THE LITTLE MERMAID LIVE! Discussion Thread- Page 4

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 11/5/19 at 10:40pm

bwaylyric said: "As I was watching, I couldn’t help but wonder how amazing this film would’ve been if they had 3D type animation back in the day."

The moment when she starts running down the stairs when she thinks she’s getting married is particularly in need of a little cgi. 
 

Also I agree with the above poster who said the cuts in the movie were annoying. They should’ve let it be two and a half hours, keeping the whole movie. Maybe including another song or two from the musical.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/5/19 at 10:45pm

Bettyboy72 said: "For those saying Latifah was great, I don’t get it. I feel the song was completely rushed, her diction was quiet and jumbled at times. She needed to slow down and take a few beats here and there. Camp it up and vampit up a bit. I was disappointed. She also doesn’t really have the money notes of that song."


She was beyond awful , couldn’t sing the song 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 11/5/19 at 10:51pm

I think for us who liked Latifah’s performance, it wasn’t because her vocals were as good as those in the movie (they weren’t), but because she was able to perform/act the songs in a way that most of the performers tonight couldn’t. Same for Stamos. I will say Phillips’s performance grew on me as the broadcast progressed. Also, to a lesser extent, the same thing is true of Cravalho.

It was largely unnecessary, pretty forgettable, but not completely unpleasant way to spend a couple hours in my hotel room during my work trip.

[EdEval]

Posted: 11/5/19 at 11:25pm

It stunk!

[sabrelady]

Posted: 11/5/19 at 11:28pm

THE most expensive children's birthday party ever. OH some elements were entertaining but really  agree

it was largely unnecessary, pretty forgettable, but not completely unpleasant way to spend a couple hours .

 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 8:24am

Let's start with an understatment: It was better than Peter Pan Live!

To be honest, I enjoyed it. I think that the show kind of failed itself. By only doing the musical numbers live, it showed how much (or lack there of) of "book scenes". It showed me that they should have just done the whole show as a "live musical". You could have still kept it in that "theatre" (which I thought was incredible".

I did like that they gave Eric "Her Voice" and "If Only" from the Broadway show. Not sure about the odd lyric changes (Glenn Slater: you are getting up their with Don Black...People who Shouldn't Write Lyrics, for $400 Alex!) The whoel songs are fine, its when they tinker with existing lyrics and can't get the right feeling of Howard Ashman.

Queen Latifah and Graham Phillips were the highlights of the cast, and Shaggy, who seemed perfect on paper, turned out to be flat as hell.

But, in all seriousness, I will watch it again, and include the soundtrack in my rotation. Although, now I want to relisten to the cast recording and workshop demo of the score for Broadway. Some great songs there!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 8:47am

Some of the cuts done to the movie also annoyed me, and oh, american TV and its commercials.

One simple reality that many are oblivious to: those annoying commercials are what pays for the production, the cast, the crew, the soundstage rental space, etc.  Yeah, Disney has money but how do you think they get it?  By selling commercial spots during the broadcast.  That’s why all your TV shows have commercials.  Annoying as they may be.  People just assume these annoying commercials are just tossed in with no reason.  

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 9:21am

I saw the Hollywood Bowl production of the Little Mermaid Live that (I think?) inspired this and I agree that the format doesn't work on television. It worked really well at the Hollywood Bowl because we were actually there in person for the live performances. Otherwise, as others have said, it just comes across like a musical performance at an awards show and it's hard to invest in either the movie or the live performances.

[Pashacar]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 10:11am

Apparently I’m the only one who liked Shaggy. Yes, he did it in a concert format, but the whole thing was a muddle of 12 different formats anyway, and with the dozens in costume surrounding him, it still felt pretty theatrical. To me, most of the other leads, Latifah included but Phillips excepted, were trying to act their songs and failing. I felt like only Shaggy and Stamos brought the right amount of energy and camp.

[MusicMan13]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 11:47am

Bettyboy72 said: "For those saying Latifah was great, I don’t get it. I feel the song was completely rushed, her diction was quiet and jumbled at times. She needed to slow down and take a few beats here and there. Camp it up and vamp it up a bit. I was disappointed. She also doesn’t really have the money notes of that song."

Bettyboy72  I agree!  So nice to find someone who also saw what I saw.  Latifah is fine as a performer, but no way did she "kill it", "slay it", "own the stage" or any other hyperventilated praise.  She performed adequately.  It seemed a bit stiff, not very menacing, and some of the line reads were so far off Ursula "brand" that it fell flat.  I think because she was the best of the worst, people think she just reinvented live theater or some such. 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 12:39pm

Deadline.com: 'The Little Mermaid Live!' Ratings Swim to the Top

Live action-feature presentation hybrid The Little Mermaid Live! won Tuesday night in broadcast primetime, bringing its “Under the Sea” magic to ABC. The Disney musical event earned a 2.6 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 8.98 million viewers who tuned in to see Auliʻi Cravalho play the iconic Disney princess and Queen Latifah slay as Ursula the sea witch.

The musical event dominated for ABC and was the highest-rated made-for-TV musical on any network since Grease in 2016. It was also the top-rated entertainment telecast since the series finale of The Big Bang Theory on CBS.

This was all good news for ABC’s freshman sci-fi drama Emergence (0.7, 3.47M), which aired after 2-hour live musical and bumped up.

Updated On: 11/6/19 at 12:39 PM

[Luminaire2]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 1:32pm

I didn’t watch, but seeing clips.

Honestly my only thought is.. if they had used this energy/stagecraft for the Broadway show it may have done better. Performances aside... this is the direction the show should have gone.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 2:37pm

She performed adequately. 

I've never seen Latifah rise above adequate in anything.  Her acting has always been at the level of cliched 80s sit-com and she can't belt.  As a person, I think she is charming and charismatic, but in a musical, I've never found her to be anything more than adequate.

[Up In One]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 3:14pm

First time I’ve fallen asleep in hour with a 9 in front of it since I was a kid. It was like being forced to watch one of those Disneyland productions - and from afar. It’s crazy watching all of these networks try to figure out how to make these live musicals work. This one was the most insulting - why do they have to be live? Are there extra ratings points for “live”? The National Theater Live stuff is done so much better, why not just open the stage designs a bit, record three or four performances live - edit them nicely and give us all
A break.

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 4:34pm

I would like to know why Queen Latifah is always to the go-to person for every television musical since "Chicago", "Hairspray" and now this...her performance was fine, but not anything out of the ordinary.  The whole show was just meh...

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 4:42pm

ChgoTheatreGuy said: "I would like to know why Queen Latifah is always to the go-to person for every television musical since "Chicago", "Hairspray" and now this...her performance was fine, but not anything out of the ordinary. The whole show was just meh..."

She also played The Wiz for some reason. This was the third live musical for Queen Latifah.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 6:50pm

She also played The Wiz for some reason. This was the third live musical for Queen Latifah.

This is Latifah’s second - Jennifer Hudson played Motormouth in HAIRSPRAY: Live!  

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 7:13pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "She also played The Wiz for some reason. This was the third live musical for Queen Latifah.

This is Latifah’s second - Jennifer Hudson playedMotormouth in HAIRSPRAY: Live!"

Gah. You're right. Latifah was in the Hairspray movie not the live show. I forgot.

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 11/6/19 at 7:22pm

Damn!  How did I forget about "The Wiz".  Like I said, not every performance is memorable.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/8/19 at 6:45am

Conceptually, it was very strange. And sort of insulting. I hate directors who create multi stimulus which results in a lack of focus and emotion.

 

 

 

Updated On: 11/8/19 at 06:45 AM

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 11/8/19 at 9:53am

Finally got around to watching this last night. Could have been so much better - casting, designs, songs, effects, etc. There were a lot of “Oooo, that was almost great” moments and the frustrating part is...there’s no reason it couldn’t have been the best Live! Musical yet. Disney has more money than God and had they taken their time with it, this could have been really great.

There are tons of Mermaid adaptations - Disney World show, theme park rides, the show in Tokyo, the Broadway Musical to name a few. As a lifelong TLM I was disappointed. However, it’s harmless TV fluff, so I can’t get that emotionally invested.

My parents even tuned in and both thought that it was lackluster for a Disney project.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/8/19 at 12:26pm

The cartoon had more nuance than what was happening on stage.

[David10086]

Posted: 11/10/19 at 6:49pm

I DVR'd this. Watched the first 45 minutes, and then deleted it from my DVR. I didn't like the cutting back and forth between live and animation, and could not tolerate the audience.