Nowadays, there are no depths that Disney won’t sink to in their obsessive pursuit of WOKE ideology and profit over artistic creativity and originality. We have seen this play out over the past several years in movies like the continuation of the Star Wars Saga and on their Disney+ streaming platform. Nothing makes this more evident than the live-action copies of some of their biggest animated classics.
It’s bad enough that these live-action movies are made in the first place. They are not original content and are made because they have already profited from the same idea, so why not.
Sure, they might strive to emulate the mannerisms of the former cartoon versions, but behind the same title and public facade, they leave behind something very different. The vital creative spark and the essence that turned the original animated versions into classics have been brutally erased, leaving behind an empty, uninspired, and emotionless shell of what they once were.
In the case of The Little Mermaid, it’s just another lazy Disney remake. The only thing they make any real effort to change is awkwardly rewriting iconic moments. Hence, making it better suited for ‘modern audiences.’ You know, making sure it adheres to the WOKE MESSAGE.
If you’ve seen the animated version, you’ve seen this movie. Halle Bailey plays Ariel, the teenage daughter of the overly-protective King Triton, who’s fascinated by the world above and longs to explore it. When Eric, the young prince of some random island Kingdom almost dies in a shipwreck, Arial defies her father’s warnings and saves his life. Her desire to be part of Eric’s world brings her to Ursula, the sea witch who offers to turn her into a human being in exchange for her voice. Ursula eventually betrays Ariel and turns into a giant sea monster. Finally, Ursula is killed, and Ariel and Eric live happily ever after.
So, if it’s the same story as before, what’s the issue, right?
The Little Mermaid is a case study of why these live-action adaptations are a terrible idea. It is failing at the box office, and Disney has been doing desperate damage control and using ‘racism’ to rewrite the failure narrative.
Disney would have you think its failure is about racist ‘blacklash’ due to casting a black actress to play Arial. Clearly, having Halley Baily as Arial was controversial and an OBVIOUS Disney attempt at WOKENESS, but blaming that alone for The Little Mermaid’s failure is desperately missing the point. I’ll destroy that false narrative later, but first, let’s discuss the movie.
Seeing all the controversy, I decided to judge for myself. I took one for the team and actually sat through this latest WOKE journey from Disney. I really wanted to gauge how much of the criticism was warranted and how much was embellishment.
Simply put, that was over two hours of my life that I’m never getting back.
THE GOOD
Let’s be honest Hallie Bailey was cast as Arial to send a message and tick a virtue signal box rather than make an honest retelling of the source material. That said, she has a great voice and sings all her songs flawlessly. The other high point was in Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of Ursula. She made Ursula just as delightfully devious as she was in the animated version.
Unfortunately, that’s all the good I could pick out of this monstrosity.
THE BAD
For starters, it looks like Disney really skimped on the CGI. The colorful underwater world of the animated film was turned into a dreary, poorly rendered, ghastly mess with an occasional hint of color to remind you how depressing it was.
The lackluster CGI made the animated characters, like Sebastian, dull and lifeless. That’s ironic since the attempt was to go for ‘life-like.’ The sea creatures were more vibrant in the original. The relatability, the effervescence, and the expression of the animated creatures were all gone. Even the mermaids moved with an unnatural, choppy motion; a far cry from the original mermaid’s fluidity and gracefulness. It’s like the graphics were created on an old Commodore 64 and appeared rushed. Was it an effort to keep costs in check of the already over-expensive movie? Who knows?
What makes staring at the crappy CGI even worse is that the movie seemed to last forever. Well, that’s because it did. The live-action version is almost an hour longer than the original, with nothing substantial added to justify the more extended run time. It’s just slower-paced than before. The mostly disjointed dialogue just drags, and the action and transition scenes go on and on. Even the sea creatures, supposed to be comic relief, get a ton of unnecessary screentime.
Add to this the mediocre acting; it all adds to the sense of annoying frustration that left me bored out of my skull. I can only imagine how some kids, who rely on constant pacification these days, managed to sit through this monstrosity.
THE UGLY
We all know why Halley Baily was cast, and it wasn’t for her ‘amazing’ acting skills nor for her singing; it was about her race, pure and simple. But it wasn’t only her character; this movie was an epic case of WOKE pandering. Disney went to great lengths to check off as many boxes as possible.
The Island Kingdom Prince Eric is from could only come from the simple mind of a modern WOKE Hollywood writer. It looks like it was set in a Caribbean location, but most people there are white and dress like 18th-century Europeans. To add to the confusion, the island’s Queen, Eric’s mother, is black, and the Prime Minister is Pakistani. Huh? No matter where or when the setting is, every Disney movie is now always more diverse than downtown New York City.
Of course, Prince Eric fits neatly into the ‘official’ mold of resigned, gentle, and easily dominated Disney leading Men who lack confidence and charisma and are carefully portrayed so they don’t come across as threatening to anyone in the ‘modern audience.’
The worst part was the covert gender pandering. The writers were careful to obey the ‘Golden Rule’ of modern WOKE writing that no woman can ever be rescued by a man. Ever.
In the animated version, it was Prince Eric who bravely took control of the ship and steered into Ursula’s chest just as she was about to kill Ariel, thus saving her life. Well, those antiquated ideas of heroic, masculine self-sacrifice have no place in a modern, WOKE Disney movie where all women are portrayed as invincible, hard-core badasses who don’t need no stinkin’ help from a ‘man.’
In this version, it’s Ariel who takes control of the ship and saves the day. All this while apparently having zero experience with how ships actually work. So what? None of that matters because Ariel is a ‘strong independent young woman’ who doesn’t need some ‘toxic’ man to help her because she can save herself. Why? Because feminism, damn it.
This is to say nothing of the fact that Disney is killing the whole idea of romance in general.
THE HARSH TRUTH
As I said before, Disney wants to divert the narrative away from how truly awful this movie is by saying its failure is about racist ‘blacklash.’ THIS IS COMPLETELY FALSE.
Disney and their friends in the Liberal media tried to say that it’s toxic racists who are out there ‘review bombing’ because they ‘hate black people.’
Well, less than a week after, that narrative was completely crushed. They forgot that the very next weekend, the big release was, Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse; another movie led by a black actor and is also geared towards families; the same demographic Disney is targeting.
Unfortunately, for the race hustlers at Disney and in the Liberal media trying to spin this narrative, Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse is demolishing the box office right now.
Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse only has a Million dollar budget and will make tens of Millions of dollars. The Little Mermaid, on the other hand, will be lucky to break even. False narrative destroyed!
In a nutshell, The Little Mermaid remake is absolute garbage, even if the lead was a red-headed white girl. The lack of creativity at Disney in order to push a political agenda is destroying the brand; this movie is just a microcosm of this.
The movie’s only real accomplishment will be showing the world that Disney will soon be joining Bud Lite and Target on the trash heap of WOKE failures while at the same time, creating a surge in support for the original animated movie.
