The little Mermaid
Credit: Disney
Updated 5/29/23 with a hotfix below. Turns out I really liked this movie!
Something fishy is going on with the one with the little mermaid Rotten Tomato user reviews. I was expecting this movie to do better with critics than audiences given the way culture wars usually work.
Instead, the critics’ score is only 67% as of this writing, while the public gives it a whopping 95%, significantly higher than the jungle book 86% That movie got a 94% with critics.
rotten tomatoes
Screenshot: Erik Kain
This is quite similar to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which scored only a 59% with critics, while 96% of fans reviewed the film positively on Rotten Tomatoes. But that’s reflected almost exactly on Metacritic, where The Super Mario Bros. movie it scored only 46 with critics, but scored 86 with audiences.
Meanwhile, Metacritic’s The little Mermaid page reflects almost the complete opposite of Rotten Tomatoes:
Metacritic
Screenshot: Erik Kain
This is much more in line with what I expected to happen from the audience reviews, since this movie has gotten so caught up in culture war debates about race switching, “awakening” and such, as well as fatigue. from Disney. Many people who haven’t invested in the culture wars at all are, however, tired of live-action remakes.
I find it completely absurd that this movie would score much higher with audiences than critics. Critics, while not entirely politically aligned, as a group are far more likely to be sympathetic to social justice politics and less reactionary to changes made to beloved classics than the average moviegoer. I would expect this movie to have a fairly wide range of positive and negative reviews, and score within a scream of the critic’s score (a little higher or a little lower, but not nearly 30 points higher!)
In fact, the new live-action version of The little Mermaid now he is scoring a lot higher with audiences than the 1989 animated classic, which ranks at 88% with audiences and 92% with critics. Are we to believe that moviegoers love the remake? even more than the original? That was certainly not the case with Beauty and the Beast, which fared better with critics and audiences as a caricature by a wide margin.
I think the 2.1 from Metacritic is a true reflection of the quality of this film? Definitely not. CinemaScore has actual audience members giving this an ‘A’ rating, so it’s definitely being very well received. Beauty and the Beast The live-action remake also earned an ‘A’ CinemaScore, but only registered an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I know Rotten Tomatoes is serious about moderating user reviews and trying to avoid review bombardment, but these scores seem inflated beyond what’s really likely for a movie that’s getting such lukewarm reception. from critics. peter pan and wendy Disney’s most recent live-action remake, it scored slightly lower than The little Mermaid with the critics (62%) but completely bombarded with the public with only 11%.
Even casually observing forums and social media, you see a wide range of reactions, from wild praise to “meh, that was good” to “this was hot crap.” There’s no way the 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating or the 2.1 rating on Metacritic are accurate reflections of what people are saying about this movie in the real world. Make of it what you will.
Finally, I should point out that what Rotten Tomatoes shows on their front page are ‘Verified Audience’ scores, but you can click on ‘Entire Audience’ and suddenly it’s a very different picture:
rotten tomatoes
Screenshot: Erik Kain
This seems like a more realistic reflection of what has become a highly controversial film. The controversy generates negative reviews. (Note: The incontrovertible Super Mario Bros. Movie gets 95% with “All Audience” and 96% with “Verified Audience”).
Similarly, if you click Top Critics instead of All Critics, you’ll see the score drop to just 47%. That aligns even more closely with All Audiences. More and more curious.
I myself have not seen it yet. This is not a review, obviously. I think it looks good. My biggest concern with all of these live-action remakes is that they almost always lose at least some of the magic that the original animated versions had. Even the ones I’ve enjoyed, like Beauty and the Beast, I think to myself afterwards: “Well, I’d rather just watch the original!”
And honestly: You would not do that?
UPDATE:
The little Mermaid
Credit: Disney
The Little Mermaid Review: An Enchanting Surprise
There is a funny scene in the new Little Mermaid Live-action film in which Ariel hooks a hat on to Prince Eric and playfully drops it on his head after snatching it from the peddler. Later, Scuttle steals the hat for the pair to follow the bird to the lagoon so he can serenade the would-be lovers with a slightly altered version of Kiss the girl.
Well, speaking of hats, it’s time for me to eat mine. He was deeply skeptical of this latest Disney remake. I’ve been burned out on the whole project for quite some time and thought this would be another soulless House of Mouse money grab. I made a mistake. The critics must be crazy, because this is an absolutely delicious movie and quite possibly my favorite of all the live-action princess remakes.
Much of that is due to the powerful acting and singing abilities of lead Halle Bailey as Ariel. She is wonderful throughout, perfectly capturing everything we love about the original Ariel, but adding a little more depth and adventure to the character. She and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric have terrific chemistry, which certainly helps. In fact, the entire cast is wonderful and the new versions of the old songs are really funny and charming.
Is it a perfect movie? Absolutely not. There are a handful of new songs and the only one I liked is the Scuttle rap, performed by Awkwafina with some harmonizing by Sebastian. Daveed Diggs is great as the grumpy crab butler.
But Prince Eric’s new song is forgettable, as is Ariel’s new number. They pale in comparison to under the sea and part of your world both are wonderfully adapted here. Bailey’s singing voice really elevates part of your world to a whole new level. It is brilliant. But I miss the cartoon version of under the sea, with all the fish on their musical instruments. And she wishes they had given Ariel and Eric a duet.
My biggest complaint is the fish. I don’t like the attempt to make Sebastian and Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) look “realistic”. You lose a lot of the fun expressiveness of these characters by going this route. I’m delighted that the movie was so bright and colorful after the trailers made it seem so much less, but I honestly don’t like the art direction of the aquatic creatures.
Rounding out the cast we have Javier Bardem as King Triton, where he does a very good job as the strict and then lenient father. His emotional farewell to Ariel hit the spot. (Her multiracial descent from his daughters makes you think he moved under the sea, too.)
I was skeptical of Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, but she also does an excellent job, perfectly capturing everything about the original villain. Her comedic timing and her charm really pay off here.
Altogether this ended up being a very pleasant surprise for me and my children. We all walked in a bit jaded and skeptical and we all left with smiles on our faces, although both my daughter and I cried like babies at the end. I’m a real crybaby when it comes to father/daughter or father/son stuff and I was perfectly touched by this. Probably the best of Disney’s live-action movies, which I’m surprised, but happy, to report.
I guess you can group me with the public on this one. it’s a delight I am still I’m surprised it scores so highly in audience review, but it’s really worth seeing on the big screen. I am happy that I was wrong!
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