The Little Mermaid

Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, with hopes of mending the broken relationship between humans and fishmen, however, can one stubborn mermaid fix what’s been broken for generations, let’s dive into the review and explore the outcome.

Released on the 26th of May 2023 by distributor Disney+, The Little Mermaid is directed by none other than, Rob Marshall.

For those that don’t know, Rob Marshall has been with the Disney family for years and is best recognized for his work in films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).

The premise of The Little Mermaid follows a young mermaid by the name of Ariel, who makes a deal with a sea witch – Ursula, played by Melissa McCarthy to trade her beautiful voice of the sea for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress the handsome Prince Eric played by Jonah Hauer-King.

Now I’ve seen the animated series of The Little Mermaid and never once did I get the impression that this movie left on me, which is that, Ariel is a stalker. Not only that but she then continues to use her siren voice to charm the poor prince into falling in love with her – now whether or not the scriptwriters are willing to admit this little detail can never change the truth of the matter – Ariel is obsessed.

She not only charmed him into insanity, giving no other girl in the Kingdom a standing chance in hell to ever win his heart but she had poor Prince Eric singing to himself on the beach like he was part of New Edition from the 1980s lol…

The point I’m trying to make is that – she didn’t give him to chance to fall in love with her, she blatantly hypnotized, and charmed her way into his heart.

Then there’s the disconnect with the story in general, At first I thought this would be about uniting the two worlds into finding common ground, however, that plot dissipates out the window as swiftly as it was mentioned which leaves a lot to be desired – story-wise.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all bad – there is some good in this movie that I’ll get into later but for now, I digress.

I think the cast was perfect, Halle Bailey as Ariel impressed me with her personification, same can be said with Mellisa McCarthy as Ursula – she’s so charismatic, you’re bound to find her rendition bewitching at some point as she brings a different energy to the already predictable film.

Another talent that I did not expect to enjoy at first more than Ursula would be that of Daveed Diggs and Awkwafina who voice over the characters of Sebastian and Scuttle.

Daveed Diggs as Sebastian is probably the best investment in this film, his character is principled and follows order but when facing a stubborn child and an abrasive bird-like Scuttle, things are bound to get out of hand – this is where the comedic side of the story comes in, whenever Sebastian and Scuttle are on screen you know something is about to go wrong resulting in moments that will leave you with a smile on your face, a chuckle here and there or perhaps even a laugh once or twice.

As a musical, some songs went straight over my head, though the songs that did catch my attention were the classic “Under The Sea”, “Kiss The Girl” and “The Scuttlebutt”.

The visuals are marvelous, taking you into a completely different world of the sea and its beautiful creatures, however, the downside to this is that you never get the sense that they are underwater or filming near an ocean but more like a pool.

Ariel’s adversity within the film is warranted, her father – King Triton played by Javier Bardem does feel a little overprotective of her.

This in turn pushes Ariel to fight even harder against his leash by withholding secrets about her aspirations, eventually pushing her to make the biggest mistake of her life.

King Triton on the other hand blames the entire human race for the death of his wife when all we know could have been the cause of a few which in this case, proves that you can’t judge an entire race or society based on a few bad eggs.

The pacing could have been better as only halfway through the film does the story fundamentally start to pick up, and the ending with Ursula is extremely overwhelming, to be honest.

To conclude The Little Mermaid’s review, I wish it had more to offer its audience especially those who wanted to see it succeed given all the hate and backlash it received before even coming out.

I’d recommend it to kids and families who enjoy watching Disney films on family nights but not anyone that’s seen and loved the animated series, to many anomalies to be honest.

I give The Little Mermaid a 3.3 out of 5 rating.

Let me know in the comments section below whether you enjoyed this review of The Little Mermaid. Do you agree or disagree? Let’s get the conversation started.

Thank you for your support and for reading another review from, LSR.

Until next time, stay blessed.