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:
- Halle Bailey is excellent...she embodies the character and her singing is fantastic. She's supercute too.
- Bloke who plays Eric is great: believable and relatable.
- 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.
- Loved Javier Bardem's journey of paternal wisdom and how loss in the father daughter relationship is handled.
- 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.
- 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!
- Ursula is fine and her alter ego at the end is good too.
- The aquatic supporting characters all are good..they look realistic but it doesn't detract from their likeability too much.
- Love the message of togetherness and cooperation between different worlds- its the kind of sentiment the world needs right now.
- Classic songs all very enjoyable updated takes.
- New rap between Scuttle and Sebastian is fun and works!
- Underwater world is believable and additional scenes in the surface world work fine too.
Cons:
- 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.
- 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.
- Film drags a bit in places but nothing too onerous or off putting.
- Scuttle's famous punk rock contribution to Kiss the Girl RIP.
- 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.