About the film (courtesy of Disney):
The beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. The youngest of King Triton’s daughters and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea and, while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.

The Little Mermaid is the next continuation of Disney’s animation-to-live-action remake initiative. While many of these attempts have failed to live up their drawn originals, it isn’t stopping The House of Mouse from trying to reformulate their strategy to capitalize on the reimagining of classic tales. So the question becomes, will this latest attempt sink or swim?

The exceptionally talented Halle Bailey takes on the daunting task of stepping into some pretty large fins to bring to life the character of the very well-known Ariel. The young actress is more than ready to take on this very challenging role and as soon as you hear her first few glorious notes, you’ll understand why. Bailey is the biggest positive, by far, to the live-action The Little Mermaid. While the angelic voice of the original Ariel, performed by Jodi Benson who also has a small cameo in this feature, will not soon be forgotten, Bailey is confident in her ability to compete right alongside her for singing supremacy.

As for Bailey’s acting performance, she’s lively and hits on all of the important traits, both above and below sea level. Some of the actors filling iconic roles are Javier Bardem as King Triton (Ariel’s father), Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. Lending their voices for some fun CGI characterization are Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina as Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle, respectively.

Javier Bardem and Jonah Hauer-King gave okay performances, nothing that really stood out, whereas Melissa McCarthy was not really put into a position where she could maximize her skills, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The aforementioned voice acting trio of Diggs, Tremblay and Awkwafina are fun and entertaining in their own rite and should provide some smiles throughout.

Director Rob Marshall takes a considerably longer voyage than the 1989 animated original that only clocked in at 83 minutes. Can you even imagine?! The latest The Little Mermaid weighs in at an astounding 135 minutes which may be quite challenging for those bringing young ones to check out this magical feature. The other thing with noting from a parental perspective is that there are few scenes that are quite intense and may cause a little discomfort for children not used to such things. So just take that as a word of caution before blindly bring your kids to something that appeared rather tame and harmless to a younger you some three decades ago.

As far as expectations go from a song standpoint, The Little Mermaid does a great job with most of the classics you’ve come to love and remember. There are a couple of songs omitted and a few new ones added thanks to Disney’s newer favorite talent to turn to, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Not all of these songs are gems, but some (or one) may grow you more than others. The CGI is an improved effort over past attempts. While not perfect, the challenging underwater sequences are not distractingly bad as some of the attempts in recent memory.

All-in-all, The Little Mermaid is decent attempt at bringing this tale to life with Halle Bailey deserving the most praise. If you have fond memories of the original, the latest iteration does just enough take you back a few decades but in no way can replace the original while it floats at “C-level” (that’s pun for average if you didn’t catch what I was throwing). You can start singing along in theaters as early as Thursday afternoon with the full release coming Friday, May 26th.