The Little Mermaid Live!

Embarrassing and hideous, a shrieking disaster. I've seen better high-school productions. And everyone was TOO OLD.

I am a fan of the live performances of stage and screen classics that have come to TV in the last few years. But this show offered something different---an animated film/live performance hybrid. It's a clever solution to the underwater action challenge that "The Little Mermaid" presents. But I think the concept is flawed.

We might enjoy intercutting the animated sequences to the live onstage performances if the performers were superstars (think Celine Dion or Barbra Streisand) of if the performers were the actual voices behind the animated characters (think Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel performing their songs from "Frozen"). But this presentation was like switching between two channels.

The production values were good. And the simulation of swimming using wires was the best part of the show. But they were not enough to save this live performance from mediocrity. I also found the applause and cheering of the live audience to be distracting.

The sound in the live action portions is poorly done. When the performance begins, the singers' volume suddenly drops with a few seconds here and there of normal volume. The performers sound like they are singing in another room while the orchestra is playing in the foreground.

I love live theatre. I love musical theatre. But, I'm still struggling to be excited by this new wave of Live TV productions of classic musical theatre, classic TV shows and now animated classics. This one set itself a gigantic task to perform live a story that was about mythical worlds is both on land and under the sea where the primary character is confined to sitting. What, in fact, they did was project the original animated movie for the story and interposed live performances of the songs. I can only image it was a spectacular feast for those in the live theatre: puppets, aerials (cum Cirque du Soleil), characters in costumes, dancers and stars belting out award winning songs. However, even on my big screen TV, it failed to capture the excitement that must have been in the studio. I also didn't find all the stars up to the task. Queen Latifah was absolutely perfect. Graham Phillips was a revelation, his voice and bearing befitting a prince (who knew Zack had such hidden talents?). Auli'l Cravalho's beautiful voice was compromised by aerial harnesses and by being forced to sing sitting because of her fish tail (she was breathless and pitchy). Shaggy and John Stamos were just plain bad casting giving cringe worthy performers. This production just didn't translate to its medium despite some genius elements. I give this production a 6 (fair) out of 10. {Live Rebrand of Animated Classic}

Surprised that Disney's live versions of their classics are just not up to par. This might have been fun to watch in the live audience, especially for children, but it lost it's glimmer on TV. The performances were lacking and except for Queen Latifa the singing was not good. And the biggest surprise was the costumes were horrible. Looked worse than a high school play. Disney, you need to stay away from these live, theater like performances In My Humble Opinion!