Disney’s live -action film, The Little Mermaid came out May 26, 2023 with direction from Rob Marshall and was also recently released on Disney+ on September 6, 2023. Despite some initial controversy, the new Little Mermaid is just as good as the original.
When Disney first announced the release of The Little Mermaid, there was controversy on social media platforms around the casting of lead character Ariel being played by Halle Bailey because of the actress’ complexion. Some skeptics believed that Ariel should have been played by a white woman because that’s how she was depicted in 1989’s The Little Mermaid. Despite all of this controversy, Halle played Ariel like no other could.
[As a disclaimer: One of my favorite Disney Princesses growing up was Ariel, and when I learned that Ariel was being played by a Black woman, I was so excited to see the new movie.]
The Little Mermaid starts out the same as the original: Ariel is always wandering around the ocean and exploring the surface. She falls in love with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-Kingand) and wishes to become a human. Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), the witch of the ocean, finds Ariel and gives her a deal but with a price.
The Little Mermaid takes place in the Caribbean Ocean so appropriately, the visuals of the CGI ocean– the fish, the marine life, …everything looks so colorful and appealing to the eye.
Along with the strong visuals, we have a successful musical portion of the movie where we hear famous songs like “ Under the Sea” and “A Part of Your World.”
When I heard “A part of your world,” sung by Halle Bailey, I got emotional because it reminded me of a part of my childhood when I would rewatch The Little Mermaid over and over again and sing that song. Back then, it didn’t occur to me that we could ever have a Black Ariel. Now that Disney has casted a Ariel that looks more like me, it brings my inner child out more than ever. I imagine how little Giselle would’ve reacted seeing a Black woman play Ariel and how excited and included it would’ve made her feel.
Although I’m older now, this movie still affects me as if I was still a young child. I know this movie has so much impact on the younger Black generation because this shows them that anything is possible.
My one and only dislike about this movie is how long it is. This movie is 2 hours and 15 minutes compared to the animated one, which was only 83 minutes. For those of us concerned about falling asleep watching longer movies, don’t worry! This movie is so good, it kept me engaged all 2 hours and 15 minutes.
With the longer run-time, we get to see the storyline of when Ariel and Prince Eric go back to his kingdom, and Ariel’s struggles of being a new human, the difficulty of walking, and her struggles to communicate without her voice. We also get to see longer coverage of Ursula in human form and the confrontation between her and Ariel in front of the kingdom.
I didn’t find that these added scenes were relevant to the story, but they did build onto the plot well and made this movie amazing.
In all, I would give this movie a 8/10. The visuals, music, and diversity on display is beautiful and rewarding for kids of all ages. This is such a great movie for representation and extremely powerful to the younger generation. This is a must watch movie!
