The 2023 remake of The Little Mermaid released its official trailer on March 12 and let’s just say that it’s interesting. It shows a more in-depth look at the characters and the setting it takes place in, which are a beautiful castle and colorful sea. But while Disney sets up this film to be the greatest, the CGI just isn’t that magical. 

Although it isn’t shown much, we get a better look at Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula and she has gone into her character really well. She has become totally unrecognizable and almost perfectly resembles the 1989 Ursula the only change is that her signature purple and black combo has now become blue and black. McCarthy perfectly fits the role and no one could replace such a talented actress. 

Many of the characters including Sebastian, Flounder, and even Scuttle look completely different, and not in a good way. All of the unique characteristics of these characters in the animated film went away. For Flounder, they still kept some of his yellow colors with blue strips, it’s barely noticeable that he is supposed to be Ariel’s best pal unless he starts talking. 

Sebastian just looks like a regular crab with eyes that just don’t fit. They forever haunt me. The only thing that Disney got right about him is that compared to the original animated character is that they are both crabs. 

Scuttle doesn’t even look close to the 1989 version and is now apparently a girl bird. I get that Disney is trying to be inclusive with the characters, but this was an unnecessary thing for them to do. And while the voice for Scuttle is Awkwafina, who is a great actress and should be in a lot of films, she is too good for this one. 

While the CGI for these characters isn’t the best, Disney tries to make up for it with the under the sea moments, but they fail at trying to make look good too. Kids can even tell that they didn’t try hard enough for these moments, but are distracted by all of the colors and movement that is going on. Honestly, the best part of this film will probably be whenever it takes place on land because there won’t be much CGI used. 

Disney tries to do its best with the CGI for most live-action remakes, but they just need to stop at this point. Understandably, this film is for the newer generation of kids, but fans who watched the original film know that Disney hasn’t been good at their job for years and released a few exceptional films. 

This film compared to other live action films isn’t any different. Disney has a pot filled with terrible live action films and this one is added to the pot. Now we wait for the next classic movie they decide they want to ruin.