I got to see The Little Mermaid (2023): under the sea, in all its live-action glory and… I hated it. And the bummer part of all of this is that The Little Mermaid could (and should) have been good.
From the beginning, the filmmakers of The Little Mermaid (2023) stretched its premise thin like Laffy Taffy until it just fell apart. It opened with quote from Hans Christian Andersen, the writer of the original 1837 “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale: “A mermaid has no tears and therefore she suffers so much more.” I thought this might be a thematic element woven throughout the film; however, the movie fails to build upon the significance of “mermaid tears” at all. It felt like they read this in original tale and thought it would be cool to put it in and check off that box.
Every once in a while, there would be a moment where I’d think, “Oh wow, I’m starting to get into this.” But like a wave crashing against the shore, it would dash all my hopes to the ground. One glaring issue is the film’s color palette was so uninspired: dark and dreary, which is a 180-degree turn from the fun, bubble-gum undersea world of 1989 animated film. They were going for more sense of realism but it’s a miss because at times you can hardly see what’s going on.
But the main issues that kept me out of the story weren’t even part of the story; it was the animation. Every time they went below the sea, it felt like we entered uncanny valley territory. Every time someone would flip their hair or swim, something would happen that took me out of the moment.
It seems like the director might have known this was an issue and told the actors to show emotion without moving their faces. This didn’t work. All the characters seemed very flat and stone-faced. Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel, has a wonderful voice, but her ability to sing freely didn’t come across. This could be a directional issue because it wasn’t just her; Javier Bardem as King Triton and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula also seemed flat and unexpressive.
No one was charming. Prince Eric, played by Jonah Hauer-King, had moments where he seemed charming, but overall, he lacked confidence. If you’ve seen some of the changes made to the plot, you might understand why. None of the changes seemed to benefit the characters; they left them lacking motivation and direction.
Overall, The Little Mermaid (2023) added too many unnecessary elements while failing to capture the magic of the original animated film. Disney should have focused on creating a unique coherent story like they did with Cinderella (2015) rather than attempting to modernize and diversify it in ways that felt forced and ultimately unsatisfying.
Honestly, I’m pretty sure I was the only one who left my theater who hated it as much as I did because everybody else seemed very happy. And that is okay. I’m okay being that lone voice. But if you also end up seeing this and decide, “No, I think she’s right.” Well, thank goodness I’m not alone.
★★
