The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Farerb]

I rewatched this movie again and I think it's just okay, it's a bit boring in the beginning because it's the same as the animated movie but more padded and the pacing is slow. The actors are decent, I still don't like how McCarthy plays Ursula, but she's not bad. The only terrible performance is from Javier Bardem, I don't know if it's because he's a terrible actor in general (I didn't like him in Dune either) or because he didn't give a crap about this movie.

[Thumper_93]

Javier is not a bad actor at all he just made an horrible job here. He even has an Oscar award. Maybe he didn't give a damn about the movie and he only did it because it's an easy way to earn money. I agree with you about Melissa's job. The actress who played Vanessa did a better job than her, she's more iconic than Ursula.

[DisneyFan09]

I rewatched this movie again and I think it's just okay, it's a bit boring in the beginning because it's the same as the animated movie but more padded and the pacing is slow. The actors are decent, I still don't like how McCarthy plays Ursula, but she's not bad. The only terrible performance is from Javier Bardem, I don't know if it's because he's a terrible actor in general (I didn't like him in Dune either) or because he didn't give a crap about this movie.

Well, those were my exact thoughts of the remake. With the exception of Ursula, as McCarthy actually did a fine job as Ursula, actually.

[PatchofBlue]

I've had similar thoughts about the movie's aggressive fidelity to the script of the animated film--especially in the first twenty or so minutes. It's a form of flattery, I guess, but I think it also shows a lack of confidence in itself. And, yeah, it also creates a weird uncanny valley effect where the film is just like the animated movie ... but slightly worse.

I also think that part of the problem was the choice to jettison all music before "Part of Your World." Like, "Daughters of Triton" is no one's favorite song, but I think we needed the musical build-up.

I still think it meets a threshold of entertainment, but it needed some touch-ups to reach its full potential.

[Disney Duster]

My own, personal opinion is this movie is bad. With one good scene being when Ariel, without her voice, gets Eric to guess her name. I own this movie but I have only seen it twice, in theaters, and I really don't have any desire to watch it again...

[Thumper_93]

My own, personal opinion is this movie is bad. With one good scene being when Ariel, without her voice, gets Eric to guess her name. I own this movie but I have only seen it twice, in theaters, and I really don't have any desire to watch it again...

The only good things that this movie has are the scenes taken from the animated movie and these scenes were not even well adapted. Vanessa did a great job and Halle's voice was amazing, that's all. The script is boring sometimes and the visual effects looked old even when the movie was premiered specially if you compare it to the visual effects of Avatar. Honestly they could have spend more money on the under sea scenes, they didn't have much scenes and part of the budget should have gone to these moments to make them look better.
The costumes were also poor. Arie's gowns are cute but honestly people expected something more spectacular. Ariel has many fans and they expected the pink gown, one of her most iconic looks.

[DisneyFan09]

I also think that part of the problem was the choice to jettison all music before "Part of Your World." Like, "Daughters of Triton" is no one's favorite song, but I think we needed the musical build-up.

Agreed. It was an intentional and deliberate choice, as the team wanted to build the live action tone of the movie. But it seemed odd that Part of Your World was the very first song of the piece. The movie needed a song to introduce the universe, as it felt that something was missing that it lacked a introductory song before Ariel`s iconic song.

I still think it meets a threshold of entertainment, but it needed some touch-ups to reach its full potential.

Agreed. Some reviewers claimed that it was the best remake of the Renaissance Quartet. But frankly, in my opinion it wasn`t. It felt like a tamer and duller version of it`s predecessor. Despite how I all in all liked the movie and thought it had some genuinely good moments.

[PatchofBlue]

I have a working theory that the real reason that they dropped "Daughters of Triton" (and thought they might as well cut "Fathoms Below" as an opener) is that they thought the song would be take more effort than it was worth to choreograph, especially for such a small number. And they probably didn't want to have to cast an entire stadium of merpeople. It's occurred to me that we don't really see a lot of mer-civilians in this movie. We see a couple of them during our descent into Atlantica, but only from a distance, very obviously CG. The final scene has a crowd of them, but I think they would have an easier time with physical performers popping out of the water than having to like fill a giant auditorium of them.

I'll own up to the speculation at work here, but the idea has stuck with me.

[Thumper_93]

I have a working theory that the real reason that they dropped "Daughters of Triton" (and thought they might as well cut "Fathoms Below" as an opener) is that they thought the song would be take more effort than it was worth to choreograph, especially for such a small number. And they probably didn't want to have to cast an entire stadium of merpeople. It's occurred to me that we don't really see a lot of mer-civilians in this movie. We see a couple of them during our descent into Atlantica, but only from a distance, very obviously CG. The final scene has a crowd of them, but I think they would have an easier time with physical performers popping out of the water than having to like fill a giant auditorium of them.

I'll own up to the speculation at work here, but the idea has stuck with me.

I found it reasonable. Also making the song would mean to change the lyrics because they changed all the names. I don't think that it would sound really good

[Disney Duster]

Oh yes, Vanessa's acting and Halle's singing were also good.

They should have kept the original sisters' names and done Daughtere of Triton and Fathoms Below where the original film had them.

[Thumper_93]

Oh yes, Vanessa's acting and Halle's singing were also good.

They should have kept the original sisters' names and done Daughtere of Triton and Fathoms Below where the original film had them.

I still don't understand why they changed the sister's names. They original one were really good and there is no chance to confound one of them with the name of the protagonist. They also appears like 2 minutes in the whole movie so changing something liked that was one of the dumbest things the did in my opinion.