The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[WillytheDino]

I’ve seen it too and I was partly impressed but also have some notes. It’s very dark, the underwater parts and the climax as well. The CGI is not that good and the transformation parts (Ariel and Ursula/Vanessa) felt poorly done.
Vanessa was a highlight.

[Sotiris]

Creating an Underwater World for Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/creati ... e-mermaid/

Dive Into 4 Details About The Little Mermaid’s Soundtrack
https://d23.com/dive-into-4-details-abo ... oundtrack/

Assembling a Seaworthy Cast for The Little Mermaid
https://d23.com/assembling-a-seaworthy- ... e-mermaid/

A Magical Look at the Making of The Little Mermaid
https://d23.com/a-magical-look-at-the-m ... e-mermaid/

Hollywood Goes Under the Sea for the World Premiere of The Little Mermaid
https://d23.com/hollywood-goes-under-th ... e-mermaid/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast Take A Deep Dive On Remake Changes, Challenges And What Makes The Perfect Disney Royalty
https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-little ... 235382416/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Filmmakers Talk the Sea Creature Designs, Bypassing “Les Poissons” and Cutting Javier Bardem’s New Song
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235499193/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Stars Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem Want an Ursula/Triton Spinoff
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235499894/

‘The Little Mermaid’ VFX Supervisor Details How “Truly Amazing” Halle Bailey Became a Mermaid
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235500962/

‘The Little Mermaid’s’ New Grooves: Halle Bailey, Rob Marshall Dive Into the Musical Numbers — Including Three New Songs and a Deleted Track
https://variety.com/lists/the-little-me ... l-miranda/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Costume Designer Colleen Atwood Explains How She Built Ariel’s Mermaid Tail
https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/ ... 235626743/

Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler on Becoming Disney Princesses, Singing Live on Set and Blocking Out Toxic Fans: ‘Stay Grateful and Ignore the Hate’
https://variety.com/2023/film/features/ ... 235821342/

Who plays Ursula's alter-ego Vanessa in The Little Mermaid? Director Rob Marshall on casting Jessica Alexander
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... alexander/

Melissa McCarthy worried she needed to dial back Ursula's shimmy to keep The Little Mermaid family-friendly
https://ew.com/movies/melissa-mccarthy- ... -friendly/

Why ‘Little Mermaid’ Director Rob Marshall Cut a Classic Animated Sequence from His Live-Action Version
https://www.indiewire.com/features/inte ... 234866180/

‘The Little Mermaid’: Director Rob Marshall and Star Halle Bailey Break Down the Live-Action Film’s Surprising Changes
https://www.indiewire.com/features/inte ... 234866535/

Designing a Showstopping and Terrifying Ursula for ‘The Little Mermaid’
https://www.indiewire.com/features/craf ... 234871529/

How Alvin Ailey Dancers Helped Create a Live-Action ‘Under the Sea’ for ‘The Little Mermaid’
https://www.indiewire.com/features/anim ... 234867765/

‘The Little Mermaid': The 13 Biggest Differences Between the Live-Action and Animated Versions
https://www.thewrap.com/the-little-merm ... -animated/

[VanessaFan]

I'm so happy to hear that Vanessa was a highlight in this one, I bet Jessica Alexander had a blast playing her.

To anyone who has seen the movie, does Vanessa still turn back into Ursula on the ship? Also, how and why is it Eric that gets trapped in the whirlpool at the end of the fight with Ursula? Also also, how is the scene of Ursula growing huge? Is it as epic as in the animated version, with the laugh and Ariel & Eric on the top of her crown?

Sorry for all the questions

[Farerb]

To anyone who has seen the movie, does Vanessa still turn back into Ursula on the ship? Also, how and why is it Eric that gets trapped in the whirlpool at the end of the fight with Ursula? Also also, how is the scene of Ursula growing huge? Is it as epic as in the animated version, with the laugh and Ariel & Eric on the top of her crown?

Vanessa does turn into Ursula, but they're not on a ship, but on a balcony.
Ursula targets Eric instead of Ariel, but he's not inside a whirlpool.
Yes, Ariel and Eric are on top of her crown.

You can actually watch those scenes via leaked videos:
https://youtu.be/ObLaCdRetSo

https://youtu.be/rMC_zBlkHgE

https://youtu.be/qeUqGmEzWEQ

[VanessaFan]

Vanessa does turn into Ursula, but they're not on a ship, but on a balcony.
Ursula targets Eric instead of Ariel, but he's not inside a whirlpool.
Yes, Ariel and Eric are on top of her crown.

You can actually watch those scenes via leaked videos:
https://youtu.be/ObLaCdRetSo

https://youtu.be/rMC_zBlkHgE

https://youtu.be/qeUqGmEzWEQ

Wow, great find! Those scenes look great! Although, I don't understand why Vanessa is clouded in smoke(?) as she transforms back into Ursula. I get it as Ursula grows huge, as I guess it's her octopus ink, as in the animated feature. That scene of her emerging from the waters was quite scary. I mean, it least it looked quite scary to me. But maybe I'll change my mind when I see the movie myself. Also, Ursula's death. Not so impressed. I mean, she gets stabbed like in the original, but then she just sinks down below? No lightning or electrocution through her body?

[Farerb]

Wow, great find! Those scenes look great! Although, I don't understand why Vanessa is clouded in smoke(?) as she transforms back into Ursula. I get it as Ursula grows huge, as I guess it's her octopus ink, as in the animated feature. That scene of her emerging from the waters was quite scary. I mean, it least it looked quite scary to me. But maybe I'll change my mind when I see the movie myself. Also, Ursula's death. Not so impressed. I mean, she gets stabbed like in the original, but then she just sinks down below? No lightning or electrocution through her body?

Yeah I agree. I find a lot of scenes in this movie to be less intense than they were in the original, and I guess it's because there's more sensitivity towards not scaring young children.

I also think some scenes were lacking in emotion, especially the ones with Triton and Ariel.

[Avaitor]

I saw the movie last night thanks to my new job at a movie theater, and I largely agree with Farerb. This isn't the most egregious remake, but I can't think of a reason to recommend it over the original.

It largely sticks to the original film with a couple of changes that I don't think affect the story the same way Beauty and the Beast's did, which I'd consider a win. I also don't think that anyone in this version eclipses the original's cast, although I appreciate that Eric is a little more fleshed out here. Halle Bailey is a wonderful singer, but I kind of agree that she oversings various parts of her songs, although I feel like that might be intentional so she can stand out from Jodi Benson, who her range isn't that far off from. I do agree that Melissa McCarthy is a little shouty, but I give her credit for giving 100%, even if Ursula should ultimately have been portrayed by a more natural singer. I was underwhelmed with Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and wish that there could have been room for Triton's song, as Javier Bardem's take felt underdeveloped, but it is what it is.

My favorite part of the movie is the score, which I think Alan Menken did a terrific job with. I don't know if it's better than his original, but the soundtrack is a definite highlight. The new songs are fine but forgettable, except for Scuttle's song, which I couldn't stand, even though I thought Awkwafina was otherwise alright as Scuttle.

If you're dead set on seeing this and you've liked some of the remakes in the past, I'd say go check it out. If you're on the fence and don't feel like spending the money, definitely wait for Disney+.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yeah, I knew that Ursula stills has the iconic shot of transforming back to herself and crawling towards Ariel and/or Eric from the New York Times review. They said it was one of the few moments that actually bring any of the horror Ursula has in the original. That was a pretty good review, too, noting some uncomfortable things like Eric having a bigger story than Ariel now she's racebent... Or the undertones of a white Vanessa with a Black Ariel's voice. Also, the last three paragraphs in particular are hilarious.

[D82]

The initial audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is quite positive. We'll see how it evolves once the film opens everywhere and more people get to see it.


Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_li ... rmaid_2023

Someone on one of the Twitter communities about the movie said Disney Music Records responded to a question they had about the score saying they are releasing two digital albums this Friday, a deluxe edition and a score only album. I don't know if this is true or not. We'll soon find out.

It seems a Deluxe Edition is indeed going to be released this Friday. Here's the track list. Apparently, it's a digital release only. It's comprised of the 15 tracks of the regular soundtrack, plus 22 score tracks, but doesn't include any demos or deleted stuff. Anyway, it's great that we're getting more of the score. I guess the "score only album" is just the score tracks on their own.

[Sotiris]

Interview with sound engineer who recorded and mixed the songs and score.

[PatrickvD]

Just saw it and found it quite easily the best of the Fab Four remakes. Halle and Melissa understood the assignment. And that actress playing Vanessa had the entire audience laughing. Definitely a scene stealer!

Weirdly enough Wild Uncharted Waters didn’t work for me in the film whereas For the First Time did. So my opinion on those two switched upon seeing the film. Scuttlebutt was ridiculous filler but at least it had visual gags which really connected with the audience.

I loved how they fleshed out the Kingdom as a fictional Caribbean type of place. That really worked with the original score and musical sensibilities as well as the casting choices.

Oh and there was a powerful quote from Anderson’s original story at the beginning which connects visually to the finale. Easily the best change from the animated feature.

What it does most and best however, is remind you how truly sublime Howard Ashman’s original screenplay was. Truly timeless.

[UmbrellaFish]

It sounds like you had a good time, PatrickvD!

I am very excited! I bought my tickets about an hour ago. We’re seeing a 3D matinee this Saturday (and having seafood after! what can I say new Sebastian looks a little tasty…)

[D82]

The Deluxe Edition of the soundtrack is available in the UK and other territories. Here's a Spotify link.

It's interesting to hear what everyone thinks of the movie. I'm glad to hear "For the First Time" works well in the film in your opinion, PatrickvD. I'm especially curious to see what all the musical numbers look like.

We’re seeing a 3D matinee this Saturday (and having seafood after! what can I say new Sebastian looks a little tasty…)

Alan Menken didn’t want The Little Mermaid remake to be a 'cut-and-paste of the original'
https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/alan-menken ... 35120.html

Here's another interview with him:

'Little Mermaid': Alan Menken on reworking original songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda, their 3 new tunes and the Javier Bardem number they cut
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lit ... 09837.html

In this other video, he plays a bit of the new songs on the piano. Lin-Manuel Miranda's addition to the music of "For the First Time" doesn't sound too big to me hearing this new comparison. It's mainly the orchestrations, right? What that addition did, though, is making it sound a bit like "Belle".

Interview with sound engineer who recorded and mixed the songs and score.

We rarely see interviews with sound engineers. It's interesting to learn what their process is like. An interview with the film's co-choreographer was also released the other day. And here's an interview with costume designer Colleen Atwood. Among other things, she says she designed both the mermaid looks as well as the costumes on land. Even though the tails and tops were CGI, she and her team built real costumes as reference for the digital artists. She also explains why it was decided Ariel wouldn't wear a shell bra:

We walked away from that one. I just think we wanted to have a more fishlike quality to the girls. Having them all plonk seashells on their breasts seemed like a weird way to go. And when you start putting shells on real bodies, it’s hard to make them look good, believe me. We went with a bralette that still has a fish vibe but wasn’t as aggressive as a shell bra.

I was reading the review from The Independent (UK), and this line caught my attention, cause it is the way I feel based on the footage we have seen so far: "The film’s oceanic sequences exist in some ugly, dimly lit netherworld, too fake to be real and too real to be fun."

Amen!

The CGI is one of the most criticized aspects I've seen in the reviews, as well as the length of the film. Some also complain the film follows the original too closely and there isn't enough new stuff. Not many people like the new songs either.

And D82.,.. great featurette: confirms that Halle's body will be motion capture underwater (the arms might not be). Credit to Halle, cause it DOES look like a difficult thing to do in real life.

You're right; most of her body will be motion capture when she's a mermaid. Even her midriff, as well as the hair. And yes, the underwater movements seem difficult to do. Halle has said in interviews it required a lot of strength and at the same time she had to move gracefully, which I'm sure wasn't easy.

Do we think they changed Vanessa and Eric's wedding to an engagement part to avoid showing the priest's erection, like the original??

HAHAHAHA

I think the reason for that change is the same why there's no wedding at the end. Nowadays Disney doesn't want to show characters getting married so soon after meeting for the first time.

I'm honestly surprised there haven't been more comments online in reviews and reactions around Disney not hiring a Caribbean actor to play Sebastian, tbh.

Well, even though Daveed Diggs' performance as Sebastian is probably the most praised one after Halle's and Melissa's, I've read some reactions that said his Jamaican accent is terrible. I guess not everybody knows what a Jamaican accent should sound like, though, and that's why there hasn't been more criticism about that.

[nomad2010]

Haven’t posted in forever because this thread has been a mess but…

Came to say I saw this, and it’s by far the best of the Fab Four remakes, and possibly the best remake yet. This takes the same approach as Cinderella and really fleshes things out, but not in a superficial way like Beauty and the Beast. Without spoilers, by the end of the first scene where Ariel sees Eric, you already understand their connection. It makes the entire movie so much more impactful, and it’s hard to not root for them. Halle, Jonah, Melissa, Daveed, Awkwafina… all perfectly cast. Even Scuttlebutt works well within the film to my surprise.

I had two major problems with the film. The first being Javier Bardem’s performance. He’s in his own world, performing in a totally different movie. And it’s very apparent by the end that it just didn’t click. The second is spoiler territory concerning the end of the film so for those who want to know…

Triton changes Ariel back into a human. But because they make a big deal of her dress she’s worn on land, she puts that back on to meet Eric. Which means there’s no transformation dress, but the dress isn’t the problem. It’s that we don’t see the moment Ariel realizes what Triton has done. Because she’d literally just be naked on a rock. She transforms, puts on the dress, and reacts offscreen to what her dad has done. So we see Triton point the trident and then it cuts to Ariel showing up on the terrace of the castle surprising Eric. It’s a crucial moment left unseen. And it just did not work for me.

However I will say I loved that Ariel and Eric tightly embraced and held onto each other for so long before finally kissing. It really was earned and made the kiss even more impactful.

But, now for the second part of the issue caused by the lack of transformation scene, is the even more baffling final scene. There is a big celebration of what’s supposed to be after their wedding (she’s wearing a ring) and they are going off on their honeymoon to explore. Triton shows up to see them off in order to replace the scene where he transforms her, and it’s shot so bizarrely. Ariel and Eric are in a rowboat, rowing off to their ship. And Triton appears beside it. He’s so low and doesn’t lift himself up out of the water. He says everyone supports them and we see a ton of mermaids surface. They embrace, and she says she loves him and he uses his powers to speedily push the boat away. We get to the final shot, an overexposed side view of them on the rowboat, speeding quickly offscreen leaving us staring at the (still overexposed, glaring white) ocean. It’s the ugliest shot. I cannot believe they ended on that. And the audience seemed confused as to it being the climactic end shot as well.

Until those scenes though, everything worked so well. And I really think it felt like a much more sophisticated version of the story we all love. I just wish the magic and the romance had been punched up at the end. It’s such a different movie than the ad campaign made it out to be. It takes its time, and I loved that. I’d give it a solid 8/10. Had the ending been better, I’d easily rate it higher.

[Disney's Divinity]

Seeing this tomorrow night. IThe Cinderella comparisons make me feel less likely to be surprised, since I thought that one was also terrible and missed the mark on most of the characters. The only thing I really liked about that film was the prince (who was practically a new character since the animated prince has no personality). It seems similar with how they gave Eric more story here at the expense of Ariel as with the Prince v. Cinderella in that film. The difference though is that Madden was a better actor than this guy.

Well, even though Daveed Diggs' performance as Sebastian is probably the most praised one after Halle's and Melissa's

I'm not sure I agree that's true. I haven't seen much if any praise for Diggs. Really I've only seen praise for Bailey if anyone, and even the praise of her feels more phoned in than anything. And I actually haven't seen that much praise of McCarthy either, although I expect her to at least be more fun than the rest of them.

Yeah, I do expect the audience score to drop since there are only 50 reviews there right now. Normally the theatrical remakes end up with 10,000+ reviews.

[carolinakid]

Looking forward to your review, Divinity.

[Disney's Divinity]

But I may end up liking it to some degree, who knows. I go into every film and try to lay everything to the side before it starts, even with movies I look forward to (TP&TF, Raya) I try to keep myself from expecting too much and take the film for what it is. I expected to hate Frozen, Zootopia, and Encanto before seeing them and ended up having a positive reaction to those films (just to use some examples).

I mean, there have been a lot of scenes that have appeared on YouTube and I watched some today... *SPOILERS* (Ursula looking for the potion ingredient to become Vanessa, the Vanessa transforming into Ursula scene, Ursula becoming a giant, and the last scene) I liked the 2nd and 4th of those to a degree, actually--even Bardem as Triton. The 1st one, I thought it was okay but didn't like the initial part of her shouting randomly?? Or this recurring thing of her slurring her words like Ursula's a drunk... And the part of Ursula rising of the water was disappointing, she rises too quickly for it to be any good but maybe the rest of the giant scene is good despite that. I like the Queen's actress (Eric's mother) and I liked Eric's outfit there as well as Ariel's tail lying on the ground. I didn't care for the confirmation that the humans know about the merfolk though (the Queen saying something about how "I told you mermaids are evil" or something like that). So dumb...

[Disney Duster]

I’ve seen it too and I was partly impressed but also have some notes. It’s very dark, the underwater parts and the climax as well. The CGI is not that good and the transformation parts (Ariel and Ursula/Vanessa) felt poorly done.
Vanessa was a highlight.

Yes! The transformations are my favorite part of the original (after the voice-taking), and I am so disappointed with them in this film (that I saw in leaks).

That said, I am seeing this tomorrow as well, and I am still excited. I can't wait.

[Farerb]

The score was disappointing, not that it was bad (well it was a little bit generic, with no offense), but it seems that Menken rarely used motifs from the original film.
The score itself didn't really sound "Menken" too, it sounded more like Mark Isham's work from Once Upon a Time.

I mean where is this? Where is the Menken who did this?
https://youtu.be/P1hX8U-kyWo

I guess he wanted to do something new...

[PatrickvD]

But, now for the second part of the issue caused by the lack of transformation scene, is the even more baffling final scene. There is a big celebration of what’s supposed to be after their wedding (she’s wearing a ring) and they are going off on their honeymoon to explore. Triton shows up to see them off in order to replace the scene where he transforms her, and it’s shot so bizarrely. Ariel and Eric are in a rowboat, rowing off to their ship. And Triton appears beside it. He’s so low and doesn’t lift himself up out of the water. He says everyone supports them and we see a ton of mermaids surface. They embrace, and she says she loves him and he uses his powers to speedily push the boat away. We get to the final shot, an overexposed side view of them on the rowboat, speeding quickly offscreen leaving us staring at the (still overexposed, glaring white) ocean. It’s the ugliest shot. I cannot believe they ended on that. And the audience seemed confused as to it being the climactic end shot as well.

I think there was some symbolism here. The film opens with a dark rough sea and then following with the quote:

But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.

When Ariel tell Triton she loves him, cries tears of happiness and then the bright sunlight reflected on that same ocean is revealed I believe it is to show her suffering had come to and end. This was, symbolically, a fairytale ending.

This was by far my favorite thing about it. Also because Halle’s performance was so good here.