Rebecca Terlisner

While most of the character were pretty good, and Eric’s new song was well done, Halle’s performance left a lot to be desired. Her voice was great, but her rendition of “Part of Your World” was terrible. She sung it in staccato, breaking up the flow of the song. This was pretty much her only song throughout the movie, but they reprised it multiple times making it frustrating many times rather than just once. She also popped in on Sebastian’s “Under the Sea”, and her part in that song was very off brand for the sound of the song. I thought I was going to be annoyed by scuttle being a girl in the new movie, but Awkwafina was the perfect casting for that part, and she did a great job with her new rap that was added in. She was great comedic relief! Disney, unfortunately, cut one of the funniest parts of the original when the chef almost cooks Sebastian. That was left out of the live action. Overall, the movie was cute, but I think that not only was the casting choice for Ariel off, the direction they chose to go with her songs was worse. Perhaps with better direction and sticking more to the original with the musical aspect, the casting would have bothered me as much.