My daughter is home sick from school today, she is fine, just a mild cold with a cough, and when the kids stay home they get to pick the tv show or movie we watch after the doctor appointment. My daughter wanted to watch "The Little Mermaid". I thought, cool, I haven't seen that movie in a long, long time. So I went to turn on the cartoon, the one I know of, and that was when she stopped me and told me she wanted the live action "Little Mermaid". I had totally forgotten that they made a live action version. She reminded me that she and my wife saw it in the theaters with my mother in law. That was when it clicked with me that they did make it, and it was easily findable on Disney +.

I turned it on not expecting much or to even be fully paying attention. These live action remakes have been pretty subpar up to this point. But I was fully in right after they did the "Under the Sea" song. This was a visual feast. I loved every choice that they made while doing this musical number in this movie. It was pretty tremendous and the movie never lost my attention from that point on. This is a very good live action remake. I think it is the best one to date. Halle Bailey is simply amazing as Ariel. She has a powerhouse of a voice. When she sings you cannot help but listen. She takes these famous songs and makes them her own. She also happens to be a solid actor. She embodied the cartoon character. She had the red hair. The way they made her mermaid tale was very cool, and looked very real. When she comes on land and cannot talk, which should be very hard to do, she totally nailed it. I bought it from the jump. She is a star. Melissa McCarthy was pretty superb as Ursula. She looked like she was having a great time doing this, never really taking her foot off the pedal. She chewed the scenery in the best possible way. She also looked like the cartoon character, but more palatable. My hat is off to the makeup and animation team for achieving that masterfully. Prince Eric, I don't remember the actor's name, was fine. This movie isn't about him though. Awkwafina as Scuttle, a new character, was funny and my favorite in the whole movie. She even got to rap and she crushed it. Daveed Diggs was pretty good as Sebastian. You have to get over the fact that he is doing a very cliche Jamaican accent. But once you do it is easy to buy into his performance. He is a great performer and singer and that dude gives every project he is in his full go. He doesn't let up for one second. I really loved the back and forth between him and Scuttle. I kind of want a Sebastian and Scuttle side movie where they fall in love. But make no mistake, this is Halle Bailey's starring role and her introduction to the entire world. And she hit an absolute homerun. She is incredibly talented and is going to be around for a long, long time.

I definitely recommend this movie for parents with young kids and for people who grew up as a child of the 90's just like me. You will appreciate how well they interpret this movie and even the added stuff feels classic. The live action "Little Mermaid" is a pretty decent movie. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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