![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Live-Action Cartoons
Sep. 8th, 2023 01:42 pmSo I watched, against my better judgment, the """"live-action"""" (as much as anything that CGI can be classed as Live-action) Little Mermaid. Live-tweeted here!
It was ... not as unwatchable as the """live-action""" Beauty and the Beast*!
I do not care for these Disney remakes as a rule. They're wildly unnecessary, and the originals have worn such grooves into my brain that I don't think it's possible to make a movie that would not jolt those grooves and cause me great discomfort, like trying to sing along to a cover of a song I know and love. So I generally avoid them at all costs. But this one was at least pretty to look at, and I loved the casting of Halle Bailey. I did not know it was possible for an actual human to look that much like a Disney Princess. Also, Melissa McCarthy won me over as Ursula, which should be impossible.**
But something about the attempt to make it "live-action," or at least realistic-ish CGI, makes these movies lose some kind of energy that comes from the cartoonishness. Sidekick abuse is much funnier in cartoons, for one thing, But also, it somehow feels more low-key for all it's trying to look big and bold; the songs feel muted and boring, the emotional beats feel like they're barely paid any attention, and Triton especially was not nearly shouty enough for me.*** But I kinda appreciated Eric having an overbearing mother to bounce his personality off of, though it was a transparent attempt to flesh out his character. I did kinda miss his meet-cute with Ariel on the beach, though. They seemed like such a teenage couple in the '89 version.
Basically, it was an unnecessary but inoffensive foray into Disney's """live-action""" remakes. And hey, Black Ariel is pretty cool!
*Honestly, if the Beast had transformed into Ron Perlman at the end, I'd have loved it.
**Look, Ursula was responsible for rearranging my synapses at a formative stage, okay?! I'd have been all for Drag Queen!Ursula, except with the current moral panic about drag it seems smart not to make your boundary-ignoring tentacle-monster villain a drag queen.
***He sure made an impression on an almost-4-year-old, I tell you what.
It was ... not as unwatchable as the """live-action""" Beauty and the Beast*!
I do not care for these Disney remakes as a rule. They're wildly unnecessary, and the originals have worn such grooves into my brain that I don't think it's possible to make a movie that would not jolt those grooves and cause me great discomfort, like trying to sing along to a cover of a song I know and love. So I generally avoid them at all costs. But this one was at least pretty to look at, and I loved the casting of Halle Bailey. I did not know it was possible for an actual human to look that much like a Disney Princess. Also, Melissa McCarthy won me over as Ursula, which should be impossible.**
But something about the attempt to make it "live-action," or at least realistic-ish CGI, makes these movies lose some kind of energy that comes from the cartoonishness. Sidekick abuse is much funnier in cartoons, for one thing, But also, it somehow feels more low-key for all it's trying to look big and bold; the songs feel muted and boring, the emotional beats feel like they're barely paid any attention, and Triton especially was not nearly shouty enough for me.*** But I kinda appreciated Eric having an overbearing mother to bounce his personality off of, though it was a transparent attempt to flesh out his character. I did kinda miss his meet-cute with Ariel on the beach, though. They seemed like such a teenage couple in the '89 version.
Basically, it was an unnecessary but inoffensive foray into Disney's """live-action""" remakes. And hey, Black Ariel is pretty cool!
*Honestly, if the Beast had transformed into Ron Perlman at the end, I'd have loved it.
**Look, Ursula was responsible for rearranging my synapses at a formative stage, okay?! I'd have been all for Drag Queen!Ursula, except with the current moral panic about drag it seems smart not to make your boundary-ignoring tentacle-monster villain a drag queen.
***He sure made an impression on an almost-4-year-old, I tell you what.
