Film Review: The Little Mermaid is solidly entertaining - but not quite spectacular

"Comparisons with the original are perhaps a little unfair, and especially given the riot of undersea colour that animation can create, but overall Rob Marshall’s version is solidly entertaining if not quite the visual spectacular we might have hoped for..."

The Little Mermaid. Pics: Disney

• The Little Mermaid
• ★★★★☆

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water ... no, wait, that’s a different remake entirely. 

The Little Mermaid (PG) is the latest of Disney’s live-action versions of their classic fairytales, and it’s fair to say that not much has changed from the 1989 movie: 16-year-old mermaid Ariel (Halle Bailey) is fascinated by the humans who inhabit the upper world, but is prohibited from engaging with ‘the most dangerous species of all’ by her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem).

Which is the best way possible — as any parent of a teenager can attest — of ensuring that Ariel gets entangled with humans, and specifically Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), whom she saves from drowning when his ship goes down during a storm. 

Desperate to see Eric again, Ariel strikes a Faustian deal with the squid-like Sea-Witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) that allows her to visit the upper world, unaware that the double-crossing Ursula has plans to steal her beautiful voice...

The Little Mermaid. Pics: Disney

Comparisons with the original The Little Mermaid are perhaps a little unfair, and especially given the riot of undersea colour that animation can create (the CGI employed here, it should be said, contributes plenty of flora-and-fauna eye-candy), but overall Rob Marshall’s version is solidly entertaining if not quite the visual spectacular we might have hoped for.

The Little Mermaid. Pics: Disney

Halle Bailey, in her first leading role, makes for a delightful Ariel as she portrays the fiercely independent teen who finds herself a fish out of water, and also delivers superb vocals on new renditions of Alan Menken and Harold Ashman’s classic tunes (Lin-Manuel Miranda also contributes some new numbers). 

There’s good comic support from Awkwafina as the seagull Scuttle and Daveed Diggs as Sebastian the Crab.

(cinema release)