The Little Mermaid is the latest in a long line of live-action remakes of beloved Disney animated films. With the first reviews washing ashore, the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score shows whether it’ll sink or swim at the box office.
Contrary to fan reactions online, live-action Disney remakes tend to do rather well on Rotten Tomatoes, with only a few exceptions such as Pinocchio (2022) and Aladdin (2019) dropping to rotten status. This trend continues with The Little Mermaid, with audiences’ return under the sea scoring a 73% on the site as of the time of writing, just 2% below the threshold of being ‘Certified Fresh’.
Disney’s live-action remakes like The Little Mermaid serve as proof for the idea that Rotten Tomatoes scores don’t represent the entirety of the film-going audience. The recent slew of remakes has garnered Disney heaps of criticism online for their unoriginality. However, considering three of their recent remakes have made over a billion dollars at the box office, with The Lion King remake sitting as the ninth highest grossing film of all time, it sure does seem like general audiences enjoy these remakes.
What to expect from Disney’s The Little Mermaid remake
The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most beloved movies and fans have been eagerly anticipating news of the live-action remake. The use of photo-realistic realistic CGI in the movie has been a topic of discussion among fans. Some have expressed concern that the upcoming movie will lack the magic and charm of the original animated version. However, the use of CGI has allowed Disney to create stunningly realistic depictions of the movie’s characters, bringing them to life in a way that would not have been possible with traditional animation.
Regardless of where fans fall on the live-action remake debate, there is no denying that The Little Mermaid is about to be one of the biggest movies of 2023. The upcoming live-action adaptation features new songs composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken, in addition to the classic tunes that the latter wrote for the original animated version. Miranda not only serves as a songwriter but also an executive producer, along with Rob Marshall, Marc Platt and John DeLuca.
Directed by Marshall and written by David Magee, Disney’s The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric and Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder. Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs voice the characters of Scuttle and Sebastian the Crab, respectively, with Javier Bardem on board as King Triton.
The Little Mermaid arrives in theaters on May 26, 2023. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding Disney’s upcoming features and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
Source: RottenTomatoes.com
