Halle Bailey’s Ariel shines above ‘woke v racist’ argument
This Little Mermaid remake caused ripples when the cast was announced because Bailey, unlike the original, is not white.
The Little Mermaid (PG)
In cinemas
★★★½
How do you make an underwater musical with living, breathing actors? That was the question on Rob Marshall’s mind when he took on The Little Mermaid, a live-action remake of Disney’s 1989 animation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.
His answer, in part, is to have several of the 15 songs sung on land. Even Flounder, the anxious fish who is the mermaid’s best friend, sticks his snout above the surface to join in.
Not all of the songs, though. The best scene features Melissa McCarthy belting it out – who knew she could sing? – and it happens in deep waters, geographically and psychologically.
There’s a lot of talent behind this movie. Director Marshall and scriptwriter David Magee received Oscar nominations for Chicago (2002) and Finding Neverland (2004) respectively. The cinematographer, Brisbane-born Dion Beebe, won an Oscar for Marshall’s next film, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
The musical director is multiple Oscar winner Alan Menken, who also did the animated version. He had some help from producer Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, who wrote new songs for the expanded soundtrack.
The result is a confident musical drama buoyed by assured camerawork and strong performances by McCarthy and young singer-songwriter Halle Bailey in the lead role.
There’s a decent dollop of comedy, too, for both the teen target audience and their older minders, as well as important messages about inclusion rather than exclusion.
Marshall sets up the story with admirable economy. Ariel the mermaid (Bailey) is the headstrong youngest daughter of King Triton, lord of the seven seas (a miscast Javier Bardem).
She is fascinated with humans and would like to know them better. Her father, though, has banned her from the “above world”, home to the “most dangerous species of all”.
This leads to the first song, Part of Your World. Bailey’s voice is magnificent and she can act, too.
She was 18 when she started work on this Covid-interrupted movie. She’s now 23 and her next role will be in a new film adaptation of The Color Purple, due at Christmas.
Ariel’s interest in human affairs intensifies when she rescues handsome Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck.
This is just what Ursula (McCarthy), King Triton’s tentacled sister-in-exile, has been waiting for. She makes an offer: she will turn Ariel into a human for three days, during which time she and the prince must kiss.
If they do, she will remain human and live happily ever after; if they do not, her fishy bottom half will return and she will be central to Ursula’s plot to seize the throne.
The striking of this Faustian pact, with McCarthy singing an updated version of Poor Unfortunate Souls, is the aforementioned best scene. From here we have a clock-is-ticking romantic drama. Will they kiss in time?
Ariel’s friends Flounder and Scuttle the seabird (voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina) try to help her. Lord Triton’s loyal crab, Sebastian (Daveed Diggs), tries to protect her. The three of them singing Kiss the Girl is another highlight.
Ursula is out to stop her and has spun other spells that make puckering up harder than it should be.
McCarthy, full of wisecracks, steals every scene she is in. When she reaches the height of her sea witch powers, Beebe’s dramatic camerawork reminds us that this is a PG, not G, movie.
This movie caused ripples when the cast was announced because Bailey, unlike the animated Ariel and Andersen’s 1837 original, is not white. Critics voiced their outrage under social media hashtags such as #NotMyAriel. Supporters said this was a racist reaction. Personally I think both sides should take a breath.
Bailey is terrific, a star-to-be, in this update of a 186-year-old fairytale. So far no one has complained that Flounder is not played by a real fish, but I wouldn’t rule it out.