The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Marce82]

So I have seen some of the leaked scenes online... and boy oh boy, there are some STRANGE directorial choices there.

Basically, everything below will be a spoiler:

- I DID like the scene of Vanessa singing, specially how the voice comes out of her throat after she puts on the necklace. The actress is doing a good job... she is having campy fun with the part.

- Vanessa's transformation into Ursula... um... overhead shot?? Cloud of smoke, random tentacles... like a second of Ursula crawling... whah???

- Ariel transforming back into a mermaid... that weird zoom out at floor level... we can't really tell what that thing is. Torn dress? Torn underwear? Fins???

- I also caught the scene of Triton destroying the grotto... and this is the biggest issue of all. Indeed, Halle's acting seems wooden (like she isn't making choices, just reading lines)... but this version of Triton is not losing his temper... isn't questioning/regretting his actions immediately after... and that is an IMPORTANT character moment. I guess the "daddy, I love him" would be a much stronger trigger for him losing it... and that line isn't there.
I wonder if they will have the scene of him worrying about his missing daughter ("What have I done?,... what... have... I... done?"), this scene is CRUCIAL towards his decision at the end of the film.

- And finally... is the killing of Ursula just some strange, dark, suggestive shots? Like they don't actually explicitly show her being killed??? I know, I know... WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN???

Based on these scenes, and some of the stuff I have read on this thread (the changed ending??? UGH!)... this film's biggest problem might be the director.

[Sotiris]

Box office performance.

Previews.

Box Office: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Makes $10.3 Million in Previews
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/litt ... 235625709/

Box Office: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Earns $10.3M in Previews
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235501627/

‘Little Mermaid’ Swims to $10.3 Million at Thursday Box Office
https://www.thewrap.com/little-mermaid- ... ay-disney/


Opening weekend.

Box Office: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Swimming to No. 1 With $38 Million Opening Day
https://variety.com/2023/film/box-offic ... 235626708/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Dominates Memorial Day Box Office With $118 Million Debut
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/litt ... 235627238/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Makes Splashy Debut Atop U.K. Box Office
https://variety.com/2023/film/box-offic ... 235628959/

Box Office: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Swims to $118.6M Memorial Day Debut
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235502303/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Opens to $118 Million, but This Is Not the Billion-Dollar Hit We’re Looking For
https://www.indiewire.com/news/box-offi ... 234868436/

Halle Bailey's The Little Mermaid makes a splash at the box office with $163.5 million worldwide
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... ox-office/

‘Little Mermaid’ Now Swimming To $117M+ Opening Boosted By $80M Promo Campaign, Biggest For Disney Live-Action Title
https://deadline.com/2023/05/box-office ... 235380526/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Splashes To $164M Global Bow, But There’s Something Fishy Overseas As Disney Pic Beset By Review-Bombing
https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-little ... 235381992/

‘Little Mermaid’ Swimming Against Strong Tides At Overseas Box Office, Leaving Break-Even In Question
https://deadline.com/2023/05/little-mer ... 235383099/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Swims to $105 Million-Plus 3-Day Opening on Memorial Day Weekend
https://www.thewrap.com/the-little-merm ... e-opening/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Reels In $95 Million 3-Day Box Office Opening but Is Sinking Overseas
https://www.thewrap.com/little-mermaid- ... e-opening/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Scores $117.5 Million Memorial Day Launch But Misfires Overseas
https://www.thewrap.com/little-mermaid- ... ox-office/

‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Fast X’ Are Falling Below Box Office Expectations for Opposite Reasons
https://www.thewrap.com/little-mermaid- ... -analysis/

Will ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Steal Box Office From ‘The Little Mermaid’?
https://www.thewrap.com/spider-man-acro ... ox-office/

Why ‘Little Mermaid’ May Mark the End of Disney’s Remake Factory Hits
https://www.thewrap.com/disney-remake-l ... na-frozen/

Disney's 'Little Mermaid' a test for company's film strategy amid recent struggles
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disneys- ... 47733.html


Asian box office.

China Box Office: ‘Fast X’ Roars Past $100M, ‘The Little Mermaid’ Struggles to Stay Afloat
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235502764/

Box Office: ‘The Little Mermaid’ Gets Doused in China, South Korea After Racist Backlash
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235505682/

‘The Little Mermaid’ Becomes a Blockbuster in the Philippines Amid Racist Backlash Elsewhere in Asia
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235521433/

China Box Office: ‘Fast X’ Wins Second Weekend, While ‘The Little Mermaid’ Flop Sparks Debate on Racism, Casting and Political Correctness
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/chin ... 235627599/

China Box Office: ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Wins Opening Weekend
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/chin ... 235632699/

‘The Little Mermaid’ tanks in China and South Korea amid racist backlash from some viewers
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/medi ... index.html

[UmbrellaFish]

Disneyland Paris has debuted the 2023 Ariel as a character in the parks:

https://twitter.com/TheDisInsider/statu ... 53920?s=20

https://twitter.com/TheDisInsider/statu ... 17414?s=20

I think she begins meeting in the American parks today, too, so we should have pictures in a couple hours. The American Ariels will probably be in the same costume as the Paris Ariel here, which is a shame because I wanted to see the costume version of Ariel ‘23’s tail.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I gotta say I really liked this movie a lot. Almost shed tears when it ended, something I would have never expected to happen to me after a live-action retelling of an animated Disney classic ended.

Halle Bailey is really why it worked for me, with some other additions.

Only things that maybe were flaws about it were Flounder's design and Scuttlebutt (despite working on its own maybe as a short film but not in the context of the movie).

[lord-of-sith]

Saw it last night, spoilers ahead.

Good things:

- Halle in general was a wonderful screen presence. Fantastic voice and very beautiful. I thought her and Jonah had excellent chemistry. I actually bought that they would be into each other. Them being into adventuring together was a nice addition and made sense.

- The added songs and plot elements actually added to the story. I thought most of the added stuff in The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin felt really tacked-on and misplaced. I particularly liked Ariel's "first time" song, it felt very organic in the re-structured Act 2. Eric's song was also good and helped with his fleshed out character.

- I quite like Queen Selina and her actress. Very regal presence, and Eric's added backstory was interesting.

- Melissa McCarthy was a lot of fun. Some very funny moments with her, and she sold the song very well.

- I thought the cinematography was great when it came to the landscapes. It really felt like you were on the beach or near water on a tropical island. Very idyllic.

- Jodi's cameo was cute. I quite liked that whole scene in the market with the dancing villagers.

- Vanessa's actress was good. A lot of fun in the engagement scene. My friends and I were living for her and Ariel's "catfight".

- The ending wasn't de-epic'd like Aladdin, glad Ursula didn't just turn Flotsam and Jetsam large to chase Ariel and Eric.

Medium things:

- "The Scuttlebutt" was the one added thing that I didn't really like, but I'm guessing kids will like it. Lin Manuel had to Lin Manuel in some way. It could have been worse.

- There were several times where it felt like actors were doing lesser readings of lines from the original. I felt like I could hear the original movie playing along, and could feel the actors not wanting to copy the exact line readings. This was the entire Lion King remake, but it permeated a handful of scenes here. It was much better when they were doing the new scenes/dialogue.

Bad things:

- Javier Bardem was really not giving much as Triton. He felt pretty asleep in this role.

- I felt like the cinematography only got weird in Ursula scenes. It felt like didn't get a ton of great shots of her, either due to weird camera placement or dim lighting. I could feel myself really wanting to see her in her full glory, and it rarely happened. The transformation from Vanessa to Ursula was obscured and weirdly shot, and you it was hard to make her out when she was giant.

- I didn't like that Ursula used the portal to lure Ariel to her lair. I feel like it's more effective if Ariel sees her for the first time in the lair, there's more build up.

A Random Note:

- I want to pat myself on the back for correctly pointing out that the illustration of Ariel driving the ship would be inaccurate to the movie. People were of course moaning and complaining about how "silly" it looked, and I pointed it out it was a children's illustration and wouldn't look as silly in the finished movie. I was correct. She barely got the wheel turned because she couldn't keep herself up.

Overall, a 7/10, which is great for one of these remakes. We'll see how my opinion changes with more time.

[D82]

Youtuber and Disney fan mmdisney200 has shared the lyrics and a snippet of Triton's deleted song "Impossible Child" on Twitter. It seems the melody is based on the score track "The Storm" from the original, don't you guys think?

[UmbrellaFish]

Well, I don’t think we missed out on anything losing that song.

[Farerb]

Halle Bailey’s Hair Extensions and Locs for ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cost Over $150,000
https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/ ... 235625912/

[Disney's Divinity]

The Triton song is as bad as all the others they've tried to give him over the years. It was one of the few bad ones with Slater, so I knew a Miranda one would be even worse. Much the same way the Scuttle songs by Slater were middling and the Miranda one here was outright terrible.

Seeing this in an hour and a half.

[Thumper_93]

I saw it today and I loved it. I was very sceptical about this movie and I must say that I was totally wrong. Halle as Ariel is a great choice and Vanessa is a Goddess. Eric is actually really cute and the animals looks better than I thought.
8/10

Spoiler
I'm a bit dissapointed about the small presence of Ariel's sisters in the movie. They only have a few quotes and is a pitty.
They could have told more about Ursula and Triton's relationship. They are broches but we don't have much details about it.

[Disney's Divinity]

Can't go in detail right now, but I loved it as much as B&tB, Aladdin, TLK, and TJB. Definitely getting thus one on Blu-ray. I was tearing up at Ursula's death, before the ending even started, just because I was so happy they did a good job. Bardem, Diggs, Bailey, McCarthy, Awkwafina, Tremblay, Eric's actor, Grimsby's actor, Vanessa's actor--they were all good!

[RyGuy]

I took my niece and my daughter and for me it was just kind of there. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it; I just thought the film lacked charm.

I was ok with the changes in setting, etc, but the whole thing felt “paint by numbers” to me.

I’m glad others loved it because it’s clear that a lot of work went into it. It just didn’t do much for me.

[PatchofBlue]

I've been filled with such trepidation all week leading up to this, but I sincerely enjoyed this adaptation. Not the best of the bunch, but worthy to be counted among them. I had some notes that I'll probably spell out as I interact with more of everyone else's reactions, but I've got to hand it to this cast and this team.

Anyway, this is what the IMDb vote breakdown looks like right now. The trolls are clearly out to bring the score down, but it's a fine consolation that the lowest they can bring it to is only a 7.0

EDIT: The score page actually does say "Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied."

Web capture_26-5-2023_185647_www.imdb.com.jpeg (61.68 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

[Disney's Divinity]

Just got home. My thoughts are disorganized--SPOILERS:

Yeah, I thought it was as good as those--it had some weak moments, but they all do. For me, the weakest moments are the beginning between the music not building up as beautifully as in the original to no palace to the scene with Triton and the sisters being pretty horrible. I'd say both in that scene and the next Triton scene, he isn't as angry as he should be--but I thought Bardem was good in the rest of the film apart from that. Anyway, back from that digression, that scene was sort of dull and I hate that you don't feel the connections between Sebastian, Triton, and Ariel that much there.

The rock scene is sort of meh... For some reason, Bailey was very shaky there--not referring to the vocals but the acting, her hands shake very weirdly there? I think she was trying to do that to show how passionate Ariel was, but it would've been better if she was simply moving up and up different rocks until the big moment, it just didn't work for me and the Ursula scene that follows it is the weakest of Ursula's scenes, too. "Under the Sea" was the weakest of the songs to me--it really didn't sound good at all other than Bailey's parts--and even the scene itself is pretty bad to begin with, but it picks up after a third of the song and the visuals become very nice.

WUW and FtFT were a little better with the movie, but I'm still not crazy about them. Like I said before, Eric sounds too much like James Corden and that takes me out a little. What I did like about the vocalization at the beginning is that Ariel does it immediately following as you pan to her in that whole "He loves me, he loves me not" mood. I liked the scene for FtFT, but the song not so much--I still don't think that one was well-suited to either the movie or the actress' vocals. Scuttlebutt--the song is still terrible, but the scene was funny like I thought it would be (since Awkwafina made me laugh listening to the song even if the song was objectively terrible). "Scuttle, you're too close."

I still feel mostly the same way about PUS vocals that I did, but overall I liked how Ursula was done here. They kept a lot of her qualities I liked (the grossness, the horror, the crazy, etc.) and McCarthy even does occasionally pull off some of the sexiness, too, even if that's the weakest aspect for her (McCarthy, not Ursula). I'm glad the garden still sort of exists here, just they look a bit different (reminds me more of the creatures the mermaid swims through to the witch in the tale as well). Which reminds me, I loved the opening with the quote at the start and the waves that I remember liking from the first teaser. I wish Ursula still had her scroll, but, eh, it's alright. Little things like that don't bother me as long as the general turns out good, they only become magnified when other stuff is on fire and then it feels like "Another thing, and another thing, and another." Still hate the collar though.

I thought Sebastian was going to be awful here in the first half, but he was hilarious when Ariel hits land (Scuttle is hilarious the whole time). At first I hated the ugly hat Eric wears at the start of "Kiss the Girl" but it was worth it for the reveal of Sebastian later. So many other moments, like him in the shell in the room of Eric's things, climbing to Ariel's room, the interactions with Scuttle, etc. Yeah, "Kiss the Girl" was pretty perfect, overall--Ariel's friend trio were just hilarious.

Eric's actor was another surprise for me. He sort of grew on me as the film went along--I think it helped that he had a little facial hair and a tan here than the other role I saw him in before this that made me think he was terrible. I still don't really like Ariel's dress on land or how the tails look (at least they keep moving nonstop so you don't have to look right at them--Ariel's tail whenever she's going away from the screen looks almost butterfly-esque). Still don't get why the sisters couldn't have had their song or why they needed new, dumb names, but at least their attitude towards Ariel feels the same. I really loved the scene with Ariel and the sisters (then Triton) where there's an argument. Both it and the grotto scene were pretty good with the conflict even if that first scene of Ariel and Triton arguing was too flat.

Ursula's confrontation with Triton was good, too, I actually liked F&J sort of electrocuting Ariel (and then Triton)--it made Ariel's reaction stronger. Ursula as a giant was well-done, imo, they kept her at enough of a distance so that it didn't look too goofy or anything as it could have in live-action. Something about the scene reminded me of some fanart I'd seen years ago of a sort of Disney apocalypse, someone might know what picture I'm referring to, where you have uber realistic looking versions of Genie Jafar, Giant Ursula, and Dragon Maleficent fighting one another (Jafar holds Maleficent's jaws open as Ursula aims the trident to shoot down her throat) as Ariel, Aurora, Aladdin, Genie fly away on the Magic Carpet. The vibe of Ursula reminded me of that image. EDIT: This image--Disneypocalypse, MattRhodesArt. The scene channeled the vibe of that picture, with everything sort of being grey and orangey-white. Very bleak-looking, it was very nice.

POYW--the only thing I really missed from it was the ending where Ariel does the somersault and then touches the painting. I mean, I know they sort of combined the two lines--the one about reading and the fire--but I would've loved if they had brought that exact same painting to the film, her touching it is one of my favorite images of Ariel in the original. The fireworks scene after--you could really feel the danger of Ariel being there amidst those fireworks in a way you don't in the original. Likewise with getting to see Ariel trying to swim to shore with legs.

Lot of great little moments. One in particular is Grimsby kicking the ring, I loved that part. Triton's "What have I done?" scene and how they chose to have him focus on the trident--pretty good since it's a symbol for power and so it was a visual recognition by him that his attempt to exert power / control over Ariel too far was the cause of the fracture. I really wish the last shot was Triton making the rainbow over the boat, that's probably one big thing I wish they had done, it would have been so easy to do. Ariel eating the soap, so funny. I'm glad Carlotta is still here, too, and she does channel that maternal quality--even if I wish she was still named Carlotta, one of those needless things like the sisters' names that make no sense at all. A lot of lines (Scuttle pointing out Sebastian being hateful to her all the time, lol, Sebastian's "Girl, what you know about longing?"--the way it's said made me giggle--Sebastian cartwheeling onto the carriage, Ariel still having her crazy carriage ride scene.) The chemistry between Eric and Ariel works really well. Btw, I still feel like Bailey is overpraised since I thought all the actors were about at an equal level with no real standout but also nobody completely awful, tbh. It's like they all set right in the center with occasional spurts of greatness, so the overall film was well-off for it.

Overall, I still feel sort of what I did as far as most of them not being perfect casts, but to make up for that everyone seemed to be giving it maximum effort so that the general still ends up pretty good. It all sort of worked together and ended up being more than the sum of its individual parts. I'm not sure where I'd rank it right now. I loved it about as much as Aladdin and B&TB really, they're all sort of tied in my mind at the moment. As far as sequel speculation, I still kind of hope it doesn't get one since I don't think it or B&TB are well-suited for sequels, but if they did make one I suppose I'd be there for it.

[Atlantis]

Just got done watching it and overall I enjoyed it. Is it as good as the OG? No. But definitely one of the better Disney adaptions.

Here is the thing about this film imo....they GUTTED the underwater scenes to the point that I didnt blame Ariel for wanting to not be a mermaid. For some reason only 2 sea creatures and whatever new bird Scuttle is are the only ones capable of talking? That is where the film primarily lost points. We saw very minimal mermaids, any Merfolk who wasnt Ariel had nothing to do, and the biggest crime....Ursula/Triton are siblings again but they dont ELABORATE ON IT AT ALLLLLLL. They added a whole extra hour to this film and they don't give us what we've wanted for the past 30 years.

Now the human world? They did a great job at expanding them. They added more characters, they made it lively as hell. Everything that lacked under the sea, thrived on land. Eric is MAJORLY expanded. He now has a mother. One of the women who gossips gets more lines than any of Ariels sisters.

I loved Halle as Ariel and I dont think anyone can watch this film and validity complain about her not being white. She embodied every aspect of the character which is very important when you racebend.

Melissa as Ursula was also really fun and deserved way more screen time. The actress who plays Vanessa had very little screen time but boy did she play Vanessa and own every second of her screentime she was given.

Javier was flat as hell as Triton most of the time and Id say the worst animated to live action adaption character in this film.

I am 50/50 on the changes. I liked half of them, disliked the other half.



The animators did a fantastic job of having Vanessa turn into Ursula on the ship in the animated film. It's lowkey scary how she just rips out of the dress. In the film, they take the safe route and have Vanessa engulfed in a cloud of smoke when she transforms.

That entire scene in general, the sea life really come together to combat Vanessa but all of that is lost here and its just Scuttle/Ariel battling Vanessa. It's a meh change.



Ursula ready to add Ariel to her garden and having Triton instead take her place was much more meaningful in the animated film. In the live action we have Triton show up, blast Ursula, fail, gives up his triton and Flopsom/Jetsom electrocute him to death? That wasnt fully clear, he went poof but somehow is de-poofed by the triton? And in the animated film we see with Ursula dead, her curse over her garden is gone and those urchin things turn back into mermaids. Doesnt exist in the live action film. In fact...we dont know if Ursula is even dead. She's stabbed and sinks under water. Last we see of her.

Swapping out Vanessas little song for the humming they did here....not nearly as iconic.

In the film, Ariel is caught by a fishermen when she is turned human and he brings her to the palace. I would have rathered they keep Eric be the one who finds her and brings her home since it just seemed strange how they would bring this random girl to the palace and be like "hey girl who this guy found. Our home is your home" But Erics treasure trove of his own was nice.

Even though having Eric be adopted in this film added nothing to his character, I liked all the other additions they gave him.

Oh and they ROBBED Ariel of her GORGEOUS seafoam dress! None of her dresses are in this film


Overall Id give it a solid 7/10. They played it a bit to safe which was disappointing and a film about a mermaid...give us MERMAIDS.

[Farerb]

[Thumper_93]

One thing that I thought when I saw Eric's statue in Ariel's grotto was that it looks like this. Maybe they traed to make an tribute to Nippon's animation The little Mermaid

[Vlad]

Hey guys, sorry for my absence, I've been on a short holiday, and I didn't have time to check the forum here.

I saw online that a deluxe edition of the soundtrack was released yesterday. Is it just digital or will it have a physical release in a digipack like with Beauty and the Beast and Into the Woods?

I will go see the movie tomorrow with my sister and mom. I saw some leaked footage, mainly the POYW reprise and the giant Ursula, but the quality was kinda bad. For the POYW reprise, I don't know, it was weird...she just moved on the rock towards the top while singing...maybe it will feel different when I see it on the big screen, but it just didn't feel as epic as in the animation. For the final battle with Ursula, it was really short and the quality was awful, so I couldn't really tell how Melissa McCarthy looked and sounded like.

[Sotiris]

Apparently, there's another controversy surrounding the film. Disney is criticized for not hiring a make-up artist from the LGBT community for the film, resulting in the person who was hired trying to defend himself on social media. How ridiculous. As if someone's sexuality magically makes them more skilled than an Oscar-winning artist who has tons of experience.

The Little Mermaid makeup artist reacts to 'offensive,' 'ridiculous' criticism of Ursula's look
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... la-makeup/

[Disney's Divinity]

^ That's weird. But I agree.

Oh, another thing: *SPOILERS ALL THROUGH TO THE END OF THIS* I liked the "Little Mermaid" figurine that Eric had and that Ariel drops later on during "POYW (Reprise II)"--which is still the best of Bailey's songs for me after seeing the film--and Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian returning it to her at the end. I did notice they did this weird thing of whenever Ursula would've said "Your voice" they inserted "Your mermaid gifts." I guess to disassociate somewhat from the symbolic meanings of her giving up her voice and all that. But it was something small, although I'm not sure anything they could've done would "fix" that part of the plot since it's unchangeable.

Also, I wanted to say that I was relieved the land side of things wasn't any more bloated than the underwater side. For me, the land scenes have always been the weakest portion of the original film, so when the long running time was revealed, I assumed all that time would be more land scenes which I dreaded. Thankfully that side of the film doesn't feel any longer than the underwater first half and moves at a fairly brisk pace as in the animated film to me. Oh, another little thing--I loved Ariel touching the fire during "For the First Time"! (And that we had Carlotta--whatever her name is now--watching her in the background, and her sympathetic face.)

DisneyMovieRewards has had the posters available on there for this. I was debating getting one of them (I don't have enough points for both, but almost enough for just one of them) IF I ended up liking the movie. I think I'll go for the more cliparty one of Ariel sitting on the rock as in "Under the Sea," I still feel like that's the best one even if the other one has a slightly more artsy vibe.

@Atlantis: I kind of disagree on the brother and sister stuff not being expounded on being a bad thing. Personally, I was sort of dreading too much talk of "Your Auntie Ursula," something about that phrase makes my skin crawl, but they left it just vague enough that it didn't end up nails on chalkboard for me. I also thought I'd hate Ursula reaching out to Ariel rather than F&J, but it worked out pretty well.* I've always liked M&C's villains because they're always these sort of shadow versions of the protagonist's own desires in a lot of ways, and they sort of amped it using the family connection. By that I mean, Ursula talking about the harm Triton has done to both her and Ariel, and sort of posing herself as a cautionary figure in a way of what Ariel's life may be if she doesn't do anything (miserable) and putting on an attitude of "I can't save myself from what Triton's done to me, but maybe I can help rescue you from sharing my fate, my poor niece" was probably the best way they could've framed it if they were going to use it.

* There's a few McCarthyisms in the movie for me (as far as McCarthy being McCarthy ) and that scene had one of them. It's when Ursula hears Triton's referred to her to Ariel and her sisters as simply "The Sea Witch"--"Wait, what?" And then the part where she's looking for her potion and then it's right in front of her. She had a lot of little moments where she's McCarthy while still channeling Ursula's best lines / moments as well.

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?[/spoiler]

*SPOILERS HERE ALSO* Personally, I liked it. I understood if it was exactly like the original as far as lighting and all, it might've been too "cartoony" (?) in live-action. (To be clear, it's NOT cartoony in the original, imo, just all those strong magentas and teals in a live-action version might have come off garish perhaps, that's the reason I prefer animation since it can make things work that never would in live-action as well. And at the start, Ariel and Eric around the spike of the crown did look a little goofy, thankfully it got better from there.) I thought the whole scene felt very serious and they kept it pretty much the same--Ursula using her tentacles to swat them like the amoebas they are in comparison in her mind, then trying to take Ariel out with her as she's dying the same way she did to Eric in the original. They didn't have the laugh as she rises though, although maybe they thought they wouldn't be able to pull it off as well and they're probably right--McCarthy does speak with a vocal effect at least once in the scene, and it's serviceable but nothing would've matched the impact of Pat Carroll's cackle as she rises there, I don't think, so better not to try.

Overall, I was satisfied, personally. I agree with whoever said that I wish they had showed her garden being freed, but it's alright.