The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by DisneyFan09 »

Well, to give my thoughts about the poster, I find it generic and meh. I like the backgrounds, but the rest of it is underwhelming.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I didn't like it that much either. It's nice, but not too special, in my opinion. Ariel looks good to me and I like her pose, as well as the idea for the poster, but I don't think it's well executed. For someone who hadn't seen the original, it's not too obvious she's longing to live in the human world, and the background is not very interesting. It reminds me a bit of Pinocchio's teaser poster in that regard. With a better background, I would've liked it much more.
Sotiris wrote: Thu Oct 13, 2022 12:44 pm To be honest, I would have preferred they used Ursula's necklace for the very first teaser poster to match the posters of the other remakes where an iconic object from their films was highlighted (slipper for Cinderella, the rose for Beauty and the Beast, the lamp for Aladdin etc.)
Maybe they thought it was too late for that, since they already gave us our first look at Ariel and part of her kingdom in the teaser. Speaking of that, isn't it a bit strange they released the teaser poster now and not at the same time as the teaser trailer, for example?

Regarding the fins, I personally like them. I prefer the animated ones, but for a live-action film where they can add more detail, I think this is a good idea, plus their movement in the teaser was quite beautiful. They remind me a bit of the mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which was also directed by Rob Marshall, especially the concept art for that film.

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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I agree on the fins, D82, for live-action it's almost necessary for more fishy detail in them, and also, they move beautifully!
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rodrigo_ca
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I was pretty much sold on this until FASTFINS

my gosh this is worse than Mulan's midichlorians
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Is it? Because Ariel is getting superpowers too. All the sisters will have a different set of powers. We don't know what Ariel's is yet. We know it's not a magical voice because her sister Mala has that power. It could be something lame like "love" or something. :P
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Ariel will have a singing part in "Under the Sea".

https://people.com/movies/halle-bailey- ... exclusive/
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Sotiris wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 11:54 am Ariel will have a singing part in "Under the Sea".

https://people.com/movies/halle-bailey- ... exclusive/
Hmm. Interesting.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity wrote: Fri Oct 14, 2022 3:09 pm
carolinakid wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:26 pm We’re up to 3 million dislikes!
Just had a stray thought about how this movie's still a whole year away, and couldn't help thinking that the dislikes will probably be up to 5 or 6 million by then.
It'll still make a billion. 6 million people are only a fraction of 8 billion people around the world.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I’m sure that’s what the makers of Lightyear felt...
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Sotiris wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 9:02 am Is it? Because Ariel is getting superpowers too. All the sisters will have a different set of powers. We don't know what Ariel's is yet. We know it's not a magical voice because her sister Mala has that power. It could be something lame like "love" or something. :P
I'm... speechless
Sotiris wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 11:54 am Ariel will have a singing part in "Under the Sea".

https://people.com/movies/halle-bailey- ... exclusive/
I assume it will be a contrapoint to Sebastian's words, kinda like they did for The Little Mermaid Live. Kinda takes out the showstopping quality and makes it seem like she's whining, but what do I know
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I was about to say... Her being a "superhero" (not metaphorically, but literally with powers) is still dumber to me than FastFins.

Anyway, I don't agree that more detail is necessary for the fins. All they did was make her look gaudy. I was mistakenly relieved when the trailer came out that they hadn't done something like that (I expected embellished tail, some kind of ugly see-through blouse, pearls all over the place, etc. etc.) only for the teaser poster to come out and find that they did. Bleh.

Thankfully the TLM brand is strong enough to withstand this movie being godawful with all its changes, Mulan wasn't so lucky, I believe the original character's potential was dampened by that horrid remake. If you compare the years before and after as far as Mulan (the characters)'s numbers in merchandise at the Disney Store, it's easy to see how horrible that film was and how much audiences detested it affected the original property--hopefully not long-term. I guess it cuts both ways, these remakes are easy ways to revitalize properties that are lagging when they're good (Aladdin), but they can damage them when they're terrible (Mulan). But I still think TLM is a much stronger brand than Mulan that it can withstand this film being a POS.
Sotiris wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 11:54 am Ariel will have a singing part in "Under the Sea".

https://people.com/movies/halle-bailey- ... exclusive/
Somehow I'm expecting it to be at the part with, "The blackfish, she sings"...perhaps she sings with the blackfish so that moment isn't "racist" (never mind a Black person is singing "Under the Sea" and is one of the three major characters in TLM that made it the success it was along with Ariel and Ursula). I guess it could be cute in a way and at least I can understand why that's somewhat racist unlike other things I've heard thrown at the film over the years (like Ursula being "racist" :roll: ), at least it would be something small. Sort of the same way I don't blame them making a Queen in charge of the land kingdom. It shows an example of female power that's good, so the only powerful female character (Ursula) doesn't typify female power in general as bad. Plus, it sort of ties into POYW when Ariel's dreaming that the world on land don't reprimand their daughters and that there are bright, young women compared to her father's world.

Not to overload with the Kingdom Hearts comparisons, but in KH2, Ariel also sings on "Under the Sea." But I always thought that was more because Samuel Wright didn't come back for it and Sebastian's replacement wasn't a good singer, they thought Jodi Benson might lift it somewhat... Then again, I guess the game is made in Japanese first and they're not thinking about English VAs, I don't know about the Japanese VA situation for those characters in KH2.
rodrigo_ca wrote:I assume it will be a contrapoint to Sebastian's words, kinda like they did for The Little Mermaid Live. Kinda takes out the showstopping quality and makes it seem like she's whining, but what do I know
Oh, wow, I forgot about that! I guess I hadn't listened to "Under the Sea" from the live show since it aired even though I have the soundtrack because I didn't think Shaggy was good as Sebastian in the show itself. If this change is to mimic the live show, I kind of hope this means they'll copy what they did with "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in the live show--as far as the lyrics that connected the first half of the song with the second into a continuous scene. I think that would be for the best here, this film isn't going to match the brilliance of the original film's dialogue and back-and-forth between Ursula and Ariel, so best just to tie the scene into one uninterrupted song.
D23ExpoVisitor25 wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:10 pm It'll still make a billion. 6 million people are only a fraction of 8 billion people around the world.
All 8 billion aren't going to see this movie. Those 6 million are likely among the people who would most likely have seen / will see this movie, since I doubt they'd have watched the trailer online or at home on their own time if they had no interest. Looking for a trailer and watching it isn't really the same as people sitting in a theater or watching TV who simply see an ad without having sought it out. I think it'll be successful, but I'd be surprised if it made a billion at this point.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I think it's also worth noting that The Little Mermaid teaser is one of the most liked trailers on the Disney Studios Youtube Channel. With 1,2 million likes, I believe it's only surpassed by The Lion King teaser trailer, which has 1,3. Also, I think the Black community, who really helped making Black Panther such a big hit, will probably support this movie as well.

Regarding the dislikes, I think many people who are disliking it wouldn't have seen the movie anyway. I don't think it's just regular people who are doing this, but mainly groups who want the film to fail or are against Disney for its increasing focus on representation for minority groups and progressive ideas in their films. These people can also manipulate the numbers (by creating multiple accounts, etc.), as they do on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb, for example, with certain films like blockbusters led by female characters. I'm not an expert on the subject, but that's what I've heard they do.
carolinakid wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:35 pm I’m sure that’s what the makers of Lightyear felt...
Lightyear's teaser trailer has 14,5 million views and The Little Mermaid has almost 25 already, so I think there's at least more interest in the latter.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I have no doubt there are some review bombings by racists as far as the dislikes, of course. But I imagine the opposite is also true with the Likes, there probably are people who think it's awful who'll pretend the movie isn't trash simply because the lead is Black and they want to support diversity itself regardless of the film's quality or lack thereof, which at least I can understand as a goal. And then there are another class who will only say positive things because they're afraid to be attacked as "racist" if they criticize something that deserves it, which is more cowardly. I think there was a joke on SNL last night, I can't remember what the skit was, that sort of played on that--the skit was named "Hot Girl Hospital" (lol). It was a joke imitating those times in trailers when reviewer words and scores are shown, it was a film with 4 or 5 Black female leads and the review was, "I feel uncomfortable reviewing this as a white guy. 5 stars." :lol:

I believe Disney learned with Raya and Turning Red--both which are much better films than this looks like, just as an aside--that they can self-insulate their films from criticism by encouraging the mauling of anyone who criticizes their films via racism. What was that reviewer who was attacked for comparing Raya to Avatar: The Last Airbender (not necessarily a bad comparison)? Lindsay somebody? And another reviewer who people went after for criticizing Turning Red, although I think the criticism of the critic in that case at least was more valid, but still, you get the gist.* They did the same thing with Mulan 2020--anyone who criticizes this film is racist. Same with Lightyear and homophobia, I suppose. So far that doesn't seem to be an effective tactic to making films successful. I think Turning Red was probably the most successful of the four? Unfortunately, Raya got lost in the pandemic (I still think it's a great film though). Mulan 2020 was just awful and Lightyear wasn't an appetizing concept from the start.

* I can't recall if something like that happened with any critics of Encanto. I feel like nobody resorted to it in that case because that film was fairly successful (by pandemic standards anyway).
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity wrote: Sun Oct 16, 2022 11:05 am I have no doubt there are some review bombings by racists as far as the dislikes, of course. But I imagine the opposite is also true with the Likes, there probably are people who think it's awful who'll pretend the movie isn't trash simply because the lead is Black and they want to support diversity itself regardless of the film's quality or lack thereof, which at least I can understand as a goal.
Yes, the opposite probably also happens. I imagine that, especially after the backlash and the dislikes, many fans of Halle Bailey or the film have also rallied to show their support.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Every movie/TV show is a battlefield, I have no idea how people aren't exhausted at this point.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Farerb wrote: Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:20 pm Every movie/TV show is a battlefield, I have no idea how people aren't exhausted at this point.
Except for The Clone Wars animated series and Sonic the Hedgehog.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 1:19 pm Thankfully the TLM brand is strong enough to withstand this movie being godawful with all its changes, Mulan wasn't so lucky, I believe the original character's potential was dampened by that horrid remake. If you compare the years before and after as far as Mulan (the characters)'s numbers in merchandise at the Disney Store, it's easy to see how horrible that film was and how much audiences detested it affected the original property--hopefully not long-term. I guess it cuts both ways, these remakes are easy ways to revitalize properties that are lagging when they're good (Aladdin), but they can damage them when they're terrible (Mulan). But I still think TLM is a much stronger brand than Mulan that it can withstand this film being a POS.
I think the original brands/franchises of the films the remakes are based on will by far outlive any of these remakes. Disney has seemed to make it abundantly clear that these films are meant to be flash-in-the-pan flashy make-overs to make a quick buck. I think that's clearest in merchandising, like you said, in that we keep seeing releases based on the original property but really nothing of the remakes past their year of release.

I guess I can't speak for everybody, but I know if I'm referring to Cinderella, Aladdin, or The Lion King people know to assume I mean the classic animated features. So I think it is safe to assume that no matter what happens in this film, it wont necessarily stick in the publics mind.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Oh, yeah, they will live longer, that's never in doubt, particularly those that are a part of the princess line will always have that recurrent merchandise attention from Disney. But I do think these remakes when they're faithful and leave the audience with a fairly positive feeling at the end (because of relying on those similarities to the original films that are better than the remakes could hope to be) can strengthen the brands of the original films. I'm talking about casual audiences when I say this, not hardcore fans like all of us--they go see the remake because they're reminded of the films they grew up with but maybe haven't watched in a long time, then when the film is mostly the same they end up enjoying it because it plays on their memories, they walk away remembering how much they loved the original film, maybe go watch the original or pick it up on Blu-ray for their own kids. In that way, I think the more faithful remakes do help revitalize lagging movies by being that little extra push to help people remember character names, songs, etc. as the years go by.

For example, I remember Aladdin's sales in Blu-ray re-releases had begun to lag behind the other Fab Four some years ago (I think it was the Diamond release), to the point I recall people started speculating that it may end up falling out of the premier Disney lines at some point (much the same way something like Dumbo isn't in the those lines either). Then the live-action film came out, and it seemed like the brand was on fire again, the Broadway show followed and became a colossal success, etc. Similarly, there was talk of a Broadway show for Mulan and because they changed everything with that remake, not only did they fail to revitalize the property, I think they dimmed it further, and those musical plans were cancelled. :( Thankfully Mulan (the character) is a part of the princess line, but it's interesting to think of what could've been.

With TLM, who knows. Maybe they could've re-attempted the TLM Broadway show, cut the fat that weighed the original attempt down (all those reprises, Scuttle's song, etc.), make it more like the original film (ie, Ursula being plus size and active in the plot via Vanessa), and so on. Perhaps it could've managed to be successful like the other Fab Four's shows if it was following off the back of a faithful remake bringing new interest back into the property. The Lion King's Broadway show is still going, right? I wonder if Disney puts any data out there about its performance over the years. It would be interesting to know if sales were boosted following the remake.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 1:19 pmSort of the same way I don't blame them making a Queen in charge of the land kingdom. It shows an example of female power that's good, so the only powerful female character (Ursula) doesn't typify female power in general as bad. Plus, it sort of ties into POYW when Ariel's dreaming that the world on land don't reprimand their daughters and that there are bright, young women compared to her father's world.
I think your thoughts on that element of the film are really smart and clever.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I don't know how reliable this news site is, but they say Disney is already considering making a sequel to The Little Mermaid:

Halle Bailey ‘already wanted’ for another The Little Mermaid sequel after trailer response: ‘The viral trend gave Disney no choice’
https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/31/the-litt ... -17670343/
It’s said that Disney were blown away by the positive response and have already had talks with Halle about the possibility of signing on for a sequel before the first reboot has even hit screens.

‘The response to the trailer alone gave Disney a positive indication that it had made the right choice,’ a source told Metro.co.uk.

‘It was the viral trend of little Black girls responding to Halle in particular that gave them no choice but to invite her back for a sequel. Internal projections for its opening weekend skyrocketed so Disney would like her to star in a range of sequels and derivative work.’

The insider, who is close to both Halle and Disney, continued: ‘It’s almost impossible to tell how well a movie will do in today’s market because it’s so fragmented. The positive response Halle earned online told Disney all it needed to know.’
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