The Little Mermaid was made for adults
Madeline Fry Schultz
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The Little Mermaid is a movie for adults. This isn’t to say that the new live-action remake of Disney’s 1989 classic is full of adult content or even that it has scenes that parents are likely to object to, as in many recent offerings from the Walt Disney Company.
Rather, 2023’s The Little Mermaid takes the original, strips it of its fun, and leaves audiences with a film that is slightly duller, slightly preachier, and painfully longer than the original. But at least parents won’t have to feel guilty for showing it to their children, right?
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Opening with a line from Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale, The Little Mermaid sets itself up to be darker and deeper than its predecessor. “But a mermaid has no tears,” the ominous on-screen words say, “and therefore she suffers so much more.”
This is not borne out by the rest of the film. The Little Mermaid is literally darker in that many of its scenes are too dimly lit, but instead of trying to teach us something more meaningful about the human condition, the movie settles for adding more backstory and a little bit of moralizing.
While scenes with Prince Eric’s personality-building drag on, The Little Mermaid is also quick to remind viewers that it’s better than the original, that passe cartoon that rankled celebrities and failed to teach children about consent.
No matter that Ursula, the sea witch, is, well, a witch. A good portion of her iconic musical number, “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” is edited or axed, including the line, “It’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man.” We couldn’t have children accidentally taking advice from villains! Melissa McCarthy’s performance as Ursula is a high point, and it’s disappointing that she isn’t given the opportunity to do more with her role.
Disney has made the most fuss about the fact that it updated the lyrics to “Kiss the Girl” to include advice about consent.
“Yes, you want her / Look at her, you know you do / Possible she want you too, there is one way to ask her / It don’t take a word, not a single word / Go on and kiss the girl” becomes “Yes, you want her / Look at her, you know you do / Possible she want you too / Use your words, boy, and ask her / If the time is right and the time is tonight / Go on and kiss the girl.”
Director Rob Marshall reportedly had Lin-Manuel Miranda make the adjustments, not because of the playwright’s musical acumen but “because it’s important to remember that the culture and sensitivities have changed over the last 34 years, and it’s vital that we are respectful to those changes.”
Snore.
If the filmmakers had spent less energy adapting to “sensitivities” and more on finding clever ways to improve on the original, perhaps the new Little Mermaid would have been a different film. But they didn’t, and instead, we’re left with a slogging sensitivity training that runs nearly an hour longer than its predecessor. If the noise level in the theater about an hour and a half in was any indication, it’s much too long for children.
Much of the discourse leading up to Disney’s latest live-action remake has surrounded its choice to cast a black woman, Halle Bailey, as Ariel. Despite at least one conservative’s inane complaint that Bailey’s black skin doesn’t make sense from a “scientific perspective,” there’s nothing about her appearance that’s holding her back as the leading lady. In fact, it’s hard to watch clips of young black girls seeing Bailey on screen and not think that the choice to make Ariel Disney’s first black live-action princess was a meaningful one.
Bailey is a professional singer, and her talent shines in her musical numbers. Her acting chops, on the other hand, leave the viewer wanting more.
The film’s other problems are plentiful: It removes much of the original’s levity and physical comedy in favor of one-off quips. It underutilizes its side characters, suffers from its choice to make Sebastian and Flounder look creepily realistic rather than cute and cartoonish, and falls flat with a new musical number by Awkwafina, now voicing the previously male Scuttle.
Perhaps worst of all is a change that most viewers will likely miss but that is particularly confounding in its inanity. In the original, the prince’s caretaker and confidant, Sir Grimsby, tells him to stop looking for the mystery woman who saved him from a shipwreck — Eric doesn’t realize it was Ariel — and embrace the love of Ariel herself, a woman whom Eric found washed up on shore and has begun to admire.
“Far better than any dream girl is one of flesh and blood, one warm and caring and right before your eyes,” Grimsby says.
This piece of advice is not only universal but also beautifully put. In the new version, however, Grimsby merely spouts some platitude about rejecting what “should be” in favor of “what is.”
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What kind of fatalistic nonsense is this?
Sadly, this inexplicable change is indicative of the problem with the entire film. It’s so obsessed with figuratively righting its own ship that it’s willing to sacrifice true color, lyricism, and beauty for slogans that have been workshopped and overanalyzed until they’re stripped of all their magic.