The Little Mermaid

Another live-action remake of one of Disney's treasured animated classics. There was a lot of buzz about this one, as a black girl (Halle Bailey) was cast to play Ariel. That turned out to be the perfect lightning rod to cover up the subpar quality of the film. I'm not sure what Disney is doing, but they need someone to spend their money a bit more responsibly.

The story hasn't changed too much. It's still the tale of a young mermaid who falls in love with a prince and trades her mermaid traits to become a human. Her friends (a crab, and a seagull) remain with her during her transformation, but life as a human is not as easy as she'd imagined.

Bailey can sing, but she's not a great actress. The bigger problem here though is the ugly CG and the atrociously designed underwater scenes. Hollywood really needs to do better. The rest of the cast isn't great either, the voice acting is terrible and the film is way too long. I can't imagine this doing justice to people's childhood memories, regardless of the skin color of the lead actress.