Show Notes
Come explore the new little mermaid with me as we discuss many of the controversial details that are part of it.
I stand by my stance as #NotMyAriel but not for the reasons you might think... Check it out and let me know what you think.
Transcription:
Hello and welcome back to another movie, deputy Movie Review of the 2023 movie, the Little Mermaid. It is a complete reboot of the original Little Mermaid, which was made in 1989. It was a cartoon. This is the live action version, and we're gonna go a little deeper on this one than we typically do with some movies because I am going to openly admit before I even get into this here, and please listen through the, the rest of the show because I know this is gonna be a very controversial topic, but I am on the whole bandwagon of hashtag not my aerial. And let me explain why. Now, in the first movie, Triton is Ariel's dad, and he has this, he has his daughters, all seven daughters. Let me look at their names real quick here. I should have done that just from memory, so I apologize. But in the original, the daughters were a Tina, Alana, Adela, AOTA, Arista, Andrena, and Ariel. In this one, his daughters are Perla and Dira, Karina, Cassia, Mala, Tamika, and Al Ariel. Now, unless he's got, unless these are like seven more daughters or something like that, seems to me like he would have 13 kids concerning you've got an aerial in each one of 'em instead of just the seven that they're kind of talking about on that. So, okay, for just, that's just for starters, but also, I mean, if they're really gonna go deep dive into this whole live action thing, as much as they're going into Triton is one of Poseidon's kids. Now Poseidon, depending on what re resource you look it up, there are references to there being seven children of Poseidon. There's also references to there being 22 children of Poseidon. Now, I'm not gonna bore you with the whole Greek mythology of all of that. It's kind of an interesting rabbit hole to go down if it's something that you wanna maybe look up yourself. It doesn't really add or take away anything from the movie. But let me explain why I'm even bringing that up. I'm bringing that up because the way that they have changed this movie in so many ways, it almost would've made more sense to have one of Tritons siblings have a child that was a mermaid and kind of have it go along the that pathway rather than trying to completely remake and change the original aerial. Now, mind you, Ariel is a very beloved character, and the actress, Halle Bailey, that they chose to play her did a beautiful job. I even have to admit, there are some songs that she does better than Jodi Benson and vice versa. There's some songs that are better in the first, Jodi Benson was the original voice of Ariel back in 1989.
Speaker 0 00:02:47 And normally, I don't get this technical into this one, but Disney really was trying to push the boundaries with the whole realism of this one. I mean, like Sebastian's this fun-loving little red crab in the cartoon. And this one, he, I don't know what type of crab he's supposed to be, but he's kind of creepy looking flounder. Is this yellow and blue? Just kind of a fun loving fish if you haven't seen it yet. Just Google flounder in the Little Mermaid. And I'm not sure what abomination to the ocean that this creature is, but it definitely is a flounder. And don't even get me started with some of the other characters and stuff that they really took that too far with this is, that's not even getting into the whole thing of Triton is supposed to be the ruler of the murder kingdom. The kingdom that we see in this new movie is, oh, it's not even a kingdom. I mean, it's just a few spires that just kinda look like up the aides go down from the bottom of stag mites come up from the bo. Okay, so the, they basically look stag mites. I was trying to remember which ones like the ones go down from the top, the ones grow up from the bottom. So I was just trying to do that from memory on that, but it doesn't even look like a kingdom. Like there's nothing really around him to celebrate. In the first one. They talk about Ursula, she's the sea witch. Ursula is in this one too, but I mean, if they're really going for the whole realism angle, Ursula was not a child of Poseidon in the original movie is Ursula and Triton are brother and sister. So I, I, like I said, this is just a part of the story so far.
Speaker 0 00:04:13 And then there's, there's another big part of this movie that just bothers me. The color honestly has nothing to do with it. I don't really care about that, the whole kind of deal with all that. I care how much they change the story and the original story, the whole thing kind of takes place in the whole Mediterranean area, area and the new one, it's all taking place in the Caribbean. Now you're gonna, you're probably saying is this really a big deal? But it completely changes the story and how it kind of plays out, just kind of how everybody interacts and the experience that the experiences that they have. And then of course, cancel culture nowadays had Disney going back there. It's like, oh, we've gotta change the words to some of these songs because we can't appear to that culture. Well, guess what? It's Ariel's the one that's pursuing him in order to keep her legs.
Speaker 0 00:05:00 If you know the story at all, if you've ever seen the original born of King Trenton's daughters, Ariel Falls in love with a human, saves him, and he ends up falling in love with her. She falls in love with him, but then she wants to go on land to be with him. And so she trades her voice for her legs and the whole thing of how she gets to back up on land. Now she has to convince him to fall in love with her, but she's the one pursuing him. And so why did we have to change Kiss The Girl to Ask the Girl? Because he's not the one pursuing her for a kiss. It's fi I mean, it's, it's backwards. And there's, there's a few other pieces in that that they changed the story. The basic part of it's like, okay, yeah, she falls in love. She gets, she has to get legs and then she has to get ch Love's Kiss within a period of time to keep her legs. That part of the story is the same, but everything else is just, ugh, . I went to watch this in the theater. I had gotten this, I'd, the screener and everything that I had gotten, but I wanted to see kind of what else had been changed and what else had been done to it. And I went to watch this and I just, I could not get into it. Like I said, Halle Bailey does a beautiful job. She's got an amazing voice and everything, and she, she plays the character really well. Sorry, I'm arguing with some of my cats. They are just being obnoxious tonight. , I've actually got five cats, so, and I've got four of them in here with me at the moment. But , sorry for getting off track there, but yeah, it's just her version of Ariel in this movie, the live action version. She's very soft spoken. She's very sweet. She doesn't like to do things that are that outside of the norm. She wants to keep her father happy.
And there's ju it's just, it's missing that angst. It's missing the attitude. It's missing the, uh, I don't even know what to call it, . It just doesn't have the same oomph that the original one has. It doesn't, it doesn't draw you in the same way. You don't get caught up in it the same way. Not mind you, there's gonna be a lot of people disagreeing with me for this same reason, but the, like I said, if they really wanted to make this a big deal and make this all, make all of these changes, just, I mean, have it be another mermaid. I mean, Royal Kingdom Under the Sea. I don't understand why that was such a big deal. And everybody's like, oh, you just don't like it cuz she is black. I really don't care. I care the fact that they changed that much of the story.
Now, mind you, at the same time, I mean, imagine the outrage. If Disney made a remake of a movie in 10, 15 more years and made Tiana blonde hair and blue eye, then who would be having the conniption fit? I mean, , I just, I just think the whole thing is just, it's silly, it's outrageous. It's unnecessary. Now you're probably wondering with all of this, what I gave the New Little Mermaid as a score. Before I get into that, I do wanna also discuss that I am barking the Little Mermaid, this version of it as guilty. Mind you, my rating is Innocent is safe for 12 and below. Guilty is recommended for 13 and above. There are some scenes in this live action version of The Little Mermaid that are intense. I mean, if this movie came out 20, 30 years ago, this movie would likely have a PG 13 rating.
And not because of any of the language, but just because of the intensity of some of the scenes that are involved. When I went to see this in the theater, there were two families with small children, and both of the small children were crying uncontrollably after the first scary scene. And the parents had to get up and leave, if that tells you anything. Uh, the children were probably between six and eight years old that they had had in the theater. But yeah, this, I would not, I definitely would not say that this is a kid friendly movie or if this is a movie, you wanna take your young child to just be pre be prepared that there may be some nightmare materials going on in this. It just is, it's not, it's not even a representation enough to even have it called The Little Mermaid all over again.
And to have it be aerial, it's, it's wrong on so many levels because the fact of there just were so many flaws with the story and even with the story taking place in the Caribbean and just kind of everything happening and going on, there just wasn't a lot of passion. Halle Bailey's an amazing singer, actress. I'm wanted to get a lot of hate on this, but not so much. And her co-stars really didn't add that much to it. I mean, honestly, probably one of the best portrayals in this movie was Ursula with Melissa McCarthy, even with Tritons character. I mean, he's completely forgettable in this one. Now, you may be wondering why I choose that word. Well, I gave the new Little Mermaid just a 4.5 out of 10 on the deputy scale. Anything in the four rating is considered watchable, but forgettable. That's because I think anybody's references to this movie are, they're gonna be referencing back to the original just because this one, there's just not anything that really stands out.
I've gotten some flack for some stuff that I've put out on social media already. And so one of the biggest comments and hate comments that I've gotten is, uh, that I'm not recognizing that representation is important. Well, yeah, representation is very important. It's just sometimes it's overdone. Like there was absolutely no need to completely remake Ariel for this type of movie. They could have made her into her own. Princess kind of had the whole, the whole thing, that whole fan thing going. And then there wouldn't have even been the comparison things here to, to even be a discussion on this. Hey guys, come on. So I mean, literally they could have l created a whole new character all around Halle Bailey and had her be her own princess and just kind of have that legacy lives on instead of piggybacking onto a beloved character that just really didn't go anywhere.
Now mind you, this is not the first and it won't be the last of the Disney live action remakes that just kinda leave you wondering, what in the world were they thinking that I, I have yet to see one of the live action remakes that I've really gone and said, good. Okay. I take that back, I take that back. I will say the Pete's Dragon, the one that they did was equally as good in a different way as what the first one was. But that is honestly the only live action remake that or reboot that I can give credit for . So whether or not you'd choose to embark on this one that that's completely up to you. It's definitely watchable. Like I said, Halle Berry is an, uh, Bailey. I cannot believe I said that. Halle Bailey is an absolute delight in this. Like I said, her voice is transcendent and it is just, it's beautiful.
I just really wish that they had given her her own princess podium to shine. So agree with me or not, I mean, I've, I don't expect everybody to, and I know I'm probably gonna get a lot of flack and a lot of hate mail on this, but such as it is, I'm a movie critic group. I can't take it. Why am I doing it? . But I ask you to please like and subscribe to the content because we have literally all sorts of different, or different opinions and differing views and things on this. But I try to make sure that the reviews that I bring to you are basically for everybody. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and I'm not going to get all vulgar and everything when I'm describing a movie. And I'm gonna let you know like what age range it's aimed at, what age range it's targeted at, and just kind of everything that goes along with that.
Don't wanna repeat myself too much here, but I did enjoy watching this one. I just was really disappointed in the final product and I would love to know what you think. So feel free to tag me in anything on social media. Use the hashtag movie deputy. And I, like I said, I will continue to use the hash, the hashtag not my aerial. And I've explained why. So I hope that if you did go and see this, that you enjoyed it, it, I mean, it's cost so much money to go to the movies nowadays that you want that time and effort to go for something. So I hope if you did go and watch it, that you did enjoy it. And so I guess we'll just kind of wait and see what happens next. Till next time, bye.
Notes from movie:
But a mermaid has no tears, dinglehopper, coral moon, merman's reef, no respect for balance, guilty is as guilty acts, squibling rivalry, most people use too many words and have nothing to say, written in the stars, don't be held back by what should be think only of what is, scuttlebutt, in memory of Howard Ashman,
