Live-Action The Little Mermaid

[CB Fan]

Started with good buzz from test screenings, then good premiere reactions, now I’m seeing good out of theater reactions from screenings yesterday. I’m quite hyped.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Primal Slayer]

I really don't understand why they're releasing so many big time clips.

 

[Ninjablade]

Admittedly, I am watching from my phone, but something looks very off. She looks very floating heady like Smith as the Genie, but beyond that there's this weird motion smoothing going on.

Either way, McCarthy is giving a much better performance than I was expecting. She sounds good.

 

[Drizzle]

I really don't understand why they're releasing so many big time clips.

They did it with the other live action remakes too. The songs are probably the biggest attraction so they showcase them front and center.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

Why are these remakes so devoid of colour and lit so dark?

 

[Sawyer]

Jesus, the gays and the drag queens on my timeline are really lighting that Ursula make-up video the **** up.

 

[Sithborg]

McCarthy is definitely working hard in this. And it looks like the soundtrack is out, so have fun.

 

[#root]

McCarthy sounds great. They seem to have done a really good job with the music in this thankfully.

 

[Lily Adler]

 

[Primal Slayer]

McCarthy is definitely working hard in this. And it looks like the soundtrack is out, so have fun.

I don't hate it but i question some of their choices

 

[Drizzle]

I listened to the soundtrack. The new songs are kinda meh but the Scuttle song especially made me want to staple my ears shut.

I'll give them credit, no disrespect to Jodi Benson but Halle Bailey's "Part of Your World" is better than the original version. The only other instance I can think of for a song being better than the original in one of the Disney live action remakes is "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in The Lion King.

As for the rest of the songs like "Poor Unfortunate Souls", "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl"...they don't hold a candle to the originals but Melissa McCarthy and Daveed Diggs did them justice. Having Ariel sing backup in "Under the Sea" was a nice touch.

The soundtrack didn't exactly convince me to see this in theaters so I'm still on the fence but if I don't I'll definitely check it out on D+ once it's on there.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I don't know why out of ALL THE CHARACTERS... they thought we needed more Scuttle.

Give us a new sister song or Triton song or Ursula song. An Ursula/Triton song could've been epic

 

[Drizzle]

An Ursula/Triton song could've been epic

Especially if it was structured like "Savages" from Pocahontas with both of them about to destroy each other. But no, we needed Prince Wonder Bread to have his own song.

 

[BeserkerHilf]

I listened to the soundtrack. The new songs are kinda meh but the Scuttle song especially made me want to staple my ears shut.

I'll give them credit, no disrespect to Jodi Benson but Halle Bailey's "Part of Your World" is better than the original version. The only other instance I can think of for a song being better than the original in one of the Disney live action remakes is "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in The Lion King.

As for the rest of the songs like "Poor Unfortunate Souls", "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl"...they don't hold a candle to the originals but Melissa McCarthy and Daveed Diggs did them justice. Having Ariel sing backup in "Under the Sea" was a nice touch.

The soundtrack didn't exactly convince me to see this in theaters so I'm still on the fence but if I don't I'll definitely check it out on D+ once it's on there.

That's concerning, because that was jarringly awful, if not exclusively for Beyonce's "Hey, I'm also on this track" vocal embellishments.

Otherwise, Under the Sea sounds like karaoke; the drunken bar patron is refusing to drop the accent despite everyone's concerned stares, the beat he's singing to is recalled from muscle memory, but the DJ is too cheap to buy the licensed backing track and is just using a YouTube version that is just different enough to skirt the copyright strike system.

 

[Drizzle]

That's concerning, because that was jarringly awful, if not exclusively for Beyonce's "Hey, I'm also on this track" vocal embellishments.

Otherwise, Under the Sea sounds like karaoke; the drunken bar patron is refusing to drop the accent despite everyone's concerned stares, the beat he's singing to is recalled from muscle memory, but the DJ is too cheap to buy the licensed backing track and is just using a YouTube version that is just different enough to skirt the copyright strike system.

For me it's personal preference because I was never all that crazy about the original song within the movie in the first place. It's weird that it isn't sung by Simba and Nala save for a few lines. Either way, Elton John's version is far superior to either of them.

 

[TheVileOne]

I personally found the remake version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight awful, but to each their own.

The remake version was just so stiff and lifeless. Also, I recall can you feel the love tonight looked like it was taking place during the DAY.

 

[psylockolussus]

I enjoyed Mulan so I hope this is good as well. From the previous adaptations, I've also the Jungle Book, Cruella and Cinderella. I thought the Lion King, Aladdin, Pinocchio, the Malificent films, the Alice in Wonderland films and Beauty & the Beast were quite meh despite all the gloss/budget. Dumbo, The Lady and the Tramp and Christopher Robin were okay but not really memorable.

I'll try to watch Peter Pan & Wendy before watching this in the weekend.

 

[psylockolussus]

69% rotten tomatoes.

Yeah this can't be good since there will be more reviews in the coming days and weeks.

 

[Primal Slayer]

69% rotten tomatoes.

Yeah this can't be good since there will be more reviews in the coming days and weeks.

Back up to 71% but i wasn't expecting anything huge in RT.

Aladdin was rotten. BatB is at 71% so...TLM wouldn't be much different

 

[Charzhin0]

The Little Mermaid review – Halle Bailey goes full mermaidcore in Disney’s CGI remake

The Guardian gives its 2/5, which is pretty damming. Main complaint is that live action can never recreate the magic of animation, to which I agree.

 

[Drizzle]

If this ends up with an RT score somewhere in the upper 60s-lower 70s I'd consider that a win. It's rare to see one of these remakes that well received like The Jungle Book or Cinderella and one of the big reasons those remakes turned out well is because the original films had more of a barebones plot that could be improved upon compared to the Renaissance animated movies that were more fleshed out to begin with.

 

[TheVileOne]

Halle Bailey is the film's lone bright spot. Utterly lifeless and deadened.

The world under the sea never comes alive. None of the creatures talk except Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle. Everything lacks impact. Flotsam and Jetsam never talk either. In the original there's this whole underwater kingdom. All the creatures are lively and have personalities. That's not the case here.

Javier Bardem's performance was listless and low energy. He's one-dimensional. In the original film you see his sadness and remorse when he hurts Ariel's feelings. You see the quiet devastation when he hurts her feelings and realizes he goes too far.

Secondly, they keep large swaths of dialogue from the original but the actions no longer match the lines so now everything lacks context. Even the lyrics of Under the Sea don't make sense anymore because the fish and sea creature are no longer matching what Sebastian is saying.

The sea creatures all just look like regular fish just swimming around not really doing anything.

Similarly, "Kiss the Girl" has no impact or verve to it. You never really see the lagoon come alive. None of the other creatures are joining in for this romantic serenade. Everything is just very low-key and grounded and realistic.

There's no fun. The extra hour of plot is little more than expositional padding.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Halle Bailey is the film's lone bright spot. Utterly lifeless and deadened.

The world under the sea never comes alive. None of the creatures talk except Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle. Everything lacks impact. Flotsam and Jetsam never talk either. In the original there's this whole underwater kingdom. All the creatures are lively and have personalities. That's not the case here.

Javier Bardem's performance was listless and low energy. He's one-dimensional. In the original film you see his sadness and remorse when he hurts Ariel's feelings. You see the quiet devastation when he hurts her feelings and realizes he goes too far.

Secondly, they keep large swaths of dialogue from the original but the actions no longer match the lines so now everything lacks context. Even the lyrics of Under the Sea don't make sense anymore because the fish and sea creature are no longer matching what Sebastian is saying.

The sea creatures all just look like regular fish just swimming around not really doing anything.

Similarly, "Kiss the Girl" has no impact or verve to it. You never really see the lagoon come alive. None of the other creatures are joining in for this romantic serenade. Everything is just very low-key and grounded and realistic.

There's no fun. The extra hour of plot is little more than expositional padding.

Wow, way harsh tai lol.

But im not surprised by the lifeless comment. When you have a movie about mermaids and a woman who is half octopus...it makes ZERO sense to harp on realism.

I saw awhile ago that they turned the kingdom from this beautiful golden kingdom to a drab looking thing made out of searocks or whatever its called.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I’ll wait until this movie is on Disney+ to watch