Disney's The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Ben]

Reactions are reactions, Dace!

As soon as I read "Scuttlebutt" I thought of the Jitterbug from Oz, and hoped it wasn’t going to be a silly "we'e doin' the scuttlebutt" dancey song. But this sounds potentially worse. Why do they have to make a stupid butt joke? The scuttlebutt play on words is pretty nifty, but they have to cheapen a good idea.

Also, what’s with all the songs on the album. Looks like a few too many, and the movie doesn’t start with Fathoms Below!? Part Of Your World so up front? I know it gets a couple of reprises, but that means a potentially quite talky opening before we get to it. And then right into four/five songs close together, before a dearth of songs in the second half. Interesting, but I hope it’s not another film musical that drags later on. I await to be wowed…

[Daniel]

More than likely it's out of order.

[Ben]

I’m not so sure. All seems to be in story sequence otherwise, and if they were going to go right out of order it’s a weird way of doing it. If that was the case, Part Of Your World would be the album opener, not the second track.

I can totally see a talky intro where Ariel is at odds with her father and sisters, singing POYW as a way for us to find out about who she is. Then we hear Fathoms Below and she goes up and sees Eric, falls instantly in love and sings POYW's reprise, to which Sebastian overhears and convinces her to stay under the sea, which she does until she hears Eric sing Wild Uncharted Waters, which gets Ursula offering her a solution…

[Bill1978]

Based on the track listing for the vinyl it seems there isn't a re-imagined end credit song, just like there wasn't for the original animated version. It's probably a good thing based upon the snooze fest that was A Whole New World with Zayn and his duet partner. And there was something off about the Ariana and John duet of Beauty and The Beast. But I was expecting one, unless Disney feels Part of Your World is going to be the viral song that will push sales.

And comparing the lyrics of Kiss The Girl, I don't see the need to change those two lines, but hey if it allows Disney to pat themselves on the back for being 'woke' and fending off criticism from a group of people who complain about everything, then so be it. I imagine the people who would make a major issue over the two original lines are the same group that caused that fatshaming uproar with Bluey. Honestly I don't think the majority of people wil actually notice the change OR thought it needed changing.

And reading the lyrics of the 3 new songs, I think LMM is going to have wait a little longer for his little gold statuette. Unless the music to Eric's song is amazing, I can't see any of these getting a nod when Evermore and Speechless were ignored.

[Daniel]

Going by past soundtracks it's not out of the realm of possibilities if they switched things up. Beauty and the Beast (1991) original album had "The Mob Song" before Mrs. Pott's song, The Princess and the Frog had the end credits song, "Never Knew I Needed", as the first track and Meet the Robinsons had its end song, "Little Wonders", as track number 2. But it wouldn't surprise me if the album is accurate...

[Ben]

It was quite routine to have the end credit/pop song be the first album track. I think Atlantis and Treasure Planet also did this amongst others. Likewise they would also front-load the more commercial contemporary tracks over songd and/or score, like with Robinsons, so that the tracks they thought would sell an album were the first things a listener heard.

I donut remember Mrs Potts coming after The Mob Song. Really? Maybe it was a timing issue, like for side changes or tape lengths? It’s really quite a fairly recent thing for albums Togo back to sequential track listings, mostly starting with album reissues for some reason.

I’m hoping I’m wrong, but my guess on Peter Pan's use, or not, of the original songs in the new one bore out (we didn’t even get the "Peter Pan" fanfare in the score!), but I do hope I’m wrong here…

[Bill1978]

1 minute clip of Under The Sea

https://youtu.be/FIT1hJW85K4

Real life looking animals singing and dancing will continue to look odd in these adaptations

[Ben]

Ugh. Would be nice if it had some life… Performance and pacing just feels so flat. Yes, they need to push the caricature on the "real" animals a bit more to sell them as singin' an' dancin' characters. Ariel herself doesn't seem to be acting, she is just *re*acting here.

[Bill1978]

MTV has also released a minute of Kiss The Girl. I wasn't able to find a link that worked here. It's more lifeless and bizarre. But the worst crime is its laziness in the 'choroegraphy. I will never understand why Disney insists on recreating the scenes shot for shot. For me it defeats the purpose because you aren't reimagining, you are just plagiarising yourself.

[Daniel]

Wow, Sebastian is strong.

Here's the clip for "Kiss the Girl". It's terrible. No real chemistry...

[Ben]

And yet *this* one they bother to put in cinemas…!

[ShyViolet]

Yes, that was actually quite awful. Both Ariel and Eric have those “enraptured” (and very bland looking) expressions on their faces but only when noticing the nature around them. Not each other. And Sebastian’s truly ugly design doesn’t help.

It was also a very weird decision to have BOTH Ariel and Eric gawk over what all the animals around them were doing. Eric is only VAGUELY aware of all of it; that’s the entire point of the song. And Ariel is already very close to nature so she wouldn’t really be as “dazzled.” This movie should really be called “Missing The Point.”

It's terrible. No real chemistry...

Yes, completely agree.

[James]

They were about to kiss right at the beginning! And then for absolutely no reason... she turns away! Flotsam and Jetsam didn't do anything to prevent it. They just stopped for some reason.

[Ben]

Are Flotsam and Jetson even confirmed for this version!? I know they’re "around" on some posters, but I don’t think they’re going to play any significant role this time around.

This really is getting to be B&TB all over again…innit!

[Randall]

Hollywood Reporter has early reactions now. Sorry, having trouble pasting the link from my tablet. But while some call it the best of the LA remakes (low bar!), many call out its lack of magic and its pointlessness. However, many do cite the cast as doing a great job.