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• DVD & Streaming

The Little Mermaid (2023)

• Comedy , Drama , Musical , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 26, 2023
• Halle Bailey as Ariel; Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric; Melissa McCarthy as Ursula; Javier Bardem as King Triton; Daveed Diggs as Sebastian; Jacob Tremblay as Flounder; Awkwafina as Scuttle; Art Malik as Sir Grimsby; Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina

Home Release Date

• July 8, 2023
• Rob Marshall

Distributor

• Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Disney+

Movie Review

Ariel likes the ocean. She really does.

And well she should. She’s a princess, after all—not just any ol’ princess, either, but youngest daughter of King Triton, emperor of the Earth’s Seven Seas. Given that 71% of the planet is water, that’s a pretty big empire. Rome? The British Empire? Pish. Small, dry potatoes compared to Triton’s domain. And as Triton’s beloved daughter, Ariel wants for nothing. She can have absolutely anything she wants—as long as it’s, y’know, underwater .

And therein lies the problem.

You know how teens can be. They think the seaweed always grows greener on the other side of the reef. And Ariel is fascinated by that other 29% of the planet: the dry side.

Yes, she knows that those humans —those creatures with their funny feet—tend catch some of her scaly friends and eat them. Sure, Ariel’s own mother met her end at the point of an ill-placed harpoon. But humans can’t be all bad, can they?

Yes , thinks King Triton. Yes, they can.

The king hopes his daughter’s fascination with the surface world is a fad, like all kids go through. She’s testing the limits, pushing boundaries, exploring new ideas. Why, teens on the surface do it all the time. These youngsters come to their senses eventually.

Perhaps Ariel would’ve, too.

But when the teen pops her head above water one night, she sees stars, and fireworks, and a ship sailing proud and strong. And on that ship she sees … him . A handsome young sailor with feet that move and shift as gracefully as any mackerel or tuna.

When the ship encounters a terrible surface storm, and the young man—Prince Eric—takes a tumble into the sea, Ariel knows she can’t let him drown. She must save him.

So she does. And as Eric wakes up, as Ariel sings her powerful siren song to him, something happens in that forbidden moment of contact: Something catches spark. In that instant, the two now connect in a way that King Triton wouldn’t understand—and if he did, he’d be horrified.

The land has always held a powerful pull for Ariel. But love pulls stronger still. It tugs like the undertow and is as implacable as the current.

And this new thing, this new feeling, just might sweep Ariel away.

Positive Elements

Let’s start with the obvious: Regardless of what Daddy Triton might say, saving Eric was a good thing. We should always try to rescue people from drowning, whether we have tails and scales or not. That act creates some wide-reaching ripples that not only touch Ariel and Eric, but two very different societies.

The surface world and Triton’s underwater realm are deeply hostile to each other as the story begins. In the opening scene, several sailors are doing their best to harpoon what they think is a mermaid, believing that mermaids lure men to their deaths. Below the surface, Triton believes that humankind itself is bad—a bias made exponentially stronger because humans killed his wife.

But (and I hope I’m not spoiling anything here) Eric and Ariel’s relationship eventually helps the process of healing: Both Triton and Eric’s mother, Queen Selina, realize that they were both wrong about painting the other side with so broad a brush. And while humankind and merfolk are inherently very different people, we see the beginnings of a better relationship between the two.

Another thing to note: King Triton makes a few mistakes in curbing his daughter’s interests and passions. But he loves Ariel deeply—so deeply, in fact, that he’s willing to sacrifice a great deal, including himself, for her.

Spiritual Elements

Magic comes by the gallon here, and its primary practitioner is, of course, Ursula, the Sea Witch. Using a variety of ingredients kept in glowing containers, she magically gives Ariel a pair of legs in exchange for Ariel’s voice. And that voice itself is, in this telling, magic itself: We’re told that the voice of a mermaid is a powerful “siren song” that can charm those who hear it. (That ability stems from Greek mythology, by the way; the song of Sirens would lure sailors to their death).

Triton’s trident is also magical. He uses it to zap a bevy of surface artifacts and to grant a special boon to someone. And when it falls into the wrong hands, we see just how powerful it can be.

Citizens of Queen Selina’s island kingdom (and the queen herself) lament the number of ships recently sunk: “Shipwrecks,” Selina grumbles. “Hurricanes. The sea gods are against us.”

Sexual Content

Ariel and her fellow merfolk are dressed slightly more modestly than they were in the 1989 animated film. Instead of Ariel wearing a pair of seashells, for instance, she has a wide band of fabric-like stuff wrapped around her chest. But despite those efforts, the film feels slightly more titillating: We are, of course, talking about real flesh-and-blood people in these mer-garments, so all the bare shoulders and belly buttons (and in the case of mer-guys, exposed torsos) we see may be more sensually distracting for some.

Of special note: When Ariel becomes a human, she transforms sans clothes. We don’t see anything critical, of course. But whereas the animated Ariel was covered almost immediately by an old sail or something, our live-action mermaid is covered only in her own hair. Later, we see Ariel taking a bath, and the camera catches her from the shoulders up. It’s a scene taken directly from the original, but again, it has a different vibe in this live-action take.

In the original film, Ariel needed to get the prince to kiss her within three days. That’s still true here. But in an era where girls are just as likely to make the first moves on guys, and to sidestep questions of romantic manipulation, the 2023 version makes a subtle switch. Thanks to Ursula’s magic, Ariel doesn’t remember that the prince needs to kiss her at all. She only knows that she likes the guy. It’s up to Ariel’s friends to encourage Eric to plant a smooch during the classic song “Kiss the Girl,” while Ariel is truly innocent of any ulterior intent. The lyrics also have been tweaked to reflect a bit more consensual intent.

We do, of course, see (sea?) kissing. The voluptuous Ursula does press her hands underneath her breasts at times (as we saw in the original movie), but her outfit doesn’t bare shoulders. And a critical verse—the one that includes the line, “and don’t forget about the importance of body language”—has been removed in the live-action version. Eric is sometimes seen with an open shirt.

I know many readers will be curious: I didn’t notice any LGBT content in the movie. There are efforts online, however, to re-interpret the original Hans Christian Anderson story, The Little Mermaid, as a tale of unrequited gay love.

Violent Content

A ship is set on fire and destroyed during a fierce storm at sea.  Prince Eric nearly drowns. Sailors try to harpoon a sea creature they mistake for a mermaid. (The harpoons miss their targets.)

Ariel takes Eric on a dangerous carriage ride. Triton uses his magic trident to destroy a great many artifacts. Someone is killed by the trident, with the body turning into ash. Electric eels bind characters and shock them. A shark makes a scary attack on Ariel and her fish friend, Flounder. Scuttle, the bird, misspeaks about what Ariel’s supposed to do with Eric. “Has Ariel killed the prince yet?” she asks.

This may be a spoiler for those who didn’t see the original animated film: A climactic sea battle features a very large, very angry Ursula trying to kill a character. She’s eventually stopped in the act by the impaling prow of a ship.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and alcohol content, other negative elements.

Ariel and Eric’s love story is sweet and disarming. It’s also rather problematic from a parents’ point of view. Ariel disobeys and ultimately defies her father. And while Ariel’s age is never given, we can assume that she’s not of legal age to make her own decisions or run off with anyone, even if he is a prince. Certainly, if Ariel was a 16-year-old human, her relationship with Eric would take on a darker hue, and we’d view her teenage rebellion a little more harshly.

Eric lies to his mother, too, and he sneaks out of the castle against her explicit wishes.

But both parents exasperate their children as well. Triton certainly overreacts at one point in the movie; meanwhile, Queen Selina can be shortsighted in both her treatment of Eric and the health of her own kingdom.

Anthropomorphic animals verbally fight and belittle one another, albeit comically so.

Disney has never been one to turn down a chance to make a buck. But you can understand why they would’ve waited so long to remake their 1989 classic.

If 1937’s Snow White began Disney’s animated legend, The Little Mermaid revived it. It marked the dawn of what folks call the Disney Renaissance and headed a string of undisputed critical and commercial hits: Beauty and the Beast; Aladdin; The Lion King ; etc. People grew up loving this movie, which raises the stakes for any remake. And honestly, with its partly underwater setting and mix of humanoid and animal characters, it’d be an easy story to mess up. Given the mixed results of Disney’s live-action remake efforts recently, the Mouse House needed to swim carefully.

But this version works. Mostly.

The 2023 version of The Little Mermaid feels more like an homage to the original as it does a remake. Lines of dialogue and whole scenes feel like they were plucked straight from the animated film and redone, shot-for-shot. The film is still about a headstrong mermaid and her love for the land. The story still hinges, remarkably, on true love’s kiss. For the most part, this still feels like the comfortably old-fashioned fairy tale that the world fell in love with 35 years ago.

Oh, yes, we see some changes. Most of the media has focused on the diverse cast in play, but that’s a strength, not a weakness. The film also seeks to move Ariel out of damsel-in-distress territory and turn her into a hero in her own right; those choices can feel a little false in the context of the film, but I get the impulse. The new version unveils a couple of new, powerhouse songs that I’m assuming we’ll hear again come Oscar season.

Ironically, the family-friendly problems this film has, in fact, are more often than not drawn straight from the original rather than being shiny new additions. The skin we see is more problematic because it’s real; the scary, violent climax—jarring for a Disney animated film back in the day—is still pretty intense. The willful disobedience we see from Ariel and others shouldn’t be ignored, but those issues were certainly in full force from 1989, too. If anything, Disney’s dialed back the content, not dialed it up.

The movie doesn’t just take its forerunner and turn it into something new. It embraces it—and gives us something rather familiar.

And maybe the biggest question the movie leaves us with is a simple one: Why remake it at all?

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Disney’s live-action remakes of their beloved, animated classics have seemed like a shameless cash grab with uneven results. Rather than produce original content, the thinking appears to have been: “Here’s a thing people like already. Let’s just give it to them again in a slightly different form.” Some have been legitimately magical ( David Lowery ’s “Pete’s Dragon,” Kenneth Branagh ’s “Cinderella”), while others have been empty exercises in glossy, computer-generated imagery (“ Dumbo ,” last year’s atrocious “Pinocchio”).

“The Little Mermaid” is better than the vast majority of these movies, in that it stays true to the core of what people loved about the 1989 original while also expanding the story and characters in necessary ways. The literal fish-out-of-water tale of a mermaid who makes a Faustian bargain to explore the human world and pursue true love feels a little archaic in retrospect. Ariel is an inquisitive and rebellious teenager, but she basically goes from being a king’s daughter to being a prince’s wife. The classic Howard Ashman and Alan Menken tunes, which provide the heart and the backbone of the film, mostly remain intact here, including the insanely catchy, Oscar-winning “Under the Sea.” But in director Rob Marshall ’s version, Ariel has greater depth and complexity, and the young woman chosen to play her more than rises to the challenge.

Halle Bailey is radiant in the title role: Expressive, energetic and infinitely likable, with a mixture of girlish sweetness and womanly spine. She finds refreshing new avenues into songs, story beats and even specific lines of dialogue that longtime fans have cherished from the original. And her rendition of “Part of Your World,” a tune we’ve all heard countless times, is unexpectedly stirring. Bailey is up for everything this role demands of her, both physically and emotionally, and she deserves to be a major star.

She benefits greatly from the fact that this “Little Mermaid” offers deeper character development for both Ariel and Prince Eric, which makes their relationship make actual sense beyond a quick, superficial attraction. (This expansion also results in a film that’s nearly an hour longer than the original, but it moves at a decent clip.) David Magee ’s script provides parallels in how they’re both trying to break free of their protective parents’ expectations and assert their own identities and ambitions. As Eric, Jonah Hauer-King even gets his own “I Want” song, and there’s more to him than the typically blandly handsome Disney prince.

A quick recap in case it’s been a while: Ariel, the youngest of King Triton's seven daughters, longs to visit the surface world and learn about the wonders of humanity. Her father forbids this, believing people to be violent predators. She dares to defy him with the help of her fish friend, Flounder, and ends up rescuing the daring adventurer Prince Eric from a storm. Smitten, she agrees to a deal with the sea witch Ursula to trade in her transcendent voice for a pair of legs and a trip to the human world. If she can’t secure true love’s kiss by sundown on the third day, she’ll be beholden to Ursula forever.

This version of the fairy tale elaborates on Ariel’s bravery and big-heartedness. It also allows her to spend more time with Eric—who thinks she’s a stunned shipwreck victim and doesn’t realize she’s actually the one who saved him—and enjoy a more substantial connection. Having Ariel explain things about the ocean to the more experienced Eric, even wordlessly, is an inspired touch. So is the fact that she gets to exchange the uncomfortable, high-heeled boots she received at the castle for a pair of comfortable sandals. One of the clever touches allows Ariel to continue singing in her mind, so she’s not completely mute during her time in the surface world. And the way she gets Eric to figure out her name provides one of the movie’s many solid laughs.

The supporting players all step (or swim) into their parts in lively fashion. As always, Daveed Diggs has great timing and delivery as the crab Sebastian, who’s on assignment from King Triton to keep an eye on his daughter. Javier Bardem provides gravitas and tenderness to the role of the king. Awkwafina had big shoes to fill in taking over the Buddy Hackett role of the wisecracking seagull Scuttle and she brings her signature smart-ass persona. Along those lines, Melissa McCarthy tears it up as Ursula, taking over for the legendary voice actress Pat Carroll and putting her own spiky spin on the role.

But the visual effects are the film’s main weakness. Marshall certainly knows his way around a splashy musical, if you’ll pardon the pun. He was nominated for an Academy Award for “ Chicago ,” after all. But the underwater motion often looks flat and artificial in a way that’s distancing. This is especially true in trying to create the sensation of the mermaids’ long, lustrous hair billowing around them. The “Under the Sea” production number is bursting with vibrant colors, and the sea creatures’ elaborate choreography is a delight. But it doesn’t truly capture the feeling of being  under  the sea. Flounder, voiced by Jacob Tremblay , makes an especially awkward fit within the live-action setting, especially above the water’s surface.

In terms of underwater worlds, once you’ve been to Pandora, you can never go anywhere else. But the fictional Caribbean island where “The Little Mermaid” takes place is certainly a pleasant escape.

Available in theaters on May 26th. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Little Mermaid (2023)

135 minutes

Halle Bailey as Ariel

Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric

Daveed Diggs as Sebastian (voice)

Awkwafina as Scuttle (voice)

Jacob Tremblay as Flounder (voice)

Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina

Javier Bardem as King Triton

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula

Art Malik as Sir Grimsby

Jessica Alexander as Vanessa

Emily Coates as Rosa

Lin-Manuel Miranda as Chef Louis

• Rob Marshall
• David Magee
• Wyatt Smith

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The little mermaid, common sense media reviewers.

Superb, entertaining animated musical has some scary stuff.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Kids can try to name all the sea creatures -- crab

This movie places high value on romance and the co

Ariel is adventuresome, rebellious, and brave. She

On the positive side, Sebastian is voiced by a Bla

Ariel's father is imprisoned by the sea witch, Urs

The entire movie revolves around Ariel's crush on

Name-calling includes "idiot" and "tramp."

Ariel is a very popular Disney princess, whose bra

Characters handle a pipe.

Parents need to know that The Little Mermaid is based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story and has some scary moments. In a tense climactic scene, Ursula (voiced by Pat Carroll) grows into a giant and wields a trident with deadly intent. A bloodthirsty French chef (Rene Auberjonois) merrily chases…

Educational Value

Kids can try to name all the sea creatures -- crabs, oysters, dolphins, etc. -- when Sebastian sings "Under the Sea." They can also look up the original (much darker) story by Hans Christian Andersen and decide which version they like better.

Positive Messages

This movie places high value on romance and the concept of true love: Ariel is so enamored with Prince Eric that she sacrifices everything, from her family to her voice, in order to be part of his world. Many think this storyline is problematic because it reinforces the idea that a woman should give up her pursuits and opinions in deference to a man. But others can put this concept aside to enjoy the sweetness of the central character and the universal challenges of love. Other themes include curiosity and perseverance.

Positive Role Models

Ariel is adventuresome, rebellious, and brave. She also gives up everything -- her family, her home, her voice -- for love, even though her trust in the sea witch puts everyone she loves in danger. Eric doesn't show much of a personality. Sebastian is loyal and tries hard to help Ariel even though he doesn't agree with what she's doing. Ariel's father is protective and will do anything to help save his daughter.

Diverse Representations

On the positive side, Sebastian is voiced by a Black American actor (Samuel E. Wright) and is Trinidadian, at least according to his accent. Viewers also follow main characters who are women, like Ariel and Ursula, but they're pitted against each other, and Ariel's story is centered around romance. She's also fairly passive, needing to be kissed by Eric in order to break her curse. The film also dabbles in fatphobia and queerphobia: Ariel is extremely thin, while the villain is fat and queer-coded (Ursula is based on the drag queen Divine). Louis falls into French stereotypes of being a chef who has a thick accent (used for humor) and says phrases like "sacré bleu" and "zut alors."

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Ariel's father is imprisoned by the sea witch, Ursula, who, in the climactic scenes, grows larger than a ship and tries to crush it wielding a giant trident. Ursula brags about all the merpeople she's imprisoned, and those "poor unfortunate souls" are shown shrunken down and sad. A French chef runs around the kitchen after Sebastian the crab with a cleaver and merrily chops up other fish. Eric almost drowns when his ship sinks in stormy waters, and there's a frantic scene in which Ariel is chased by a great white shark. Arguments, destruction of beloved possessions, and tension. Spoiler alert! Ursula dies rather dramatically in the end.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The entire movie revolves around Ariel's crush on Prince Eric and her desire to be with him. One sweet-natured song is all about getting two characters to kiss. Mermen swim topless; mermaids wear shell bras. When Ariel transforms into a human, she's briefly naked from the waist down (sensitive areas are shadowed and/or underwater).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Ariel is a very popular Disney princess, whose brand reaches far and wide, with princess branding on consumer merchandise, food products, etc. as well as in books, websites, and other media.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Little Mermaid is based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story and has some scary moments. In a tense climactic scene, Ursula (voiced by Pat Carroll) grows into a giant and wields a trident with deadly intent. A bloodthirsty French chef ( Rene Auberjonois ) merrily chases after Sebastian the crab (Samuel E. Wright) with a cleaver, hoping to make him the main course. There are also scenes with storms, arguments, destruction of beloved possessions, and tension. Romance is central to the story, with Ariel ( Jodi Benson ) sacrificing everything, from her family to her voice, to (hopefully) be with the man she falls in love with at first glance. That aspect has long troubled some viewers, as has the film's fatphobia (main characters are extremely thin and/or muscled; villain Ursula is fat). Ariel is a very popular Disney princess with a brand that reaches far and wide. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (60)
• Kids say (96)

Based on 60 parent reviews

A classic that is being belittled by nonsensical complaints.

Not the movie i thought it was, what's the story.

THE LITTLE MERMAID tells the story of Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson ), a mermaid princess who's fascinated by humans, collecting their artifacts that she finds in the sea. One day, she rescues Prince Eric ( Christopher Daniel Barnes ), who was thrown from his ship during a storm -- and she falls in love. Desperate for the chance to have a life with Eric, Ariel enters into an agreement with a sea witch, Ursula (Pat Carroll). Ariel gives up her voice in exchange for legs, hoping to win Eric and become part of his world. But she only has three days to seal the deal. If he doesn't kiss her in that time, she'll belong to Ursula forever.

Is It Any Good?

After some lackluster years, Disney came back into the top rank of animated features with this superbly entertaining musical. Based loosely on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen (but with a much happier ending), The Little Mermaid 's princess was refreshingly plucky when the movie came out in 1989. Though Ariel still must wait for a prince's kiss for her dreams to come true, she shows spirit and curiosity, taking action in order to meet him.

The wonderful voice cast includes Buddy Hackett ( The Music Man ) as Scuttle the scavenging seagull and Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, the calypso-singing crab. The first-class musical score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (who also worked together on the off-Broadway hit Little Shop of Horrors ) ranks with the best of Broadway and won Oscars for Best Score and Best Song ("Under the Sea"). While The Little Mermaid does provide yet another wasp-waisted Disney princess whose whole world revolves around a man, Ariel is adventuresome, rebellious, and brave. And the fact that she makes the mistake of giving up her voice to the sea witch (a very strong female character, to say the least), provides a good opportunity for family discussion.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about villains and how The Little Mermaid portrays Ursula. Why is she both a little scary and a little fun?

Why do you think Ariel chooses to give up her voice (and her family) for Eric in The Little Mermaid ? Are you troubled by the message her decision sends about women and their priorities, or is that overthinking this kind of movie?

Talk about Disney princesses. How often do you see your favorite princesses on display when you're shopping ? Does watching this movie make you want to buy more Ariel stuff?

Why do you think Sebastian tries to help Ariel even though he doesn't agree with what she's doing?

How do the characters in The Little Mermaid demonstrate curiosity and perseverance ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 15, 1989
• On DVD or streaming : October 1, 2013
• Cast : Jodi Benson , Christopher Daniel Barnes , Samuel E. Wright
• Directors : Ron Clements , John Musker
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Book Characters , Music and Sing-Along , Ocean Creatures
• Character Strengths : Curiosity , Perseverance
• Run time : 83 minutes
• MPAA rating : G
• MPAA explanation : Nada que pueda ofender a los padres para ser visto por los niños.
• Last updated : January 31, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy Erase Any Doubts About This Remake’s See-Worthiness

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Every time Disney decides to redo one of its beloved library titles, a chorus of skeptics rise up to ask, “Why?” The advance pushback seemed especially strong with “The Little Mermaid,” which isn’t just any old Disney toon, but the one that launched the animation studio’s ’90s renaissance, kicking off a string of hits that included “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” nearly all of which have received the “live-action” remake treatment (never mind that some of these are every bit as animated as the films that inspired them — they’re meant to look like the cartoons have come to life).

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There’s nothing “little” about Marshall’s “Little Mermaid.” Running nearly an hour longer than the 1989 toon, it’s a veritable sea monster of a movie, dramatically expanding the above- and below-water realms of the Caribbean-set original, while adding songs and characters (e.g., Noma Dumezweni as the Queen) like so many barnacles to the hull of the ship. It loses some, too, shedding the “Daughters of Triton” and “Les Poissons” scenes. Personally, I’m not convinced that audiences want every blockbuster they see to feel bloated, but it certainly comes with the territory in these Disney remakes. (This one reportedly cost more than “Titanic.”)

Marshall takes a page from “Chicago” collaborator Bill Condon’s “Beauty and the Beast,” letting the fairy tale play out in ultra-stylized widescreen vistas, digitally rendered to within an inch of their life, such that we’re practically drowning in detail. Ariel’s tail alone — rainbow bright and free-flowing as a betta fish’s fins — feels like it required more computing power than it probably took for Neil Armstrong to reach the moon. Early teases shown in trailers and shoehorned into the Academy Awards telecast gave fans of the original reason to be wary, as the footage looks fairly garish when taken out of context. Heck, it’s garish in context, too, but at least there, it feels like part of Marshall’s maximalist vision.

Through it all, Bailey’s face pulls focus from her elaborate surroundings. She’s got bright Bambi eyes, long butterfly lashes and a radiant princess smile, the uncanny combination of which suggests a live-action cartoon character. While that’s hardly a prerequisite for these remakes, it’s a nice contrast with Ariel’s more naturalistic animal companions — tropical fish Flounder (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), ghost crab Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) and dim-witted northern gannet Scuttle (Awkwafina) — who look almost like the real deal.

Marshall makes the unfortunate decision to apply distracting visual effects to the deep-sea sequences, designed to fool our eyes into believing the actors did their work underwater: flowing CG hair, funny reflections and a lame “Snorks”-like filter, as if everything’s being seen through an aquarium. When the movie’s working, we don’t notice it, as for “Under the Sea,” a stunning sequence of Busby Berkeley-level complexity that suggests what a live-action “Fantasia” might look like. It’s audacious, but nowhere near as charming as “Kiss the Girl,” in which Marshall simplifies things, so we can follow how Sebastian and company are trying to bring Eric and Ariel together in this scene.

If Bailey is the film’s big discovery, then McCarthy is its no-brainer. Dolled up to look like Divine’s evil-stepsister in her glowing green lair, the comic star’s just delicious as the movie’s deep-sea villain. Her timing is impeccable, and though the part is virtually identical to the one Pat Carroll originated, she aces what’s demanded of these tricky remakes: Basically, McCarthy manages to hit every beat the super fans expect, while surprising with every pause and inflection. Between Bailey’s wide-eyed urchin and McCarthy’s over-the-top octo-hussy, the movie comes alive — not in some zombified form, like re-animated Disney debacles “Dumbo” and “Pinocchio,” but in a way that gives young audiences something magical to identify with, and fresh mermaid dreams to aspire to.

Reviewed at Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, May 8, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 135 MIN.

• Production: A Disney release and presentation of a Walt Disney Pictures, Lucamar Prods., Marc Platt Prods. production. Producers: Marc Platt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, John DeLuca, Rob Marshall. Executive producer: Jeffrey Silver.
• Crew: Director: Rob Marshall. Screenplay: David Magee. Camera: Dion Beebe. Editor: Wyatt Smith. Music: Alan Menken; lyrics; Howard Ashman, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
• With: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy.

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The Little Mermaid review: Halle Bailey swims (and sings) her way to stardom

The seaweed is actually greener this time.

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine , The Hollywood Reporter , and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight , is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

When it comes to thingamabobs, Disney 's got plenty, but as far as saving graces go, one tale rises to the surface.

In 1989, when The Little Mermaid made its initial box office bow, it reinvigorated Disney animation and launched what has been dubbed the Disney Renaissance. It marked the studio's first animated feature-length hit since 1977's The Rescuers and their first animated fairy tale since 1959's Sleeping Beauty, helping the floundering studio reestablish itself as a leader in the space. What's more, the music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman brought Broadway-style structure to the animated film, evolving the movie musical.

Nowadays, Disney is once again at a crossroads. The streaming bubble is bursting, the theatrical model remains in flux after the pandemic disruption, and an un-slaked thirst for quarterly profit growth is pushing the company to rely ever more heavily on provable IP. Disney has come under fire for a reliance on its own properties, the regurgitation of its animated hits in live-action remakes and lackluster churn of Marvel and Star Wars product. But a red-headed mermaid is here to save the day once more with a new take on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.

This iteration of The Little Mermaid is the studio's freshest catch since it kicked off this live-action trend with 2015's Cinderella, featuring refreshing storytelling that captures the magic of the original. Director Rob Marshall at last has found material that fits him as well as 2002's Chicago, his splashy theatrical style merging with the tropes of musical comedy and something darker around the edges. He even finds a spot for his "they're happening in someone's head" approach to numbers in new track "For the First Time," giving a voiceless Ariel a musical inner monologue.

As the titular mermaid yearning for a life beyond the sea, Ariel is at the heart of this. In Halle Bailey , Disney and Marshall mint a new star. Bailey is breathtaking as Ariel. Her rendition of "Part of Your World" (the best "I want" song ever written) transmogrifies the already classic tune into something as otherworldly as undiscovered sea life. But it's her altogether human performance that makes it impossible not to fall in love with her. Her Ariel is less a tempestuous teenager with a crush than she is a blossoming and curious young woman.

While Ariel's interest in the human world beyond Prince Eric was always implicit in the story, David Magee's screenplay and Bailey's visible hunger for a world beyond her gilded net makes it abundantly clear that Ariel's fascination with life on land isn't driven purely by interest in a man. Instead, she and Eric (a dashing Jonah Hauer-King ) are drawn to each other because of their mutual curiosity for worlds beyond their own. A new, quietly drawn scene where Eric shows the voiceless Ariel the wonders of his own trove of treasures untold fills in this point of connection between them with subtlety and beauty.

Much has been made of the film's attempts to erase any potentially problematic content, changing a lyric in "Kiss the Girl" to address consent concerns and eliminating the "body language" section of "Poor Unfortunate Souls." While they are unnecessary edits, they're not glaring and pass so quickly that unless you have sung this soundtrack from start to finish in the shower for most of your life, you will scarcely notice them.

What is marvelous is this more diverse world of characters and a new Disney princess in Bailey. Her Ariel is so radiant that she seems to possess the properties of bioluminescence, absolutely glowing in every scene. Like the screen actors of the past who began as silent creatures, conveying the panoply of human emotion with looks and gestures rather than dialogue, Bailey has a similar task for a portion of the film when Ariel gives up her voice. It's engrossing to watch how much story she can tell with only her eyes or the tilt of her head. It's a type of performance and incumbent stardom we rarely see anymore.

Eric is given more depth here, as well, his status as a shipwrecked orphan and interest in the world beyond sturdily grounded in Hauer-King's performance. His new song "Wild Uncharted Waters" — from Menken and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda — puts Eric's journey in parallel to Ariel's. Hauer-King elevates the character beyond a bland handsome face, while never pulling focus from Bailey's star turn.

Besides, Bailey's true foil isn't Hauer-King, it's Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian, the put-upon crab tasked with watching over her. Diggs rose to fame as the original Lafayette and Jefferson in Broadway's Hamilton , but he's parlayed that breakout into a range of roles. Where Lafayette and Jefferson were egotistical bombasts, Diggs' Sebastian is a neurotic crustacean with a heart far softer than his shell. His vocal performance is both funny and tender, lending the overwhelmed crab more dignity and humanity than his animated predecessor. He delivers his feature number, "Under the Sea," with glee and precision, resulting in a riotous air of celebration.

"Under the Sea" is the film's high-water mark — featuring choreography from more realistic sea life, including schools of fish, sea stars, and jellyfish, executing Broadway-level dance moves. The film credits the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the number evokes the Black joy and culture of the legendary dance company in a visual expression of the Caribbean timbre of the tune. It's a visual feast for the eyes, a veritable seafood buffet with swirling tableaus rife with vibrant coral and flashy fins. This chromatic kaleidoscope of sea life is a work of art unto itself, an irresistible backdrop for the film's iconic score and dazzling performances.

As sea witch Ursula, Melissa McCarthy is as enrapturing as her tentacles. She reels back some of her signature gross-out schtick and instead goes full drag-queen fabulous in a performance that feels like Drag Race by way of Norma Desmond. Marshall contains McCarthy's chaotic energy, allowing it to burst out in measured moments. Her Ursula is equal parts villainy and glamor, becoming something truly terrifying in her climactic transformation.

Magee's screenplay gives Ursula a more fleshed-out backstory as Triton's sister, but it could go further, as we never fully understand the tension and relationship between the two. That is partly the fault of Javier Bardem, who is the film's weakest link as a rather one-note King of the Sea, relying on his general air of menace. It's a disappointing turn from him, particularly given that Triton's arc should be one of the story's most compelling.

Awkwafina is appropriately grating as Scuttle, but in that, she's too reliant on her acting persona to take the place of character work. The new songs, from Menken and Miranda, largely fade into the background, overshadowed by the original score's classics, but "The Scuttlebutt," a rap number for Scuttle and Sebastian, is a standout. Miranda's signature style is abundantly evident and both Awkwafina and Diggs get to showcase their chops. (Though, it would've been nice for Diggs' extraordinary prowess and speed as a rapper to receive more of a showcase throughout the song.)

On the whole, The Little Mermaid does what past live-action remakes haven't: justify its existence beyond a blatant cash grab. It's not the new songs or even the dazzling visuals breathing new life into this watery world that do it. It's Bailey, her singular performance as Ariel, and the opportunity to give the world a Disney princess for a new generation, with all of the Mouse House whimsy on one side of the scales, and a depth and humanity that feels neither preachy nor performative on the other.

The human world, it's a mess, but with Halle Bailey, life under the sea is better than anything Disney live-action has done in nearly a decade. A-

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‘The Little Mermaid’ review

Disney live-action remakes have rarely hit the highs of their animated counterparts. ‘The Jungle Book’ started things off quite strongly but over the years the studio’s reality-infused movies really only served to remind us all of how beloved we find the original films. So imagine my surprise to find that Disney’s latest big screen offering not only matches the charm of its original, it actually manages to surpass it too. ‘The Little Mermaid’ is one of the best Disney live-action movies ever. Fresh, funny and feel-good throughout, it features a star-making turn from Halle Bailey. It’s a perfect family adventure and stunningly beautiful to look at.

The plot is familiar to all who loved the classic 1989 original. Young Ariel (Halle Bailey), a mermaid, lives a happy life under the sea with her friends Flounder (Jacob Tremblay), Scuttle (Awkwafina) and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs). One of King Triton’s (Javier Bardem) daughters, Ariel dreams of surface life and getting to know humankind. But Triton specifically forbids her from ever going to the surface, because he believes all humans are bad in nature.

One fateful day, a trading ship returning home from a far-flung voyage crashes, and its crew are in big trouble. Amongst them is Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) an idealistic explorer who falls into the sea. He is saved from drowning by Ariel and the two instantly connect. Once ashore, Eric alerts his palace staff to mount a search for the young woman who saved his life. But forbidden to ever see him again by her father, a frustrated Ariel fears she will never get to be with Eric, and gets enchanted by her estranged Aunt Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). She promises to help Ariel find her one true love, but that what fateful cost?

‘The Little Mermaid’ looks sumptuous throughout and is one of the most aesthetically pleasing Disney live-action movies ever made. Every frame is gorgeous, with beauty running throughout in even the minutest of details. The on-location shoots in Italy find some spectacular locales to fully fuel your wanderlust, whilst the CGI is solid and only ever enhances the narrative – it never defines it. That’s a tricky thing to pull off, but ‘The Little Mermaid’ knows exactly which way to go. That’s largely down to Rob Marshall’s assured direction. The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Chicago’ and ‘Into The Woods’ helmer knows how to do spectacle on a big scale and delivers a wonderfully immersive experience for the whole family.

As beautiful as the movie is, it’s the heart and soul of the story that really sings onscreen, and that’s down to a star-making performance by Halle Bailey. She is truly superb in this film. A generational talent that is sure to have a long and illustrious career, Bailey is sensational. Her performance is sweet and humorous, whilst her singing is siren-like and completely captivating. The chemistry she shares with Jonah Hauer-King as Eric is also so well realised, with the two making a true, classic Disney coupling that’s easy to champion and wonderful to watch. The two leads are fantastic and completely sell the magic of the story.

The ensemble is delightful too. Art Malik is excellent as the sage Sir Grimsby, Noma Dumezweni is regal as The Queen. Melissa McCarthy clearly has fun playing Ursula and (especially towards the end of the film) manages to deliver some very powerful moments as the sea witch. Awkwafina delivers her usual brand of comedic timing to the mix and Jacob Tremblay channels the sweet nature of Flounder very well. Casting Javier Bardem as Triton was a genius move and he adds grandeur and presence to the story, whist Jessica Alexander is utterly bewitching as the mysterious Vanessa. Sebastian is one of Disney’s most beloved modern characters, voiced so memorably by Samuel E. Wright in the animated original. Daveed Diggs not only does the legacy of the character justice, but he also steals every single scene he’s in. Hilarious and heartfelt, Diggs is amazing here, and will be the most memorable part of your viewing experience.

With spectacle made for the big screen (especially in IMAX), and beautiful songs that both update the originals and adds something new to the mix, ‘The Little Mermaid’ is a wonderful family adventure that is exactly the type of movie Disney should be making more of. Watch ‘The Little Mermaid’ and rediscover the magic of the sea, with Halle Bailey leading the film in truly magical fashion and delivering a performance that’s bursting full of fairytale enchantment.

Cast: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Art Malik, Noma Dumezweni, Melissa McCarthy, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Javier Bardem, Jessica Alexander Director: Rob Marshall Writer: David Magee Certificate: PG Duration: 135 mins Released by: Disney Release date: 26th May 2023

• Daveed Diggs
• Halle Bailey
• Jacob Tremblay
• Javier Bardem
• Jonah Hauer-King
• Melissa McCarthy
• Noma Dumezweni

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‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: The Renovations Are Only Skin Deep

Disney’s live-action remake, with Halle Bailey starring as Ariel and a diverse cast, is a dutiful corrective with noble intentions and little fun.

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‘The Little Mermaid’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Rob marshall narrates the “under the sea” sequence from his film, featuring halle bailey and daveed diggs..

Hi, I’m Rob Marshall, and I’m the director of ‘The Little Mermaid.’ So this is about two minutes into the musical number ‘Under the Sea,’ which was the most challenging musical number I’ve ever created because you have one live actor — I mean, there she is Ariel, played by Halle Bailey. And introducing dance into a sequence is so complicated because it has to feel seamless. It has to feel organic. It can’t feel applied. So right about here, as the turtles start to move, then you see, O.K., there’s a little bit of dance starting to happen. The tricky part about this was because I only had one live actor, I needed some dancers or something to work from. And I took a page out of Walt Disney’s playbook, and I worked with the Alvin Ailey Company. He had worked with the Ballet Russe Company when he created ‘Fantasia.’ And I thought that was such a brilliant idea. So I worked with the Alvin Ailey Company, brought them to London so we could create all these sea creature moves on something so our artists, our CGI artists, could actually use them as a template, which was incredible. And then we found all these sea creatures that actually lent themselves to dance naturally. These are all real sea creatures. So right there you have mimic octopus and flatworms. Here we’re moving into a bioluminescent world. We had the Alvin Ailey Company using umbrellas and, literally, ribbons, streamers hanging from them so that they could literally create this idea of jellyfish. But all of this, every moment of this was choreographed. And it was so complicated because everything was done on counts. It wasn’t sort of just like, well, let’s just let them do whatever they want. Every moment of it was strategically choreographed by myself, John DeLuca, and our choreographers. [‘UNDER THE SEA’]: — music to me. Music is to me — There’s one moment actually coming up here right here — [‘UNDER THE SEA’]: — hot crustacean band — — that, literally, the CGI artist said it’s the most creatures they’ve ever had ever onscreen. But it was really about protecting and celebrating this beautiful number. Here’s a nautilus shell that we tried to create a la Busby Berkeley. But I really just wanted to make sure that we were doing justice to this incredible number but also bringing a photoreal, exciting world to life.

By Wesley Morris

The new, live-action “The Little Mermaid” is everything nobody should want in a movie: dutiful and defensive, yet desperate for approval. It reeks of obligation and noble intentions. Joy, fun, mystery, risk, flavor, kink — they’re missing. The movie is saying, “We tried!” Tried not to offend, appall, challenge, imagine . A crab croons, a gull raps, a sea witch swells to Stay Puft proportions: This is not supposed to be a serious event. But it feels made in anticipation of being taken too seriously. Now, you can’t even laugh at it.

The story comes from Hans Christian Andersen, and when Disney made a cartoon musical of it in 1989, the tale’s tragedy and existential wonder got swapped for Disney Princess Syndrome, wherein one subjugation is replaced with another, an even exchange redrawn as liberating love. But the people who drew it had a ball with the hooey.

In both movies, the mermaid Ariel wants out of her widowed father’s underwater kingdom and into the arms of the earthbound merchant prince whom she rescues in a shipwreck. Her father forbids, but that sea-witch, Ursula, fulfills Ariel’s wish, giving her three days to procure a kiss from that prince and remain human or spend the rest of her life enslaved to Ursula. Somehow mirth and music ensue. In the original, that’s thanks mostly to Ariel’s talking Caribbean crab guardian, Sebastian, and her Noo Yawky dingbat sea gull pal, Scuttle.

This remake injects some contemporary misfortune (humans despoil the water, we’re told). It also packs on another 52 minutes and three new songs, trades zany for demure and swaps vast animated land- and seascapes for soundstagey sets and screensavery imagery. They’re calling it “live-action,” but the action is mostly CGI. There’s no organic buoyancy. On land, Ariel can walk but can’t speak, which means whoever’s playing her needs a face that can. Achieving that was a piece of cake in the cartoon. Ariel could seem bemused, enchanted, bereft, coquettish, alarmed, aghast, elated. And her scarlet mane was practically a movie unto itself.

Now Ariel is in the singer Halle Bailey’s hands. And it’s not that she can’t keep par with the original’s illustrators. It’s that this movie isn’t asking her to. It takes the better part of an hour for the flesh-and-blood Ariel to go mute. And when she does, whatever carbonation Bailey had to begin with goes flat. This Ariel has amnesia about needing that kiss, taking “cunning” off the table for Bailey, too.

With her sister, Bailey is half of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle. They’ve got a chilling, playful approach to melody that Bailey can’t fully unleash in this movie. For one thing, she’s got two songs, one of which — the standard “Part of Your World” — does manage to let her quaver some toward the end. But what’s required of her doesn’t differ radically from what Jodi Benson did in the first movie. Ostensibly, though, Bailey has been cast because her Ariel would differ. Bailey’s is Black, with long copper hair that twists, waves and locks. Racially, the whole movie’s been, what, opened up? Diversified? Now, Ariel’s rueful daddy, King Triton, is played by a stolid Javier Bardem, who does all the king’s lamenting in Spanish-inflected English. Instead of the Broadway chorines of the original, her mermaid siblings are a multiethnic, runway-ready General Assembly.

The prince, Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), is white, English and now seems to have more plot than Ariel. “More” includes meals with his mother, Queen Selina ( Noma Dumezweni ), who’s Black, as is her chief servant, Lashana (Martina Laird). The script, credited to David Magee, John DeLuca, and the director Rob Marshall, informs us that the queen has adopted the prince (because somebody knew inquiring minds would need to know). As the bosomy, tentacled Ursula, who’s now Triton’s banished, embittered sister, Melissa McCarthy puts a little pathos in the part’s malignancy. She seems like she’s having a fine time, a little Bette Midler, a little Mae West, a little Etta James. And the sight of her racing toward the camera in a slithery gush of arms and fury is the movie’s one good nightmare image. But even McCarthy seems stuck in a shot-for-shot, growl-for-growl tribute to her cartoon counterpart and Pat Carroll’s vocal immortalization of it.

The animated version was about a girl who wanted to leave showbiz. She and her sisters performed follies basically for King Triton’s entertainment. The songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken aimed for the American Songbook’s Disney wing. The voices and evocations were Vegas and vaudeville. Dry land was, entertainment-wise, a lot dryer, but that was all right with Ariel. This new flesh-and-blood version is about a girl who’d like to withdraw her color from the family rainbow and sail off into “uncharted waters” with her white prince.

What’s really been opened up, here? For years now, Disney’s been atoning for the racism and chauvinism and de facto whiteness of its expanded catalog (it owns Pixar and Marvel, too), in part by turning its nettlesome cartoons into live-action corrections. This is important, culturally reparative work from a corporation that, lately, has more steadily inched humanity away from bottom-line priorities; consequently, it has found itself at war with the governor of Florida, where Disney World lives. Onscreen, though, that correctness tends to smell like compromise. For every “Moana,” “Coco” or “Encanto” — original, wondrous, exuberant animated musicals about relationships and cultures Disney didn’t previously notice or treat with care — there’s something timid and reactive like this.

The brown skin and placeable accents don’t make the movie more fun, just utopic and therefore less arguable. Now, what you’ve got is something closer to the colorblind wish fulfillment of the Shonda Rhimes streaming universe, minus the wink-wink, side-eye and carnality. This “Little Mermaid” is a byproduct. The colorization hasn’t led to a racialized, radicalized adventure. It’s not a Black adaptation, an interpretation that imbues white material with Black culture until it’s something completely new; it’s not “The Wiz.” It’s still a Disney movie, one whose heroine now, sigh, happens to be Black. There is some audacity in that. Purists and trolls have complained. They don’t want the original tampered with, even superficially. They don’t want it “woke.” The blowback is, in part, Bailey’s to shoulder. And her simply being here confers upon her a kind of heroism, because it does still feels dangerous to have cast her. Sadly, the haters don’t have much to worry about.

You don’t hire Rob Marshall for radical rebooting. He can do visual chaos and costume kitsch (“Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Into the Woods”). He can do solid. And he can usually give you a good set piece while he’s at it. This time, it’s the rowboat scene in which Ariel shows Eric how to say her name, a scene that produces “Kiss the Girl,” the calypso number that Sebastian (voiced with an island accent by Daveed Diggs) sings to cajole Eric into planting one on Ariel and unwittingly restoring her voice. (The lyrics have been tweaked to add more consent.) It’s the swooniest things get.

Otherwise, the movie’s worried — worried about what we’ll say, about whether they got it right. That allergy to creative risk produces hazards anyway. I mean, with all these Black women running around in a period that seems like the 19th century, the talk of ships and empire, Brazil and Cartagena just makes me wonder about the cargo on these boats. And this plot gets tricky with a Black Ariel. When Ursula pulls a fast one and reinvents herself as Vanessa, a sexy rival who appears to be white and woos Eric with a siren song in Ariel’s voice, there’s a whole American history of theft and music to overthink, too.

It’s really a misery to notice these things. A 9-year-old wouldn’t. But one reason we have this remake is that former 9-year-olds, raised on and besotted with these original Disney movies, grew up and had questions. In that sense, “The Little Mermaid” is more a moral redress than a work of true inspiration. Which isn’t to say there’s nothing inspired about it. In fact, the best sequence in the movie combines these ambitions of so-called inclusion with thornier American musical traditions. It’s the moment when Scuttle reveals that Eric’s about to marry Ursula.

The song that breaks this news to Ariel and Sebastian is a rap called “The Scuttlebutt” with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And Awkwafina, who does Scuttle’s voice, performs most of it while Bailey looks on in what I’m going to call anguish. Here’s an Asian American performer whose shtick is a kind of Black impersonation, pretending to be a computer-generated bird, rhythm-rapping with a Black American man pretending to be a Caribbean crab. It’s the sort of mind-melting mess that feels honest and utterly free in its messiness, even as the mess douses a conveniently speechless Black woman.

Watching it, you realize why the rest of the movie plays it so safe. Because fun is some risky business. This is a witty, complex, exuberant, breathless, deeply American number that’s also the movie’s one moment of unbridled, unabashed delight. And I can’t wait to see how Disney’s going to apologize for it in 34 years.

The Little Mermaid Rated PG. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes. In theaters.

Wesley Morris is a critic at large and the co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the culture podcast “Still Processing.” He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for criticism, including in 2021 for a set of essays that explored the intersection of race and pop culture. More about Wesley Morris

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Is The Little Mermaid (2023) Kid Friendly? Parents Guide

By: Author tanialamb

Posted on Published: September 11, 2023

Wondering if Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid (2023) is ok for kids? Some scenes may be more intense for little ones, but overall The Little Mermaid is a beautiful film for the whole family. Some may be tired from live-action remake fatigue, but Halle Bailey does such an incredible job, it feels fresh and new. Here’s what parents need to know in this parents guide to The Little Mermaid .

The Little Mermaid Parents Guide: Is it OK for Kids?

Just like in the animated The Little Mermaid, the youngest of King Triton’s (Javier Bardem) daughters, Ariel (Halle Bailey), longs to find out more about the human world beyond the sea. While visiting the surface, she falls for the handsome and kind Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King). King Triton forbids Ariel to interact with humans, but Ariel decides to follow her heart.

She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), which gives her a chance to experience life on land with legs, but she is risking everything, including her family.

Parents need to know that the live-action The Little Mermaid is more mature and more intense than the animated version. 

Age Rating: Why is The Little Mermaid Rated PG? 

The Little Mermaid is rated PG for action, peril, and scary images which means some content may not be suitable for all kids.

Language in The Little Mermaid

There is no profanity in The Little Mermaid , but words like stupid, idiot, and fool are used. 

Action: Is The Little Mermaid Too Scary for Kids? 

There are a couple of jump scare scenes in The Little Mermaid 2023 which may be too scary for kids, including a scene with a shark and scenes with Ursula. One is where she takes Ariel’s voice and another is the last battle scene.

Violence is moderate for a Disney movie, but with CGI, the scenes in the animated film are more intense and can seem more realistic in the live-action version if watching on the big screen. Some young ones may want to hide their eyes during certain parts.

The last battle scene with Ursula can get intense as she grows in size and tries to kill Ariel and Eric. 

One character is electrocuted and shrivels to nothing.

Mature Content: Is The Little Mermaid Kid Friendly? 

With a runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes, The Little Mermaid is a little long for younger kids, and it may be hard to keep their attention. Kids younger than 5 may have some trouble sitting still.

There is some romance and flirting and characters kiss. 

In one scene Ariel is naked when she gets feet, but sensitive body parts are covered up with hair and nets. 

Ariel and King Triton have daddy/daughter issues and themes of death, independence, trust, and family are prevalent. 

Is The Little Mermaid Appropriate for Kids Under 8?

In The Little Mermaid you can expect to see some scary scenes, characters that act defiant to a parent, and mild bad language used by some characters. To sum it up, The Little Mermaid is kid friendly for kids ages 8 and up. While the live-action version is more mature and longer, kids younger than that can be fine watching as long as parents are ok with the content.

Why is The Little Mermaid 2023 rated PG? Mostly for some scary images and violence. 

After seeing some previews and looking at what they did to poor Flounder with the CGI, I wasn’t terribly excited to watch but was still cautiously optimistic. Hearing Halle Bailey’s voice and watching her embrace the innocent yet strong-willed Ariel changed my mind. 

Whenever a live-action remake comes out, some people complain that not enough of the story was changed or too much was changed. In The Little Mermaid , I thought it was just the right amount. 

Kids will adore seeing The Little Mermaid and Ursula back on their screens. The film is fresh, delivers emotion, and is a definite top 3 Disney live-action remake. 

The songs and music hit the right notes mixing classics with new additions while also sticking to the themes of the film. The Scuttlebutt may not have been a personal favorite, but it was one of my younger daughter’s. Different notes for different folks.

The CGI can be distracting. It was too much of a cross between trying to be realistic and animation, never finding the right balance. I didn’t necessarily believe I was under the sea, but also it’s a story about mermaid, so…

Some may and will not agree, but The Little Mermaid is wonderful, and I’m so glad they made it. Will it be enough to get people to the theater without a white Ariel with red flowing hair? I sure hope so. But their loss if they don’t.

With the longer runtime, they were able to develop Ariel and Eric’s relationship more, and base it more off a friendship, which adds to the authenticity. 

Daveed Diggs as Sebastian is hilarious with some great quotes and is a scene-stealer. Jonah Hauer-King is adorable and charming as Prince Eric, and Melissa McCarthy kills it as Ursula. I had no complaints with any of the casting. I rather enjoyed watching a prince pining for a mermaid. But I am still salty about Flounder’s appearance.

Halle. Halle is Ariel, totally and completely. Her voice and performance gave me chills. Watch and you’ll see, she’ll be part of your world.

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Were we all wrong about Disney's Little Mermaid?

We take it all back... almost.

Ah, The Little Mermaid. Many have been waiting for Disney's lastest live-action plus CGI remake with some trepidation, and I confess that includes us. But now the movie has finally been released, could we all be proven wrong? The reviews suggest we could.

Critics have lavished praise on Halle Bailey's performance as Ariel in early comments on Twitter , while also commending the music. But what about the character design ?

First, there were those terribly badly edited posters , and then there was the shock of being presented with disturbing realistic-looking Little Mermaid character designs for the supporting cast of aquatic creatures. It was all looking quite worrying.

But while the CGI is still dividing people in early reviews on Twitter, that doesn't seem to detract from praise for the film overall, thanks to the music and individual performances. It's "Disney's best live-action adaptation, in that it succeeds not just as nostalgia but as an often stunning film in its own right," YouTuber Grace Randolph wrote on Twitter after the premiere.

“The Little Mermaid is a live-action remake that retains the heart and soul of the story we know and love, and it’s elevated even further by a note-perfect, star-making performance from Halle Bailey,” the critic Zoe Rose Bryant wrote  “She was born to be on the big screen and she’s why this new take is worth watching.”

Daveed Diggs’ voice work as Sebastian the crab has also been singled out for praise. and we can see in the clip above that Sebastian the crab does seem to have a lot of character. Nevertheless, I still find him a bit creepy myself, and it seems others do too.

It may look visually rough under the sea, but THE LITTLE MERMAID eventually recreates some of the original’s magic through its timeless story & cast. Daveed Diggs & Melissa McCarthy are highlights but Halle Bailey is the one astonishes with her gorgeous singing & empathetic charm pic.twitter.com/DhmmtOLaLJ May 9, 2023

The new little mermaid looks sooooooo fucking bad. Like. Absolutley atrocious. Worst cgi I've seen sense 2010. Whoever rendered ariels hair is completely out of touch with reality and water physics. I mean there's just no excuse. May 13, 2023

There's a little longer to wait to see for yourself. The Little Mermaid will be released on May 25. Then we'll be able to decide for sure whether it will join the most controversial character designs .

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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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Review: Halle Bailey makes a lovely ‘Little Mermaid,’ but this remake is less than shipshape

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“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.” The line springs from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” and it also graces the opening moments of Disney’s latest feature-length spin on that immortal fairy tale. Arriving amid mighty cascading walls of water and a few notes from Alan Menken’s justly beloved, mildly refurbished score, the quote is a classy if disingenuous flourish. Much like the studio’s 1989 hand-drawn touchstone , this ostensibly live-action but heavily digitized redo takes a famously tragic story and spins it into a drama of reckless teenage empowerment, populated by colorful under-the-sea critters and set to a rousing calypso beat. It has, in short, almost nothing to do with Hans Christian Andersen, and even less to do with suffering.

Unless, that is, you’re easily tormented by the sights and sounds of a peerless animated classic being padded, mimicked and CGI-fortified into a half-diverting, half-dispiriting retread of itself. Still, insofar as the animated “Little Mermaid” is easily the best movie to emerge from Disney’s late 20th century renaissance (bite me, “Beauty and the Beast” stans), this do-over is not entirely devoid of charm or amusement, including the unintentional kind. A mermaid may have no tears, but I did shed a few laughing whenever a breastplated, fish-tailed Javier Bardem showed up, solemnly peering out from behind a fake-looking curtain of hair and doing his best helicopter-dad grimace.

Bardem plays King Triton, though with his sternness of mien and delivery, he can’t help but channel one of his most famous roles: Call it “No Country for Old Mermen,” with a magical trident in lieu of a cattle gun. Triton is a wise ocean ruler, though he gets along less than swimmingly with Ariel (Halle Bailey), the most adventurous and impetuous of his teenage daughters. To her father’s chagrin, Ariel is obsessed with the human world, all the more so because access to that world is strictly forbidden to her and other merfolk. “I wanna be where the people are,” she sings in her secret grotto, where she keeps a small museum’s worth of human artifacts salvaged from nearby shipwrecks.

That tune, “Part of Your World,” remains one of the glorious highlights of Menken’s song score and — along with the equally singable “Under the Sea,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and “Kiss the Girl” — a testament to the enduring brilliance of the late lyricist Howard Ashman . It also serves as the first real test of this movie’s mettle, and especially of Bailey’s performance in the title role. Perched on the ocean floor, her long green tail shimmering and her long rust-red hair flowing out behind her, this Ariel is a familiar but luminous vision — defiantly pro-human as ever, yet also a gentler kind of rebel spirit than her animated predecessor. Crucially, too, Bailey has the set of pipes that every Ariel needs and a gift for modulating her emotions through music, shifting from a rich, confident vibrato one moment to a hesitant quaver the next.

If Bailey is less expressive in her non-singing moments — a flaw built into the story itself, once Ariel is magically divested of her voice — she nonetheless makes an empathetic, eminently see-worthy heroine. Not everyone will agree, which is fine. Ridiculously, some chose to disagree from the moment they heard a Black actor would be playing a character originally conceived as white — a choice that naturally affronted a lot of racists (or, as they’d surely like to think of themselves, purists). The dispiriting torrent of abuse directed at Bailey’s casting has revealed a lot about how rigidly (and yet so selectively!) protective some fans can get about their precious childhood totems. Speaking as someone with no small attachment to “The Little Mermaid” himself, I’m mystified anyone would be more appalled by the idea of a Black mermaid than, say, the complete omission of Chef Louis and “Les Poissons.” Now there’s an outrage.

Otherwise, for the most part, this “Little Mermaid” flows as you’d expect it to — though, at north of two hours (compared with the original’s 83 minutes), it flows a good deal more slowly. Ariel’s anthropological interest in humans morphs into full-blown romantic longing once she lays eyes on the hunky Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King, dashing yet drippy) and rescues him when his ship capsizes in a storm. From there, it doesn’t take long for her to tumble into a trap laid by Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), the many-tentacled sea witch who puts the poulpe in this fiction. Ursula transforms Ariel into a human, but only for three days (with an option to extend if Eric smooches her), and minus her voice. This bargain, if that’s the word, comes straight from the original movie, though by now it sounds like a challenge straight out of reality TV.

Funnily enough, McCarthy’s Ursula has been robbed of some of her own voice, and not just because her high vocal pitch is a far cry from the great Pat Carroll’s deep, insinuating contralto. “Yes on land, it’s much preferred / for ladies not to say a word,” Ursula once sang in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” — a passage that’s been excised here, likely in response to the ludicrous concern that kids might be swayed by a villain’s anti-feminist rant. That excess of caution is also apparent in the more timid, buttoned-up way McCarthy’s Ursula has been visualized: She’s a far cry from Ursula the memorably Divine-inspired queer icon, with her full red lips, heaving breasts and air of vampily seductive menace.

The problem, to be sure, isn’t that the director Rob Marshall and the screenwriter David Magee (who last collaborated on the misbegotten “Mary Poppins Returns” ) have deviated too much from a sacred text. On the contrary, it’s that they haven’t deviated from it nearly enough. What’s on-screen too often feels like wan, second-rate imitation, and the few differences seem motivated less by a spirit of imagination than one of joyless anxiety.

Here and there Magee does attempt something narratively novel, as when he hints at a long history of aggression between Triton’s merpeople and their human adversaries — an underdeveloped thread that nonetheless hints at a deeper mythology. He’s also tried to make Ariel a tougher, more confrontational heroine, and to give Eric a more vulnerable, full-bodied character arc. (To that end, the prince is given a new song, written by Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose title and tune I can’t remember; you won’t, either.) For all that, there’s a genuine warmth and freshness to the moments when Eric begins to fall for the human Ariel, including a charming new scene in which they pore over books and maps in his personal library.

This “Little Mermaid” could afford to take more such liberties. I’d suggest a few brutal ones myself: For starters, cut out or kill off Sebastian the worrywart crab (Daveed Diggs) and Flounder the friendly flatfish (Jacob Tremblay), two visually unappealing reminders that some things — some gloriously cartoonish things — simply don’t translate well into creepily dead-eyed photorealist form. (Exhibit A: the entire cast of 2019’s pointless remake of “The Lion King.” ) Awkwafina can stay on as Scuttle the endearingly bird-brained seagull, though her annoying rap number should probably sleep with the CGI fishes.

Marshall has never been a great musical stylist; even “Chicago,” his Oscar-winning debut feature, was a chopped-up eyesore, and his “Into the Woods” was so murky in parts it may as well have been shot under the sea itself. “The Little Mermaid,” as filmed by Marshall’s regular cinematographer, Dion Beebe, has its visually garish moments, most of them in an underwater kingdom that looks like especially thin soup next to the recent “Avatar: The Way of Water.” But down in the depths it does find stray passages of beauty — in the fabric-like plumage of the mermaids’ tails and especially in the pull-out-the-stops staging of “Under the Sea,” still the movie’s most rousing number. Presented as a coral-reef explosion of color and aquatic wildlife that almost approaches the original’s surreal, kaleidoscopic grandeur, it’s a bouillabaisse that Busby Berkeley would be proud of.

‘The Little Mermaid’

Rating: PG, for action/peril and some scary images Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes Playing: Starts May 26 in general release

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'The Little Mermaid' is the latest of Disney's poor unfortunate remakes

Aisha Harris

Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid — the studio's latest blatant cash-grab. Giles Keyte/Disney hide caption

Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid — the studio's latest blatant cash-grab.

Search for " The Little Mermaid side-by-side," and you'll land upon several user-created videos drawing visual comparisons between Disney's 1989 hand-drawn animated hit and the trailer for the new star-studded "live-action" remake directed by Rob Marshall. Many of the shots – Ariel breaching the water's surface while dramatically tossing her long red locks behind her, for one – are so eerily similar in composition that they almost present as carbon copies.

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This is, of course, by design; the studio wants viewers to notice its ongoing commitment to recycling. At this point, Disney has its formula down pat: Take one of its beloved traditionally animated properties, update its sensibilities for modern audiences just a bit, recast it with a bunch of familiar faces and voices, and rehash it all in "live-action"/CGI form. And over the last couple of decades, it's consistently worked, often to the maniacal tune of around a billion dollars at the box office.

To paraphrase Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian: Disney, hmph! We give it an inch, and it swims all over us!

Time will tell if Marshall's Little Mermaid will make a billion dollars – I certainly wouldn't bet against it – but the rest of the ingredients in this superfluous seafood stew have already been stirred into the pot. The movie stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, the headstrong merprincess obsessed with the human world and who longs to be a part of it, much to her anti-human merfather King Triton's (Javier Bardem) chagrin. So when she falls in love with the handsomely bland human prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), she makes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), the slinky sea witch, and trades in her voice to become a human herself.

Halle Bailey as Ariel and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid. Disney hide caption

But there's a catch; a mute Ariel must woo Eric enough to grant her a kiss of true love within three days, or else she'll be back under the sea and under Ursula's control. (In a tweak from the original movie, Ursula slips a mickey in Ariel's spell that makes it so she's unable to remember needing that kiss; I, for one, did not have Ursula 2.0 being even dastardlier on my Disney live-action reheats bingo card.) With the help of her faithful animal sidekicks Flounder (Jacob Tremblay), Sebastian (Daveed Diggs, who made the baffling choice to keep the faux Caribbean-ish patois), and Awkwafina (who, thankfully, no longer has that Blaccent ), Ariel ultimately gets her man, her voice, and her father on her side.

The primary function of this cynical exercise is to induce in viewers a warped combination of nostalgia and déjà vu, so as such, there are only two ways to measure its merits. The first is to stack it up against its peers; in this case, The Little Mermaid 2.0 is not oppressively atrocious in the way Aladdin 2.0 and Pinocchio 2.0 are. Like the decent Beauty and the Beast 2.0, there are a handful of moments and a performance or two that manage to stand out amid the cacophony of uncanny, deadening CGI. McCarthy's Ursula feels both akin to Pat Carroll's indelible voice performance in the original and, at certain moments, stands on its own, especially during the perfect villain song "Poor Unfortunate Souls."

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid. Disney hide caption

When measured against its origin story, however, Little Mermaid suffers from the same ailments almost all of these remakes have: Being "progressive" while also creatively uninspired. Unlike the 1989 version, (mer)people of color abound; Noma Dumezweni plays Prince Eric's mom, and Ariel's sisters appear to be of various races and ethnicities. Much ado has been made about Bailey's casting as Ariel, as she's only the first Black Disney princess since Disney's first official Black princess Tiana, in The Princess and the Frog .

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It's certainly lovely and, to a degree, important that a new generation of kids will have Bailey to look to, just as my generation had Brandy in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella . Yet while Bailey is charming and expressive, her interpretation of Ariel doesn't fully embrace the edgier, mischievous side of the character that came across so clearly in the 1989 version's animation and as voiced by Jodi Benson. Nor can a Black Ariel make up for subpar renditions of classic songs (the vibrant Oscar-winner "Under the Sea" is dead in the water here) and the cringe-y addition of new songs by the studio's current go-to music man Lin-Manuel Miranda, which include a dull, forgettable ballad for Prince Eric and a ridiculous "rap" for Scuttle and Sebastian called – wait for it – "The Scuttlebutt." Or the fact that the underwater scenes have a flattened sheen reminiscent of video games circa the early 2000s.

Javier Bardem as King Triton in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid. Disney hide caption

At this point, I'll note it was awfully difficult to resist playing along with Disney's game and doing a straight-up copy-and-paste of my past lamentations of its remake rut for this review: How " an old wealthy businessman " has seemingly put a terrible curse on the studio, dooming it to an eternity of recycling old properties. How the last century of Disney's massive cultural influence on beauty standards, racial stereotypes, and gender roles will not be magically undone by attempts to "correct" for its past sins in bloated remakes. How it should go after its forgotten/cult films rather than messing with the classics. (Be careful what you wish for because you will end up living in a world where a dreadful Aladdin remake and a Questlove-directed "live-action" The Aristocats co-exist.)

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I've barely managed to avoid self-plagiarizing, but this is where we are at this point. The behemoth is so barnacled to this tired playbook that it took less than a decade to announce it will remake the Little Mermaid -inspired 2016 hit Moana . (Come on, at least give the kids of that era a chance to graduate high school first!) So long as the studio keeps churning these things out, the experiences as a viewer will remain the same. But, hey, at least the formula is working well for one of us – Disney, obviously. My nostalgia for the 1989 Little Mermaid , a movie I can quote by heart, has probably never been stronger than it is now. Neither has my wearied sense of déjà vu.

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Movie Review: The Little Mermaid

The movie doesn’t just take its forerunner and turn it into something new. It embraces it—and gives us something familiar.

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Review: Disney returns to familiar waters with 'The Little Mermaid'

“The Little Mermaid” ushered in Walt Disney Studios Feature Animation’s Renaissance Era . It also happens to be one of two films that I watched on the first date with my better half.

Surely detractors will come forward to fling bricks at director Rob Marshall’s (“Chicago”) for remaking this pop culture classic. Marshall and his collaborators, co-writers David Magee and John DeLuca, craft a story more in line metaphorically with today’s time.

By now, the controversy caused by casting Halle Bailey , who is Black, as a red-haired mermaid, raised the ire of the reality police.  Because, you know, mermaids are seen every day.

It was special then and attempting to tinker with a such a touchstone in many people’s lives could have been problematic in the live action remake that opens this weekend.

They will come for a story that leans into the Caribbean roots so evident in the persona of the scene-stealing crab Sebastian (voiced by Tony Award-winning actor Daveed Diggs ]. The island locale lends itself to telling the story of cultures clashing and attitudes suffering from the social mores of the past.

Some will scream about it being “woke” and decry the casting, which serves a broader message, allegorically speaking.

“Mermaid” is a fairy tale. Lessons are inherent in the genre. Whether individuals absorb the message depends on their personal mindset.

Truthfully, however, Marshall’s version with an addition 48 minutes, is more explicit with that message, decrying bigotry and xenophobia at varying levels. Adults will pick up on the message. The children who watch? Most will appreciate sea creatures who talk, dance and sing some tunes they recognize.

Although there are additions in the area of music. The original film established the formula that Alan Menken and Howard Ashman would use to create another beloved classic from the Renaissance Era “Beauty and the Beast” along with “Aladdin.”

Songs such as “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” are at bare minimum Disney classics. Here’s arguing that they deserve to be recognized as timeless pop music classics. Ashman died in 1991. But the filmmakers wisely turned to musical savant Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton” creator) to help craft new songs.

Two of those songs score. “For the First Time” proves memorable and another called “Scuttlebutt,” a rap featuring Scuttle the Seagull and Sebastian showcases the fun, playful nature often found in Miranda’s music and the character of Scuttle (voice by Awkwafina).

Add to the mix there’s little resisting Bailey’s portrayal of Ariel, which hits the right notes throughout.

Many will ask, why touch the animated classic? Well, the an$wer is obviou$. It’s a definite, $hamle$$ money grab, and they’ve been recycling their intellectual property for years. At this point, fans should be thankful “The Little Mermaid” is more “Beauty and the Beast” and less “Aladdin.”

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal.

Movie: “The Little Mermaid”

Cast: Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Awkwafina, Jonah Hauer-King

Directed by: Rob Marshall

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Rated: PG for action/peril and some scary images.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: Disney returns to familiar waters with 'The Little Mermaid'

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‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: Halle Bailey’s Version Is Great, But Scaredy-Cats Might Want to Stick to the Original

Where to stream:, the little mermaid.

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Rob Marshall’s 2023 adaptation of The Little Mermaid has a reputation that precedes it. As with many live-action adaptations of Disney animated movies, during the promotional tour, critics wrinkled their noses at the CGI design and found issues with every hyperrealistic bit teased on the screen: the scenes are too dark; the sea creatures look creepy; and the characters are lacking in chemistry were a few of the many early criticisms .

But the real deal is… None of that is an issue in the final product. The movie is clearly and brightly directed, the songs are magical, and it is an absolute joy to watch. And, countering the uninspired racism directed at Black actor Halle Bailey , who steps into the role of Ariel, the singer/actor embodies the lovestruck mermaid to a tee, mastering her mermaid-esque physicality and sharp vocals. The movie is good – great even – and dodges all the obstacles that threatened to shipwreck it. There’s only one problem though: why is this new version of The Little Mermaid so terrifying?

Much like the animated movie, the adaptation begins with a few misadventures in the ocean. The opener shows Prince Eric ( Jonah Hauer-King ) and his boat crew going about their everyday lives, except instead of animated smiley dolphins and vibrant waves in the backdrop, this group is shown on rough, clashing water while they violently hunt creatures in the sea. For a brief moment, I feared they were actively seeking out mermaids, given how intentionally and aggressively they moved around the boat. Then later, while Ariel and Flounder (Jacob Trembley) are exploring her collections of human artifacts on a desolate, sunken ship, they encounter a shark attack — and again, instead of the shark displaying comedic expressions as it thrashes around the ship on the hunt for flesh, a realistic shark attack plays out on the screen with accompanying music and screams from the fugitives.

At this moment, I turned to my friend and whispered, “This might be too scary for young children.” (“Young children,” meaning myself at four or five years old, when I unequivocally and fondly fell in love with the John Musker and Ron Clements version.) Perhaps the filmmakers took some tone inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s Danish fable that inspired the original? Whatever the reason, the remake has a few major scares that left me, a full-grown adult who loves horror, cowering in my seat.

But rest assured, the scares come and go. Once the tone is set and the songs are flowing, the horrifying bits become less noticeable and are far more expected. The movie falls into a comfortable Disney pattern with the main antagonist, Ursula, played by Melissa McCarthy , causing the trouble, versus realistic CGI sharks. For the most part, the level of scares remains parallel to the animated flick from there on, despite McCarthy’s delightful portrayal of the sea witch and indie horror star Jessica Alexander’s chilling run as Ursula’s human form, Vanessa.

…That is until the finale when Ursula reveals her malicious intentions and she embarks on an epic battle with Ariel and her father for ownership of the undersea kingdom. What was campy yet suspenseful in the original movie, with glowing eyes and quick flashes of light, becomes jaw-dropping in the adaptation as the sea witch’s slimy tentacles grow in size and a supersized version of McCarthy emerges from the dimly-lit sea.

With animation, there tends to be a suspension of disbelief that comes with every watch. “It’s just a cartoon, none of this real,” I recall my parents telling me during the dramatic moments of the original. But seeing the same story play out with visuals that emulate ones we see on a daily basis — real faces, real water, real lightning — raises the stakes of the life-or-death battle, and in relation to that, the scare meter. Hell, if this was Monsters Inc. , we’d be filling a canister or two.

Overall, buy a ticket, or two or five to see this movie. It’s masterfully directed and features strong vocals that are guaranteed to distract you from the big, scary moments. But if you are watching with a few younger children in tow, be prepared to shield their eyes and hold their hands. Or warm them up with the animated version streaming on Disney+, at least until they’re a little older.

The Little Mermaid premieres May 26 in theaters, but you can watch the 1989 (kid-friendly) version on Disney+ now.

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The Little Mermaid Has Screened, See What Fans Are Saying About Disney’s Latest Live-Action Adaptation

The Little Mermaid is the latest beloved Disney animated movie to get the live-action treatment, and the first reactions are in.

For years now, Disney has made a habit out of adapting their beloved animated blockbusters into live-action movies. This largely started with Maleficent , and then inspired the release of projects like Beauty and the Beast , Mulan , The Jungle Book , and The Lion King . That tradition continues with the upcoming live-action Disney flick The Little Mermaid , starring Halle Bailey as the title character and directed by the great Rob Marshall . That movie musical has screened, see what fans are saying about the new version of The Little Mermaid . 

There's been a ton of chatter online about The Little Mermaid , especially regarding the racist backlash received by Halle Bailey herself. But the movie is nearly upon us, and the early screenings have resulted in plenty of rave reviews. That includes my very own tweet , which reads:

#TheLittleMermaid is one of the best Disney live-action adaptations yet. Halle Bailey is a STAR and Daveed Diggs steals the show as Sebastian. Rob Marshall does it again. May 9, 2023

I said what I said. The new Little Mermaid delivers plenty of iconic moments from the original, but it also brought new songs and lines of dialogue to the table. And many of the funniest new lines came from Sebastian, voiced by Hamilton icon Daveed Diggs . And there's a ton of praise coming to both him and Halle Bailey.

Indeed, Bailey seems to be receiving universal acclaim from those lucky enough to see early screenings of The Little Mermaid . Despite the hate that Halle Bailey got online , her performance speaks for itself. Check out another tweet below: 

#TheLittleMermaid makes it pretty close to being the best live action Disney movie, however it still struggles in the villain department. Halle Bailey IS Ariel and I had literal chills throughout her performance. This is a little mermaid retelling like you’ve never seen before. pic.twitter.com/JjtLOR61vL May 9, 2023

Points were made. Apart from her outstanding singing voice which was on display in the Little Mermaid trailer , she's also been getting props for the way she embodied Ariel as a character. Some folks who saw early screenings went so far as to call her "flawless."

Of course, there are plenty of other A-list talent involved in Disney's latest live-action flick. Chief among them is Melissa McCarthy as Ursula , who had big shoes after the voice performance of late actress Pat Carroll . A tweet from journalist Perri Nemiroff gave her props, saying:

Halle Bailey IS #TheLittleMermaid. An angelic voice, the longing in her eyes, the chemistry with Jonah Hauer-King. She’s flawless. The movie overall isn’t but there’s more than enough charm, heart and adventure there to power it forward.Melissa McCarthy is a deliciously… pic.twitter.com/l5EITXf9f1 May 9, 2023

Two others actors getting a ton of early acclaimed for their work in The Little Mermaid are Daveed Diggs and Jonah Hauer-King. The latter actor plays Prince Eric, after Harry Styles passed on the opportunity . One tweet praised both actors for their work on the movie musical, as you can see:

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

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#TheLittleMermaid captures the magic of the original animated movie. Halle Bailey makes Ariel her own. Her chemistry with Jonah Hauer-King makes this movie soar. Daveed Diggs’ Sebastian is a scene stealer! pic.twitter.com/9Shc1VAVD3 May 9, 2023

Another sentiment that seems to be shared on the internet by those who have seen The Little Mermaid ahead of its wide theatrical release is that it ranks high among the rest of the live-action adaptions. Although it was recently announced that Moana is getting it's own live-action movie . But previously there was some criticism thrown at projects like Mulan and The Lion King , with the latter being an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the animated blockbuster. A tweet compared this new underwater spectacle to its predecessors, reading:

Disney’s #TheLittleMermaid is definitely one of the better live-action adaptions. Halle Bailey pours incredible emotion into Ariel and I got chills watching her, while Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula and Daveed Diggs’ Sebastian steal scenes all day. pic.twitter.com/DHhIkbIj8s May 9, 2023

Rob Marshall assembled a great cast for The Little Mermaid , and it certainly seems like the A-list actors are delivering for the latest Disney flick. Other well-known talent that gets in on the fun include Awkwafina , Jacob Tremblay , and Javier Bardem. And they all had big shoes (or fins) to fill in order to play their beloved characters. 

The Little Mermaid will hit theaters on May 26th. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more. 

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'The Little Mermaid': Why live-action Disney remakes never live up to the animated movies

In the 1989 version of "The Little Mermaid," the sea was a crisp blue, sea creatures could turn into functional musical instruments, ocean waves defied gravity and a flounder was huggable.

But under the sea in the 2023 remake , the ocean is dank and dark, the fish are slimy, scary and bug-eyed and the only thing defying science is Melissa McCarthy's eyeshadow, which stays immaculate underwater.

Much has already been said about the new "Mermaid ," which stars McCarthy as the villain Ursula and singer Halle Bailey as Ariel , and how it disappoints compared to its animated original. It's a tale as old as time when it comes to Disney's parade of live-action remakes of its beloved animated films (their box-office take , however, seems just fine). Their biggest problem is simple: They were better off staying cartoons.

Every change − to aesthetics, to story, to soundtracks, to length − that is required to make these films "live action" chips away at the magic of the originals. This relentless pursuit of realism doesn't make a good kids' movie: It may be dark underwater in the real ocean, but we want to see Ariel dance properly lit on the screen. The new films are too long, too monotone, too bland and full of photorealistic talking animals that range from boring to horrifying.

Photorealistic fish? Not what you'd call cuddly

Looking at the animals, it is easy to see how the new films have gone wrong. Take the seafaring sidekicks of "Mermaid," which are full of color, dynamism and emotion in the original film. Their eyes are exaggerated, their proportions are all wrong for nature but follow cute character rules (namely, imitating the dimensions of a human baby ). They are inviting and, well, animated. They make great stuffed animals to sell at the Disney Store.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

In the 2023 "Mermaid," Flounder (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is beige. He looks like a real flounder, which means he's skinny and a little creepy. Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) looks like any other spindly crab, except that his mouth moves. Scuttle the seagull (Awkwafina) has terrifying eyes. When the three try to sing and dance (and Scuttle very unfortunately raps), they are limited in their movements. They kind of wiggle and flop. It's depressing and unsettling to watch.

The new "Mermaid" tries and fails to grab some of the flash of the original. It has fish that swim around Ariel in pretty patterns during showstopper "Under the Sea." But in the cartoon, the fish do a conga line. Animated fish bunny-hopping is a joy to watch − photorealistic fish doing it is a horror show. Animals have an uncanny valley, and Disney found it.

In the production of many animated movies, voice actors are filmed as they record their dialogue. Then the animators can incorporate their performances into the faces of their characters. It's why Robin Williams' Genie from "Aladdin" is so magnetic, and why Simba in "The Lion King" can break your heart. But when the goal is a "real" animal, you can't put human emotions behind their eyes.

There's nothing magical about a fantasy world that looks like a real one

It's not just the animals. It's the whole futile exercise of realism in live-action remakes that in actuality are primarily CGI. There is an inherently magical quality to animation as an art form. It's not just the most convenient way to bring a mermaid to life or the dumbed-down version of movies for kids. It's a thing all its own that opens up worlds, exaggerates and emphasizes and literally illustrates exactly what the artist wants us to see.

Ariel's hair is redder than red. Sebastian's eyes are bigger than big. The ballgowns are poofy and perfect. It's no wonder animation is a medium primarily associated with children; these exaggerations are candy to their little curious minds. A great animated movie is bright, brilliant and brimming with possibility. It has dynamism. Every comparable image from a live-action remake is flat and dull.

There is another way to bring these stories to live action that preserves their inherent campiness and charm. "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and others have moved from animation to Broadway with far more creative success than they do to feature film. Glitter, big hair and big makeup is a part of the fabric of the stage, and when you turn an animated lion into a breathtaking puppet, you have something new and exciting to look at. Onstage, the living objects of "Beast" bedazzle with their sheer absurdity, with kick lines full of dancers dressed as forks and knives. The Disney stage adaptations are fun, where the movie remakes are a slog.

With every Disney cartoon seemingly getting a remake (including 2016's "Moana" ), audiences are doomed to singing nature documentaries for years to come. But when it comes to cultural legacy, they can't get anywhere close to their predecessors. Magic doesn't strike twice.

Read more about the new 'Little Mermaid':

What's the same, what's different? Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' remake

The new 'Little Mermaid': Halle Bailey had to push herself 'past what I thought I could ever do'

Prince Eric is the best Disney prince. Here's why we love the underrated 'Little Mermaid' hero.

Melissa McCarthy: The actress reveals the 'Little Mermaid' switch that 'changed the game' for Ursula

Review: Halle Bailey keeps Disney's live-action 'Little Mermaid' remake from being all wet

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Disney The Little Mermaid King Triton’s All-Powerful Trident, 36 Inches Long with Motion Activated Lights and Sound Effects! Command The Seas Like King Triton!

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• FROM DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID MOVIE: Inspired by King Triton’s magical trident from Disney’s The Little Mermaid!
• ROLE PLAY TOY: Role play as King Triton with King Triton’s All-Powerful Trident!
• MOTION ACTIVATED: Movie authentic lights and sounds activated with motion!
• RECREATE YOUR FAVORITE SCENES: Recreate your favorite King Triton movie moments
• INCLUDES: 1 Trident - Suggested for ages 3 years and up

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Bring out your inner King Triton and command the seas with King Triton’s All-Powerful Trident, inspired by Disney’s The Little Mermaid! This majestic shimmery gold and blue trident is over 35 inches long with incredible motion activated lights and sound effects! Take a powerful stance and give it a wave to make the trident illuminate and play electrifying sounds! With the press of a button, you’ll get the same light and whooshing sound effects! With this magical trident you’ll have hours of fun recreating King Triton’s amazing scenes from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

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Girl Mom - it lights up and has several different modes, check it out!

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Cool king triton trident toy in action!

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"Cute and make sounds... great prop for kids or adults for Halloween." Read more

"...It is so cute and was exactly as described! Very fun piece to add to anyone's collection or who loves the Little Mermaid movie. Highly recommend 👌..." Read more

" Great for kiddos who love lil mermaid. Except they poke each other with it a lot. It survived outside play and getting tongs wet...." Read more

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Customers are satisfied with the design of the toy figure. They mention that it's cute and exactly as described.

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