A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 31 nominations total
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Summary
Reviewers say 'The Little Mermaid' live-action remake garners mixed reactions. Halle Bailey's Ariel and Melissa McCarthy's Ursula are praised for their performances. Visual effects and underwater scenes are lauded, yet CGI for animals is criticized. Pacing and runtime issues are noted, alongside mixed feedback on new songs and plot changes. The film is seen as decent, with strong performances and visuals, but flawed storytelling and character designs.
Featured reviews
The movie is long and tedious. I was ready to be whisked away to a magical underwater world with filmmaker Rob Marshall's highly anticipated live-action retelling of this classic Disney movie. My grandkids were excited to see the remake of their favorite "Little Mermaid" movie but became bored after 20-minutes after the movie started. The movie was unusually dark and foreboding and unsuited for a younger audience in my humble opinion.
Not sure I like the trend to make poorly written remakes of classic, beloved movies. I will have to rethink going to future Disney and Pixar movies since the characters were unappealing and plot dragging on.
Not sure I like the trend to make poorly written remakes of classic, beloved movies. I will have to rethink going to future Disney and Pixar movies since the characters were unappealing and plot dragging on.
I mean it's an okay film. But is that what Disney wants to achieve now? Just to make okay movies? What happened to making great and lasting ones? Is that just a thing of the past?
My biggest qualm with this movie is that the acting performances from the cast was lackluster. These Disney classics are sacred in a sense that they made us emotionally invested in them. It's disappointing to think that animated characters were able to "act" and exhibit more emotional pull more than live actors. The original made us feel for these characters.
This version had no heart in it, it's just the shell of the 1989 classic with an attempt to impress contemporary audiences but it still fell flat on its face.
The scenes in this movie felt rushed and it was just hard to watch all together without thinking they just had a checklist of events they wanted to make sure was there. The dialogue was sub-par. The new rap song was simply unbearable. I had my hands over my ears while it was happening.
The only thing I could compliment about this movie are the visual effects. I liked the feel of the setting. But other than that. It felt more two dimensional than the cartoon.
My biggest qualm with this movie is that the acting performances from the cast was lackluster. These Disney classics are sacred in a sense that they made us emotionally invested in them. It's disappointing to think that animated characters were able to "act" and exhibit more emotional pull more than live actors. The original made us feel for these characters.
This version had no heart in it, it's just the shell of the 1989 classic with an attempt to impress contemporary audiences but it still fell flat on its face.
The scenes in this movie felt rushed and it was just hard to watch all together without thinking they just had a checklist of events they wanted to make sure was there. The dialogue was sub-par. The new rap song was simply unbearable. I had my hands over my ears while it was happening.
The only thing I could compliment about this movie are the visual effects. I liked the feel of the setting. But other than that. It felt more two dimensional than the cartoon.
The Little Mermaid is a good example of what's wrong with Disney these days (at least in my opinion) - besides some casting choices that may rise pro and contra voices (I don't care), this movie is dead like plastic. The songs are stale and uninspired, the special effects department did okay, the actors did okay, but well, the formula of Disney movies is now a walking dead corpse, too many times chewed on. But this is not only a question of modern changes to fit to the taste of zeitgeist but for a long time Disney is like a recycling factory: with every turn of the machine the product gets worse and worse, at least if you don't add something new, fresh and substantial, something creative. So my greatest complain: the music is average, the visuals are average, the story is the typical Disney blabla, the entertaining factor is rather low. A typical movie made from the construction kit branded "Disney". But maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy and my by age weakened eyes and heart cannot see the beauty in this, well, product.
This movie just wasn't good... They added something like 50 minutes but it didn't improve the movie one it, it only made it drag on.
The CGI is poorly done and the tone of the film is dark and gloomy, not bright and colorful as it should be.
The animal characters look terrible. The changes to the songs are ridiculous, the original lyrics weren't problematic in the slightest.
Scuttle's voice is really jarring and the added song is just bad.
The changes made to the ending make the story worse, not better. They didn't need to make Eric weaker to build up Ariel.
The best thing about the movie was Ursula. At least they didn't ruin her.
The CGI is poorly done and the tone of the film is dark and gloomy, not bright and colorful as it should be.
The animal characters look terrible. The changes to the songs are ridiculous, the original lyrics weren't problematic in the slightest.
Scuttle's voice is really jarring and the added song is just bad.
The changes made to the ending make the story worse, not better. They didn't need to make Eric weaker to build up Ariel.
The best thing about the movie was Ursula. At least they didn't ruin her.
The cgi in some scenes looks pretty weird, as avatar has elevated the way you record and do cgi underwater. The way they made the animals are so strange it seems that they have no life or emotions, as if it were all superfluous, the way the villain is not afraid, I tried to like it more it's just another live action to get rid of sales and reversals of products, without anything very original and without any kind of Disney charm and magic that we were I'm used to seeing it, anyway the Ericks don't have much charisma and it's just Erick with nothing, at the end of it all it's just another live action to be forgotten in a few months.
Did you know
- TriviaJodi Benson: the original voice of Ariel in La Petite Sirène (1989), appears as the person who gives Ariel a "dinglehopper" (fork) during her and Prince Eric's tour of the market.
- GoofsWhen Ariel jumps into the water and swims to go back to the castle to stop Eric and Vanessa's engagement party, she should be soaking wet, however, she is completely dry.
- Quotes
Sir Grimsby: Don't be held back by what you think should be. Think of only what is.
- Crazy creditsThe film opens with a quote by "The Little Mermaid" writer Hans Christian Andersen: "But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."
- ConnectionsFeatured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Purple Octopus Melissa McCarthy (2019)
- SoundtracksPart of Your World
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Produced by Michael Higham (as Mike Higham) and Alan Menken
Performed by Halle Bailey
- How long is The Little Mermaid?Powered by Alexa
- Why hasn't there been an official trailer release?
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $355,100,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $298,172,056
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $95,578,040
- May 28, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $569,626,289
- Runtime2 hours 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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