Mariano Abundiz

Watching this movie makes one wonder what exactly crossed the minds of the creative department over at Disney when they green lit this. Not ONE live action "remake" has been good or even done justice to the source material and the choice of cast: suspect at BEST. Scuttle is voiced by a chainsaw that raps, Halle Bailey has the emotion of a brick, and these are just 2 examples. A huge issue is the design of the animated characters and how they rendered them. Disney really should stop making these animals appear realistic. They can TALK for Christ's sake, WHY do we need them to look like an actual fish, actual birds, hell, even actual lions (Lion King "remake")? We may as well see planks talking. If Paramount pictures can get it right with Sonic the Hedgehog, why can't Disney do the same? Sebastian at least they tried to give more character to. This film easily becomes an attempt to create forceful "diversity" by making Triton's daughters..well..diverse. There is nothing wrong with diversity, but it HAS TO MAKE SENSE. He had only ONE wife in this film, how can he have daughters of different races? Did he have a different mistress for each of the seven seas? And what purpose did they actually serve? In the grand scheme of things they were just...there. I'm willing to give a pass on Halle Bailey being chosen as Ariel, there is nothing wrong with casting actors of different races for these roles. The issue is NOT the color of her skin or her race, but rather, it's that she was chosen to either meet a quota or to make a political point and as a result, her character does not fit the world she is in. And what about ERIC? Why make him act like a child that needs his hand held all the time? He isn't a hero, he's made into a damsel in distress only to be saved by ARIEL?? WHY does Disney continue to do this?? I will say that the movie is somewhat colorful in an "Avatar" sort of way, but it's still lacking and limited when compared to hand drawn versions. Halle Bailey has a wonderful voice but is over doing the singing and instead the focus shifts to her vocal acrobatics as opposed to what the song is actually about. "Under The Sea" is the PERFECT example. WHY is Ariel singing it when the song is about convincing her to stay..wait for it..under the sea... Can you see that ONE star in the review? That star is for Melissa McCarthy who clearly enjoyed her role and had fun with it. She was perfect as Ursula in this bleak and lifeless offering of a film. In all, this film delivers semi-colorful palettes although lighting is a huge issue as a whole, great singing, and makes SOME reference to the 1989 version, but it nonetheless suffers from the Modern Disney formula and I shudder to think about what will happen in Snow White come 2024.