The Little Mermaid 2023

Disney's latest live-action remake of one of their animated classics is The Little Mermaid 2023, remade from the 1989 film that launched Disney's Renaissance throughout the '90s. It tells the same story of the mermaid princess Ariel who falls in love with a human, despite her father's hatred towards them, and makes a deal with Ursula the sea witch to help her unite with the prince in the surface. Halle Bailey portrays Ariel with such incredible and wonderful grace, making her just as memorable as Jodi Benson. Rob Marshall, the director, manages to add a lot of warmth in this remake, something often lacking in them. Though it pales in comparison to the 1989, Marshall's theatrical roots does give it some gravitas with the memorable dance routines and strong performances. Its biggest aspect are the underwater scenes, and while it is no Avatar: The Way of Water it still looks good for the most part thanks to the CG effects looking at worst slightly decent and Dion Beebe's strong cinematography that works well in the surface as well. The script from David Magee is pretty descent, being mostly the same as the animated version though adding or changing some small things. Some of them are a bit dumbfounded and unnecessary like Ursula killing Triton only to be brought back a few minutes later, but stuff like making Ariel forget about the curse or giving Eric the curiosity about exploring the world are good. Alan Menken returns as the composer and adds more to the old songs alongside new ones with Lin-Manuel Miranda. "Part of Your World" is still a jaw-dropper thanks to Bailey, and the rest of the old songs all vary between passable to absolute bangers. The few new ones don't really work all that well, especially a rap duet between Sebastian and Scuttle. Although when Ariel is turned human and can't talk we do hear her thoughts through singing and they're okay. Besides Bailey you also have Jonah Hauer-King as Eric and they have strong chemistry, Javier Bardem portrays Triton with such gravitas, Melissa McCarthy steals it as Ursula, and voicing Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle to such great delights are Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina respectively. Realistically, The Little Mermaid 2023 pails in comparison to its predecessor, much like the other live-action remakes, but at least this one feels like there was an attempt to make it feel on its own while still honoring the past. Over all: 80%

2023 top list so far:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

2. Air

3. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

4. Creed III

5. John Wick: Chapter 4

6. Scream VI

7. M3GAN

8. Cocaine Bear

9. Knock at the Cabin

10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

11. Renfield

12. Fast X

13. The Little Mermaid 2023

14. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

15. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania