Board 8 > The Little Mermaid

(+) Yeah! (+)

Out next weekend. Disney uploaded the entire soundtrack earlier on YouTube and checking out the songs most of them sound really good. I've never been a big fan of the original film, but it has one of the best soundtracks Disney has ever produced so I guess it would be hard for any of the songs to still not be good with different artists performing them. Obviously Halle Bailey is very talented, Melissa McCarthy sounds awesome as Ursula as well.

I was just curious on how many people were planning on checking this film out. When this was first announced, I was disinterested by it, mostly because their remake of The Lion King was so bad but still made such a huge amount of money. I personally liked Aladdin, though I concede it didn't need to happen, I feel like they did enough things differently that I still found myself enjoying the movie. I've still not seen Mulan because of the COVID thing. But like I said I was never much of a fan for the Little Mermaid as an animated film, so getting interested in this one wasn't going to come easy for me. Also as a long time fan of Disney films, I wish they'd stop wasting their time making these and just put out new content to become classic rather than remaking what they know works.

But all that changed for me when the backlash against this film was about how Ariel was being played by a black actress rather than people just hating that Disney was on a conquest to remake every film they've ever done. As someone that didn't want this movie to be made, I found myself having to sit amongst people who also didn't want this movie, but for a really terrible reason. Combined with Disney's recent battles against Desantis in Florida, and I've felt more compelled than I have in a very long time to throw my support behind the company. Granted, Disney isn't some plucky underdog or saints, but I'd rather be backing them over Desantis and closeted racists who post #NotMyAriel. I made a similar topic when they released Strange World, which received similar backlash because a main character happened to be gay. So now, despite my loathing of what they did to the Lion King and my apathy on them doing these reboots, I'm now really excited for a remake of a film I didn't even like much to begin with. Planning to see it opening weekend because I want to be part of helping it succeed, even if it's something that still feels weird to say about a Disney live action remake.

It's going to be dogshit because all the live action Disney remakes are complete dogshit.

I'm not going to give it a chance just because a bunch of idiots hate it for a shitty reason.

I don't prescribe or care about any of the race stuff, but this movie has some awful looking CGI characters and everything I've seen is just dark and depressing.

Hope it's good for fans of the original, but they have shown absolutely nothing that looks appealing about this remake.

it sucks when a large group of people hate a thing for the wrong reasons but the thing is legitimately bad

i have no interest in this movie for normal reasons like the fish looks weird and also I am a 30 or 40 year-old man without children

Halle Bailey is gonna be fine in it but the rest of it is whatever, it generally seems like it's shot way too dark

I had listened to their rendition of Part of Your World and thought it was good. The music seems decent in this, but I won't go see it in theaters, just because I rarely go to theaters unless its a must-see movie for me. I'll probably eventually watch it on Disney+ when it gets on there. I don't have too high of hopes though, since I haven't liked a Disney live-action remake since Aladdin.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

It's going to be dogshit because all the live action Disney remakes are complete dogshit.

I'm not going to give it a chance just because a bunch of idiots hate it for a shitty reason.

This. I will probably check out the soundtrack at some point tho.

Also they took my favorite character Scuttle and made him now voiced by Awkwafina. That was the nail in the coffin for me LOL

I've never been big into Disney and I don't think I've watched a single Live Action remake yet. I don't even really remember Little Mermaid beyond Under the Sea

i'm kinda tempted tho, at least whenever it comes to D+

(gotta admit Sebastian just being a normal crab is so weird I'm curious)

*fake edit* lmao i just looked up under the sea 2023 to watch real crab sebastian singing and I'm lolling

Fyi the op sounds like a LMS topic

Take that as you will

I don't understand what happened at Disney that made them start designing these animal characters so horribly in the Live Remakes. In Narnia, all of the animals LOOKED like real animals but also had personality in their designs, facial expressions, etc. And now every single damn design of the animal characters in the Live Action Remakes have 0 soul and 0 personality. It's pathetic.

I'm most interested in seeing who gets the new song they'll inevitably add. Each live-action musical adds one new one, and I want to see who gets it.

Yeah, that's gonna be a NO from me, dawg.

Somehow I just haven't been able to work up enthusiasm for any of the live action remakes, I haven't seen any of them. It could end up just fine but I'm sort of just not in the mood. Kind of been there done that? I have no particular issues with any of the casting like some people. Honestly the CGI fish looked the most concerning to me.

Anagram posted...

I'm most interested in seeing who gets the new song they'll inevitably add. Each live-action musical adds one new one, and I want to see who gets it.

Prince Eric has his own song now ala Jasmine.

Zigzagoon posted...

I don't understand what happened at Disney that made them start designing these animal characters so horribly in the Live Remakes. In Narnia, all of the animals LOOKED like real animals but also had personality in their designs, facial expressions, etc. And now every single damn design of the animal characters in the Live Action Remakes have 0 soul and 0 personality. It's pathetic.

I hadn't thought about that. Narnia is super old too. The most concerning thing about the movie is the way Sebastian looks, the voice actor and songs seem pretty good at least.

I thought it was an interesting experiment to go with the very realistic depictions of animals in the lion king. That said they should probably experiment with something else now.

This version of Flounder is one of the worst things I've ever seen.

Whenever he showed up a movie trailer I could hear so many people in the theater straight up laugh at him.

Never liked The Little Mermaid that much tbh, mid tier Disney movie to me. Was never excited for this either but it is something I definitely plan not to see cause of what they did to my dear boy Scuttle.

So from the reviews and word-of-mouth it seems that this movie is neither significantly worse nor better than the remakes. People praise Halle Bailey and lambast the new Awkwafina rap.

Part of your World was fantastic.

Under the sea was lackluster.

Scuttle rap was awkward and needed more Sebastian.

The new Prince Eric song was okay but hard to hear over the environmental noises so imo it didn't have a strong impact. Gonna chalk that one up to sound design.

Melissa McCarthy was great as Ursula. It just worked and didn't require any adjustment of expectations.

Flounder felt like he was barely in the movie which was probably for the best.

There were a few deviations in terms of plot structure I was confused by and a few I thought were good adjustments.

All in all my low expectations were exceeded.

I have a hard time being excited for anything Disney because they've spent a good bit of time being mostly creatively bankrupt.

I hate it too because people have used Disney's lack of creativity to attack these mostly bad movies for nefarious reasons rather than their actual flaws.

Just like Wakanda Forever, it seems like it's going to be impossible to actually see what's going on for half the time

Pretty sure polygon wrote an article about this recent trend in lighting. It's completely baffling to me that people would defend it as an artistic choice when huge stretches are just in darkness.

Movies have been awful lately in some regards. I need subtitles on every movie from like the last couple years to understand what the hell anyone is saying because music and sound effects are 10x louder than the voices and a lot of them are also very dark likely to hide any budget cuts/bad CGI/etc

Forceful_Dragon posted...

All in all my low expectations were exceeded.

Yep

Sebastian was great despite the weird design, VA saved it
Ursula was great, no notes. Casting, execution, perfect
Ariel was good and nailed the songs

Some unnecessary stuff padded out the runtime

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAXRvZAAEg1S.jpg https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/9/AAXRvZAAEg1T.jpg

User scores miles apart so far

Gee I wonder why

I was actually kinda looking forward to the Melissa McCarthy version of Poor Unfortunate Souls but it just felt so ironically soulless.

That wasn't how it felt to me at all. Everything Ursula felt spot on. I mean the banter with Triton could have been better perhaps but that felt like it was more on Groton.

Bloodychess posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAXRvZAAEg1S.jpg https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/9/AAXRvZAAEg1T.jpg

User scores miles apart so far

This is one of those "Don't read the comments" moments, isn't it?

I'm sure what's in there is kinda what inspired this topic to begin with.

Seeing it Sunday evening. Pretty decent critic score from RT; outpacing Lion King (no feat) and Aladdin so far. It has an audience score very similar to Aladdin's too, and I liked Aladdin personally. I'm hoping for more of the same. Some of the positive reviews I've glossed over also say that the dull, colorless world people have been harping about is a little overblown and it actually isn't that drab.

Bloodychess posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAXRvZAAEg1S.jpg https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/9/AAXRvZAAEg1T.jpg

User scores miles apart so far

its a war between Disney obsessives overrating it and oh no, black mermaid chuds underrating it

so much blind passion around what is probably a sort of alright movie

I never was a fan of anything related to The Little Mermaid, including the classic original animated movie.

One of my sons loves all things mermaid, and naturally wanted to see this remake. Went to see the movie today, fully expecting to have fallen asleep or not care at all about it.

To my surprise, I was pleasantly wrong! I greatly enjoyed the movie,I would go as far as saying I liked it.

Halle Bailey and her performance was the highlight of the movie for me. She was amazing as Ariel, though I admit I liked her way more as a mermaid than as a human.

Melissa McCarthy was a great and fun Ursula. Jonah Hauer-King was an okay Prince Eric. Other than that, I didn't really care about any of the other characters in the movie. I guess Sebastian and Scuttle were entertaining.

Part of Your World was essily the best song. Didn't care for any of the others, including Under The Sea.

All in all, would recommend and would watch again.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

its a war between Disney obsessives overrating it and oh no, black mermaid chuds underrating it

so much blind passion around what is probably a sort of alright movie

Pretty sure Rotten Tomatoes requires you to verify you actually saw the movie somehow.

Having said that, I too had no interest in this movie and loathe Disney lazily remaking their animated back-catalogue, but by this point it's just Disney doing a Disney and the casting of Ariel probably sends the fewest red flags of anything regarding this. It's essentially the Ghostbusters reboot all over again.

Apparently this is on the pace for a $125 million 4 day cumulative. Which would make it the 4th biggest Memorial Day opening ever.

TheRock1525 posted...

Apparently this is on the pace for a $125 million 4 day cumulative. Which would make it the 4th biggest Memorial Day opening ever.

Live action Pocahontas being greenlit as we speak.

Starring Scarlett Johansson

TheRock1525 posted...

Apparently this is on the pace for a $125 million 4 day cumulative. Which would make it the 4th biggest Memorial Day opening ever.

Not really sure if that's a big deal without knowing what sort of films its being compared with.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Pretty sure Rotten Tomatoes requires you to verify you actually saw the movie somehow.

I'm seeing people quick to point out that you can filter verified reviews off like it's some kind of victory.

Yes, the unverified reviewers hate the movie. That's why we have a verify filter.

A little more surprisingly, RTs top critics are very down on the movie but the movie page shows all critics instead.

For what it's worth, the last one was true of the Ghostbusters reboot also.

For those wondering why I have a reputation for sharing alt-right talking points, I had such an averse reaction to the initial trailer and hated being lumped in with actual misogynists, especially when my favorite Internet personality James Rolfe got caught in the crossfire, and that led me to consume lots of alt-right YT content for a good while. I've mostly gotten over it since though, and tbh haven't really thought about the reboot much since it came out beyond the contexts of the franchise as a whole and the rise of alt-right movie discourse.

Grand_Kirby posted...

Live action Pocahontas being greenlit as we speak.

after lesser remakes of good disney renaissance movies, we now get lesser remakes of B tier disney movies!

Amber Midthunder as Pocahontas please...or is that not culturally sensitive enough because she isn't Powhatan?

Live action Hercules when.

Is it because they can't recast anyone as a minority???

Pokalicious posted...

She was amazing as Ariel, though I admit I liked her way more as a mermaid than as a human.

So the same as animated Ariel lol.

pjbasis posted...

Live action Hercules when.

Is it because they can't recast anyone as a minority???

Pretty sure that has already been confirmed as coming.

Maybe the remake is getting better reception than others because the original Little Mermaid is a movie best-known for the context in which it came out more than anything? Plus, this isn't nearly as dumb an idea as The Lion King, seeing how The Little Mermaid is hardly something Disney came up with. Granted, you could say the same about most of Disney's animated canon, but still. Some stories can be told over and over again with new renditions - there's a reason Little Women has had multiple well-received movie adaptations.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Plus, this isn't nearly as dumb an idea as The Lion King, seeing how The Little Mermaid is hardly something Disney came up with.

Disney hardly came up with the Lion King either.

Um, you know what I mean?

Grand_Kirby posted...

Live action Pocahontas being greenlit as we speak.

Pocahontas is one of those movies I think they'd rather we forget about. Now that the true story is more widely-known, the movie comes across as very creepy.