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Upon catching the highly anticipated live-action remake of The Little Mermaid at the cinemas in Malaysia, my initial excitement wore off during the visually overwhelming first half an hour of the film. The film’s opening scene left me feeling disoriented, quite unlike my experience as a much younger viewer while watching the animated version in the early 90s. In simple terms, the story is on a little mermaid longing to be part of the human world and vice versa.  Nevertheless, amidst my mixed feelings, the film’s momentum quadrupled the moment Under the Sea graced the screen.

By then, I felt transported to a different world entirely, thanks to the use of blue screen technology. I was looking forward to seeing how the director and those involved were going to portray Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle – underwater. Fortunately, they executed this part well beyond my expectations. You’ll realise via the credits at the end of the movie that there are different and many people involved in making this film come to life.

King Triton, who plays The Little Mermaid’s father, is also one character worth highlighting. One aspect that would leave ordinary viewers wondering is on King Triton’s hair. Via an interview, Javier Bardem, who plays King Triton in the latest adaptation, revealed that his hair had to be digitized due to the nature of the film.

The cast members include Melissa McCarthy of the Gilmore Girls TV series (2000-2007) fame, Awkwafina, who’s known for her portrayal in Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Javier Bardem of Skyfall (2012) and No Country for Old Men (2017) fame.

Despite the differences between the live-action remake and the animated film, the dance movements and choreography were what I was paying attention to. It’s quite impressive how they were done, especially that there was hours of research, effort and collaboration to not only keep the attention of the younger audience but also to attract newer and perhaps viewers of other ages.

While most of the songs in the fantasy-musical film were relevantly placed, there were two occasions that didn’t sit well with me: one, the rather unnecessary rap song Scuttlebutt and two, towards the end of the film, once Princess Ariel’s and Prince Eric’s worlds come together, a repeat of Part of Your World would have given the show a nice finishing touch to the underwater adventure.

All in all, The Little Mermaid 2023 adaptation is still worth a watch. Subtitles provided are both in Malay and Chinese (to accommodate multilingual Malaysians). The 135-minute film is rated P12.

Be right back, going to play Part of Your World on the piano.