May 30th
1989's Disney's The Little Mermaid started what is called The Disney's Renaissance, starting from that film and ending with 1999's Tarzan. Most of the Disney films that came out in theaters during that time were all masterpieces. Fast forward to the 2010s and the 2020s with the remake/reboot era. Disney has been making remake after remake of their animated films, the latest being, well, The Little Mermaid.
Like all of the remakes, they stay true to the Disney movies of the same names with added content here and there sprinkled throughout. The Little Mermaid is no exception.
They added a few new songs. And the new songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda! Eric now has an 'I want' song, and Scuttle, who is a girl and is a different seabird in this, gets a song! Ariel gets a song when she's mute, so it's in her inner thoughts. The actress for Ariel, Halle Bailey, has a lovely singing voice! I think I could just listen to her rendition of 'Part of your World' for hours! Maybe I will, just to spite the Smiths. Ha!
Speaking of Halle Bailey, if you know, there was some hate towards them for casting an African-American actress for Ariel when she seemed white in the original, and to that I say, who cares? It's how the actress portrays the character that matters, not her skin color! At least, not for this character. Even the OG Ariel, Jodi Benson, agrees! They had a black Annie in Annie, twice! They had a black Cinderella, a black Dorthy Gale, and even an all black Wizard of Oz! So if all of them can be black, why not Ariel? People whine about nothing at times! Like Ariel sang in Part of Your World, 'no big deal.'
The designs of Flounder and Sebastian may be a little off-putting, and like Scuttle, Flounder is a different fish. He's still not a flounder, despite his name, but he wasn't really a flounder in the first one either. Oh, and Max isn't really a sheepdog anymore.
Chef Louis isn't in this film to harass Sebestian, so don't expect to see him or hear his song. I don't want to give too much away, so that's all I'll say about the changes (besides the songs and the different kinds of animals). Oh, and look out for the special cameo in this film!
Ja, I'm getting pretty tired of these remakes and just want more original story ideas from Disney, but this was a pretty good remake I must admit. And unfortunately, I don't see Disney's obsession with remakes going away any time soon. They're even making a Moana remake, and that only came out in 2016, not even ten years old yet!
So, if you like being part of Ariel's world again, this film will be fine (if you're not creeped out by Sebastian and Flounder too much). I liked being part of Ariel's world as well as the original. I didn't need to be part of this Ariel's world, but I also don't regret being part of it, and you might not regret it either.