• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Little Mermaid Live Action (no politics)

Marvel14

Banned
I see a fair amount of doom and gloom regarding the financial prospects of this film
That suggests people want it to do well but are pessimistic about its prospects. What I see is people wishing it will do badly to confirm their biases against what they think the film represents....

It's a good film overall so I am fairly confident it will do fine...not gangbusters but not a flop either.

Local news stations are running stories about black people buying out entire theaters for their daughters and nieces, so I expect this will do a billion dollars
12% of the population don't have that much purchasing power do they?

Or are you assuming all 41 million African Americans are going to go to watch this in the cinema? That's as unrealistic as a 100ft Seawitch.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
That suggests people want it to do well but are pessimistic about its prospects. What I see is people wishing it will do badly to confirm their biases against what they think the film represents....

It's a good film overall so I am fairly confident it will do fine...not gangbusters but not a flop either.


12% of the population don't have that much purchasing power do they?

Or are you assuming all 41 million African Americans are going to go to watch this in the cinema? That's as unrealistic as a 100ft Seawitch.

You are doing textbook projecting. You think the film is good, so you want to think that everyone is hoping it does bad to confirm their biases (I.E. exactly what *you* are doing).
 

Marvel14

Banned
You are doing textbook projecting. You think the film is good, so you want to think that everyone is hoping it does bad to confirm their biases (I.E. exactly what *you* are doing).
Nope...there are multiple comments in this thread where folk are criticising what they think the film represents not how it fares as a piece of entertainment. I won't repost because I don't want to set off the moderators.

We're on page 3 and I don't think anyone who has posted who didn't like the film has engaged with the substance of my points to disagree with them (Except generically that they don't like the lead actress or don't like the story/song changes or that the length is an issue).

Happy to be corrected if I'm overlooking or missing something.
 

Toons

Member
Yes its pretty good. If you liked the original you'll like this.

Surprisingly good visuals. The guy they got for Sabastien and scuttle were really good. Mccarthy was like Ursula walked off the original.

Halle Bailey can sing her ass off. It's completely clear why they picked her over all the others.

Its too long tho.
 
Last edited:

Dr. Claus

Banned
Nope...there are multiple comments in this thread where folk are criticising what they think the film represents not how it fares as a piece of entertainment. I won't repost because I don't want to set off the moderators.

We're on page 3 and I don't think anyone who has posted who didn't like the film has engaged with the substance of my points to disagree with them (Except generically that they don't like the lead actress or don't like the story/song changes or that the length is an issue).

Happy to be corrected if I'm overlooking or missing something.

Come On Reaction GIF by Amanda Cee Media
 

Toons

Member
lol @ the lame "It's not for you, it's for kids!" defense. Shills used to say that to defend shitty Star Wars movies. I remember shills saying it to defend the prequels and later the shitty sequel trilogy.

Disney remakes and sequels to classics are designed to attract Gen X and millennial parents who wanna relive their childhood. If you don't think this is part of their target audience, you're naive.

No, the movie has dolls and kids clothes associated with it, aimed at kids.

When I saw this, there were little girls in the theater, they idolized Ariel and wanted their picture taken next to the standee after we got our of the film.

That's who this movie is for. The adults can go back to the original, and if they want a different perspective on that story they can see this one.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
No, the movie has dolls and kids clothes associated with it, aimed at kids.

When I saw this, there were little girls in the theater, they idolized Ariel and wanted their picture taken next to the standee after we got our of the film.

That's who this movie is for. The adults can go back to the original, and if they want a different perspective on that story they can see this one.

Ah, so as long as dolls and kids clothes are associated with a film, that means its for kids? Cool, I will play Terminator, Aliens, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th at every elementary school across the US!

Disney films are designed for the entire family. Not just little girls. Not just adults. No just kids. *Everyone*.
 

Toons

Member
Ah, so as long as dolls and kids clothes are associated with a film, that means its for kids? Cool, I will play Terminator, Aliens, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th at every elementary school across the US!

Disney films are designed for the entire family. Not just little girls. Not just adults. No just kids. *Everyone*.

Theres a such thing as a target demographic.

The target demographic is kids yes. Families are welcome and so are adults but the primary audience is kids, and even more specifically girls.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Searched for the last thread on this but it looks likes its been totally nuked. I hope it' s possible to actually discuss the film and its artistic and entertainment merits on Gaf as with any other movie. If not then this thread won't last long.

Anyway here goes. Just watched the film (spoilers ahead) and my thoughts are:

Pros:
  1. Halle Bailey is excellent...she embodies the character and her singing is fantastic. She's supercute too.
  2. Bloke who plays Eric is great: believable and relatable.
  3. Love that they expanded the story both to show that Ariel and Eric are real kindred spirits and that Ariel isn't just desperately waiting for him to kiss her to save her from Ursula.
  4. Loved Javier Bardem's journey of paternal wisdom and how loss in the father daughter relationship is handled.
  5. Love how the film puts itself in the Carribbean which makes a lot of sense given the original music. Answers the Little Mermaid's race question beautifully as well and the fact that Triton has mixed race daughters covering the seven seas also makes perfect sense. Although does make him a bit of a naughty sailor.
  6. Also love that Eric is an Anglo Saxon adopted by a Caribbean mom...explains more of his attraction to Ariel and also makes him the minority in the movie. A refreshing twist!
  7. Ursula is fine and her alter ego at the end is good too.
  8. The aquatic supporting characters all are good..they look realistic but it doesn't detract from their likeability too much.
  9. Love the message of togetherness and cooperation between different worlds- its the kind of sentiment the world needs right now.
  10. Classic songs all very enjoyable updated takes.
  11. New rap between Scuttle and Sebastian is fun and works!
  12. Underwater world is believable and additional scenes in the surface world work fine too.
Cons:
  1. Immersion breaks...Bird chatting underwater for a long time is a bit far fetched...and objects underwater not behaving as if they are in water also not great. Good thing neither is less believable than a 100 ft seawitch.
  2. Eric's new song is ok and not good at the same time. I don't like this new trend of making musical movie songs into "blow by blow narratives with flashy endings a la Broadway". Far less appealing than the emotions based Disney songs of yore.
  3. Film drags a bit in places but nothing too onerous or off putting.
  4. Scuttle's famous punk rock contribution to Kiss the Girl RIP.
  5. They try to develop the Son mom relationship but it lacks the emotional heft of the daughter dad relationship.

All in all hugely enjoyable and one of the best Disney live action remakes that actually deepens on the original story.

One last note: to those who can't discuss the film as a piece of entertainment you know that Resetera censors topics to cater to woke outrage. Well your attitude is its mirror image turning GAF into a place that censors topics to nix outrage-at-woke. I can't imagine that anyone that enjoys GAF actually wants GAF to have that mirror reputation. But you do you I guess. I can't stop you.

Bruh dawg you're asking a forum of (primarily) employed adults with families, full time work, etc to critically analyze the characterization, cinematic craft and thematic integrity of what is essentially the rich out of touch corporation's attempt at "getting hate clicks," cover of a film that's fanbase was primarily comprised of young American girls in the fucking nineties.

On the last paragraph: Only someone who has no belief in the words escaping their lips tries to label the freedom to speak an opinion as "censorship, just the other way," Have some backbone in your beliefs.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
Theres a such thing as a target demographic.

The target demographic is kids yes. Families are welcome and so are adults but the primary audience is kids, and even more specifically girls.

The target demographic is families. Adults and kids. Stop deluding yourself in an effort to try and defend a poorly made remake. There is just as much merch being aimed at grown adults and advertising towards them as there are for kids. Go take a look on Youtube, go to Disney parks themselves and see their special adult drinks designed around this film. Go look on the disney store - stop with the idiotic excuses and attempts to dismiss criticism because its "aimed at kids" which is clearly not the case. It is aimed at *everyone*.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Ah, so as long as dolls and kids clothes are associated with a film, that means its for kids? Cool, I will play Terminator, Aliens, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th at every elementary school across the US!

Disney films are designed for the entire family. Not just little girls. Not just adults. No just kids. *Everyone*.
Exactly. Any family targeted film will pump hard on merchandising. Toys make up a large part of that profit ROI and Genx X, millenials purchase that sometimes more than 'just the kids.'

They had many adults in mind when making the first film. There's a documentary on it which Disney released.
 

Toons

Member
The target demographic is families. Adults and kids. Stop deluding yourself in an effort to try and defend a poorly made remake. There is just as much merch being aimed at grown adults and advertising towards them as there are for kids. Go take a look on Youtube, go to Disney parks themselves and see their special adult drinks designed around this film. Go look on the disney store - stop with the idiotic excuses and attempts to dismiss criticism because its "aimed at kids" which is clearly not the case. It is aimed at *everyone*.
I said target demographic.

Its targeting demographic is kids my dude. Girls ages 8 - 12 most likely. That doesnt oreflude it from being advertised elsewhere. Families are definitely a big market too, but that kids goes hand in hand with the first.

And its not a defense of the movie either. You're a hot headed one lol. Chill.
 
Last edited:

Dr. Claus

Banned
Exactly. Any family targeted film will pump hard on merchandising. Toys make up a large part of that profit ROI and Genx X, millenials purchase that sometimes more than 'just the kids.'

They had many adults in mind when making the first film. There's a documentary on it which Disney released.

Yep, but I should know better when arguing with ideological clowns. Talking sense to them is like talking to a brick wall.
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member

In a rare situation for a Disney tentpole, particularly a live-action title based on a treasured classic animated musical, The Little Mermaid looks to bank more at the domestic box office ultimately than overseas, with $300M-$350M U.S./Canada to $260M abroad.

At that level, per finance sources, off a reported $250M production cost and $140M global marketing spend, The Little Mermaid could very well break-even. However, anything in the low $400M global threshold and this fish is apt to be sinking to a loss of around $20M.

Oh my god. If it's true that they actually spent $140m on the global marketing alone, this film is going to lose way more money for Disney than I thought. Also the author doesn't seem to understand Box Office Revenue as much as he should. If TLM only scores in the low $400m WW for it's entire Box Office run, then relative to the film's budget and marketing cost, that's a catastrophic flop. Their loss of the theatrical run alone will be in the hundreds of millions.
 

yazenov

Gold Member
The argument that this film is targeted for kids (on who's authority?) so we can't criticize it's quality, or adults won't enjoy it because its for kids doesn't make any sense.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
The argument that this film is targeted for kids (on who's authority?) so we can't criticize it's quality, or adults won't enjoy it because its for kids doesn't make any sense.

Yep. Its only done on ideological grounds. They want to desperately paint the film as being better than it really is because the film was designed from the ground up from a similar ideological PoV that they subscribe to. They don't' want to admit that "Oh shit, this is fucking retarded."
 

Toons

Member
The argument that this film is targeted for kids (on who's authority?) so we can't criticize it's quality, or adults won't enjoy it because its for kids doesn't make any sense.

That was never the argument.

The argument is that criticizing elements of a film that aren't intended for you, like a goofy song, on the basis that they arent intended for you(because let's be real, hats the only actual critique of that) is pretty silly.

I wouldn't watch an episode of teletubbies and then complain that the characterization is weak. That would make me look silly.

No one said you have to like the movie lol. And attaching the movie to any ideology that isnt making money is just projection. Cuz that's the only "agenda" behind any Disney film. Hence why most normal people whos brains aren't rotted by that sort of thing found the film decent at worst.
 
Last edited:

yazenov

Gold Member
That was never the argument.

The argument is that criticizing elements of a film that aren't intended for you, like a goofy song, on the basis that they arent intended for you(because let's be real, hats the only actual critique of that) is pretty silly.

I wouldn't watch an episode of teletubbies and then complain that the characterization is weak. That would make me look silly.

No one said you have to like the movie lol. And attaching the movie to any ideology that isnt making money is just projection. Cuz that's the only "agenda" behind any Disney film.

But that silly song was only one criticism amoung plenty of others, such as the shit animation, ugly character designs, bloated length of the movie, and so forth.

Its a silly argument and we might as well dismiss any negative criticism from the reviewers since most of them are adults and "not their target audience".

Why does this movie needs protection from criticism unlike other Disney trash live action movies that came before it?
 
Last edited:

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Yep. Its only done on ideological grounds. They want to desperately paint the film as being better than it really is because the film was designed from the ground up from a similar ideological PoV that they subscribe to. They don't' want to admit that "Oh shit, this is fucking retarded."
They won't admit it. The adult target wanted to see their favorite modern celebrities either in live action or voice role. How many kids went to the Mario movie (for instance) because Chris Pine got top billing for a lead? The kids wanted a funny video game guy; adults wanted the celebs.

Not comparing the films given the socio target of LA Little Mermaid was...let's say Disney. They even have particular classes of adults in mind when making these movies. Most kids probably find these boring to watch as we've gone from an 90-minute ish film in the late 80's to over 130 in the 2020s.

How many kids are on the review sites or YouTube praising this digital, souless heap of a movie on the internet? Looks like mostly folks in their 20's, 30's and onward. Do they even have kids?
 

Toons

Member
But that silly song was only one criticism amoung plenty of others, such as the shit animation, ugly character designs, bloated length of the movie, and so forth.
The animations not bad at all imo. Rest of that stuff, sure.

Its a silly argument and we might as well dismiss any negative criticism from the reviewers since most of them are adults and "not their target audience".

no one said any criticism should be dismissed from the movie. But few people here were criticizing the actual movie, as another user pointed out.
Why does this movie needs protection from criticism unlike other Disney trash live action movies that came before it?

It doesn't. Disagreeing with criticism, or considering certain elements of that criticism disingenuous is something that happens for any movie. As does the criticism itself. Its not that deep lol
 

Toons

Member
They won't admit it.
Theres nothing to admit.

How many kids are on the review sites or YouTube praising this digital, souless heap of a movie on the internet? Looks like mostly folks in their 20's, 30's and onward. Do they even have kids?

You're kinda proving my point here. Why would Disney care about 29 year old YouTubers? That doesnt make em any money. In fact, Disney making movies they can criticize actually makes those youtubers money.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Theres nothing to admit.



You're kinda proving my point here. Why would Disney care about 29 year old YouTubers? That doesnt make em any money. In fact, Disney making movies they can criticize actually makes those youtubers money.
I don't think Disney cares if it's blue haired behemoths or neckbeards. They're desperate to hit multiple targets and break even on this. It just ain't gonna likely happen though.
 

Toons

Member
I don't think Disney cares if it's blue haired behemoths or neckbeards. They're desperate to hit multiple targets and break even on this. It just ain't gonna likely happen though.

We'll see. Alladin opened pretty bad but ended up somehow doing a billion dollars.

I never saw that one, but I've heard it was ok
 

yazenov

Gold Member
We'll see. Alladin opened pretty bad but ended up somehow doing a billion dollars.

I never saw that one, but I've heard it was ok

Aladdin grossed $356.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $695.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.051 billlion.

TLM will be lucky to even reach half of Aladdin's numbers given the abysmal international audience for this movie.
 
Last edited:

Toons

Member
Aladdin grossed $356.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $695.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.051.

TLM will be lucky to even reach half of Aladdin's numbers given the abysmal international audience for this movie.

That depends on if they come out for subsequent weekends. This ones gonna be much more domestic heavy but these aren't usually as frontloaded as marvel movies, and kids will be continuing to go as they release from school and whatnot.

Its definitely not going to hit alladin numbers.
 

AmuroChan

Member
That depends on if they come out for subsequent weekends. This ones gonna be much more domestic heavy but these aren't usually as frontloaded as marvel movies, and kids will be continuing to go as they release from school and whatnot.

Its definitely not going to hit alladin numbers.

TLM will face far tougher competition than Aladdin did though. Aladdin essentially had a whole month of little competition until Toy Story 4 came out four weeks later. The only other major movies that came in between were Godzilla: King of the Monsters, MIB International, and Dark Phoenix. Two of those were flops, and Godzilla only grossed $110m domestically in its entire run. Just in the next few weeks we have Across The Spider-verse, Elemental, Transformers, and Indiana Jones. All movies that appeal to the family audience. I know my kids are stoked for Spidey and Elemental.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Considering Pine wasn’t even in the movie, I’m going to throw out an estimate of 0 kids.

Season 2 Shrug GIF by The Office
That was an example. If you ask a kid what they thought of Berries' performance (or Pine if it were Mario), they'll likely ask, "who?" Hollywood doesn't cast in celebs for VA work to attract kiddies. That was my point. If Disney casted unknowns for this film...I'd be eager to see how that works out. Celebs voicing or playing Disney characters happened almost by accident with the OG Aladdin animation (example). Williams made the character and adults lauded him for it. The kids then, they didn't care who Robin Williams was. They wanted the funny blue man. Same today but it's a Mermaid and talking animals. The adults targeted (just one of many targets) wanted the celeb or to have nostalgia feels because the saw the OG LM decades prior.
We'll see. Alladin opened pretty bad but ended up somehow doing a billion dollars.

I never saw that one, but I've heard it was ok
That's fair. It hasn't been out long but even if those numbers hit; 30-years from today...which movie do you think most (if we're not all dead) are going to remember? The 89 film started Disney's Renaissance which is a legacy in film history. Where do modern Disney movies stand compared to that type of success?
 

Toons

Member
Best song in the movie



I hadn't seen the original in like 15 years, I forgot entirely about scuttle I only remembered flounder and sebatstian. I really enjoyed the character in this one, awkwafina does a good job playing confident goofballs, her delivery works for that sort of thing
 

Toons

Member
Alladin was decent, and one of the new songs (Speechless) was actually pretty good.

I actually don't know how I missed it, it kinda just came and went and it didn't seem like a lot of folks talked about it aside form will Smith as the genie. Maybe ill catch it on plus one of these days.
 
The only pro for me was the chemistry between the main two actually worked.

Cons are too long to list, the new songs were terrible and so generic it was like it was written by an AI trained on Lin-Manuel Miranda. CGI was rough in a lot of places, and the movie is just too damn long.
You hit every point that I had and said it better than I could. I also think the original was mid so this movie didn’t stand a chance with me. lol.
 

pel1300

Member
No, the movie has dolls and kids clothes associated with it, aimed at kids.

When I saw this, there were little girls in the theater, they idolized Ariel and wanted their picture taken next to the standee after we got our of the film.

That's who this movie is for. The adults can go back to the original, and if they want a different perspective on that story they can see this one.
lol how much is disney paying you?
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
When I was 16 I lost my virginity. I thought as a prelude to the night her and I should watch a film, she chose The Little Mermaid - the original as this was many years ago. We left it playing as we took each others innocence and came of age, then came again. To this day I'm unable to achieve orgasm without hearing Sebastian singing "Under the Sea".

mad mark wahlberg GIF
 

Fake

Member
lol @ the lame "It's not for you, it's for kids!" defense. Shills used to say that to defend shitty Star Wars movies. I remember shills saying it to defend the prequels and later the shitty sequel trilogy.

Disney remakes and sequels to classics are designed to attract Gen X and millennial parents who wanna relive their childhood. If you don't think this is part of their target audience, you're naive.

In fact saying 'is not for you, is for kids.' is the most stupid argument I've heard.

Someone here really believe that only a bunch of kids go watch the Mario movie? Or that Nintendo not hired some guy to make the movie appeal to family/adults as well?

My mother love the Despicable Me franchise. Never lose any of those movies.

I sure a hell of adults will gonna see the Barbie movie as well.
 
Last edited:

Marvel14

Banned
Bruh dawg you're asking a forum of (primarily) employed adults with families, full time work, etc to critically analyze the characterization, cinematic craft and thematic integrity
This is a discussion forum and each thread is for discussion so....not the extreme critical essays you're suggesting but yeah some substance ..

On the last paragraph: Only someone who has no belief in the words escaping their lips tries to label the freedom to speak an opinion as "censorship, just the other way," Have some backbone in your beliefs
You're complety misinterpreting my point . All the Little Mermaid threads have been either nuked or shut on GAF. I had to put in a disclaimer to stop people reverting to their usual woke/ anti woke talking points which would have shut the thread down just like most of the others.
 
Last edited:

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
lol @ the lame "It's not for you, it's for kids!" defense. Shills used to say that to defend shitty Star Wars movies. I remember shills saying it to defend the prequels and later the shitty sequel trilogy.

Disney remakes and sequels to classics are designed to attract Gen X and millennial parents who wanna relive their childhood. If you don't think this is part of their target audience, you're naive.

This is very clearly a kid's movie first. It's a coming of age tale about a singing mermaid and her talking fish friends.

As far as this supposed nostalgia factor goes, I don't personally know a single adult over the age of 25-or-so who watched a Disney animated film start to finish in their lives. Maybe this was a thing back in the 90's or even 2000's. At best we watched portions while our children watched it so we could have 30 minutes to cook dinner. I myself have seen about 75% of Aladdin, back when I was a child - never seen The Lion King or The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast (those were all of the other remakes I think?).

That said, if Disney or any other media company is chasing nostalgia, then cool. Target people who are now parents in their prime earning ages that can pass off these interests to their kids. I totally get that vibe from stuff like Hogwart's Legacy. But this? No man, this is just a kid's a movie. Which makes it all the more funny that some people are being agitated by it.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
https://deadline.com/2023/05/little-mermaid-box-office-profit-loss-halle-bailey-1235383099/

Again, the slowdown with Little Mermaid, despite a strong start stateside of $118.8M over the 4-day Memorial Day holiday (ahead of Aladdin‘s $116.8M) and a running total through yesterday of $130.2M, stems from the backlash the pic has received in certain offshore markets (i.e. Korea, China, France, Germany) over the casting of star Halle Bailey in the title role as well as review-bombing.

Oh, fuck off Deadline.

Maybe, just maybe, people just don't want to see another shat out Disney live action remake of a much better animated movie.
 

Doom85

Gold Member
As far as this supposed nostalgia factor goes, I don't personally know a single adult over the age of 25-or-so who watched a Disney animated film start to finish in their lives. Maybe this was a thing back in the 90's or even 2000's.

Disappointed King Of The Hill GIF


If anything, this is far MORE of a thing today. As generations go on, people are gradually maturing from this childish idea of animation being for kids.

And no, most of Disney‘s animated films can appeal to anyone. We’re not talking Blue’s Clues here. Now, some Disney animated films might focus a bit more for kids while still being able to appeal to adults and vice versa (kind of a world of difference between Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example), but ultimately most can be enjoyed by anyone.
 

That shit was fucking painful. I'm from Queens and Nora...stop. I have 5 year old twin girls and even they looked like someone pissed in their cereal during that disaster of a "song".

The film itself I thought was overlong, weirdly clinical and joyless. Girls were incredibly excited to see it and one of them full-on passed out somewhere in that tedious drag of a 2nd act. I don't know if the representation aspect registered on them, they might be too young. Sure, it's nice to see it but I'd love for it to be in a not-worse reboot at some point, that'd be fun.

I also thought the overall look was so bland compared to the original. The underwater scenes reminded me of comparing Symphony of the Night vs. Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. There's something inherently "cheap" looking about it but I have no idea what it is, no clue how that CGI works and all. The actors look completely separate from the videogame-y backgrounds to me, like they don't blend.

We just saw the Mario movie recently and it was a night and day difference in terms of a fun theater experience.
 

Toons

Member
lol how much is disney paying you?

I actually liked the movie, I have a reason to be here and share my opinion on it.

You and many others who make pointless comments like this do not. Are YOU being paid to not like the movie? A lot of you act like it's your job to not just make it clear you didn't but lampoon those who did. We even had a now banned user here saying he found it a personal duty to attack Disney films on NeoGaf to take them down somehow, so idk. Maybe that sentiment goes around.

Its a dumb sentiment though. If you didn't like it, great. If you liked it, great. But you're not really saying anything of worth with this tired "stance".

The movies decent. Nothing crazy but I was entertained. And no, I wasn't paid to say that!
 
Top Bottom