Minnesota’s fishing opener occurred over two weeks ago. But moviegoers can now catch “The Little Mermaid” live-action remake in theaters.
“The Little Mermaid” is a movie musical directed by Rob Marshall, who is no stranger to the genre with his cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical “Chicago,” which featured an ensemble cast that included Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere.
“The Little Mermaid” is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 animated film of the same name, which was loosely based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same title by Hans Christian Andersen.
The family-friendly motion picture currently in theaters runs about two hours and is rated PG. The biggest names in the cast are Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, a tentacled sea witch and villain, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, Ariel's father and a widower.
The titular character is played by the relative newcomer Halle Bailey. The singer-songwriter is one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Chloe. Prior to Marshall’s picture, Halle’s feature film debut was in Queen Latifah’s “Last Holiday” in 2006.
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Ariel is like any teen — rebellious, impetuous, arrogant, etc. — except that she is the youngest daughter of the trident-bearing King Triton, who is suspicious and fearful of humanity and forbids his underwater brethren from having any contact with the land dwellers and sailors.
The young mermaid is fascinated by people — or disconcertingly obsessed with them in her stern dad’s eyes — despite knowing arguably little about them. Forbidden fruit is often the most tempting and only seems to egg on the lovelorn teen in her infatuation with a human prince.
Those familiar with the 1989 animated feature film written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements will not be particularly surprised by the live-action remake, which strays little from the cinematic source material and does not differ as much as the live-action “Beauty and the Beast.”
In Marshall’s movie, there are a few new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame, who had an animated hit off Broadway with “Encanto,” a family-friendly musical. Miranda’s “In the Heights” movie musical, however, failed to catch on at the box office.
There was initial controversy regarding casting Bailey, an African-American, as Ariel. Ariel was a white character with red hair in the animated film. I find it amusing, however, if not racially offensive that Bailey’s critics were crying a realism foul about a children’s tale about mermaids.
Ariel’s older sisters in Marshall’s feature film are played by actresses of different ethnicities. The interspecies (and interracial) romance between Ariel and human Prince Eric, played by Jonah Hauer-King, is a modern twist on Andersen’s fairy tale that was first published in 1837.
Those looking for a not-to-be-missed musical number should stay seated for Sebastian the crab’s “Under the Sea.” The eye-popping visuals are like Ewan McGregor’s performance as Lumière in the “Be Our Guest” song-and-dance number in “Beauty and the Beast.”
“The Little Mermaid” from 1989 won the Academy Award for Best Original Score by Alan Menken. It also won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Under the Sea” by Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman.
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“The Little Mermaid” is just the most recent live-action remake by Disney, which is seeking to profit from its storied past of animated classics. The “House of Mouse” has also released live-action remakes of “Mulan,” “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” “Dumbo” and others.
“The Little Mermaid” currently has a 67% approval rating among critics and a 95% approval rating among audiences at Rotten Tomatoes, a review-aggregation website for film and television.
The consensus from the critics at RottenTomatoes.com: "With Halle Bailey making a major splash in the title role, Disney's live-action ‘(The) Little Mermaid’ ranks among the studio's most enjoyable reimaginings."
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