When most remakes come out that are based on a source material like a book or even an older movie, there’s always that 50/50 split of whether it’s going to be bad or not. Disney has proven again and again that they don’t know how to replicate their own brilliant movies when they make less than fantastic live-action versions, and it seems that The Little Mermaid was already made into a live action version before Disney could do it themselves, with a 2018 version made outside of the Disney bubble to less than aggressive fanfare, with many either completely ignoring its existence of quickly dismissing once they realize it isn’t connected to the original version. Telling a different story from the original book by Hans Christian Andersen, the story follows a young man named Cam (played by William Moseley) who must tend to his niece, Elle (played by Loreto Peralta) who is struck with a rare lung disease that stops her from having an active childhood. With the promise of a special healing water made by a mermaid from a travelling circus in Mississippi, the two travel to find a cure for Elle’s condition. Upon arriving, they meet the star attraction, a mermaid named Elizabeth (played by Poppy Drayton) who is cursed to remain a prisoner to the host of the show, Locke (played by Armando Gutierrez) who was the one who gave her legs in return for her soul. After bonding with her and realizing that Elle also has a connection to the water, they try to find a way to return the mermaid to the sea and get her soul back from the evil wizard. For a version with a completely new story and one that has nothing to do with Disney, the film went for broke with what it could get away with and threw a random, confused, low budget, but overall harmless version at the wall to see if anything stuck. The film definitely tries in aspects with the little it can work with (its budget was a measly $5 million and even failed to gross upward from that amount with only $4.5 million in return) and attempts to recreate the idea of the Little Mermaid into its own unique version, which whether good or otherwise, is better than trying to change nothing at all.

The plot for this film is nothing like the original story or even like the Disney animated version (which in itself transformed a lot of the story’s content to be more child-friendly). The actual story is told as a nicely done animated prologue, which is a nice detail for the movie and does a pretty good job summing up the important plot points for the overall tale whilst making it clear right from the beginning that this won’t be a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale. Some of the new concepts introduced, while incredibly foreign to the original and are hampered with various clichés that aren’t given enough fleshing out to feel original, makes it very clear that this is NOT a retelling but rather a brand new interpretation, and the fact that it tries to make a mark for itself and do something completely different is at least commendable, even if it does ultimately fail. Stuff like the young girl suffering from a sickness that’s connected to the sea, the mermaid being kept as a circus demonstration, and even an alternate reality of what would happen if the Little Mermaid didn’t get her ‘’happily ever after’’ are nice beginnings to ideas, but the problems come from how little is furthered beyond those concepts. The ideas have possibilities, but their execution from writer director Blake Harris (who co-directed the film along with Chris Bouchard) leaves a lot rushed and heavily unfinished by the film’s ending. The actual narrative is as basic as any other random ‘fairy tale set in realistic setting’ type story goes, focusing on a single person who refuses to believe that fantasy exists until it is forcibly shoved onto them, which leaves little room for variety or even creativity in the story and keeps it horribly cliched and dull. The majority of the film is spent with non-magical, non-creative scenarios and characters, with a lot of the magical elements pushed to the background where nothing can grow or feel magical. The romance is weak, the film has no establishment for most of the characters (even some appear out of nowhere during the climax), and the film seems to accomplish next to nothing by its end. It’s clear it wanted to be unique from the original and had these specific ideas that would have worked, but never thought of the structure surrounding these ideas holding them together, which leaves the film come the end a muddled in-offensive, but still poor plot.

The characters are as weak as the story has written them and all fall under very recognizable tropes for this kind of movie; the man who doesn’t believe in magic, the young girl who does believe and is connected to the magical element, the villain who is so obviously evil even his glowing purple hideout and his ridiculously over-the-top outfit doesn’t hide it, and the various fanatical creatures that have to hide in the real world but bring their magic to those who don’t suspect it. Because of how stale and simplistic the characters are along with how rushed their arcs are, it’s hard to gain that much sympathy for them in such a quick time. The acting isn’t all that much better as everyone has this odd calmness to them that makes everything feel less urgent and frantic than it really should feel, almost like everyone is asleep throughout and it really puts a distinct mood on the entire movie. William Moseley sounds half-asleep through his performance, Loreto Peralta as Elle is clearly trying but suffers from some poor line reads every once and awhile, the townsfolk all sound like parodies of what Mississippian people talk like with their thick accents and wildly weird, often crazy personalities, and the side characters come  too late in the game to earn any investment (you have Shirley MacLaine in your movie, and she barely gets any scenes). The only two that left good impressions were Poppy Drayton as the Mermaid and Armando Gutierrez as the villain. Drayton has a voice fitting for a magical creature of royalty but still show off a hint of a spirited side and is genuinely charming and pretty effective despite the poor writing and being stuck with a really boring name for a mermaid (Elizabeth just makes her sound like any random heroine out of a Jane Austen novel). The villain is also kinda fun in moments; even though he has no backstory, personality, or even intimidation, his stature, presence, and performance by Gutierrez exude this over-the-top evilness that is pretty fun to witness (it’s no Ursula, but it’s not bad to watch either).

Since the movie didn’t appear in many theatres and went wildly under the radar after the public realized it wasn’t made by Disney, the film is obviously not as financially strong as others of its type. For what it has though, there are aspects of the movie that do look quite nice. The look of the mermaid fin looks genuine enough to fool people, the film has a solid production design by Parker Beck and Jay Weber with some very nice colors and lighting shots that give the movie a much more appealing look than what could have come across in this live-action movie with little fantasy (with the deep blue shining in the night skies, and the villain’s lair showing off some nice purples and blacks), and it does have most of its visuals really there and not just computer generated effects, though when the effects are used, it looks pretty cheap especially in the films climax. The writing doesn’t have the intense narrative or creative magical elements that the original story had, or the light-hearted charm and entertaining word play that the animated film did, instead the writing feels like its made up of romance clichés and corny lines that are supposed to be poetic, but doesn’t leave much to be remembered and fails to grab anyone with its words, which fairy tales usually do so well. There’s also an out-of-nowhere song during the middle sung by the mermaid, which while not awful and sung nicely enough, doesn’t really add anything that wasn’t already obvious and doesn’t match the tone the film set-up previously.

Though it is very much like a cracked seashell washed ashore ahead of many others, the movie is nothing that is worth getting angry over. The book is a classic and everyone still loves it, the Disney animated version still exists, and everyone will still love it after this, this version just tried and failed to make something different out of a timeless classic. The 2018 Little Mermaid movie attempted to create a story that could reasonably exists in its story-book world without copying the original tale, and while it’s a valiant thought, the end results aren’t the perfect match. The story has potential but lacks focus, the characters are weak and rushed, the acting feels weirdly laid-back, and its writing is rather lazy. For what it is, it has some likeable elements, some pretty visuals, and a well-acted mermaid, but everything else feels soaked and out of breath. While it’s debatable whether Disney will later do any better with their own live action version, this one couldn’t stand on top of its own ambitions. An idea with promise, but with results as confusing as a Dinglehopper.

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