Genre: Kids & family, Musical, Fantasy
Directed by Rob Marshall
Produced by Marc Platt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, John DeLuca, Rob Marshall.
Screenplay by David Magee
Based on Disney‘s The Little Mermaid by Ron Clements, John Musker, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Javier Bardem & Melissa McCarthy.
Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Edited by Wyatt Smith
Music by Alan Menken
Production companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Lucamar Productions, Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The plot: The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, Ariel is a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. Longing to find out more about the world beyond the sea, Ariel visits the surface and falls for the dashing Prince Eric. Following her heart, she makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to experience life on land.
This film was mediocre.
Pros: I don’t have any issues with race blending Ariel in this movie. The character I had the most invested in was King Triton. I liked the song “under the sea” and I felt the drama going on through her singing.
Cons: it does skip through a ton of the main story. I didn’t fall in love with the relationship between Ariel and Eric. Melissa McCarthy was bad as Ursula and after I left the cinema I didn’t enjoy the film as expected.
The Casts:
- Halle Bailey as Ariel, a curious and headstrong mermaid princess and King Triton’s youngest daughter who is fascinated with the human world.
- Jonah Hauer-King as Eric, an adventurous and free-spirited human prince whom Ariel falls in love with after saving him from drowning.
- Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, a treacherous and conniving sea witch and King Triton’s estranged sister, with whom Ariel makes a deal to become a human, which is secretly part of Ursula’s plan to conquer Atlantica.
- Jessica Alexander as Vanessa, Ursula’s human alter ego, which she uses to sabotage her deal with Ariel.
- Javier Bardem as King Triton, Ariel’s strict and overprotective father and the ruler of Atlantica who is prejudiced against humans due to the death of his wife at hands of one of them.
- Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, Eric’s adoptive mother and the ruler of a Caribbean island kingdom. She is a new character for the film.
- Art Malik as Sir Grimsby, the prime minister of Selina’s kingdom and Eric’s loyal confidant who acts as a father figure to him.
- Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian, a loyal crab and King Triton’s trusted servant who watches over Ariel.
- Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder, an anxious yet noble sergeant major who is Ariel’s best friend.
- Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle, a dimwitted northern gannet and a friend of Ariel’s to whom she provides inaccurate descriptions of any human/surface world object Ariel finds. The character is portrayed as a female diving bird instead of a male seagull as in the original in order to feature the character in underwater scenes.
I worse skip this movie.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident film reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe