The original came out in 1989, which means that the children who grew up watching it are all well into their 30s by now. As I sat in a packed theater filled with little kids wearing their best mermaid-inspired ensembles at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York earlier this week, I realized I was not Disney’s target audience for their latest live-action remake of the classic and neither were the rest of the film’s OG fans.
Most people who grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s have their favorite go-to princess—and Ariel was mine, so my expectations were high going in. But watching it from the perspective and awareness that Disney didn’t make this for me but for a whole new generation made the film more satisfying.
Hearing the kids’ laughs and giggles, mostly at Daveed Diggs’ hilarious take on Sebastian and Awkwafina as Scuttle, was confirmation that while nothing will top the original, the kids deserved an updated, more inclusive version. I was simply there to pass on one of my most treasured memories for them to hopefully cherish the way I once did.
While the live-action version follows the original story’s plot fairly closely, it somehow feels much slower-paced. The original version has a runtime of an hour and 22 minutes while this year’s has a confirmed two-hour and 15-minute runtime. Some songs from the original were cut and new ones were added, while the more dramatic scenes were elongated, and made the film feel less lighthearted and heavier than the animated version.
So while their target audience seems to be younger children, wouldn’t it make more sense to make it as fast-paced and digestible as possible? We’re currently in a space in film where it seems like a rarity to have a project that is less than two hours long. I implore all studios that they get back to leaving some things on the cutting room floor so a movie doesn’t feel longer than it has to be, regardless of whom they are making films for.
The children at my screening seemed enthralled in the story from beginning to end regardless of the movie’s length, though, so perhaps it’s just my millennial brain that is yearning for brevity. The scenes with Ursula, played deliciously by Melissa McCarthy, in particular, felt as if they were unnecessarily stretched. Perhaps she was too good at playing the villain that it made me want to see less of her, the same way I felt regarding Dante (Jason Momoa) in Fast X. Too much of a bad thing, no matter how strong the performance, is never good.
Unlike me, they didn’t care that the mermaids’ wigs were a mess, that the underwater scenes (while beautiful) weren’t as breathtaking as the ones in Avatar: The Way of Water or if Ariel’s iconic rock scene didn’t have as much of a powerful wave splash behind her as I would have liked. They were simply there for a new and fresh experience.
We could all learn a thing or two from them, as Hollywood seems to be consumed with remaking our childhood favorites. It’s best to let go, sit back, and enjoy the ride, just like the overjoyed kids that surrounded me in that theater did. The Little Mermaid may not live up to the standards of diehard fans but it will surely bring about the same emotions the original did, while also completing the important task of making groups of underrepresented people feel more seen.
This content was originally published here.
