JeffTheAlpaca

Was the Lion King the rare live action movie that was considered good?

I did not like that either.

Dumbo, Aladdin, Pinocchio. Lady and Tramp, etc and a huge list of failures.

GoldenJCJ

^Aladdin made over a billion worldwide. I think The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King we’re also considered successes though I’m too lazy to look up the numbers.

Decker

It was neither good, nor live-action
Pinocchio and Lady and the Tramp were streaming-only films, they may have been critical failures, but they never say the box office.
I didn’t love Aladdin, but it made over a billion dollars at the box office. That wasn’t a failure no matter what metric you use.

Giantrobo

Meh, sorry but wishing Movies fail and TV Shows get cancelled because one personally doesn't have a taste for them is simply CHILDISH. Thousands of jobs are connected to those projects. There are simply too many OTHER things one could enjoy to wish that kind of negativity on something.

JeffTheAlpaca

But not if it is Disney a mega trillion corporation.

The movie could bomb and they will not go bankrupt and churn out another flop next Summer.

If you want to see Javier Bordam in a family friendly movie check out Lyle Lyle Crocodile a much better movie.

RichC2

Why did you go see it if you're that opposed to remakes? Freebie?

whotony

I dont agree with him but did he say he saw it?

DJariya

Yup, this is how toxic fandom starts.

Halle Bailey has received toxic feedback from people who hate she was cast as Ariel without even having seen the movie. She's a beautiful and extremely talented young singer/actress. And she's going to be great in the new Color Purple.

If you have no interest in seeing this, then just move the fuck on with your life.

But, No we live in such a society where "I'm outraged by the movie, and you need to hate it too!"

RichC2

He said Lyle was a much better movie.

..putting the uh, deuce in deducing.

JeffTheAlpaca

This movie is for little girls and not guys over 40 and why are people so eager to defend it?

story

I mean, do you hear yourself?!

TomOpus

You're one of those that'll say Spiderman: Across the Spider Verse is for kids because it's a cartoon.

TheBang

OK, so I watched this yesterday, and that Scuttle scene underwater is just patently insane. She just sits there for a full minute or more underwater having a conversation with Ariel and Flounder. She even says "I have to get some air" at the end of the conversation. It's just insane. If I hadn't been prepared for the scene by the Twitter post, I probably would have been distracted for several minutes WTF'ing at the screen.

Other thoughts. Bailey is good as Ariel. Sebastian and Ursula had such iconic voice performances that it's difficult for the performers here to distinguish themselves. Sebastian's actor tries, and it's all right, but a little weak. McCarthy just does a Pat Carroll impression, and I wish she had tried to do something different to make it her own.

I was fine with losing the "Les Poissons" comedy interlude for the "Scuttlebutt" rap instead. They both serve the same purpose, and Les Poissons would have been difficult to work in.

I have complaints about the population of the ocean. For Under the Sea, you don't see too many different types of animals on-screen together (only 1 or 2 at a time) until the very end of the song. Nothing like what a teaming reef is really like. Maybe it was to make a bigger impact at the end when everything is shown all together? Similarly, mermaid (and mermen) are just not prominent in this movie. You see a couple mermaids during the opening titles, then Triton's daughters, and one king's helper in one scene when he retrieves Sebastian. And that's it, until the very end! There's no kingdom; you've got Triton's daughters doing tasks like cleaning or looking for Ariel. You don't get the sense that there's a big underwater kingdom being ruled.

Also, I think they made a mistake in removing the Daughters of Triton song. Not only did it show scope of the mermaid kingdom, it also established Sebastian's musical bona fides, as well as the fact that Ariel is considered the "best" daughter, the vocal prodigy. Now, you only get one line from Sebastian about writing symphonies, and then he's doing the big Under the Sea musical number. And Ariel's vocal specialness isn't well-defined, other than showing us in her "I Want" song.

Overall, the further I get from seeing the movie, the less I think of it. It was fine, just fine, but it doesn't do anything too interesting or different, and so doesn't seem to have a reason to exist. I liked Aladdin and the Jungle Book, because they were fun and brought new or different energy to it. Mulan, at least, tried to be different too. Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast just didn't do it for me.

DJariya

Do you realize how childish you sound with this take? At least The Bang saw it and gave a well thought out opinion of it even though he wasn't praising it.

JeremyM

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, though Bang has some solid points (I did come around on Sebastian though it did take me a little bit). I thought Berry was outstanding as Ariel and I thought they did a good job of making Eric interesting. It's been a while since I have seen the animated version so I will need to watch that again soon to see what was different. Was the scene with Eric collecting trinkets from the ocean in the original? That was a nice little moment.

dex14

Disney+ on Sept 6.

jjcool

So what's the general consensus on this remake? Worth it? Better than the original?

DJariya

Considering like 5 people in this forum, including myself, saw this in the theater back in May, this forum is not a good indicator of interest. I liked it, as I said in my initial thoughts.


https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the...e_mermaid_2023

But, 67% RT score and 94% audience score. The majority of people outside this forum who saw it, liked it.

Goldberg74

Of the live action remakes, I saw Cinderella (2015) in the theater and Beauty and the Beast (2017) on Bluray and Mulan (2020) on Disney+.

… I have yet to see (nor have any interest in seeing) the rest, mostly due to having teenagers now who aren’t interested either.

Maybe one day, when I’m bored.

Boba Fett

Ive seen all the live action remakes to date except for this, the Hanks Pinocchio and new Peter Pan. I bought Cinderella and Jungle Book on physical media. The rest I never need to see again.

Cellar Door

Just watched this on Disney+. For the record, I've seen the animated movie twice and I think it's kind of overrated. Some good songs, but the love story is paper-thin. At first, I wasn't really digging this live-action remake. Something about the underwater scenes early in the movie seemed off somehow, visually, and everything felt like they were trying too hard to emulate the original. Starting with the shipwreck, though, I started to enjoy it more. I think this movie fixed my main issue with the animated one by giving more time to show Ariel and Eric actually falling in love. The final battle with Ursula was pretty good, too. So, overall I liked it and would probably choose to watch this again over the animated one. (But, really, I'd rather rewatch Ponyo instead )

RocShemp

I only liked Dumbo, The Jungle Book, and Aladdin.

As a Kenneth Branagh fan, I wanted to enjoy Cinderella. However, despite an excellent cast and gorgeous production design, it was dreadfully dull.

fujishig

I mean most of the animated movies have paper thin romances, even in that later era (ala Beauty and the Beast). Not sure that makes it overrated as a kids movie though.

RocShemp

In all fairness, it seems neither version has a good love story.

nickdawgy

I liked it. I also liked Aladdin but not so much Lion King. The remakes I mean. I haven’t seen any of the other ones.