Overly long 'Little Mermaid' remake is far less fun than its 1989 animated original
“The Little Mermaid” - ★ ★
Just wondering:
Why do all the superbly detailed underwater scenes with CGI production designs look like outtakes from “Avatar: The Way of Water”?
Isn't it confusing to see Ariel singing after she has bartered away her voice to the nasty Sea Witch?
And how many endings does this movie actually need?
Despite a star-making performance from exuberant actress/singer Halle Bailey, Rob Marshall's (partially) live-action remake waters down Walt Disney's beloved animated musical “The Little Mermaid,” running nearly a full hour longer than its super-tight 1989 original.
This added time allows for a couple of new, adequate songs penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, plus an extended back story about a boring prince, the addition of his queen mother character, and a flat, uninspired portrait in villainy from a humorlessly straight Melissa McCarthy.
To put the disappointing shortcomings of Marshall's remake into perspective, let's remember what made Disney's earlier classic so special.
Armed with the power pairing of canny composer Alan Menken and ingenious lyricist Howard Ashman, “The Little Mermaid” won critical and popular acclaim and netted Oscars for best score and song. It would have won the Animated Feature Academy Award, but that didn't exist until 2001.
More important, “The Little Mermaid” launched a long-overdue renaissance for Disney animated features under legendary studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg, who then shepherded “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast” into massive successes.
Equally important, “The Little Mermaid” boldly bucked Hollywood convention by making its hero a feisty, willful female pursuing the object of her affections with relentless drive and personal sacrifice, a role traditionally reserved for males.
Here, David Magee's re-imagined screenplay - still loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 Danish fairy tale - sets the action in the 1830s Caribbean where King Triton's youngest mermaid daughter, 18-year-old Ariel (Bailey) has become obsessed with all things - and thingamabobs - human.
By now, doesn't everyone know the story?
Ariel defies her father (Javier Bardem, appearing slightly uncomfortable in his makeup and tail) by collecting human artifacts in a secret cave and singing about streets and feet.
She rescues a drowning prince named Eric (an affable Jonah Hauer-King). He's cute, a real 10 on a fish scale.
She wants to be a part of his world so much that she concocts a Faustian bargain with her wicked, part-octopus Aunt Ursula, aka the Sea Witch, who, in exchange for Ariel's lovely voice, gives her legs.
The now-voiceless Ariel gets three days to win true love's kiss from Eric, or she forfeits her soul to Ursula, played by a fierce McCarthy without a trace of the deliciously sadistic, over-the-top fun exhibited by the original Sea Witch, Pat Carroll (and modeled after drag queen Divine).
Marshall's version has a nonwhite savior in the talented 23-year-old Bailey, half of the Grammy-nominated R&B duo Chloe x Halle. Although she lacks the supremely playful vocal delivery of original Ariel Jodi Benson, Bailey updates the character for the 21st century with charm and vulnerability.
Nonetheless, this remake fails to fix one key criticism of the original “Little Mermaid”: the sexist message that women must transform themselves to fit into their man's world. Making Ariel the ideal of a nonverbal, acquiescing female doesn't help.
Instead, just imagine how revolutionary this remake could have been had Prince Eric grown gills to remain with his true love.
No doubt Disney's marketing people would reject such a twist.
As Variety might say, they want this movie to have legs.
Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy
Directed by: Rob Marshall
Other: A Walt Disney Pictures theatrical release. Rated PG. 135 minutes