FLIP FEATURE
June 2, 2023
The Little Mermaid has been spinning a lot of controversy lately. Frankly, I didn’t want to see this movie. I wasn’t a Little Mermaid kid, I’ve probably only watched the animated movie about twice in my whole lifetime. The prospect interested me.
I liked this movie. And, as far as I know most of the plot wasn’t changed.
Yes, the scenery was changed and the movie was more inclusive than the 1989 version, but not too much was changed. There was a few key scenes, such as when Ariel (Halle Bailey) impaled Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) instead of Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), which really was a girlboss moment, especially since she dragged her fish body up a boat to do so.
Another thing that was changed was the meeting between Ariel and Eric once on land, which meant that Eric did not meet her when she was butt-naked on a beach. For me that is so much better than the old movie. They also changed the ages from the old movie, changing Ariel from a 16-year-old, to 18. I personally feel a lot more comfortable with that, considering that Eric is 21.
I just think the movie was so bright and beautiful. It honored the original version while just changing the things that needed to be changed rather than changing things that had no business being changed. I loved the setting and how they really leaned into the Jamaican part of Sebastian with the island. The singing was great and the acting was good, as far as I can tell. The emotional scenes felt really emotional and it was easy to see how both Ariel and Eric were manipulated by Ursula.
I quite preferred this to the original 1989 The Little Mermaid, and it’s a Disney must in my book.
