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[zitagirl]

So after months I finally decided to watch this remake on Disney+and... very mixed on it, although I did find it slightly better than the Aladdin remake back in 2019 (this opinion might change as I'm about to watch that movie again with some friends).

Funnily, unlike for LA Aladdin, I actually enjoyed the second half more here than the first half which actually surprised me, given that by the time I got to the deal part, I was kinda zoned out due to how most stuff felt either rushed or under developed compared to the animated movie (and yes, those did impact my overall enjoyment of the movie).

Now what I liked the most was... Grisby! No I'm not joking. I legit found him the best character by far. They emphasised his supportive side more compared to the original and that made him so much enjoyable with him basically playing wingman for Eric and Ariel. Definitely he's got the best out of the longer run time out of every characters in the movie in my opinion.

Second thing I liked was them actually spending a good chunk of time with Ariel and Eric. Overall those scenes actually worked for me, even if the movie kinda cheated at some parts with giving Eric basically the same personality as Ariel with same interests (just mirrored) and situation with his mother. Other than that, it's definitely welcome addition and definitely helped me enjoy the movie more.

Ursula here was just... alright. I have really not much to say other than... thank god she was done better than Jafar in LA version!

Sadly though, that's where my positives kinda end because... I'm not exactly happy with what they did to the characters, mainly Triton and Sebastian although they were hurt by different reasons in my opinion.

I will start with Triton cause he's much easier to pin down in terms of what1s wrong with him and that is the acting. I know the actor is talented but seriously? Couldn't he be bothered to act at least similar to how Triton was originally? Not once did I felt him be either intimating or be an actual caring but flawed father in the whole movie. The only time I saw a bit of emoting was at the very end when they hugged and even that was a slight improvement.

Now Sebastian is more complicated because on paper, his arc the same and he does have the same beats as the original, but there's 1 little thing that really hurts this arc this time: they removed quite a lot of his scenes with Ariel from the first half with really only leaving Under the Sea there. He's complete absent from scenes like Part of Your World, when Ariel goes up to the ship and even when Ariel saves Eric (technically at the last 1 here's there, but never interacts with Ariel).

This change caused for me at least to not really feel the supposed evolution from simply following Ariel out of duty to actually helping her cause he can see what she truly wants. It makes some of the dialogue where he actually starts to change to come off as hollow (also does not help that they basically used dialogues from 2 completely different scenes from the animated movie that were like 5-6 minutes apart from each other).

Weirdly instead they focused more on the bonding "friendship" between Sebastian and Scuttle which well... was a weird choice imo and honestly didn't really needed. I simply did not enjoy their comedy with Scuttlebutt easily being the most annoying part in the whole movie.

As for the new songs... I liked For the First Time in Forever, but that's more due to Halle's singing than because I actually liked it in the movie. Rather not speak about the other 2.

So there's some creative choices I was not fond of at all and definitely hurt my enjoyment of the movie such as... making Ariel seemingly stronger and more independent by basically altering all the scenes where she got help in the original movie. 2 example: When she turns human and needs to swim up to the surface and when she singlehandedly stirs a ship to kill Ursula.

I have nothing against female empowerment but those 2 changes felt really forced for me. It's not a weakness to sometimes getting some help (least my mother taught me so) and in the first scene especially it's understandable that she may need help as she doesn1t know how to use her legs yet.

The second scene felt silly cause this basically robbed Eric from giving back the favor (Ariel saving him), showing Triton and other mermaids that humans can actually be good and be trusted and in the original it was understandable why he killed Ursula. He actually knew how to stir a ship and Ursula was too busy trying to kill Ariel. I still have 0 idea why LA Ursula was even aiming for Eric when Ariel killed the eels in the first place.

The other choice I wasn't too fond of was the inner singings. It kinda removed the point of Ariel being mute imo and even as if the creators feared that people would not understand what Ariel is feeling or thinking at those scenes. Like, imagine still having that song for Ariel but as she meets Eric and reality hits her, we never hear her thoughts again, really cementing the idea of what she actually sacrificed. Halle definitely had the talent to well... act without words so again, idk why they couldn1t have done that. Okay, I know why, gotta have Halle sing as much as possible, even if it kinda contradicts some stuff (I'm looking at you, Under the Sea).

And yeah, making Eric just a found baby, but otherwise be the same as Ariel with a strict mother was well... not my cup of tea. It's like they thought the only way those 2 can fall in love if they are just mirror to each other. Was cartoon Eric the most well-developed character ever? No, but least he wasn't so much of a copy-pasta.

Lastly, I have a confession: I have never watched the Little Mermaid movie in English. I know the English voices and have listened to the songs , I never actually watched the movie fully in English, just via clips from videos. not because I find it bad but I simply just prefer the Hungarian dub for it both for the songs and for the voice actors really. Seriously, Under the Sea is hilarious in the Hungarian version (and even a bit dirty in a sense hehe) and Poor Unfortunate Souls is in some parts even better than the original (sorry not sorry).

Here if you want to listen to them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDd3y4PvZCs&ab_channel=ZELDOK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdYa0DzPl0&ab_channel=ZELDOK

So anyway, while watching the Under the Sea scene I decided to take a listen to the dub and well... holy molly, they messed it up big time. Now I didn1t expect the original dub VA as he sadly passed away during the Covid lockdown, but whoever voiced Sebastian was atrocious. I literally had to go to Youtube and listen to the original dub for the song to remove it from my head.

Similar situation happened with Poor Unfortunate Souls and they even heavily altered it compared to the original hungarian lyrics. It was almost shocking to here Part of Your World being more or less the same, although that's more due to the VA really just having this basic "young woman" voice. Actually, I was quite suprised how hard to differ the dub from the original, as from hearing they are quite similar, which on its own not bad... but you can tell the dubbing was rushed. Ariel's VA sounds bored and the rest just try to emulate the original voice actors, but it just comes off as forced and not fitting for Hungarian. The only 1 who kinda worked was Triton, as the VA for him has a more intimating voice and well... actually tried to emote more.

Very disappointed cause even the LA Aladdin had a decent dub, so idk what went wrong here, but it really does not hold a candle compared to the original dub. Actually thankful I decided to watch it English first because the dub would have made my experience so much worse.

Overall just a rather average Live-Action. Didn't hate it, but didn't really like it either.

And now I just want to rewatch the original movie in Hungarian again.

Edit: Okay, just checked and apparently the dub (which means translating and such) was done in a mere month. No wonder the dub feels this rushed and unpolished, minus the parts that were literally taken from the original dub translation (rest in peace Csörögi István. You may be gone, but your lyrics translations shall live on with hilarious parts like "Mert egy titán megérti tán" and "Hidd el te kedves, jobb ahol nedves"). Very unfortunate because I remember a lot of voice actors actually complained about this exact issue and that was back in the 2010s. Not happy to see this issue still being present apparently.
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