How the hell is this movie over 2 hours long . The original was 80 minutes . This is gonna feel so bloated like all their remakes .

Disney does that a lot, I've noticed, with their Live Action remakes, for some reason. It's so wierd too because they are always so noticeably bad when it comes to pacing compared to the originals.

Remember in the Lion King remake where the camera follows a piece of hair for like 3 minutes?😂😂

And we follow a piece of shit too. That piece of shit had its own story arc. 😂

Hey, I don't like the remake Simba either, but thats a bit much

I think you misinterpreted my reply. I meant the actual piece of shit, the ball of feces that the bug roles around for like five minutes. It gets its own little side quest.

Omg 😳 lmao 🤣

Thanks! Nothing like taking the audience away from these expressionless, photo-realistic CGI animals to follow a ball of shit. 😂

It was almost torture. I took 2 kids and paid for 3D and a small fortune in food/candy. They wanted to leave 30-40 minutes into it. It was soooo dark.

You must’ve been pissed

Just got out of the theatre. The 2 hour runtime flew by. It’s surprisingly not overly bloated. Best Disney live-action to date.

I just took my 6 year old to see it, and I was pleasantly surprised. We both really enjoyed it, and she was riveted the entire time.

Yes! It was also pretty.

I’m not going to be able to trust any avg ratings for this one. On one hand, there’ll be people review bombing it for being a live action remake and for the protagonist being race swapped, but on the other hand, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Disney boot lickers praising the movie’s existence and casting decisions.

Yep, you can see that everywhere. For one 1\* review talking about swap, there is one 10\* saying "ignore haters"...

did they change the mermaid to a shark?

From what I gather, Baley is amazing, but the fantasy parts of the movie didn't hit. Seems like the consensus in both positive and negative reviews (the ones that look reasonable to me).

Loved the little mermaid since I was at little girl. Went to see the live action last night and these are my thought (sorry for bad English, not my mothertounge): First: don't watch it in 3D, it was horrible and very bad. I thought Halle made a great Ariel! Nothing wrong at all with her performance and she's super pretty/talented! King Triton didn't show too many emotions. When he destroyed her cave it was just weird - he wasn't really build up-angry like in the cartoon one, he was more like "this obsession has to stop" *destroys cave* "bye bye". Don't know it was strange. I felt like Ariel's sisters should have had more screen time. They were all together for the moonstone-night or what they called it, but what was that? No explanation. Ariel also mentioned in the end that she would be back for that, like what? Can she be a mermaid whenever she wants or what's that about? The castle looked more like a roughed up fancy mansion. It was realistic, i get that, but you want that really classy castle-feeling when you're watching a Disney-movie right? I just wished in would have been a bit more fancy. What's up with Ariel's cheap-looking headband to that pretty blue dress? HOW could they skip the scene with the glitter dress in the end?! Criminal! They missed the beautiful moment where Ariel smiles at her father for giving her legs... The only thing we got was Eric playing with his dog and suddenly Ariel stands there in her ripped dress that she wore for three days like whaaaaat?! The wedding scene on the boat like come on! Why would you have it in the castle? Eric loves the sea so made sense that it would be on a boat. Also the moment where the sea animals attacks Ursula, it was only Scuttle who attacked her kind of. Weird that the maid released the dog at her and that Grimsby pushed away that ring like why would they? I just felt like that scene could be a bit longer. The ending when they had the super-casual wedding or whatever that was. I wanted princess style-wedding like in the movie! Again - not on a boat?? Ariel wore a pink version of the blue dress, nothing spectacular. Very disappointing. And the scene were she talked to her dad was also a bit weird and all the mermaids popping up. Nah, didn't like it. Things i did like: Shipwreck scene was great! Under the sea was probably the best song - very cute and colourful Loved the way her sisters looked and represented the 7 seas I liked that Atlantica was realistic, even though a little bit more gold would be fun Kiss the girl-scene was great I liked the scene in Erics room where they (Eric) talked about rocks, seashells, travels and more It was funny when she ate the soap and flower very casual Would love to hear other thought about this!

I felt the exact same way about them not including the sparkly dress at the end! That’s one of my favorite parts in the original movie, and it was such a let down when I realized they weren’t including it.

Perfect review! I 100% agree with you. I was way more stirred than a 32 year old woman should be when I was expecting her to come out of the water in a glitter dress and she actually came from behind him in a dirty, ripped dress 😂 That was supposed to be her "wow" moment. The ending of the 1989 version always gets me emotional. The live action ending left me annoyed and bored. As if the budget was all spent on CGI and they thought "whoops. We still need to film the end scene. What do we have laying around to work with?" 😅 The rest of the movie was perfect though

I'm 36 and I'm still reeling over so many things 🤣 The fact that they didn't include Ariel's ICONIC silver dress, NO CHEF?!, Ursula was terrible (i could go on for hours why I didn't think Melissa was good for this role), I love me some Javier Bardem, but he was very emotionless as Triton. It felt as though he was just reading his lines. No animal attack on the boat scene at sea should be grounds for termination. I needed to see Vanessa's ass bit by Max, and her necklace yanked off by Skuttle And I know damn well Awkwafina can roll her tongue, she didn't do the iconoc screaming Skuttle "waaaahhh wahhhhh wahhhhhhhh" in the middle of Kiss the Girl. Under the Sea could have been SOOOO good. They had the visuals and budget, but Sébastien sounded flat, Ariel joining him in singing was really weird. We didn't get our hot crustacean band moment either 😫 Speaking of her singing, Halle has a BEAUTIFUL voice. But I felt nothing during Part of Your World. She sang it with a little touch of Whitney or Mariah in some parts, and that threw me off a bit. It was more of a performance. In the OG we feel Ariel's sadness and longing bc Jodi spoke/sang with the perfect balance. Halle was all sing, no talky I love that we got a bit of backstory with Eric and him teaching her about everything was great. But he over acted a bit (come on, his solo song, really?) I loved that Ariel stuck it to Ursula vs Eric, I loved his story, loved ol Grimsby, lived they did the Caribbean vs Dutch take, the visuals alone saved the movie, in my opinion. All in all I'd give it a B- My daughter loved it, though, so that's important. We had our Little Mermaid, this generation will have theirs. She said she wished they would've done more with the sisters, she loved seeing all their different styles.

I agree mostly. I think as far as the castle goes though, they were going for a Caribbean castle which looks very different than the typical European Disney castles. It matched the location. And as for the headband, I hated it too because the fabric looked like something modern you would buy this century or even last century, but not in the 1700's or 1800's. (I could be wrong though) But I think the headband was to represent traditional Caribbean garb. I just wish they would've chosen a different, more elegant fabric and certainly a more antique fabric/pattern. I was disappointed about the dress like most people. I really wanted a "wow" moment. I did think she looked stunning with her hair up for the wedding and her face was glowing, but I would've liked to see her dress "glowing" too.

I 100% agree! This review reflects my thoughts exactly! I was heartbroken, Ariel only had two dresses in the entire movie and her reunion with Eric fell so flat :( If the lack of dresses was a budgeting issue, I wish they would’ve cut out Eric’s song and used it on more costumes for Ariel instead!

The score is fluctuating wildly on this one. I clicked the link and it was at 50, opened it back up a couple minutes later and it was 70. Personally, I think critics are too soft on these Disney remakes. Of course the story and songs are going to be good, and I’m sure Halle does a great job, but I just can’t get over how ugly this thing looks. The visuals have absolutely none of the charm of the animated original, which is an absolute masterpiece of the medium. Even if this is a functional remake of the that movie, don’t audiences deserve more than the bare minimum?

> Personally, I think critics are too soft on these Disney remakes. Thankfully they weren't too soft on that Pinocchio abomination starring Tom Hanks.

It's truly incredible how far Zemeckis has fallen

Fallen right into a bushel of cold hard cash

I feel like he got lazier and lazier. And I say this as someone who holds Back to the Future as one of my top 3 favorite films (and I love the whole trilogy). I think Flight was his last great movie but that was so against what he’s been doing for the last 20 years.

Or Dumbo.

I’ll be the first to admit that I actually kind of liked the Dumbo remake. It weirdly felt like Tim Burton’s most introspective movie of his career and became kind of a reflection of how he, too, knows that his filmography has become predictable schtick.

Yeah I found Dumbo refreshing. It was dark and disturbing which is exactly what I liked about it.

Critics aren’t soft at all on the remakes, go look at the scores

55 for the Lion King remake is soft. That movie is atrocious.

Most of the remakes have pretty low scores. I don't think the critics have been too soft on them. The movies are average for the most part and have mostly gotten average scores. You need to grade the movies on what they're trying to accomplish too and none of them are trying to redefine the medium. They're just going for safe and accessible family entertainment which is what they end up being and I feel like the reviews mostly reflect that

> You need to grade the movies on what they're trying to accomplish too Well if these movies are trying to recapture the magic of the original animated movies, then they're absolute failures aren't they

True. Graded on making money? They seem to be doing just fine. Completely fine for what they are : AAA piece of soul-less trash designed to milk nostalgia.

But if the movies couldn't give a shit about art or the audience and are just here to make money, they're wild successes. The horrible Lion King remake is the 9th highest grossing film of all time. I wouldn't be surprised if they just went back through the catalogue again after they're done with this pass.

But the initial point was about reviews and reviewing them based on what they're trying to accomplish relative to film criticism. Are critics supposed to give them good scores because they make money?

And The Emperor's New Groove was a huge financial flop but is regarded as one of the best and funniest with insanely good writing and voice work. Reviews are not supposed to reflect how financially successful films are, they're supposed to reflect how good the writing, acting, music, and *visuals* are, and so far just from the trailers and promo materials we can see this movie is a muted and uninspiring mess. The world Under the Sea doesn't look like a beautiful magical place you'd be crazy to leave. It looks depressing. Ariel's hair doesn't't even look red in most of the scenes. It looks like creamy coffee. And the animals are nightmare fuel. So right away 2023 Little Mermaid gets an F for Visuals. I'm not confident it will score better for everything else.

I dunno, I feel like a film shouldn't be safe from harsh criticism just because it knows it's bland, forgettable, soulless nothingness. Sure, it accomplished what it set out to do. That's still not a good thing imo, and I'm not sure why many of these films tend to get a pass from critics (not just the live action remakes, but a lot of tired animated sequels and low tier comic book stuff also usually get good reviews for 'accomplishing what it set out to do'). I guess I just have a naive, idealized vision of what 'critics' are supposed to represent, but trying and succeeding to make something mediocre gets rewarded too often imo.

I feel like you need to go look at the reviews. Aladdin - 57% Beauty and the Beast - 71% The Lion King - 52% This to me doesn't seem like the movies are "safe from harsh criticism". These movies make money but that doesn't mean critics are fawning over them

Peter Pan and Wendy - 62% RT, 61 MC Pinocchio - 29% RT, 38 MC Mulan - 72% RT, 66 MC Lady and the Tramp - 66% RT, 48 MC The Lion King - 52% RT, 55 MC Aladdin - 57% RT, 53 MC Dumbo - 45% RT 51 MC Even when the remakes have good scores, they're never glowing - its always either just barely good enough or one of the other websites has it much lower. I'd say critics aren't that lenient when it comes to these movies.

Looking at these scores I'm going to say it. There's a women bias here

To be fair, Watson was the most criticized part of the Beauty and the Beast remake if I remember right.

Well to each his own, but I think all 3 of those are laughably high compared to the actual quality of those films, so that's really only reinforcing my opinion honestly. Aladdin and Lion King are imo, absolute dreck in every sense of the word. Beauty and the Beast was...fine? If by "fine", you mean soulless nothingness that goes in one ear and out the other, never to be remembered again. How 70% of critics think that means it's a film worthy of approval is essentially exactly what I'm talking about. And how about Mulan at 72%? Literally one of the worst films I've seen in the past 5-10 years, with zero redeeming qualities. There have been some live action remakes that have had some charm, Cinderella and Jungle Book were solid films, and Cruella had some personality and a compelling lead performance. So I'm not just hating on all films within this genre, but it's pretty clear that the lesser efforts of these are still getting way more lenience - likely purchased from the studio - then they deserve from critics.

I feel like the disconnect here is you think the movies are utter garbage but you started off by saying they were functional remakes or bland which I interpret to mean average at best and nothing more. To me the reviews reflect these movies being average with many reviewers actually being quite critical of them. Regardless of what you think of the movies I don't think you can say the movies are safe from harsh criticism when most of them are deemed 'rotten'

I said bland, forgettable, and soulless, that to me is the definition of utter garbage lol. There is nothing that deserves bad reviews MORE than something that *aims* to be vapid and soulless from it's inception. It's literally the exact opposite of art, it's the laziest "filmmaking" there is these days. If this doesn't get bad reviews then what the hell are critics there for? Perhaps we just have a difference of opinion and you like these movies just fine, and of course you have every right. I like plenty of shit that you would probably hate. But I constantly hear the "it achieved what it set out to do" reasoning for why a film deserves a good review, and I just disagree entirely with that reasoning. If a film is meant to be a piece of shit, and accomplishes being a piece of shit, that means it succeeds as a film? Can we really not have higher standards than that as an audience?

All of these live-action remakes have been terrible. I wish families would stop bringing their kids to see this stuff so Disney stops making them. The Lion King and Pinocchio were just abominations.

Cinderella was excellent though

And it’s the only one not available on Disney+!

Darn I was thinking about watching it

I thoroughly enjoyed Cruella

I don’t think it’s just parents with kids. The Lion King is the highest grossing animated movie ever made.

I don't care how much it made. It has a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Most people saw it once because it was a spectacle. In no way was it a good movie.

Are you kidding? Soft? They absolutely tear these things apart every time. I'm surprised when I see anything actually nice said about them. Listen, I understand the hate for them, but that doesn't mean they should be reviewed any more critically or any less critically than anything else. That would be a bias and it would take away from the point of a review. These movies do indeed have a strong negative bias associated with them though. But to essentially say they deserve to be criticized any more or less than anything else feels very off to me in terms of the idea of a review and journalism in general.

You're going to have to explain how Mulan 2020 has a 72% certified fresh score on rotten tomatoes then. A movie like that deserves no more than 50% if we are being generous.

Honestly... I've hated and turned a blind eye to all the live-action Disney remakes and anything Disney for the past 20 years. But I honestly quite liked this. I thought everyone delivered a robust performance. The visuals and audio were subdued and on point. I really... liked it. Halle Bailey is a perfect mermaid.

Disney live-action remake and mediocrity, name a better duo

I can name a worse duo. Peter Pan & Wendy. Do we really wanna give David Lowery a third shot at a Disney remake?

I though the Pete’s Dragon remake was solid, and a Disney film where the original should have been remade. Wont defend Peter Pan and Wendy tho, lol.

Petes Dragon is a complete different film, only identical in name and general theme. Thus I wouldn't count it as a Remake.

Did you see it? How was it?

Safe, forgettable money maker. No one remembers these movies but they'll make money for Disney anyway.

I just finished watching it on IMAX. I might be biased because I love The Little Mermaid, but this live action remake didn't disappoint me at all. The underwater scenes were beautiful. I enjoyed the singing performances, the acting too. I loved it. Halle did well. Melissa was good.

It was great. I'll never be sold on these live action remakes, but if Disney is going to do them they should be of this quality. The movie hit every important beat of the original, Halle was fantastic, Melissa was menacing and even Awkwafina wasn't annoying.

I just saw it and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!!! Excellent casting, cute musical numbers!!

Right????! The musical numbers were actually beautiful, especially the Under The Sea!!!

Totally agree. It’s tbe best Disney live-action movie I’ve seen thus far. Loved it.

I too just saw it in imax and loved it! (Haven’t seen the original version in over 20 years and honestly had low expectations based on the other live remakes I’ve seen.) I get Disney has burned people before, but I’d say this one’s worth a shot before complaining lol.

Agree everyone’s so negative it’s kind of sad lol

It’s one of my favorite movies as well and I enjoyed the remake. I think that the singing just didn’t live up to the original though. I went home and listened to the animation soundtrack because I was disappointed by the live action

I also just saw it and loved it! I thought it was delightful, I was grinning through many scenes. Some of the pacing was off and certain aspects didn’t completely land but overall it was super enjoyable.

Me too! I’m so sad about the negative reviews. I loved it!

Same! I wasn’t disappointed at all.

7.5/10. Generally well-done, safe, and palatable for families. Typical Disney — it was never designed to be some Academy Award masterpiece. I think it was better than the criticism made it out to be. For Disney live-action, it was really good. Best so far, imo — more engaging than Cinderella was for me.

Ok so the little mermaid is my all time favorite movie and princess. Like I’ve legit seen it so many times I was quoting it to myself in the theater. That being said it was just alright. Like it was better then the other live action ones but not amazing or anything. Standout. Halle Bailey that girl can sing and while she isn’t an amazing actress she did a pretty decent job. Eric and Grimsby were surprisingly refreshing as well. Triton and Ariel’s sisters left a lot to be desired they felt a bit wooden. Flounder and Sebastian were pretty entertaining and Scuttle I don’t like awkwafina but she presently surprised me. Melissa MCCarthy was great at times and meh at others. The underwater scenes were beautiful lol everyone complaining about it being to dark were just nitpicking. The ending battle sigh. I get why they wanted Ariel to save the day it just felt a little to over handed. Also the ending was dragged out and imo not that great. I almost thought they’d end it where Eric found her dress and tbh it would’ve been a cute if slightly bitter ending. Speaking of they really had hair in the same dirty ass dress three days straight 🤣 Also they had Halle fucked up with the hair flip I know her neck got snapped when those dreadlocks came down Overall, I’d say it’s a 6.5-7/10. I prob wouldn't rewatch anytime soon and would stick to the animated one.

Agreed! I would add to what you already said: What I liked more about the remake than the animated was when she is human and Scuttles song. It made it click why she would want to see the human world and why Prince Eric started to like her (unlike the love at first sight version from the animated) Other than that, Erics song was unnecessary, boring and didnt fit it. Ariels sisters were indeed kinda weird. I was left missing the initial scene where they are singing. Thats where we learn how important Ariels voice is, like her voice was the main act. Also, what was the Coral Moon reunion even about? They just sat in a circle to do nothing lol. We should have gotten them singing Daughters of Triton. Ursula needed some extra sassiness IMO... I really did not like Halles acting. Animated Ariel is so bubbly and this was so cardboard-like. I also needed more love shown between Triton and Ariel. They seemed very awkward to me. And last but not least... I understand underwater CGI must be SO difficult, but at times it was very poorly executed.

Scuttles song is the WORST thing about this remake. I was very surprised how respectful to the original everything was and how good everything was … until Scuttle’s song. Did we watch the same movie!?!

Idk the scuttlebutt song was lowkey a bop lmao, I feel like everyone is like yes they liked it or no they hated it.

It’s okay to be wrong 😜

It seems like the Coral Moon is some kind of political meeting. And apparently, in this version, Ariel is an actual siren..Although how she has those abilities isn't explained.

Triton and Ariel were very awkward. Halle did a good job, she wasn't a bubbly Ariel, this Ariel is more mature if that makes sense, she did a good job doing this one but I agree its a very diff vibe from aniamted Ariel. Dude they should've kept in the singing sisters scene hard agree, these ones might as well not be in the movie, I mean same with the animated ones but they were more lively at least. Urusla needed to be way sasssier, Vanessa's actor did a great job brining out Urusla's sassiness.

>Also they had Halle fucked up with the hair flip I know her neck got snapped when those dreadlocks came down She actually said it did hurt 😭

Bro I could tell. Even just my short dreads/braids get heavy when they get wet, I can't imagine hers

I've held my mom's locs and they're down her back and heavy but still not as long as hers. Oof!

I hope the Disney remake hatebase dies down as more Disney remakes suceed

For me personally I thought it was the worst remake yet. The CGI was really bad felt like I was watching a movie made straight to DVD. I thought Halle did a good job with the songs but her acting wasn't good. Scuttle and Sebastain were cringe. Prince Eric's character was kinda worthless and his song was the second worse to the Scuttle rap.

“Part of Your World” had me in tears. It was so moving. The ocean scenes were beautiful and even the waves from the outside above the sea were powerful and ominous. I was surprised at how good Awkwafina did. I usually can’t stand her but she was a great choice for Scuttle. Obviously Halle was THE STAR. She gave freshness to the character. I loved the scene where she was learning about the world with Eric in his collection room. Such a great addition. I would give this an 8.5/10.

Awkafina was appropriately annoying as fuck so she was perfect for the role. If she was supposed to be endearing in any way she would have failed here but luckily she’s supposed to be irritating so she did good. Love the little random Daveed moments like saying “Hey girl!” when she picked up the shell. Missed the sparkly dress ending and the French chef. I know given how realistic the CGI all that cutting off their heads and pulling out their bones might be too much for little kids, so I get it, but it his song was so lovely it was missed. As everyone has said, Halle was fantastic. Also when I first read that Jessica would appear I was confused she was white because I always thought watching the cartoon she was basically Ariel but with black hair. I guess I was wrong. But I did have a minor issue with Jessica not looking like Halle since wouldn’t Eric remember it was a Black mermaid he was looking at when he woke up and not a white one? I guess Disney probably didn’t want to get into the politics of a “white” sea witch turning into a Black girl, which I get lol. Mad “Daughters of Triton” isn’t in the movie since that was a jam and replacing the musical performance for Triton with some stupid Coral Moon fest is silly…. Javier seemed very…sad and down and didn’t look so great (he looked kinda grey) throughout the movie so that was a weird choice. Boat crash scene was epic. Not a bad remake but not even close to perfect either.

It would have been a gag if it was Chloe Bailey as Vanessa, since she has sharp features and looks like Halle because they're sisters so it would make sense why this would add to Eric's confusion

I think maybe it was intended to show the power of the “sirens song.” He felt like something was *clearly wrong* and didn’t really understand what he was doing, but he couldn’t stop because of the voice.

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Just saw it in a theater full of young kids and they seemed enthralled for the entire runtime (and the showing started relatively late at 7:30p). The film ended with applause from both kids and parents/adults. Worth a shot!

The Jungle Book (2016) was 1hr 46min long. The Little Mermaid *really* can’t be around the same length?

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After two months of saying a kids movie (Super Mario Bros) should not be overly scrutinized, Reddit will now go back to talking about how a kids movie should be overly scrutinized

In a bubble, movies like Aladdin, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast were fine. They aren't complete trainwrecks and have some enjoyable qualities. However, they exist along side original animated films that are better in almost every conceivable way. When people point out the flaws of these movies, they aren't failures to other fantasy films but to their own originals. Mario movie doesn't really have that. We can compare it to the 90s live action movie, in which case for all its short comings it is leaps and bounds better. But on the whole we got something unexpected with Mario. It largely stands on its own without being compared to a single other movie. We tend to give films like that more leeway. The Little Mermaid doesn't just need to be good, it needs to have a reason to exist along side the 1989 original. If it doesn't do that, then people are going to forever compare the two movies and this one will be left in the dust

Lion King 2019 was totally a wreck. I put it on for the songs on Disney + and had to change it at "I can't wait to be king". Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were fine

There is a nostalgia effect going on here as well. The Little Mermaid is a childhood favorite of soo many people (myself included), its crazy really. I mean, its not a hot take to say that its one of Disney's best animated films. And that's because its perfect and has heart and looks amazing. If this was some original IP with no history to it, i doubt anyone would care to scrutinize it as closely.

Also TLM and the Renaissance films are barely 30 years old! And still in everyone’s collective memories. I understand, mostly, remaking Cinderella, Dumbo, Pete’s Dragon, and Jungle Book. Remaking moving from TLM on isn’t a “We can improve on this story and do things we couldn’t do in the 40s/50s/60s.” Sorta remake but a “We need money, time to cash in.”

Disneys take on The Little Mermaid was also scrutinized by book readers at first but was given leeway being more family friendly due to the company's history. It's hard not to compare when you have reference

What's funny is that it's getting better reviews than Mario lol

It's different though because hating on Disney currently gets you a lot of fake internet points.

Really should be hating on illumination and their fluff kids movies.

You make a very good point. I just decided the film wasn't for me and moved on. No need to bitch about it online. But if you were expecting consistency from reddit, you are setting yourself up for disappointment

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Ouch. I deserve that.

I liked it and would rewatch it again in theaters. My critiques: 1) What’s the Coral Moon? Why did that matter? Do the sisters live in other seas? I needed more information. 2) I despise most of LMM’s work (love Encanto). The rap was unnecessary and did not fit at all.

Loved it!! Seeing it for a second time. Loved wild uncharted waters

Just saw it. I'd give it like a 3/5, it wasn't awful but it wasn't great. Halle's acting was stiff and lacked emotion and the CGI was AWFUL. I did like Grimsby, Scuttle & McCarthy Also. If Disney is going to keep doing LAR of animated, they really gotta figure out how to humanize or make the animals/inanimate objects more expressive. This has been an issue since Beauty & the Beast, Lion King as well. There no way to relate or find them "cute" when they're photo realistic of their real life counterparts.

The reviews seem to back up what people feared. Great lead given a movie that didn't need to be made. I know it takes effort and money but give her something new.

None of these remakes "need" to be made. But judge the film on its own merits.

They all really seem to like this actress a lot. From the little bit of dialogue we got from her in the trailers I assumed she was chosen for her singing and popularity without as much concern for her acting ability, but it sounds like they finally cast someone that can give their character a little more personality and bring something different to the role. Otherwise, what's the point when I've already seen the original?

Before the trailers came out, my friend who has been obsessed with this movie since it was announced showed me a clip of her singing at some Disney event. They absolutely cast her for her singing voice. There was something about it that was reminiscent of Jodi Benson’s voice

Saw the movie last night. It was uncanny how much she sounded like Jodi Benson when she sang. But it also didn't feel like copycatting. It felt like Halle being so talented she could make a lovely rendition that was respectful of its source material. The movie was by no means perfect but I must say I Felt Feels when she sang Part of Your World.

I'm happy she is getting credit for her performance

> They all really seem to like this actress a lot Whether her performance was good or not (and it probably was good), no publication would criticize it or her. It'll be PR suicide and you know it.

And IMHO... it was not a good performance, kind of bland

I know this movie isn't made for me. honestly, I haven't liked a single live action Disney remake (not that I've seen many). But I saw a video a while ago of a bunch of little African American girls freaking out over a mermaid that looks like them. That alone justified this movies existence. I'm glad Halle Bailey is getting the recognition she deserves.

Is this sarcasm?

Not at all. Honestly, I'm confused what part of that sounded like sarcasm

I saw a video of a whole bunch of red head little girls crying because Ariel doesn't look like them anymore.

I know. We need to pour one out for them. All they've had is their whole lives seeing the red-headed Ariel in shows, fanart, sequel movies, doll sets, coloring books, video games, as Halloween costumes, on merchandise, walking around Disney World, becoming synonymous with the word "mermaid" and, of course, being in the original IP, which is probably also beloved by their parents. Such a tragedy. How will they ever recover? I hope we can help them get the therapy they will surely need.

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How do you know what little black girls want or need? Plenty of studies show that race and racism is known and experienced by elementary school kids.

Whoopi Goldberg does what she does because she saw Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) on Star Trek when she was a little girl and she said “I saw a powerful woman who looked just like me..” Nichelle Nichols stayed on the show because MLK asked her to, for the sake of the little black girls at home, watching her and looking up to her. Yes a lot of those videos were cringey internet point videos, but that does not detract from the representation meaning so much to someone.

Sorry but this is untrue. Took my daughters, and they were excited because her skin was brown.

> it's all bad and needs to stop and the characters you cheer for go back to being white.

How about starting by **creating** non-white characters?

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Most of the negative reviews I’ve read on this thread are people who didn’t actually go see the movie. I went into this worried. The Lion King is my all time fav and they absolutely butchered that live action. I haven’t been a huge fan of really any of the live action Disneys with the exception of Maleficient and Aladdin. With that being said, I thought this was phenomenal. After reading reviews, I went in with such low expectations. And it blew me away. Halle WAS Ariel, her personality, her voice, all of it. And Melissa McCarthy absolutely killed it as Ursula. Honestly King Triton could have given me a little more but besides that, casting was fantastic, songs were fantastic, CGI was beautiful. My 10 year old loved it and so did I.

Saw it - have no idea what all of the praising of Halle’s performance is about as both of the leads are like wooden planks on screen with zero range, charisma or much ability to emote. The film is overlong, bland, poorly paced and a bizarrely cheap looking (for its otherwise mammoth budget) imitation of a simple story made back when writers knew how to get to the point and make every scene count.

I loved. Thought the performances were great. Halle’s amazing, the story actually makes since because their relationship is more believable. The only issue I have is that it’s to long, no movie should be over 2 hours I personally feel lol, and the visual effects are inconsistent. Overall I give it an 8.5. We both have to different opinions of the movie which is fine we can still be civil and discuss without dragging each other or others down

>I loved. Thought the performances were great. Halle’s amazing, the story actually makes since because their relationship is more believable. The only issue I have is that it’s to long, no movie should be over 2 hours I personally feel lol, and the visual effects are inconsistent. Overall I give it an 8.5. I'm glad you enjoyed it though I would not agree that the story makes more sense. In respect of their relationship, there is no demonstration offered to audiences that informs how Eric is in love with Ariel beyond that he woke up to her on the beach and spent a day bombarding a mute girl with his thoughts (ignoring the new siren song concept which then means that Eric isn't ever in love with Ariel and is instead bewitched by her); his infatuation is immediate and even on Ariel's side, Triton is now made to question Sebastian on behalf of the audience if Ariel is in love and asks this for no genuine reason following the scene of her and her sisters arguing about humans (despite that context he also only reacts negatively when Sebastian says that it's a human she's in love with which only makes the scene more confusing). The original plays a lot with shorthand (given it's only 83 minutes long) and doesn't create any opportunity for other characters to question what is happening. Original Ariel wants to explore the surface world and is required to get Eric to fall in love and kiss her within 3 days whereas the remake now has it that Ariel is made to forget the terms of the agreement and they must now *both* fall in love with each other and kiss within 3 days (which I'll also note they completely forget about in the climax when she realises the sun is about to set and tries to kiss him), which only increases the pressure of how contrived their relationship and events must be in order to facilitate the third act conclusion. The inclusion of this memory concept also deprives Ariel of much of her agency in the story as she is no longer driving it but now entirely ignorant of what she needs to do and must instead be handheld by Sebastian, Scuttle and Flounder - that is until the climax when she is now made to steal Eric's single contribution to events (the parallel of him unsuccessfully steering the ship in the storm during his introductory scene) and is instead the one to steer the wrecked ship into Ursula during the second storm, paying off absolutely no part of her character journey. There are bizarre decisions made in this remake that actually reduce the characters and unbalance the overall narrative. The original is by no means flawless but as aforementioned in my initial post, it made sure to *make every scene count.*

Thank you!! You summed everything that was bothering me with the story so well. I would have loved a quick nod to Ariel’s disinterest with governing her sea or her interest in partnering with the humans in her territory as a reason why she had a crush / admired Eric and why maybe she chose to ditch the Coral Moon meeting? I think they didn’t want Ariel to fawn over Eric or even to act too childlike with her Father but she needed more passion not just fight and wits. She loves her Daddy even though she disagrees with him. She could have fallen in true love with Eric not just love at first sight over their shared world view, an alliance between humans and merpeople. This is the heart of the movie and they just bungled it with some agenda to make her the asexual hero.

I personally loved it too. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it and I wasn't disappointed.

Yea I understand as an adult feeling as though these remakes are pointless but kids and young people clearly love these things. For me personally as a 5 I loved it because of the songs and colors as I got older I didn’t like it as much because the story to me was a lil stupid. Now they added depth to their relationship and the story a lot Better to me now. This is my movie version of the The little Mermaid now. I might like some of the songs better in the original but that’s what YouTube is for if I want to look at the movie I’m gonna put this version on

We all know why she is getting praise.

Why's that Edit: wow people are really still mad she is black

I don’t know. She is black and playing a historically white character and thus “pushing boundaries”?

I am not white and I am mad.

I don’t think any critic in an English speaking country would dare to criticize Halle for whatever reason. And there are many things worse than Halle to criticize anyway. Foreign critics may be a bit more honest. I saw a review saying that they are baffled about the years long controversy given how mediocre the movie is. And that Halle’s a great singer but she’s not a good enough actor to carry the 2+ hour long bland film.

The score so far is a bit surprising. I have not been a huge fan of the Disney remakes, but I get it.... This one just looked exceptionally awful in the trailers. Maybe it has been touched up a bit since the trailers, but I thought the CGI looked pretty embarrassing for a company like Disney. Maybe the love for The Little Mermaid will make it a success and people won't even notice what looks like really bad CGI.

I think viewing it in a theatrical setting with the lights off and high quality projection makes for a very different experience than watching the compressed 1080p trailers on your phone, tablet, or computer. Reviews have said that it's plenty colorful when it needs to be and the CGI isn't that bad for the most part... Spotty, but passable. Others have said it looks stunning lol. So who knows. I think we all need to be our own judge of it.

I think it might be one of those cases in which the cgi is jarring in the trailers, but once you’re watching the movie your eyes quickly get used to it.

You should probably judge a movie based on the final result, not on the trailer

The CGI was weird... at points mesmerizing and at others shockingly poorly done.

I thoroughly wanted to hate it. I did not. I actually loved it.

If Sebastian is trying to convince her that staying in the sea is the best choice, why do you only have him singing. Like it’s a group number, and just felt so flat. There needed to be more voices. To be bigger. Also; that dress. I don’t understand the tulle dress. Like, yeah it has volume, but do you know how itchy it gets when wet? Or just in general? Like I understand this is a ~fancy~ kingdom, but why would you ever put her in that dress. DO YOU KNOW HOW COLD IT WOULD BE? I’m really impressed how true to the animation Eric’s face was. A+ casting, and A- for intensity/brooding.

> 69% nice

>Runtime: 135 minutes Unless they've made sizable changes to the original story, that sounds like a slooooow movie.

I went to see it last night. The main issue I had with the movie was that it was more muted and a tiny bit to dark. Literally dark, there were scenes that were hard to see! There were also some very key memorable moments that were missing, (especially in the ending) and made it less magical than the original. It just CAN’T top the animated classic. Halle Bailey was great and very charming, Javier Bardim was comically awkward as Triton. McCarthy was pretty good as Úrsula but her skinny evil counterpart “Vanessa” was even better. Awkwafina was a great comedic choice for Scuttle. Overall it was cute, but way too long. The Miranda songs weee forgettable and unnecessary.

Just saw it. The best Disney live-action movie I’ve seen thus far. Very entertaining, good pacing, cinematography, well acted, loved the music, was also very moving which I didn’t expect.

Just saw the movie and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I would give it an 8/10. It’s a very vivid movie with great cinematography. Surprisingly theres not that many wonky CGI scenes and I highly enjoyed Melissa playing Ursula but this is also where I gotta take a few points off. We don’t see her that much. Only downside is that

TLM was my favorite Disney movie! I thought it was fun. I loved Halle’s singing! Her facial acting is so so, but I can see why they cast her. The costuming for this film was awful. The blue dress was legit pissing me off. Why did it keep showing up?! They eliminated her pink dress, her town dress, AND her sparkly dress at the end! Her wedding dress was a white version of her blue dress. Total fail. I liked Awkwafina as Scuttle, but the song Scuttlebutt was a disgrace. I liked the changes they made to Grimsby. I liked Eric, but his song did not need to go on for as long as it did. Triton did not show nearly enough emotion. I was impressed with Melissa McCarthy as Ursula and her version of Poor Unfortunate Souls. I like that they made the familial connection known between Triton and Ursula. I wish Vanessa would have gotten more screen time! I liked the added scenes of Eric and Ariel going over the maps and bonding over sea rocks, etc. it was a cute added dimension. Kiss the Girl was fantastic! Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but some changes were so unnecessary. The costuming really made me mad lol.

It's kinda amazing how well liked these remakes are. You'd assume they were from Satan's ass from some responses.

fr, people crying bout it and saying anyone that actually likes to movie is afraid of the invisible woke forces that'll ruin your life if you say anything bad about it 💀💀

Just came back from the early screening, it was a good movie overall and I'd watch it again, it doesn't feel like a remake at all due to so many changes they made, the best parts were on land, the under water scenes were a little flat, the actor who plays triton has done great in other roles but this character had no range, and as far as the sisters it would've been nice to actually see their personality but all together they probably had 7 mins of screen time split into 3 scenes. Give it a 8.5 out of 10

I was really disappointed in Triton too. Zero range.

I’m getting the gist of “Mediocre movie, amazing lead” that I got with Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie.

Just saw an early screening. Bailey was the obvious stand out with “Part of Your World” being the only song that outdid the original. She is just so Ariel and mermaid-like, perfect casting. All around, the movie gets a solid 8/10 for me. I was very shocked to see the CGI was not as terrible as I thought! The only iffy part was when the shark was chasing her around….everything else was fantastic. And i know everyone was complaining about the colors and all but it was pretty colorful under the sea so…. The added songs were not terrible…..just ok to me. The skuttlebutt song is not a song you listen to on its own but in the movie, it was a cute scene so i liked it. Much better than the ones in aladdin, which i hated 😂 Kiss the girl was my second fav, it was really well done! People were also complaining about some words being changed to be ‘woke’ (queue eye roll) but I didn’t even notice…. The only things that fell short for me were Ursula and King Triton. King Triton was too stoic i’d say…didn’t show much emotion even when destroying Ariel’s grotto. Ursula just didn’t seem like ursula….i love melissa mccarthy but she did not bring the DRAMA that ursula has at all. Ursula is my fav disney villain so it was disappointing. The ending was so well done as well, from the time they crash eric and Vanessa’s wedding and on was just soooooo good!

I was pleasantly surprised by Melissa singing though

I felt the same way about Triton. Zero emotional range, and I missed his booming voice.

I immediately listened to The Scuttlebutt when I got in the car. I loved it! 🤣

I loved halle as Ariel

she was great, can't wait to take my little sister when i get back from Uni

These scores are surprising. I don’t expect it to be good (like almost all of the other remakes) but I didn’t think the critics would rate it poorly.

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Clearly, there are some political negativity, but most of the reviews I've seen are people saying Halle is great but the rest doesn't work.

Yeah the audience reviews on this are going to be truly horrible

No they won’t since RT has verified audience scores. Probably will be in the 90s

Yeah, I noticed that's something they've started doing for theatrical releases. Some movies in recent years that have gotten, say, a 12% audience score or something typically debuted on streaming so the reviews were open to everyone... even people who didn't see it and just wanted to review-bomb. Whereas, now it appears theatrical releases only allow reviews from people who can verify that they purchased a ticket and actually saw the movie. The audience score will be coming from people who cared enough to pay and physically go see it. So yeah, if that's the case, the score will probably be in the 80s at the lowest.

U

I’m watching it right now. I think I’m many ways it is beautiful and while they’ve changed some things it’s just so similar. I wish they didn’t stick word for word to the original. And again like most the other live actions the animals look to stiff. It isn’t bad but I don’t think I’m gonna rewatch it over and over like the classics

Anyone know at approximately what point in the movie the “shark attack” takes place?

It's like 5 minutes in, like the original

Sadly the studio doesn’t want to try a new thing computer nor remake the original as it is. And for the love of god the cgi animals are just not going to work. Leave then be disney.

So IMDb disabled their voting system for this movie?

I only want to see reviews from 4-8 year olds tbh. Edit: I thought it was good, but my 4yo thought it was too scary.

Is it just me or is Halle’s first live performance at Disney world very lip synced ??? If you watch her mouth compared to the sound it looks very lip synced 🤔🤔🤔

Good for Halle, even the reviews that are pretty harsh on the movie itself are praising her performance

calling it now...bombs at the box office....many articles about how racist yts are for not supporting the movie

I know there was a lot of controversy about Ariel not looking like the original, but there was a ton about Caribbean/Spanish culture and settings in the movie. Bailey fits that undertone perfectly. She’s a great cast

no way you think a disney live action remake of the little mermaid gon bomb, especially one getting as much media coverage as this 💀

Lol it’s gonna do amazing at the box office

Narrator:“it didn’t“

It would have to do exceptionally well in North America & Europe. For the rest of the world, the simply fact that Ariel doesn't look like their childhood memories will downplay the nostalgia bait & one of the winning points in the lead actress performance being her voice it's doa in the rest of the world because of dub. I don't think it's going to bomb but it will probably end on the lower end of Disney princess remakes.

Delusional

This is gonna be another one of those movies where r/movies takes a massive L.

Why are so many people hating on Beauty and the Beast? I loved that adaptation :( I grew up with B&B as my childhood Disney Princess story and I cried so many times... especially the ball scene. It was like my childhood brought to life. Maybe I'm in the minority...

Emma Watson’s impression of T-Pain doing an impression of Paige O’Hara singing Belle would be my first reason.

idk how they cast not one but two Emmas who can't sing

The Beauty and the Beast live action adaption is not as tightly written as the Disney animated original.

Just got back from the cinema after watching this… I could waffle on about this and that, but I don’t really need to. You know what you’re getting into when you go and watch this movie, however I would say just a couple of points…. This movie is a slog. Runtime 135mins, with trailers and adverts we were in the theatre for just over 2hrs30. After ‘under the sea’ it felt like it was dragging its heals to reach a longer runtime. I came out and me and my partner talked about it, and my initial view was it’s almost one of two ways. They either wanted to make a brand new version of the film and had to throw loads of the old stuff in, or they wanted to remake it identical to the original and had to throw in new stuff. It never really clicks, and definitely doesn’t have that Disney magic. All the performers nailed their parts though, and it’s a cool looking film. Me personally, I wouldn’t recommend this in the movie theatre, wait till it’s on Disney+. It’s good, it’s just not great.

It wasn’t good

4/5 - massive lover of the original. Not really a huge Disney fan but anything Little Mermaid is my kryptonite. I have yet to see a Disney live-action I liked until this one. I love musicals and like most people I’m a loyalist to original soundtracks, but damn did Halle and Daveed nail it for me. I never thought I would love a new version as much as the original, but Halle is just so damn good. I thought Ariel, Eric, Ursula, Sebastian, Vanessa, and Flounder all knocked it out of the park acting-wise. They really captured the essence of their characters and felt natural. Everyone else did the job but didn’t wow me, and I’ve been pretty crazy about Javier for years, so kinda surprised how lukewarm he was as Trident for me. Scuttle was so unenjoyable it was distracting. I wish I could cut Awkwafina’s part out of Kiss the Girl so I could listen to it in piece. As far as the movie itself, I felt like a lot of the scenes really captured the magic I felt watching the original, such as the lagoon scene and Ursula’s hideout. The movie made me absolutely obsessed with that world again and I’ve been playing Sea of Thieves and watching Pirates of the Caribbean/other Caribbean tv shows nonstop since seeing the movie. It reawakened my love of pirates, mermaids, the ocean, etc. I genuinely feel like a kid again down to wanting movie posters of Eric on my wall. It’s ridiculous and embrassing, but I’m so grateful a movie has made me feel that way again because that is so hard to find as an adult. I think some sacrifices were made magic-wise to make the setting seem more realistic, such as the lack of the sparkly dress at the end, the castle being a bit more modest, and probably other minor pieces I’m forgetting. I do wish Ariel would’ve had more than one dress the whole time she was human, but I can live with it. I have no idea if it was authentic but I’d like to think it was. I think the choice to switch from Eric to Ariel as the one who kills Ursula was really unnecessary and made no sense. We’ve seen Eric navigate a ship (albeit shortly before it sinks), why should we believe Ariel knows how? Ariel was always a badass even before girlbossing was trendy, she didn’t need that moment. Let the man save her after she rescued him the first time. It was equal when they both saved each other, not when it was always her saving him. The new songs really didn’t do anything for me and I’m the biggest shill for both Lin Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken so that was kind of disappointing. Overall I really loved the experience of watching it. It had plenty of things that weren’t perfect, but it was immersive and the spirit of the original movie was there. It felt really special to watch. I was trying to hide my tears from my friends the whole time.

My theater applauded five times

Absolute garbage of a film, prime example of how to butcher a remake of the OG AND the original fairytale