"The Little Mermaid" (Live-Action) Review

Rob Marshall's 2023 live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” is a reimagining of the 1989 film about a mermaid princess named Ariel who is fascinated with the human world. After saving Prince Eric from a shipwreck, she makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula to give up her voice. In return, she gets human legs so she can go to the human world.

I liked the movie. They did a great job with the casting and also with making everything look and feel more realistic. I also think they did a better job with the relationship development of Ariel and Prince Eric. They made their relationship make actual sense instead of just being love at first sight. This may also be the reason the movie is nearly an hour longer than the original. Even though it’s runtime exceedes the original, it still does not feel dragged out to me. If anything, it makes you feel like you need more. When I was watching it, I noticed they changed the movie quite a bit by adding scenes that were not there in the original film. I think they did this to make the movie feel more complete and to let the audience know the characters better. In the original, the characters didn't have a depth to them. You didn’t get to know them, besides Ariel. So, I think it's a great thing they added more scenes for certain characters. For example, we see more of Prince Eric's personality which made the audience more interested in what he was doing and all the decisions he had to make. Also, we saw more with how his relationship with Ariel was going to turn out.

The only problem I would say this movie has is the graphics. It could have been better because the CGI of the underwater parts of the movie looked very fake. For the most part, though, the movie was great and enjoyable. If I had the chance, I would go watch it again. I would also recommend it to anyone needing a movie to watch, especially to those who loved the original movie.