A guest movie review from DJ Dycus Last week my wife and I took the kids to see The Little Mermaid. For the last couple of years Disney’s choice to cast a young, Black actor as the lead has created a furor, of course – no one could have missed the weeks and months of discussions, arguments, and debates. I can’t imagine setting out to adapt a Disney classic, but the director is Rob Marshall who is known for such great movies as Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Into the Woods (2014), and Chicago (2002). He also directed one of the movies in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2011), so he is no stranger to big-budget, special-effects extravaganzas. |
First and foremost, I was stunned at the capability of rendering this largely-under-water story as a live-action remake. I love movies, and I’m fascinated by special effects, which did not serve me well: I had a hard time losing myself in the magic of the story and not trying to figure out how they had done what they did. Ideally, I want to be immersed in the story, but the adaptation is such a remarkable accomplishment that I had a hard time letting go of that train of thought. Just know: Disney did a remarkable job blending actors with animation and creating the impression of being underwater.
Moving on, the writers made several interesting changes that I found effective. (We’re all familiar with the story of the 1989 version, but if you’d rather wait to see for yourself, you can skip the numbered portions.)
1) In this adaptation Eric’s mother is a character, The Queen. This addition creates a nice symmetry since Ariel only has a father, and Eric only has a mother. Because of the shipwreck the Queen is confining Eric to the castle, so both he and Ariel feel restrained by their parents.
2) Ariel and Eric spend a good bit more time on land, which makes sense for a live-action version. Ariel has a chance to drive a horse-and-carriage in her wild and reckless way, ending up at a marketplace filled with exotic products and people.
3) In the boating scene with Eric and Ariel, the lyrics to “Kiss the Girl” have been slightly altered for a post-MeToo world:
4) Toward the end of the movie, once Ursula has created the whirlpool it is Ariel who rams the ship into the villain, rather than Eric. This change also works well in a more enlightened time when damsels don’t need a knight in shining armor to rescue them – in this version Ariel is capable of handling villains on her own.
5) This isn’t news, but the cast is very diverse. Spanish actor Javier Bardem portrays King Triton. Actors from a wide range of countries and ethnicities play the roles of his daughters, who represent the Seven Seas of the world: the UK, Spain/Colombia, Poland/Laos, Sweden, India, Barbados/Grenada. Noma Dumezweni, from Swaziland, portrays Eric’s mother (it’s explained in the movie that he had been adopted as an infant. And Pakistani actor Art Malik plays Sir Grimsby.
In this newly re-imagined The Little Mermaid, Disney has been true to its decades-long mission, which is to create a fun-filled story of make-believe. This live-action remake is captivating. It is beautiful, scary, and awe-inspiring – in all of the right ways and places.
But besides entertaining audiences, Disney has also accomplished even more admirable goals. By no means would I identify this movie as “high art,” but one of the characteristics of that label is a work that challenges our assumptions and expectations, and The Little Mermaid does just that. There’s no point in remaking a movie if it looks just like the original. For example, in music no one can ever again be Ray Charles, or Kurt Cobain, or John Lennon, or Prince - even if someone can play and sing in one of those styles, one can’t build a career on something that has already been done. In this movie, Disney has made something different that, at the same time, is familiar - an effective mix of old and new.
Even more importantly, Disney has remade this movie in such a way as to make everyone feel included. Until the 19th century, the vast majority of stories were written by men, about men, from a masculine point of view. It has only been in the last couple of centuries that women have had the opportunity to write more broadly in the public domain, which has resulted in stories that capture a broader range of human experience. And this goes for race and ethnicity as well, of course. Although I’m suspicious of any media conglomeration, I respect Disney’s firm stance on recognizing and respecting the diverse nature of the global community. But not only has Disney established itself as an advocate of 21st-century values, it also remains true to its roots as a purveyor of wonder and magic.
Moving on, the writers made several interesting changes that I found effective. (We’re all familiar with the story of the 1989 version, but if you’d rather wait to see for yourself, you can skip the numbered portions.)
1) In this adaptation Eric’s mother is a character, The Queen. This addition creates a nice symmetry since Ariel only has a father, and Eric only has a mother. Because of the shipwreck the Queen is confining Eric to the castle, so both he and Ariel feel restrained by their parents.
2) Ariel and Eric spend a good bit more time on land, which makes sense for a live-action version. Ariel has a chance to drive a horse-and-carriage in her wild and reckless way, ending up at a marketplace filled with exotic products and people.
3) In the boating scene with Eric and Ariel, the lyrics to “Kiss the Girl” have been slightly altered for a post-MeToo world:
- original: “it don’t take a word, not a single word, go on and kiss the girl”
- new: “use your words boy, and ask her, if the time is right, and the time is tonight, go on and kiss the girl”
4) Toward the end of the movie, once Ursula has created the whirlpool it is Ariel who rams the ship into the villain, rather than Eric. This change also works well in a more enlightened time when damsels don’t need a knight in shining armor to rescue them – in this version Ariel is capable of handling villains on her own.
5) This isn’t news, but the cast is very diverse. Spanish actor Javier Bardem portrays King Triton. Actors from a wide range of countries and ethnicities play the roles of his daughters, who represent the Seven Seas of the world: the UK, Spain/Colombia, Poland/Laos, Sweden, India, Barbados/Grenada. Noma Dumezweni, from Swaziland, portrays Eric’s mother (it’s explained in the movie that he had been adopted as an infant. And Pakistani actor Art Malik plays Sir Grimsby.
In this newly re-imagined The Little Mermaid, Disney has been true to its decades-long mission, which is to create a fun-filled story of make-believe. This live-action remake is captivating. It is beautiful, scary, and awe-inspiring – in all of the right ways and places.
But besides entertaining audiences, Disney has also accomplished even more admirable goals. By no means would I identify this movie as “high art,” but one of the characteristics of that label is a work that challenges our assumptions and expectations, and The Little Mermaid does just that. There’s no point in remaking a movie if it looks just like the original. For example, in music no one can ever again be Ray Charles, or Kurt Cobain, or John Lennon, or Prince - even if someone can play and sing in one of those styles, one can’t build a career on something that has already been done. In this movie, Disney has made something different that, at the same time, is familiar - an effective mix of old and new.
Even more importantly, Disney has remade this movie in such a way as to make everyone feel included. Until the 19th century, the vast majority of stories were written by men, about men, from a masculine point of view. It has only been in the last couple of centuries that women have had the opportunity to write more broadly in the public domain, which has resulted in stories that capture a broader range of human experience. And this goes for race and ethnicity as well, of course. Although I’m suspicious of any media conglomeration, I respect Disney’s firm stance on recognizing and respecting the diverse nature of the global community. But not only has Disney established itself as an advocate of 21st-century values, it also remains true to its roots as a purveyor of wonder and magic.