Posted May 9, 20232 yr ...is there a thread already for it? Anyway, thoughts? Its looking really unfortunately cheap to me in the latest trailers & everything is so dark & ashy coloured. And most of the fish characters look creepy! On the flipside, Halle Bailey is bringing something really special to the musical numbers.
May 9, 20232 yr Early reviews are pretty much what I expected. The film itself is a entertaining and fun, but it's carried and helped by Halle and Daveed Diggs (Sebastian). Also, quite a few of them are saying it's the best live action yet. Also... there is COLOUR. But the og The Little Mermaid was quite dark! @1655792231964622849 @1655792394728767488 @1655800323318095872 @1655795270162972676 I absolutely ADORE her version of 'Part Of Your World' and I'm particularly excited for her original songs!
May 30, 20232 yr I went to see this yesterday and I utterly loved it! Halle Bailey is just sensational, her voice is incredible I literally got goosebumps when she did Part of your world. Also another great number from her just before she meets the prince on the land which I think is a new song. Visually I thought it was quite stunning, the storyline is slightly different to the animated version but I thought that they were good updates. It's set somewhere in the Caribbean I think (on the land) and I thought that fit really well, made for the visual aspect to work beautifully on land too. The ending is a little drawn out which is my only critique of the film, I felt like Beauty & The Beast ending worked much better and Little Mermaid could have done with ending on a musical note too. Aladdin's ending worked better too. Halle Bailey is the stand out star however the actor voicing Sebastian was excellent too, quite funny. Melissa McCarthey is perfect as Ursula she gets it spot on. I felt like I had to grow into Eric a little at first I wasn't 100% sold on him but by the end I thought he did a good job. I think Triton was the only one who I felt a bit meh by, not sure why as I don't really know what else he could have done with the role but for some reason he just did not quite click. Also Flounder felt a bit neglected really, like he was just there. I totally recommend it, I am tempted to go watch it again! 1. Beauty & The Beast 2. Aladdin 3. The Little Mermaid 4. Cinderella 5. Jungle Book 6. The Lady & The Tramp 7. Mulan 8. The Lion King Is my ranking of the remakes I have seen so far. I think the first 3 stand way ahead of the rest.
May 31, 20232 yr I thoroughly enjoyed this. Just like most of the other Live Actions, was it needed? No. But am I happy with what we got? DEFINITELY. Halle was an absolute STAR. She had a really big presence about her and she embodied Ariel, perfectly. Her voice is truly astonishing. I wasn't too big on the original songs so much, I thought they were quite weak when stacked against the classics. Maybe I need time with them, idk, but the classics had a big pop element to them whereas the new songs just felt very... filler musical fodder. Flounder's character design is horrific. Whoever approved that really needs firing (his character was just as warm and as cute as the original though, thanks to Jacob Tremblay). Melissa was fantastic as Ursula, too! I was particularly impressed with her. A lot of the "extra" stuff they added to this felt very filler though and I didn't see a real need or point for them, but some moments were cute (Eric chasing Ariel around the market for example). I feel like this was always going to be the trickiest to translate into a live action, due to the underwater scenes. But apart from the moments where it looks a bit TOO "glossy" and "Hollywood", I thought it was well done for the most part. I loved the big, final battle too and they executed that extremely well! Halle's version of 'Part Of Your World' and all the "Reprises" were seriously STUNNING. That song... WHEW. I'm impressed overall. My live action ranking: Great: 01. Jungle Book > I will only watch this version. The original animation is so dull. < --- Enjoyable: 02. Aladdin > SO much fun. Would watch this over the original for 'Speechless' alone tbh. < 03. The Little Mermaid > Surprisingly strong! Halle is a BIG part of what makes this movie so good! < 04. Cinderella > I don't like the original, but this was better! Lily James was solid as Cinderella too! < --- Cute, but definitely needed more: 05. The Lion King > The animals needed EMOTION. We needed features </3 The original is top 5 of all time for me. So it had that pressure for me. < 06. Beauty & The Beast > Can take or leave. But I don't dislike or hate it! < 07. Dumbo > I liked that they added more to this, but again, it was missing that little something. < --- Horrendous: 08. Mulan > I can't tell you how much this one pissed me off. I thought this would translate SO much better as a live action, but it ended up being so fucking boring. I missed the songs MASSIVELY in this one. < 09. The Lady & The Tramp > No. <
May 31, 20232 yr Beauty and the Beast was by far the best. And yup, the Jungle Book cartoon is v. v dull!
May 31, 20232 yr Saw it tonight and loved it. Not really into Disney films and remakes but I'd actually never seen the original Little Mermaid so thought heck, why not? and wow, Halle was superb. Never missed a beat. Her voice was superb, the pacing was great and it looked great. Incredible, she deserves all the attention she's getting for this. P.S. I couldn't stop looking at Melissa McCarthy's bad makeup job, yikes that MUA was out of his depth (no pun intended).
June 1, 20232 yr Oh another flaw... Why did she only have one outfit as a human? Where was her beautiful sparkly number when her dad gave her her wish of being human?
June 1, 20232 yr I pretty much agree with your assessment of the film, Jonjo. Very entertaining and Halle was absolutely amazing. I don’t think they monopolised properly on some of the extra details (the Queen’s knowledge/experience of the sea world for example) and it felt at times they were overegging the differences or ‘improvements’ of the original to the point some of it felt unnecessary and actually hampered the story a little (for example Ariel is left with no challenge or motivation when she’s human). Loved the Jodi Benson cameo as well. I’ve enjoyed all the live actions to some extent and I think this is my second favourite though I’d always plump for the animated one over it unlike Aladdin where I could happily go either/or.
June 1, 20232 yr I'd be more interested if it was an actual re-telling of the original Andersen story :lol: Edited June 1, 20232 yr by tommie
June 1, 20232 yr I quite liked it. I thought the middle section was done very well and it really made you route for the main characters I was surprised to come out thinking Melissa McCarthy did a good job with Ursula Definitely would put it up near the top against other remakes
June 1, 20232 yr Oh I've not seen that or Pinocchio! (And by the sounds of it, I don't need to either )
June 1, 20232 yr Also, Josh pointed this out in his Letterboxd review, but Jonah really does sound a lot like Dan from BASTILLE in 'Uncharted Waters'!
June 2, 20232 yr Also, Josh pointed this out in his Letterboxd review, but Jonah really does sound a lot like Dan from BASTILLE in 'Uncharted Waters'! RIGHT!
August 5, 20231 yr So this is a MASSIVE flop, one of the biggest flops ever for Disney :o They have made a huge loss on the movie.
August 5, 20231 yr I wouldn't go that far, it's just about broke even worldwide (564 million against 250 million budget). An underperformance for sure but not a flop, it's probably a relief for them in the wake of Disney's other box office bombs recently. It's good to see though, every live action remake has been a pointless and soulless cash grab which doesn't hold a candle to the original, I'm hoping that this is the beginning of the end for them so we can actually get some original ideas (The Lion King was definitely the peak and I don't think they have anything with that same cross-generational appeal left). The teasers for the new Snow White one look awful :/
August 5, 20231 yr A film needs to make more than that these days to break even. 250 million budget, an extra 150 million in promo. Merchandise won't sell for a flop film, too. It did very little internatiinally and its tickets crashed in the US after a week. Snow White looks like the worst one yet, and if TLM is anything to fo by, diminishinf returns for these live actions mean it will bomb. These two films might be the end of the Disney live actions! No real loss; only Beauty x Beast was good.
August 5, 20231 yr The merch has actually been a success for TLM. The box office performance though, wasn't helped by the racist (and public) backlash over the casting of Halle (everywhere - but more specifically) in one of the biggest movie territories, China.
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