Before Anna and Elsa, there was Ariel. Parents of 80s babies can certainly empathize with the parents who endured “Let It Go” on a continuous loop because they did the same with “Under the Sea.” The Little Mermaid was our Frozen and its impact on childhoods all over the world was felt well beyond its initial theatrical run.
Almost 35 years later, The Little Mermaid is the latest Disney animated classic to transition to a live-action film. For this telling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, the Mouse in the House enlisted the talents of Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha helmer Rob Marshall and an all-star cast to bring Ariel and company to life.
Apart from the laughably bad The Lion King remake, Disney’s modernization of their animated classics has fared well. Is this Little Mermaid another updated hallmark?
Everything that works for The Little Mermaid starts with Halle Bailey. Calling her performance as Ariel perfection might be understating the excellence she displays in the role.
Her rendition of “Part of Your World” is spine-tingling good. The singing voice is a strong part of what makes her turn as Ariel compelling, but there’s more to it.
She plays Ariel with the independence and strength that ushered in a new era of Disney princesses who wasn’t a damsel in distress.
Yet, she was still able to maintain the naiveté needed to show Ariel’s youth. It’s a star-making turn that I’m confident will garner her at least a Golden Globe nomination. It’s one of those performances that you’ll forever remember the day you saw it.
As bright as Bailey shines, the supporting cast has its moments as well. Awkwafina does Scuttle justice with the same comedic misguided confidence the late Buddy Hackett brilliantly put in the OG film. Javier Bardem plays King Triton with the perfect blend of authority and care, especially in his face-offs with Ariel.
The only areas where there’s some drop-off in the cast are Daveed Diggs’s Sebastian and Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula. Both are far from bad, but there were some missed opportunities.
Diggs tries to make Sebastian his own but loses what made the character endearing in the process. This version is more subdued than the one the late Samuel E. Wright etched into cinema history. The problem with this is Sebastian’s tendency to go from gentlemanly to completely losing his composure is lost and weakens his smug back and forths with Scuttle.
McCarthy has the same issue but to a lesser extent. She hits the necessary marks for Ursula’s villainous ways and her rendition of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” is solid, but it feels like her performance should have hit another level to be on par with Pat Carroll’s from 1989.
Structurally, the film follows the OG movie faithfully. The only difference is it lengthens key scenes a good bit, which extends this version almost an hour beyond the original’s 88-minute runtime.
Director Marshall wisely uses the extra time to make a timely but not preachy point that we’re more alike than not despite our physical differences. It’s a theme the first film might have insinuated but did an awful job of bringing it forward.
Another key thing that makes the new Little Mermaid succeed is the presence of people of color and the set design. This isn’t diversity for the sake of checking a box. First, it leans into the film’s Caribbean settings by having streets filled with markets and some of the activity you’d find in that area at that time.
Next, it goes a step further by showcasing various shades of brown and treating them as equal amounts of respect and beauty. There isn’t any regulating darker complexions to manual labor or elevating lighter complexions to what can be considered superior positions.
Details like that may not carry much cinematic weight, but it means everything when you consider the overarching message of our common interests and equality.
The new Little Mermaid brings back all the feelings of the 1989 version while excelling in ways it couldn’t thanks to a powerhouse performance from Bailey and, most importantly, the evolution of the world it built. It doesn’t quite match the old one in quality due to some slight supporting cast missteps, but the new Little Mermaid should surely equal its cultural impact and that’s a win for old and young.
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