Speak Now Storyteller

Summary: A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.

I have now seen this movie 4 times so I was determined to get this review out!

Pros:

Cast and Characters.

• Halle Bailey as Ariel. She is a curious and headstrong mermaid princess and King Triton’s youngest daughter who is fascinated with the human world. So, what I love about Ariel, in general, is how curious she is, sometimes to a major fault lol. I always loved the fact that she just wanted to know more, I loved that she was a collector and revered the things she found. In this movie, she is headstrong and knows who she is and what she wants but she’s also soft about it. I love how her fascination has this wide-eyed wonder about it and she clearly has taught herself a lot from the books she’s read but also taking what she’s learned from Scuttle. Ariel never left her Kingdom JUST for a man, as everyone likes to say, she wanted to explore the human world before she ever saw an actual human. She wanted to ask questions, learn more from them (just like Eric wants to, which I’ll get to later). She wants to see them dancing and walking. Never in her SONG does she say anything about falling in love. When she gets the chance to see them, she does and she’s entranced by their dancing, something she said she wanted to see. I love that she decided that she was interesting this particular human because she watched him be heroic and compassionate… and that he was just like her. Just human. I love that she’s quick on her feet in how she gets Eric to guess her name, or how she shows him the secrets of her world within in the things he collects. Ariel is smart. Don’t come for her in either of these movies! As for Halle Bailey, my goodness is she fantastic. I wasn’t familiar with her acting when she was cast, but I thought she physically was great for the part (which she is, so beautiful and ethereal) but also her voice is the star for sure. Hearing her sing brings me chills every single time. She was truly gifted. But also, her interpretation and approach to Ariel is so lovely and careful. As I said, she’s soft but she’s headstrong too. A lot of her emotion comes from her face, from her eyes, which they should, since she spends a majority of the movie mute. There’s no over the top sign language, she’s able to convey her thoughts on her face. I loved that. I will always love the animated Ariel, she will always be my favorite, but Halle Bailey took this character and honored her so much, and she stands right beside her. I loved that.
• Jonah Hauer-King as Eric. He is an adventurous and free-spirited human prince whom Ariel falls in love with after saving him from drowning. I will stand by animated Prince Eric till the day I die, but with that said, I think this Eric is great. I will admit that not a ton is given to him in the animated film, which is fine, it was the late 80s and he’s the love interest. So here, we get more of him, his desires and goals and he is an explorer but he’s not against ruling his Kingdom, he just doesn’t want them to be left behind, especially when there are so many other places to see and learn from. He genuinely seems like he wants to know and experience. He also is isolated and this has made him restless. But when he’s saved, a lot of his attention is put on finding this mystery girl but then he meets Ariel and she’s just as inquisitive as he is and they form a kinship. They bond. I also notice just how attentive he is to her, he sees her interest in rowing, in the carriage reins and he lets her take over, or he shows her. Or how he allows her to show him things. It’s really soft and sweet. I wasn’t impressed with Jonah Hauer-King’s casting but I was impressed with him. He’s very likable, charming, very puppy dog, soft and sweet and he is handsome in the role. He also sings very well.
• Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. She is 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. Ursula is how she always is, scheming and manipulative of the people to get what she wants. She preys on Ariel’s want to explore and uses that against her to get to Triton. I didn’t like at first that she kind of changed her little spell with Ariel’s deal but I’m okay with it after seeing it a few times and thinking about it and talking about it. They also got rid of her “plot hole” with the contract, which I never saw as a plot hole but whatever lol, it does work better overall. I loved her entire vibe, the way she clearly is going a little insane being alone with just two eels who don’t actually talk lol but also harboring resentment. I was nervous about Melissa McCarthy because I wanted her to take it seriously and not just be herself and “too funny” but I was pleasantly surprised and I really like her in the movie. I think she did extremely well and was a joy to watch. Even her singing Poor Unfortunate Souls was fun! I liked her little facial expressions and her crazy eye twitch lol. Great job! I don’t think she outclasses Pat Carroll or “originates” the role but she did a great rendition.
  • Jessica Alexander as Vanessa. Ursula’s human alter ego, which she uses to sabotage her deal with Ariel. She has a very small amount of screen time, as she does period and she’s really good. She definitely makes an impression. I thought her unhingedness when Ariel gets involved was great. I was cracking up. But, I have to say how Jessica Alexander is handling things off screen, people are making tone deaf claims that she should have played Ariel, she looks like the original AND her singing was better than Halle’s…. which is hilarious. Just say you’re racist and move on. But Miss. Alexander has been shutting these fools down left and right and supporting Halle’s casting and performance. As she should.
• Javier Bardem as King Triton. He is 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. I feel mixed on Javier’s interpretation only because part of me feels like he was just there and the other part of me is like, he was good. I don’t think he was bad but I still wish Idris Elba played him lol. He’s definitely not yelly the way he is in the original, I feel like his quiet disappointment and anger is almost worse but I don’t know, there’s a slight disconnect. But he’s afraid of letting Ariel do her own thing because of what happens to his wife. I also thought it was interesting that after he destroys her grotto that he doesn’t seem remorseful but like “I did it for your own good, don’t leave again”. I was like damn. But in the end he’s fine, I liked his look. Javier Bardem was fine lol.
• Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian. He is a loyal crab and King Triton’s majordomo who watches over Ariel. He is not over the choir in this, he’s literally Triton’s right hand man who gets sent to watch over Ariel and he tries his damnedest to keep her underwater and to fill her up with “under the sea” but when Ariel makes her choice, he devotes himself to helping her. He’s still the Sebastian we’re familiar with but he’s also a bit more sarcastic and sardonic, especially with Scuttle but I think a lot that is because of Daveed Diggs, his delivery of the lines and his interpretation of the character which I think is good. I really liked Sebastian and I was impressed with Daveed’s voice acting, I didn’t doubt him but I was curious at how he would be approached. He definitely received a lot of laughs each time I saw the movie so he definitely did something right.
• Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder. He is an anxious yet noble sergeant major who is Ariel’s best friend. I thought Flounder was super cute, he’s not a “Flounder” exactly because those are super fugly fishes lol, but I thought the new design was fine. I’ve always loved Flounder, he’s loyal and supportive of Ariel’s endeavors and while it could be dangerous, he’s right there. I love that. He’s just like a kid who is tagging along but always willing to help. Jacob Tremblay was perfect for the role, I thought that when he was announced. His voice just works and he’s so innocent and cute!
• Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle. She is a dimwitted northern gannet and a friend of Ariel’s to whom she provides inaccurate descriptions of any human/surface world object Ariel finds. I liked that they changed her bird species so she could go underwater and talk with Ariel and Flounder (I thought it was funny that some people were scandalized that she dived for a fish in front of Ariel and Flounder, which I get it but, sea creatures eat fish so it’s nothing they haven’t seen before). I liked a lot of her interactions with Sebastian. She’s also funny, I can definitely see the kids loving her. I’m not particularly a fan of Awkwafina and I was low-key mad that I liked her in the role but I figured she would do well, this kind of role fits her to be honest and I didn’t feel like she was doing too much like she tends to do in comedic roles.

The Music/The Songs. The original songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Menken make comebacks in this movie with new songs and new lyrics by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Halle Bailey’s rendition of “Part of your World” and the “Reprise” was absolutely amazing, tear inducing, like… no words. Just the emotion she’s able to put into these songs, in “Part of Your World” you can just hear the emotion, the yearning in her voice! “Under the Sea” was fun and I loved that they allowed Ariel to have some ad-libs in the song. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and “Kiss the Girl” are the two songs that received lyric changes and while I missed “you got your looks…your pretty face” in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” I think it’s fine. Everyone performs the songs extremely well. I loved that “Kiss the Girl” was sung by Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle. As for the new songs: “Part of your World (Reprise II), Scuttlebutt, For the First Time and Wild Uncharted Waters” I think they are all fantastic additions, I really loved all of them.

• Scuttlebutt is the main song everyone has either loved or hated but I think it’s fun, I mean, I know there doesn’t need to be rap in everything LIN but I liked it so I guess it’s okay lol. Plus, that line about the penguins and pigeons was so clever lol.
• “Reprise II” is good and emotional, it fits in the film and Halle’s emotion in the song and in the scene were fantastic.
• “Wild Uncharted Waters” has been a contentious song as well but I liked it, I think it’s a nice “I Want” song by the love interest and Jonah Hauer-King sings it very well, also, the idea that because Ariel sang to him before and entranced him with her siren song, the song takes on a new meaning in that he sounds a little obsessed and crazed because of her song. But I also just like that it’s a little romantic, AND her voice is in the music too, so it really adds to his “obsession”. Also, in case anyone is confused, he’s not actually on a boat at the end of the song, it’s just representation of his soul lol, like what musicals do.
• “For the First Time” is my favorite of the new songs and I think it’s right up there with “Part of Your World” which is my favorite Disney song period. I love the lyrics and I love the fact that we get to see what Ariel is thinking during her first time on land. Halle Bailey also sings it so well and I’ve been obsessed with it. The arrangement, the lyrics, the performance? Not to mention, it’s all done internally until the part where Ariel hears that Eric is going to be fetched and she has a musical moment, I loved it. Favorite new song!!

Ariel and Eric. They’ve always been my favorite Disney Prince and Princess and I think this movie does so right by them. As I said before about Eric, they really allowed him to have more dimension in the way that fits Ariel’s. I love that fact that Ariel doesn’t immediately see his face when she finds their boat, but instead she hears him talking to Grimsby and she hears just how much they’re the same. I loved that addition. I loved the way she was looking at him when she saved him from drowning. I loved how excited she was to see him when she was in the castle. I love how they bonded in his library which MATCHED HER GROTTO! It looked the exact same! Whoever’s idea that was… bravo. I loved how attentive they were to each other, how soft and sweet. I loved how she had him guess her name *Cries* whoever thought of that, BRAVO! I love at the end, how he was still thinking of her… like… I love how their reunion was a hug first! I just cannot sing the praises of how this movie handled Ariel and Eric. It’s so good and Halle and Jonah had amazing chemistry.

It’s So Colorful! I was low-key worried about the underwater scenes but I was so pleased to see just how beautiful and colorful it was! “Under the Sea” was done very well, sure I don’t think it quite lived up to the animated version but that’s to be expected. When on land, the Kingdom was also so colorful. When Ariel walked through the village, there were colors galore! I love it.

The Costumes/Character Designs. Colleen Atwood does the costume designs for this movie and she designs the look of the mermaid tails. I loved all of the mermaid looks we see. Ariel’s tail and fin are just so gorgeous and the colors work so well for Halle. Also, her hair, her team did that! Her sisters look amazing as well, the different kinds of colors and fins and just ugh! So lovely. Ursula also looks great, even if I didn’t care for her little sleeves she looked great. I liked the land Kingdom’s aesthetic, very much a Caribbean kingdom, I just wish we got to see the main characters wear more clothes, which I’ll talk about more later. Also, it seems like the merpeople, are scaly on their human parts and that their tops are scales but also paint? I need the designers to go into detail about how they designed it and what their intentions were because it’s so fascinating.

Cons:

CGI Sometimes. This doesn’t apply to the animals even though I do think sometimes Sebastian falls into a weird CGI valley lol but I never disliked their design and I think people are being dramatic about it lol. They could have made them a bit more “cartoony” but I think they were looking for a happy medium of “photorealistic” and “animated/cartoon”. But I’m really talking about a few moments at the beginning where the underwater scenes looked really awkward. Same with “under the sea” but it wasn’t throughout. Also, there were a few moments of mermaid Ariel, particularly at the end when she sees the boats, where I thought the CGI was really bad and noticeable on her. I also think that King Triton’s tail was weird in some places, it could be because he wore armor the entire time so there was a weird disconnect but it’s only a few places but it’s noticeable, at least to me.

Not Enough Interactions/Sisters. What I think is soooo egregious is to give us the colorful, diverse and different sisters and not have them be involved and shown more. I wasn’t necessarily upset that the “daughters of triton” song was cut, I don’t think it would have fit in this movie, at least the way the song is originally, but I feel like they could have found some way to include it, or do something different because they were grossly underused and I was upset by it lol. We have their introduction scenes, then another scene where they each get at least one line, and then we get three sisters in a scene with Triton and then we see them at the very end. But like… they all look so cool… ugh missed opportunity. My friend mentioned that she would have liked to see the sisters appear with Triton when he confronts Ursula about Ariel and I have to say that I think that would have been a good addition to see. I also guess technically the amount of scenes Ariel and Triton had were about the same they had in the animated movie but I feel like one more scene would have been useful, but that’s probably a personal preference.

Where’s the Kingdom?? I don’t think they ever mentioned the name of their Kingdom and if they did, it must have been so quick because I literally don’t remember and I’ve seen this movie four times now. But outside of that, they didn’t really do much world building for the underwater kingdom. We didn’t see any other merpeople besides some “establishing shots”, we didn’t see this world doing anything lol. It can probably be argued that Ariel felt detached so that’s why but I feel like they should have shown more of the merpeople, especially since they make a show of them at the end. That was a missed opportunity. We don’t see a castle, or we do but it’s very… ugly? Like it’s made out of coral I think but I was unsure if that was the castle because of how it looked. We don’t see many people in the castle, we don’t see their merpeople village, we don’t see Ariel interacting with anyone else. I used to watch the Princess Power Hour when I could and while Ariel felt a little bit detached, she still had interactions with other merpeople! I DIDN’T FORGET! I just wish the movie did a better job of showing both the land and underwater kingdom.

Costumes. Kind of spoilery. Something I was extremely disappointed in is that Ariel wore her going out blue dress the entire time she was on land. I was fully expecting to see variations of the various outfits Ariel has from the animated film. While her two outfits were nice, the blue dress being lovely and clearly a product of the Kingdom, she only wears this outfit, for each of the three days. The pink dress she wears at the end and since it’s pink, I’m sure it’s a nod to her formal pink dress but y’all lol.

She doesn’t get an actual wedding dress either which was disappointing. She also doesn’t wear the sparkly sea foam dress for when Triton turns her back into a human. I wasn’t expecting her to come out of the water like in the animated film but she showed back up in the same blue dress but it was tattered since it was torn off of her in the water when she turned back into a human. I was so upset by that lol, why didn’t Triton give her a dress? Why didn’t he transform that blue dress into something more ‘oceany’ and ‘sparkly?’ Also, why couldn’t she get a more formal pink dress to wear on her first day in the kingdom? The blue dress should have just been her day out dress. A pink dress could have been worn with the intention of her going to dinner to meet the Queen but she falls asleep (like she does) and then she finds Eric’s library later and she’s still in this dress. Like, I don’t get it lol. Colleen Atwood was the Costume Designer so… why didn’t we let her cook with some more outfits? Eric also basically wears the same outfit the entire movie as well, I mean he looked great, they both did but some on… give us more outfits!

Ursula and Triton. This is minor but they added another layer to their relationship that has been a fan theory for years and was also included in the Broadway show, I don’t hate the inclusion but I feel like since they didn’t do much with it, if you remove it, I don’t think the story changes. I feel like there could have been more added to make this story really hit the way I think it could have.

Overall, this is my favorite of the remakes thus far. I don’t think it’s the best one (That’s still The Jungle Book at this time), but it has made a mark on me, that even prior to the movie, I didn’t know how to act. It means so much to me to see my favorite Disney character be reimagined into someone who represents me and those who look like me. That means a lot regardless of how other’s view it. I don’t care lol. I think they did such a great honoring the original animated film while making a film that stands on its own! The biggest thing to me about remakes is if it can stand on its own and it does. The gem of the film is Halle Bailey, her portrayal is so good. I don’t think she’s winning an Oscar or anything, but I know she has a bright future ahead of her in acting if that’s something she wants to keep doing. Her chemistry with Jonah Hauer- King’s Prince Eric was a major highlight. All the acting is good throughout the film. The music is also a high point, the original songs still hit, and the new songs are fantastic additions. The character designs are great, especially the merpeople, I just wish we got to see more of them. I have some negatives, but they don’t take away from the film, at least not my love for it. While I loved the designs and costumes, I wish we saw more clothing options for Ariel and the humans in general, why didn’t she get more than that one dress??? Ursula and Triton’s new storyline was fine but unnecessary since I don’t think adding it or removing it changes that much. But in the end, this movie is so good, and I can’t wait to see if they make a sequel lol, I think it deserves! Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5 out 5 stars.

What did you think of The Little Mermaid? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section! Besides The Little Mermaid, which Disney live action remake is your favorite?

Thanks for reading!