Jonah Hauer-king - Blog Posts

How Eric looks and smiles at Ariel and his arm around her 🥹🩵

My heart did weird stuff while watching this scene.

The Little Mermaid (2023) Directed by Rob Marshall

The Little Mermaid Live Action

I’m so freaking prepared for this movie and it’s not even funny!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve watched the trailer so many times since the full trailer was released.

The original Little Mermaid movie was and is still one of my all time favorite Disney movies. And now just seeing in come to life is amazing. I can already tell you I’m gonna be in tears probably halfway through the movie.

There are probably a million reasons why I’m so excited but I’m only going to talk about my top 3.

Halle Bailey: She such a beautiful woman and a wonderful singer. I heard her singing only a few times before, but when I really heard her voice was during the Disney World 50th Anniversary and she sang “Can You Feel Love Tonight” and she has such a beautiful singing voice. I also read this article somewhere online about Jodi Benson (the original Ariel) and her opinion about Halle playing Ariel. Jodi Benson has been very supportive of Halle as she plays Ariel and was there when Halle received backlash about her playing Ariel. So, Jodi Benson talked about how it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look, or where your from, it’s about the spirit of the character is what’s important. I 100% agree with her. Halle Bailey is going to do a wonderful job by bring one of the most iconic Disney princesses to life.

2. The Music and New Songs: Can we just take a moment and talk about Lin-Manuel Miranda?!?! As everyone should know, he wrote the Broadway musicals “In The Heights” and “Hamilton” and has also written music for other Disney movies like “Encanto” and “Moana”. Lin-Manuel is also a big Disney fan and he also named his son after Sebastian in the little mermaid. And now he gets to work with Alan Menken (the original music composer) and he was the one who inspired Lin-Manuel to compose music. He basically gets to work with his hero and that’s amazing!!!! I’ve also read somewhere that Lin-Manuel might be Chef Louis in the movie.

Ok, now the music. We all have to admit that the original soundtrack slaps!!!! They are classics and masterpieces. I can’t wait to listen to it again in the live action. I have a feeling some of the songs might be a tad different from the original, but that doesn’t bother me. The have done the same thing in all the other Disney live action movies and I love those movies.

I’m really excited to hear these new songs in the movie. As I said earlier, Lin-Manuel Miranda got up work with Alan Menken and wrote 4 new songs. Can’t wait to hear them and listen to them like a million times once the soundtrack comes out.

3. The Actors: Besides Halle Bailey as Ariel, I think they did an amazing job with the cast. I mean, you could have picked better than these actors and actresses to play these roles.

Awkwafina as Scuttle: If you didn’t know who she is, Awkwafina was in “Jumamji: The Next Level” and “Chang-Shi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. She is a really funny actress and always makes me laugh. I think she will make a great Scuttle.

Daveed Diggs as Sebastian: I think everyone had a feeling that he would play Sebastian before the trailer even came out. He was in “Hamilton” with Lin-Manuel Miranda and also rapped a whole bunch in the musical. I read somewhere that he might rap in the movie and that makes me happy. He honestly fits the role of Sebastian perfectly.

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula: Just like Awkwafina, Melissa McCarthy also makes me laugh as well. She was in the movie “Life of the Party” and Netflix “Thunder Force”. I’m excited to see her bring out her inner diva while playing Ursula.

Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric: First of all, he is extremely cute and hot. When I first saw him I was like blushing like crazy. Also, he was in “A Dog’s Way Home” and the tv show “World On Fire”. I’m excited to see him play Prince Eric. Another thing to point out is that Prince Eric was my Disney Prince crush when I was little and that crush it starting up again.

Those are my top 3 reasons why I am excited about the Live Action Little Mermaid. I won’t be able to wait any longer as it approaches theaters.

My Thoughts On The Little Mermaid Live Action

I personally loved the movie.

The visual affects were stunning. It made it seem like it was actually taking place underwater, which was the point and they achieved that pretty well.

I personally don’t mind Flounder and Sebastian looking realistic because every other fish is also realistic in the movie, so they fit in and don’t look out of place.

I especially loved the music. I’m a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work in general, and he did not disappoint and amazed me with his work once again. In my opinion the songs were the most entertaining and enjoyable part of the movie and kept it from being boring.

The songs feel like musical theater songs, I’m not surprised by that because Lin-Manuel Miranda worked on them and he has worked for Broadway musicals before. They sounded fantastic.

The Scuttlebutt didn’t feel so out of place. Out of context it feels weird but with the context not so much. Because Scuttles mostly blabbers in the movie.

The rap wasn’t bad in my opinion.

Also, I found Daveed Diggs’ (he voices Sebastian in the live action) rap at the end of the song to hype up Ariel to get ready to be kinda similar to Daveed Diggs role in Hamilton as Lafayette when he was telling Washington to get his right hand man back for the war. If this was intentional, it felt like a nice reference.

I love how different Halle Bailey is to the original Ariel.

The original Ariel’s Part of Your World song seemed a bit melancholic and Ariel seemed resigned to her fate. Halle Bailey’s Ariel’s Part of Your World song was a combination of frustration and determination. This made the two reprises of the song later on in the film even more powerful. With one being hopeful and the other being sorrowful. I commend Halle Bailey on conveying all those different emotions, she’s an excellent singer and actress.

Unlike the animated film, Ariel doesn't actually go up to the surface until after her fight with her father which is a small but smart change that I liked. Instead of being rebellious because she's a teenager this version of Ariel is frustrated at the fact that she's constantly ignored and controlled and I like that Triton's unreasonable behavior effectively becomes the catalyst for her to go to the surface, I like that irony.

The storm in the beginning of the movie felt almost identical to the animated movie. The effects felt realistic and climactic.

I love how Ariel got a song when she first became a human. It made us see her perspective and understand her better.

Compared to to the animated Ariel, this version of Ariel was less Love Struck. Instead she seems to be more intrigued by Eric in the human world which does feel more realistic. It shows her curiosity for the human world a lot more. Which is a change I liked.

I’m glad they didn’t go for the love at first sight thing for the remake and gave Ariel and Eric time to bond. I loved the chemistry between them.

I personally prefer their bonding time in the live action over the dinner they had in the original, and we still got a “dinglehopper” scene.

Also, I found the way Eric learned Ariel’s name to be adorable.

In the animated film it's kind of a love at first sight moment with Ariel falling for Eric after he talks about looking for his dream girl but in the live action it's more like their kindred spirits both feeling pressured to live up to their family's expectations of them and sharing a desire to explore the world. They understood each other and related to one another without the use of words, which I find adorable.

I loved the market Eric and Ariel went to. The production team made a fantastic job, it really seemed like it could be a marketplace in the kingdom. I also love the choreography, the music and the dance for the place, it seemed very fitting and not out of place.

I also love how we got to see Prince Eric’s side of the story, he even had his own song.

In my opinion him being adopted gives him more character depth, him loosing his parents in a shipwreck gives him more reason to be so drawn to the sea.

When Eric recovered he sends people to look for the girl who saved him and I like that he takes a more active role in finding her in the live action, unlike in the animated movie where he’s just wandering around on a beach. Because of the incident his mother forbids him from sailing again which leads to our first new song of the film wild Uncharted Waters. The lyrics are filled with Maritime references which are a bit obvious which is good in my opinion because it makes the viewer understand them easier. It works for the new direction they've taken with Eric's character. It feels like a heartfelt song, I think Jonah Hauer-King made a great delivery of it.

I also liked how Ariel instantly forgot she had to kiss Eric. It made it seem like their love was even more “impossible” because if she couldn’t kiss Eric she’d turn back into a mermaid and be under Ursula’s control. It also made Ursula even more evil.

Ursula and Triton were actually siblings during the early development of the 1989 film but this dynamic was scrapped, I’m glad we got to see it in the live action.

I think Trident and Ursula being related helps with Ariel’s deal with Ursula.

Because Ariel had never met Ursula, she had just heard what her father said about her. She doesn’t fully believe her father because he also told her people are evil and she saw that to be false with her own eyes when she saw Eric. She was already doubting about what her father thought of “evil”.

She had also just gotten into a big fight with him and her trust for him had decreased.

She was also scared of her and thought about leaving but Ursula successfully manipulated her.

I also think the live action Ursula is pretty good. She’s manipulative and evil, she also has a great voice.

Overall, I think the changes were good changes and fit into the story.

1 year of The Little Mermaid🧜🏾‍♀️🌊💋🐡

🎥 The Little Mermaid (2023).

🎶 Meet me Halfway, Black Eyed Peas.

Happy Birthday, Halle Bailey!🧜🏾‍♀️🌊💋🐡

🎥 The Little Mermaid (2023).

🎶 Part of Your World, Halle Bailey.