Posted: 3/13/23 at 5:08pm
Cinderella will always be the most artistic one, and it got really good crititc reviews as well, but this one could still be a great movie, and it looks like I will love it. What I most love is Halle's singing and Melissa's acting!
Posted: 4/26/23 at 9:45am
Posted: 4/26/23 at 10:30am
The insistence on using non-anthropomorphized CGI animals for these remakes is strange. It’s weird hearing a kid’s voice come out of a photorealistic fish, dead eyes and all.
Posted: 4/26/23 at 12:00pm
McCarthy comes off as so bland here. I think part of it is the styling, but her performance (well the couple of lines we have seen) are just boring. Disney really missed the boat (pun intended) to drag cast this part.
Posted: 4/26/23 at 12:19pm
Frankly, nobody has come off as particularly exciting in this thus far. These remakes devour their (often great!) casts.
Updated On: 4/26/23 at 12:19 PM
Posted: 4/26/23 at 12:33pm
well, her version of “part of your world” is out now. I really love how she doesn’t do any runs or riffs until she gets to the final “be”. it’s so intentional.
Posted: 4/26/23 at 12:38pm
Tag said: "McCarthy comes off as so bland here. I think part of it is the styling, but her performance (well the couple of lines we have seen) are just boring. Disney really missed the boat (pun intended) to drag cast this part."
McCarthy has been bland in the majority of her recent movies. Her gimmick is very redundant.
Posted: 5/9/23 at 7:15am
The film has started screening. Reactions coming in so far have been mixed-to-positive. Some have been seeing it as one of Disney's better live action remakes of their animated properties, but they found the visuals to be pretty underwhelming.
https://www.justjared.com/2023/05/09/first-the-little-mermaid-reactions-from-critics-revealed-after-l-a-world-premiere-plus-see-red-carpet-photos/
Posted: 5/9/23 at 8:56am
These remakes are dull and soulless, color corrected into oblivion so that nothing is coherently visible. The photo realism sucks out any and all personality or life from the characters. It will make a billion dollars and then you will hear no one talk about it again.
Posted: 5/9/23 at 9:04am
not only do they want the box office, but this is the strongest way to get titles back in the main stream. They’re not concerned with making new classics, they leave that to the animation studios in my opinion. The titles are part of the main stream conversation again, whether good or bad, and of course, they do their best to honor the classics, but it also just reminds people how impactful they were.
Posted: 5/9/23 at 9:25am
I think the problem with all the Disney remakes is the desire to make the animals, household objects, or any non-human thing seem human, and it looks so bad. Give me a cartoon looking Flounder, not this scary hybrid.
Posted: 5/9/23 at 9:39am
jacobsnchz14 said: "not only do they want the box office, but this is the strongest way to get titles back in the main stream. They’re not concerned with making new classics, they leave that to the animation studios in my opinion. The titles are part of the main stream conversation again, whether good or bad, and of course, they do their best to honor the classics, but it also just reminds people how impactful they were."
Just makes me wish it was the 90’s/early 2000’s again when they had more variety in the pipeline.
Posted: 5/10/23 at 1:57am
The 90s were such a special time at the studio. So much creativity and innovation.
Just yesterday, I was just wondering where Disney - and Broadway - would be if Howard Ashman were still alive. Michael Bennett too. All the works they might have created. Sigh.
I'm still holding out hope that Melissa can make Ursula memorable. Honestly, I was expecting her to be more comedic (aka hammy) in her approach, so the calm menace she's showing in the clips is a bit of a relief. Hopefully she nails it.
As good as a drag queen would have been in this, I don't think Disney was ready to put a drag performer into this expensive film, much less in the role of a villain telling a "normal" mermaid how to change her body and appearance.
And can you imagine how much more drama would have ensued if this film had opened now with a drag star, given everything going on in Florida and drag bans in general? Yikes. Not to mention overseas squeamishness regarding gay characters.
Don't get me wrong - it would have almost certainly given the movie more zest and sent a clear message, but it also would have been a huge gamble. And these remakes aren't about gambling at all.
Updated On: 5/10/23 at 01:57 AM
Posted: 5/10/23 at 9:31am
"As good as a drag queen would have been in this, I don't think Disney was ready to put a drag performer into this expensive film, much less in the role of a villain telling a "normal" mermaid how to change her body and appearance."
lol so instead they have a white woman literally stealing a Black woman's voice
Posted: 5/10/23 at 2:23pm
I think McCarthy has a sort of a calm, menacing approach that works very well for the character. It makes it chilling, real and believable. Every drag queen I have ever encountered has a lot of superficial theatricality and tends to act from the outside much more, which comes across as less sincere and more childish/shallow. The drag performers that I have seen playing Ursula (such as Drew Sarich) all played it over the top which might be funnier, but it loses sincerity.
With that said, I think the scene is nowhere as good as the original animated version. It lacks tempo and just doesn't flow well enough, some of the CGI looks unfinished as well.
As for Halle Bailey, I like her type wise for the role and I think she has a great voice. I like her acting as well, although she might come across as a little inexperienced at times, doing just a tad too little. Her speaking voice sounds like Lea Michele to me. But I think her take of "Part of your world" should have been redone. There are too many mistakes, for example the line "But who cares, no big deal", The "but" and "no" can never be the same note musically, like she does. It is a mistake. The "No" is a different note, it emphasizes the first one. This doesn't fit musically. The melody is not a literal repeat/repetition of the line before. It must emphasize the line before with the lower note. This is a mistake you hear with very inexperienced singers who do not understand the melody, like Amanda Seyfried does in les Mis, "there's so little I know from the time long ago",she just could not understand the melody which resulted in an error, musicality wise. This has nothing to do with chosen varieties. These are mistakes. The ad lib on the end is a variety, which is a choice that you can like or not. But many other notes are sung too sloppy as well. She has a fantastic voice, but this sounds like a very rough first take.
I am looking forward to this film and overall I like what I see, but I also think it will make a lot of money and will then be forgotten, like all the other remakes.
Updated On: 5/10/23 at 02:23 PM
Posted: 5/10/23 at 2:54pm
Here’s Melissa talking about Divine and the drag queens connection to Ursula and how she intentionally pays homage to them, etc.
Posted: 5/10/23 at 3:37pm
Disney are predicting this will have a massive $100 million debut weekend.
Do you think it might spur interest in reviving the show on Broadway?
Posted: 5/10/23 at 4:59pm
BETTY22 said: "Disney are predicting this will have a massive $100 million debut weekend.
Do you think it might spur interest in reviving the show on Broadway?"
No
Posted: 5/10/23 at 6:33pm
BETTY22 said: "Disney are predicting this will have a massive $100 million debut weekend.
Do you think it might spur interest in reviving the show on Broadway?"
Beauty and the Beast made $1.25 billion and the musical is a iconic Broadway musical yet there was no revival to come from that, despite chat of one, so I doubt a revival of The Little Mermaid will appear. It might prompt the writers to revisit the stage show but a full on revival won’t happen
Posted: 5/18/23 at 1:13pm
Listening through the soundtrack now. Everyone sounds excellent from the orchestra to the performers- the only critique I have is this: the new songs, really are inferior to the Broadway tracks they replaced. “Wild Uncharted Waters” and “For The First Time” can barely be compared to “Her Voice” and “Beyond My Wildest Dreams”. With that being said, the vocal performances in them are lovely.
I appreciate the additions of POYW reprises/underscoring, the “Kiss the Girl” lyric edits are definitely more appropriate without being distracting at all…not sure Scuttle has ever needed a song (especially with this film already being much longer than the original), but it’s fun. I’m left wishing Melissa had another song because she really does sound terrific, but I’m sure there’s more than enough meat in the newly adapted script to make up for that. The recent 53-second “Poor Unfortunate Souls” clip really doesn’t do the vocal performance in the soundtrack justice. As someone who has been quietly hoping the best for this new Ursula, I am very pleased.
I have been extremely excited for this film, and this soundtrack has definitely met expectations and exceeded them in others (Halle and Melissa are just incredible). Cannot wait to see it next week!
Posted: 5/18/23 at 1:19pm
Where is the soundtrack streaming? I thought it wasn't out til tomorrow.
Posted: 5/18/23 at 1:29pm
I wonder if the reception to this might cause some higher ups to revisit Gypsy. It's pretty much common knowledge that Amy Sherman-Palladino's adaption was being written with McCarthy in mind. There were concerns about her box office draw having diminished. I wasn't a big fan of the casting choice but I still want Sherman-Palladino's take on it.
Posted: 5/18/23 at 1:44pm
Ke3 said: "I wonder if the reception to this might cause some higher ups to revisit Gypsy. It's pretty much common knowledge that Amy Sherman-Palladino's adaption was being written with McCarthy in mind. There were concerns about her box office draw having diminished. I wasn't a big fan of the casting choice but I still want Sherman-Palladino's take on it."
GYPSY and MERMAID are apples and oranges when it comes to properties, and McCarthy's singing abilities aren't going to get this greenlit. ASP has plenty of connections, and she & McCarthy are probably enough to get this made someplace like Amazon for a modest budget. McCarthy has had no issues getting action comedies made at streamers.
That said, Brendan Fraser for Herbie.
Updated On: 5/18/23 at 01:44 PM
