Disney's The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Daniel]

Part of Your World - reprise:



Nowhere near as magical as the original. Halle doesn't show much emotion and just looks stiff. Also looks like a stalker as she climbs the rock. Song was a bit exaggerated, and doesn't have one of the best parts of the original in showing her hair flow. Such a teeny splash. So much missed potential.

[ShyViolet]

Yes, she definitely does look like a stalker: especially when she sings: “Watch and you’ll see,” very aggressive look on her face! Just so utterly wrong. .

And the last note of “world”, is WAY too high and has absolutely NO emotional depth to it.

[Ben]

Because she’s just *singing* these songs, she isn’t *acting* them.

[Farerb]

[Daniel]

Eh, no real loss.

[Daniel]

Vanessa's song:



Not too bad, (red remark aside) but a shame they swapped out the lyrics for just humming. Not as iconic.

[Ben]

Not as iconic!? That’s rubbish! Whole point of this reprise was to state Ursula's intentions now that she’s met Eric and wants him or herself (or at least to humiliate him).

Just "ahh ahh ahh ahhh"-ing Ariel's bit and then "la la la lah"-ing the lyric part doesn’t give us anything and may as well not be there! Gawd, the more I see of this thing, the more it keeps on giving…by taking soooo much away.

[Dacey]

Weirdly I wasn’t sure if that’s Halle’s voice used for that part in the theater? And I’m still not, really. Was there concern over a “black voice” coming out of a white person? I’m so confused.

[Bill1978]

Not as iconic!? That’s rubbish! Whole point of this reprise was to state Ursula's intentions now that she’s met Eric and wants him or herself (or at least to humiliate him).

Just "ahh ahh ahh ahhh"-ing Ariel's bit and then "la la la lah"-ing the lyric part doesn’t give us anything and may as well not be there! Gawd, the more I see of this thing, the more it keeps on giving…by taking soooo much away.

So now wouldn't be the best time to tell you that Eric no longer says 'I lost her once Grimsby, I'm not going to lose her again'? He just runs off-screen in pursuit of Ursula.

The funny thing is, that I didn't even recall that line until I was watching this movie, the scene arrived and I instinctively said the line in my head and then was disappointed that Eric never said it. For all the talk of how this version develops Eric's character better, the removal of this line turns Eric from a man doing whatever it takes to save the person he is in love with to just your stock standard male feeling the need to save a woman because society expects it.

[Ben]

The pretty much only reason I’ll be seeing this eventually is because I’m now intrigued as to how Rob Marshall could have fudged this up quite *so* badly, and where almost a full hour of extra, talky content comes from and what it contains!

[Bill1978]

I walked out of my viewing wondering how a director who was been nominated for a variety of directing awards linked to musicals (especially film musicals) completely stuffed up filming the musical numbers in this film. Most are void of energy and fun.

Halle's tone and facial expressions in Part of Your World convey anger and frustration more than wonder and hope. The less said about her creep crawl in the reprise the better. The lack of linking the visuals to the lyrics performed in Under The Sea is unforgiveable. Wild Uncharted Waters is staged like a Troy Bolton number from High School Musical. Kiss The Girl lacks any buildup of romance, Scuttlebutt (already bad) is made worse with its presentation. And honestly, Ariel's new song could have been cut and nothing would be lost but the 30 minutes screen time dedicated to it (that's how long it felt)

For someone who has worked extensively in musicals, the rearrangement of the songs in the movie makes no sense - moving Fathoms Below and deleting Daughters of Triton results in exposition dumps of information to set up plot that these songs told. Ursula's song is probably presented the best, but even that lacks the fun and energy of the original. And the removal of Les Poisson results in the screenwriters having to jump through stupid hoops to get Sebastian where he needs to be for that moment in the movie.

And if anyone can explain what Rob was thinking when he chose the final shot for his movie, I would love to hear it. Cause it is an absolute bonkers decision.

In terms of the Menken live action adaptations, this falls in the middle of the three.

The one positive I can find with the Menken adaptations, is that it is nice that the love interests finally got their own song for the movie versions.

[Farerb]

So for you it's:
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Aladdin
?

Also didn't you think that the way the main title was revealed was completely underwhelming compared to the original?

[Bill1978]

Aladdin is first. I refuse to name the third movie because I dislike it that much.

I don't recall saying anything about the main title and now that I think of it, I can't even remember the main title being revealed haha.

[Ben]

Yeah, when Bill said "middle" I knew B&TB would be the bottom one! Already without seeing it, Mermaid takes that bottom "honour" for me, just based on Marshall's misdirection and Bailey's angry rather than wonder (perfect descriptions) performance.

[Randall]

I really look forward to seeing TLM now, just to decide if I like it more or less than BATB. But really, it's hard for me to imagine liking a movie less than BATB!

So ironic that the live action versions tend to suck the life out of the stories and the music.