty forgettable. This was probably just little me being picky, but not enjoying it did allow me to see the story for the first time in over a decade, and the magic of it captured me like it never did when I was younger.
I was never a Prince Eric girl, I always thought he was one of the most boring love interests – only a step above Prince Charming and whoever Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ended up with.
But Jonah Hauer-King was so dreamy that I’m a proud convert. If Eric had a song in the original movie, he might have actually held my attention. Prince Eric’s devotion to Ariel had me swooning in my seat because their chemistry was so good.
Eric wasn’t the only crushworthy character, though. Halle Bailey was so beautiful as Ariel that my eyes were glued to her every time she smiled.
And of course, there’s Ursula’s human incarnate, Jessica Alexander, as Vanessa, who proves there are no small parts, only small actors.
As one would hope, Ursula was less scary to me as an adult than as a little kid, but maybe that’s just because Melissa McCarthy is so funny and charming that she managed to win me over. Alexander should come back and be in a prequel about Ursula, I would love to see that.
The press rollout of The Little Mermaid has been almost as entertaining as the movie itself. Jonah and Halle are really funny together in interviews, and Jessica Alexander’s cool confidence and love of Halle Bailey won me over instantly.
The new songs added to this version were really fun, but you can tell that Lin Manuel Miranda wrote “The Scuttlebutt.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it might be time for him to shake things up.
I know that there were already a handful of songs added to the movie, but I needed an Ariel and Eric duet.
“Wild Uncharted Waters” deserved a reprise with both of them singing. We need The Little Mermaid 2 to be picked up immediately so this dream can be made possible.
Rating: 9.5/10