The live action ‘Little Mermaid’ stands on its own two legs

Wonders never cease to happen. One of these Disney live-action remakes of their classic animated films is actually pretty good. “The Little Mermaid” does an entertaining job adapting the story, characters and songs into a new film.

All of these live action remakes have been hit and miss for me, emphasis on miss. They make Disney money, and the company has no plans to slow down, so I’m willing to keep watching. Thankfully, the new “Little Mermaid” is one of the good ones. It tells the same story, with most of the same characters and all of the classic songs, and manages to be fun and engaging in its own right.

I even liked some of the new songs. Again, wonders never cease.

Ariel is a mermaid who longs to experience the world of humans but is forbidden by her father, King Triton. After falling for the handsome Prince Eric, Ariel makes a deal with the sea witch, Ursula, to head to dry land in search of true love.

Like with all of these live-action adaptations, the story is exactly the same as the original, animated “Little Mermaid” from 1989. A few bits and pieces are changed here or there, but the story and all major scenes are pretty much the same. And that’s fine. Disney is banking on that, and it does not take away from the new film.

The real selling point of the new movie is seeing how these new actors handle the story and the characters, how they breathe new life into the old experience. Halle Bailey as Ariel and Jonah Hauer-King as Eric do a great job with the love story at the heart of the film. The new movie puts a lot of work into fleshing out both characters and their romance, really getting the audience on board with how and why they fall in love so quickly.

It’s cute and fun, and their romance does a lot of heavy lifting to make the movie enjoyable. I particularly liked this movie’s rendition of the classic “Kiss the Girl” song midway through.

Melissa McCarthy gives it her all as the vamping, villainous Ursula, and Daveed Diggs fills the shell as the put-upon crab, Sebastian. It’s a good cast, and they all do their best with their roles.

I only really have two complaints about the film. The first one is that the movie is darkly lit. Like a lot of modern movies, the filmmakers went with natural lighting in all scenes. So when a lot of your movie takes place underwater or at night, the movie is really, really dark. It’s very distracting.

The movie also uses this darkness to cover up bad CGI, especially in the finale. As always, animation allows for much more freedom than live action, and the climatic battle against Ursula in the new film really hammers that home.

The new “Little Mermaid” is the rare Disney live-action remake that accomplishes enough on its own to actually be engaging and enjoyable. It will obviously never replace the original animated movie, but it’s good enough to stand on its own and be worth a watch in this day and age.

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