The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Disney's Divinity]

I like that poster better than the standard cover of the home media release. /sigh Why wouldn't they have used that instead? That said, the pose particularly of Ariel at the top gives me the same Star Wars vibe many / most Disney posters have the last few years.

[The_Iceflash]

I think if this film did anything it made me appreciate the original more. I always thought Ariel was an entitled, selfish brat and a poor role model for young girls. I still feel that way but it is a very well crafted film with fantastic songs, The live action remake’s strengths was the story and songs of the original film. It didn’t have its own strengths independent of that.

The biggest problem with the film is that I feel that fans of the original film were cheated in getting the film they always envisioned in a live action Little Mermaid film. It was not the film they wanted. Ariel wasn’t the Ariel they expected to see on screen. To me it didn’t even feel like it was Ariel. People like to say that’s racist but we all know die-hard Little Mermaid fans who were disappointed that their Ariel wasn’t what they saw. It doesn’t make them racist. It’s been said in length in this thread the other aspects of the film that they didn’t want or changes made. If these live action remakes are not the films that the fans of the films want, then what is the purpose of them? I don’t think this film was fair to fans of the original and fans of the new one need to understand that fans of the original have a right to take issue with it without being accused of racism.

[Disney Duster]

Very well said, Iceflash.

[UmbrellaFish]

The biggest problem with the film is that I feel that fans of the original film were cheated in getting the film they always envisioned in a live action Little Mermaid film. It was not the film they wanted. Ariel wasn’t the Ariel they expected to see on screen. To me it didn’t even feel like it was Ariel. People like to say that’s racist but we all know die-hard Little Mermaid fans who were disappointed that their Ariel wasn’t what they saw. It doesn’t make them racist. It’s been said in length in this thread the other aspects of the film that they didn’t want or changes made. If these live action remakes are not the films that the fans of the films want, then what is the purpose of them? I don’t think this film was fair to fans of the original and fans of the new one need to understand that fans of the original have a right to take issue with it without being accused of racism.

No, please don’t put that on us. I know of many huge 1989 Ariel fans who loved and embraced Halle Bailey as 2023 Ariel. I mean… seriously? I’m so over this argument. Why would OG fans be more upset about Halle Bailey’s skin color than the fact Emma Watson couldn’t sing???

[Lele]

There is no 1989 or 2023 Ariel. There is just one Ariel.

[Lele]

And tbh, I didn't see her in the live action.

[Sotiris]

Why would OG fans be more upset about Halle Bailey’s skin color than the fact Emma Watson couldn’t sing???

A lot of fans were upset by both. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Personally, I find the only princess who was cast right in the remakes to be Jasmine.

[The_Iceflash]

The biggest problem with the film is that I feel that fans of the original film were cheated in getting the film they always envisioned in a live action Little Mermaid film. It was not the film they wanted. Ariel wasn’t the Ariel they expected to see on screen. To me it didn’t even feel like it was Ariel. People like to say that’s racist but we all know die-hard Little Mermaid fans who were disappointed that their Ariel wasn’t what they saw. It doesn’t make them racist. It’s been said in length in this thread the other aspects of the film that they didn’t want or changes made. If these live action remakes are not the films that the fans of the films want, then what is the purpose of them? I don’t think this film was fair to fans of the original and fans of the new one need to understand that fans of the original have a right to take issue with it without being accused of racism.

No, please don’t put that on us. I know of many huge 1989 Ariel fans who loved and embraced Halle Bailey as 2023 Ariel. I mean… seriously? I’m so over this argument. Why would OG fans be more upset about Halle Bailey’s skin color than the fact Emma Watson couldn’t sing???

Whataboutism logical fallacy here but I’ll entertain your point. I find it deplorable that they would hire an actress for a singing role who can’t sing. That means they hired someone not qualified for the role. That’s a major problem but unrelated and different to the Little Mermaid complaints. Movies are a visual medium first. That means people are willing to overlook audio and sound discrepancies more than they ever will visual ones. Emma Watson still looked closer to the original Belle than Halle did Ariel. I’m sure there were plenty who overlooked the singing for that reason. Yet, there was a lot plenty of criticism about both so your “whataboutism” doesn’t really hold up.

[UmbrellaFish]

Why would OG fans be more upset about Halle Bailey’s skin color than the fact Emma Watson couldn’t sing???

A lot of fans were upset by both. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Personally, I find the only princess who was cast right in the remakes to be Jasmine.

I admit my phrasing was clumsy. What I meant to articulate is that to my mind, the 2023 Ariel is a lot more faithful to the 1989 Ariel than casting a non-singing Emma Watson as Belle. A badly sung Ariel would have been unwatchable to me.

I think when people say “the movie didn’t look like the original” but they don’t say that about Cinderella (Lady Tremaine, the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella’s hair styles and costumes) and Beauty and the Beast (the Enchanted Objects, the desecration of the ball gown, Belle’s hairstyles) we have to take a step back.

For example, I’ve never got why people don’t complain about “accent swapping.” Ilene Woods and Paige O’Hara used American accents, Lily James and Emma Watson did not. Should it be a big deal they changed it? No, I don’t think so. So why is Halle’s skin color a big deal? I don’t get it.

[The_Iceflash]

A lot of fans were upset by both. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Personally, I find the only princess who was cast right in the remakes to be Jasmine.

I admit my phrasing was clumsy. What I meant to articulate is that to my mind, the 2023 Ariel is a lot more faithful to the 1989 Ariel than casting a non-singing Emma Watson as Belle. A badly sung Ariel would have been unwatchable to me.

I think when people say “the movie didn’t look like the original” but they don’t say that about Cinderella (Lady Tremaine, the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella’s hair styles and costumes) and Beauty and the Beast (the Enchanted Objects, the desecration of the ball gown, Belle’s hairstyles) we have to take a step back.

For example, I’ve never got why people don’t complain about “accent swapping.” Ilene Woods and Paige O’Hara used American accents, Lily James and Emma Watson did not. Should it be a big deal they changed it? No, I don’t think so. So why is Halle’s skin color a big deal? I don’t get it.

People care more about how the lead character looks compared to the supporting characters. I guarantee if the live action Cinderella looked like Merida there would have criticism. Ariel from the beginning has had a very distinctive look. Changing that is only going to ask for criticism. Visual changes are going get criticized way more that auditory ones. Most people aren’t even going to notice auditory changes let alone complain about them. Movies and a visual medium and most people are visual rather than auditory. It’s almost convenient that they changed her skin color for whatever motive they had because it’s an easy counter argument to call someone racist who doesn’t agree with it.

[UmbrellaFish]

But they are different, too. Compare Cinderella and Belle’s costumes and hairstyles to the originals. People judged those changes on their own merits. 2015 Cinderella’s ballgown and hair is pretty popular despite how different it is from the animated movie.

[The_Iceflash]

But they are different, too. Compare Cinderella and Belle’s costumes and hairstyles to the originals. People judged those changes on their own merits. 2015 Cinderella’s ballgown and hair is pretty popular despite how different it is from the animated movie.

But Cinderella and Belle were still identifiably Cinderella and Belle. Show anyone 5 years ago a photo of the live action Ariel and no one would identify her as Ariel. That’s the problem. The fact is too that Ariel’s appearance is more strikingly more distinctive than Cinderella or Belle regardless of what she’s wearing. Cinderella and Belle’s distinctive appearance is outfit dependent.

[The_Iceflash]

Why would OG fans be more upset about Halle Bailey’s skin color than the fact Emma Watson couldn’t sing???

A lot of fans were upset by both. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Personally, I find the only princess who was cast right in the remakes to be Jasmine.

At least Emma Watson actually looked like Belle though. That’s what UmbrellaFish is missing here. I do like the Jasmine casting.

[UmbrellaFish]

But they are different, too. Compare Cinderella and Belle’s costumes and hairstyles to the originals. People judged those changes on their own merits. 2015 Cinderella’s ballgown and hair is pretty popular despite how different it is from the animated movie.

But Cinderella and Belle were still identifiably Cinderella and Belle. Show anyone 5 years ago a photo of the live action Ariel and no one would identify her as Ariel. That’s the problem. The fact is too that Ariel’s appearance is more strikingly more distinctive than Cinderella or Belle regardless of what she’s wearing. Cinderella and Belle’s distinctive appearance is outfit dependent.

I disagree. Ariel’s iconic and recognizable color palette is red, purple, green. The 2023 movie carries that over. Yes, there are some extra details as has been done in all the other remakes, but Halle has red hair, a purple top, and a green tail. I mean, if a black woman in 2018 dressed up in a homemade Ariel costume, would you not recognize her based on that color palette?

[Disney's Divinity]

I never thought the remake Cinderella looked like Cinderella... Mostly the dress (more important with Cinderella because she has the quintessential princess dress to me) and her having none of the personality Ilene Woods did, but even the way her hair is long, whereas the animated character always has her hair up to look even shorter than it actually is. What's funny is they sort of swapped colors between her and the Fairy Godmother in that scene; HBC and even Madden are wearing colors that are white or silver whereas Cinderella is wearing the bright blue that the Godmother wore in the animated film (that color change may be why the carriage was gold, too, they didn't want the carriage to be silver because it would make the dress even more noticeably the wrong color--they wanted the dress to be the color of the hi-bright blue of the Disney Princess line clipart of the time rather than the silver of the original). I thought Blanchett had the elegant, dignified quality of Tremaine on paper, but the character in the remake was histrionic and volatile--more like the Queen than Tremaine to me. Tremaine has an icy exterior later copied in Maleficent, whereas the remake stepmother wears all the emotions on her sleeve. In comparison, McCarthy looked less like Ursula as far as age (and, honestly, a little too pretty), but thankfully the film/script depicts Ursula AS Ursula rather than a Tremaine that acts like The Evil Queen or a Cruella than acts like Tremaine/Maleficent.

As for Emma Watson, I thought she was the perfect Belle because she has brown hair and the whole bookish, smart girl kind of look (the same vibe Anne Hathaway had when she first started). Who cares if she sings great, that's what autotune is for and live-action musicals always rely on auto tune more than animated musicals do. The only solo Belle even has is the shortest song in the movie, and not a vocal showoff either.

Halle Bailey does sing better than Emma Watson, but she doesn't sound like Ariel either. Ariel had a very theatrical voice. Halle sounds like what she is, a pop star. Naomi Scott is the only cast they've had so far that was good at bringing the emotion out when she sings to me. Thankfully, Halle is a decent actress and the script mostly depicts Ariel with the same personality, so the film is still good. That said, they were never going to get out from under the fact that Ariel didn't look like Ariel when trying to get people into theaters for the movie. It would've made more sense to racebend Belle actually (in retrospect, but I know the whole fad of looking for characters to racebend only started recently, not then) since she's a brunette, but I'm still glad we got Watson in the role.

[Disney Duster]

I thought since 2015's Cinderella was more an adaptation of the fairy tale than a super faithful remake, the differences in visuals were more acceptable. By the way, the pumpkin coach is gold in the fairy tale, hence why it was gold in the 2015 film.

Admittedly Belle's gold ball gown was not faithful like it should be since the rest if the film was so faithful, but, look, so many people did complain about that! I mean, yeah, more about it looking ugly than that it wasn't faithful, but still, it got complaints.

And now, racebent Ariel is getting complaints because she was in one of the more faithful remakes.

[Thumper_93]

But Cinderella and Belle were still identifiably Cinderella and Belle. Show anyone 5 years ago a photo of the live action Ariel and no one would identify her as Ariel. That’s the problem. The fact is too that Ariel’s appearance is more strikingly more distinctive than Cinderella or Belle regardless of what she’s wearing. Cinderella and Belle’s distinctive appearance is outfit dependent.

I disagree. Ariel’s iconic and recognizable color palette is red, purple, green. The 2023 movie carries that over. Yes, there are some extra details as has been done in all the other remakes, but Halle has red hair, a purple top, and a green tail. I mean, if a black woman in 2018 dressed up in a homemade Ariel costume, would you not recognize her based on that color palette?

Ariel doesn’t have anything red in this movie
Her hair in the live action is orange. Yes, it looked more natural but this hair didn’t look like Ariel’s.
Her tail was stunning but the top was weird and the purple was’t so bright as it should. Even the form was weird. It looked really poor.

[Disney Duster]

No real person has hair that is actually the color red. Real red hair is reddish orange.

[Thumper_93]

We are talking about mermaids and not about real people so they could have used all the colors that they wanted because they don't exist. One of Ariel's sister has pink hair and in real life this color is not natural.
Halle looked great in the movie but she doesn't have anything that rememeber to the original Ariel, not even the bra. She's a generic mermaid with less design than her sisters who looked way better than her.

[Patricier21]

We are talking about mermaids and not about real people so they could have used all the colors that they wanted because they don't exist. One of Ariel's sister has pink hair and in real life this color is not natural.
Halle looked great in the movie but she doesn't have anything that rememeber to the original Ariel, not even the bra. She's a generic mermaid with less design than her sisters who looked way better than her.

I’d say she looks pretty good, not really generic especially by her tail whatever her design is, it’s meant to emphasize that she is the main central mermaid, after all it’s called the LITTLE Mermaid after all, and she’s not tiny, she is the youngest and this helps her stand out, EH?