The youngest of King Triton's (Javier Bardem) daughters, and the most defiant and spirited, Aerial (Halle Bailey) longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King). While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Aerial must follow her heart. Subsequently, out of desperation, she makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), which gives her a chance to experience life on land. However, the deal is that she must kiss the prince passionately in three days or loses her voice to Ursula and becomes the witch's property. Agreeing with this ultimately places her life--and her father's crown--in jeopardy.
Others to round out the cast are Art Malik as Sir Grumsby, Noma Dumezweni as The Queen, Daweed Diggs as Sebastian (voice), Awkwafina as Scuttle (voice), Jacob Tremblay as Flounder (voice), Jessica Alexander as Vanessa, Martina Laird as Lashana, Emily Coates as Rosa, Christopher Fairbank as Hawkins and John Dagleish as Mulligan.
This was directed with the expertise we've come to expect from Rob Marshall (" Chicago" '02, "Memoirs of a Geisha" '05, "Nine" '09, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" '11, "Into the Woods" '14, "Mary Poppins Returns" '18) plus TV, TV specials and a video. Certainly when it comes to musicals, Marshall is a consummate pro--look at his impressive resume and you'll realize that he is incredible when it comes to the ability of editing the musical numbers within the dialogue with amazing precision. I never tire of this filmmaker's ability to create a musical with incredible panache and subsequently give his audience pure entertainment. It was effectively written by David Magee ("Finding Neverland"'04, "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" '08, "Life of Pi" '12, "Mary Poppins Returns" '18, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" '22, "The School for Good and Evil" '22, "A Man Called Otto" '22). As with Disney and their other films redone from their animated formats, this film was incredibly delineated with perfect accuracy and was truly entertaining. The issues I really only have with this is the fact that there were a couple of places that were a bit slow which made it a bit long-in-the-tooth, and I couldn't help but notice that Prince Eric was obviously very white (caucasian), whereas his mother, the Queen was obviously very African-American or black which looked out of place. I kept observing and analyzing, and finally concluded that I couldn't see any white in one of them or black in the other. Both actors were effective thespians, but the casting was puzzling. Was it Disney being woke? I don't know, but casting is a very important element when it comes to the creation of any film. If you like this writer's brand, his "The Tiger's Apprentice" is in production for a 2024 release. The musical numbers were amazing in that the music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman were such a joy to relive. They even were able to have Lin-Manuel Miranda create some added new lyrics to the production. He was able to create work which obtained a similar feel of Ashman's original lyrics which is commendable. Even the film was dedicated to the memory of Howard Ashman at the end of the credits who actually passed away after he and Menken created the music for the animated "Aladdin".
Certainly if you like Disney's other live action films based of their animated counterparts, you will definitely love this. It's entertaining, adventurous, humorous and exciting all the while having that infamous music one can hum right along with. This looks great on the large screen and is also presented in an IMAX format as well.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG 135mins.
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