Disney's The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Ben]

Kiss The Boy...?

[Dusterian]

Hey there everybody! So, my thoughts...

I know someone, or some people, said we shouldn't expect these actors to look like the original animated ones...but...we should a little, actually, when these are supposed to be live versions of the animaton, and also, that is what they have done for all of the remakes so far. Even Will Smith was blue. If they give Halle red hair, that will be better, but...I wanted an Ariel to look like how she did in the original so I felt more like I was seeing, well, Ariel, in live-action. Also, believability as to where and when the film is set, though I did hear it may be set in the Medditeranean or Spain. But did they have black people in those places in the 19th century? Someone fill me in!

The Prince Erics they have been considering casting have all looked like the animated Prince Eric, so what the...? And then one of the potential Erics even got passed over because he didn't look European. I'm sorry, Disney, but what kind of setting are you trying to show, here?

But this movie could turn out good. We'll see.

[Randall]

As the Mediterranean Sea bridges Africa and Europe, I think it's safe to say that there could be black people around. (And certainly brown people.)

I forgot to record it all, but last night I watched the musical clips (on YouTube) from the ABC live broadcast of TLM. Looks like it came off quite well. I was impressed with Ariel's swimming effects - so much more impressive than any flying effects in the Aladdin stage show that I saw in London. Queen Latifah seemed to have a blast as Ursula. John Stamos was maybe a weird choice for the chef, but he also got into it pretty well. Auli'i Cravalho was a nice choice, bringing decent singing chops and an endearing presence, though I don't think the red wig did her any favours. She's such a pretty young lady naturally, and anything that changes her so much seems a detriment.

[EricJ]

I was impressed with Ariel's swimming effects - so much more impressive than any flying effects in the Aladdin stage show that I saw in London

When they announced a Little Mermaid musical on Broadway (the infamous "Heelie" one), I first wondered whether they had upgraded the Tokyo Disney Seas theme-park show where Ariel "swims" on aerial (HSWIDT?) wires.
And when the TV version announced it wasn't going to be the Heelie version, I assumed the Tokyo show was what they were going to do...Certainly not the Muppet one from Florida, although there seemed to be elements of that too.

[Dusterian]

Ok, good, so a black Ariel could have been possible. She better have red hair though.

I saw the last half of The Little Mermaid Live! on TV and saw some online clips, and I thought Ariel was pretty good, Ursula was cartoony goofy and didn't sing as well as I expected for Queen Latifah, Prince Eric was freaking adorable and great, and Chef Louis was, yes weird, and a bad choice, for he could not sing at all. The puppets were cute and the special effects were fantastic.

[Ben]

Given than its widely believed that the first humans came from Africa, and were black, then, yes...there would have been black people around just as long, if not longer, than any others. The bigger, more realistic question remains, of course...were there any black *mermaids*...?

[Randall]

Though I'd be fine without it, I'm sure we'll be seeing red hair on Ariel in the new film. I just hope it comes off better than what we saw with Auli'i Cravalho. Some folks just aren't meant to be redheads.

[Bill1978]

I've watched the online clips and I must say that no one can perform Poor Unfortunate Souls like Pat Carrol. All the cover versions I've watched on YouTube and heard on CD do not compare. They all seem to want to 'sing' the acting parts and Queen Latifah was no different. She wasn't bad it was just jarring when you know certain parts should be more acted than performed.

[Ben]

Is there a link to these clips being spoken about? I’m curious...

[Randall]

Just a YouTube search away....

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... rmaid+live

[Daniel]

That's a lot to weed through! Here's a few that ABC released:








Rest linked if interested: (Embedding all might be too much!)

Daughters of Triton
Part of Your World (Reprise)
Her Voice
Kiss the Girl
If Only
Poor Unfortunate Souls (Reprise)
Under the Sea (Finale)

I enjoyed the special. It basically delivered what it promised. Some pretty amazing effects. Thought Auli'i made for a good Ariel. Not sure about her singing voice as it probably should've been more softer. That, and I kept being reminded of Moana. Queen Latifah was easily the best and nearly killed it. Think she played it too "jokey" but I still loved her take. What we saw of Eric wasn't half bad. Seriously Disney, why not just reuse him for the livey film? Yeah, Stamos wasn't that good. The ad lib didn't do him any favors.

Didn't really care for the puppet of Flounder. It didn't look anything like him! Flotsam and Jetsam's puppets were pretty amazing and bared a good resemblance. Flounder's just looked like a regular fish.

All the screaming and such from the audience like it was a concert got tiring. It was pretty cool how they would transition from the scenes, though.

On the whole, it was a good experiment. A fun tease. These will make great comparisons for when the livey film comes out.

[Ben]

Cheese-whizz, thanks Dan! I did do a YT search but figured there might be somewhere that had collected the best clips together...the talk of seeing online clips sounded like there had been a group of them somewhere. This is great...I shall take a lookie!

[Bill1978]

So last night I went to this think called Musical Bingo cause the theme for the night was Disney. Anyway at one stage in the game Under The Sea popped up which made me think of Shaggy's performance and then my memory kicked in and made me remember that Shaggy had already recorded a version of Under The Sea for the UK re-release of The Little Mermaid. I initially thought Shaggy was a left field choice for this production but now it all makes sense.

[Daniel]

It was a horrible rendition then, (sounded more like Stitch) it was just as bad in the special! Shaggy's outfit was so lazy and he acted so nonchalant. Like he didn't care...

[Dusterian]

Yes but were black people in 19th century Spain or wherever this will be set?

I know Shaggy seemed like he didn't want to be there!

I thought Eric was the best. I want him as Eric in the film!

If Queen Latifah played a more serious baddy I might like her in the film if she was picked.

I remember the Flounder puppet being cute. Maybe they tried to make him look like a real Flounder fish?