"The Little Mermaid" Douban 5.1, which is really difficult to evaluate
The live-action movie "The Little Mermaid" has caused great controversy since the beginning of casting. Because the use of African-American actor Hailey Bailey as Ariel does not match the imagination of many people, there are voices of resistance and criticism.
Until this year, "The Little Mermaid" was finally released in a singing voice, but another part of the audience who did not object to casting found that the movie told a very old story, which made the original bold casting meaningless. "The Little Mermaid", where did it start to go wrong?
1.
Familiar "father"
This version of the restless "The Little Mermaid" is adapted from Disney's classic 1989 animated film of the same name. The main body of the story is almost the same as the original animation: Aquaman does not let the Little Mermaid approach the human world, the Little Mermaid saves and falls in love with the human prince in a shipwreck, and the Sea Witch is planning to usurp her brother's Aquaman's throne, so she sets up a gamble that the Little Mermaid must lose. The Little Mermaid is dead, and Aquaman sacrifices himself to save his daughter by giving the trident to the Sea Witch.
After that, the Little Mermaid and the Prince fought the Sea Witch, the Sea King was resurrected, the Little Mermaid returned the trident to his father, and the regained majesty of the Sea King wanted to open it, using the trident to turn his daughter into a human and bless the daughter and the prince.
Unlike the 89th version, the new version adds a story line of the prince, who and the Little Mermaid mirror each other - the prince longs for a voyage and wants to make the country rich and strong through maritime trade, and his adoptive mother, the black queen, is overprotective of children like Aquaman, fearful and hates mermaids, and later recognizes the marriage of his son and the mermaid.
Although she is a black queen, in terms of character function, she is another "father" like the white Aquaman. Unfortunately, this added storyline is far from enough to support the extra 52 minutes (83 minutes in the 89 version and 135 minutes in the live-action version), so the look and feel of the movie is extremely protracted.
The main body of the new version of the story is still the classic fairy tale mode of "young people leaving home to explore - encounter danger, overcome difficulties - return to family", and classic children's works such as "Alice in Wonderland", "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Story That Never Ends" follow this narrative; At the same time, the side line of "father and child conflict - child in distress - father saves child - father realizes to communicate well and let go in time" is added, so that growth does not only happen to young people, but also allows parents and children to grow.
At this point, it seems a little familiar. This story framework has continued all the way from the animated version of "The Little Mermaid" in '89, to "Finding Nemo" in '03, to the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" in 23.
The father figure of "sacrificing himself to save his family" is not only common in Disney children's animation, but also in Hollywood movies for adults. Even in many action movies, saving his family is the best reason for the protagonist to fight, "007 No Time to Die" and "Fast and Furious 10" are not the same.
Creating a father image who is keen to protect his family, does not hesitate to sacrifice himself, and is naturally the backbone of the whole family, is a voluntary responsibility that Hollywood, especially Disney, has always volunteered. The reason why the new version of "The Little Mermaid" makes people feel like pins and needles may not be entirely in the inheritance of the theme of "strong father", but mainly in the regression of the expression level.
The animated version of 89 Aquaman is actually quite joyful, hearing that his daughter is in love, happy and gossipy, and turning into a grievanced little ghost after handing over the scepter is also hilarious.
It can be said that although the creators of version 89 are shaping the strongman father image that Disney has always admired, they deliberately added human touch and funny elements to the characters, so that the strong show panic and softness in some places, and become weak and pitiful in others. These details contrast and contrast with the identity of Aquaman, bringing a good comedic effect, which weakens the oppression of patriarchy.
The father of the sea king in the 23-year-old live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" is blindly brutal and rude, showing everywhere that he has the authority to control his daughter. Neither cute and amiable, nor credible and respectable, stereotypical and instrumental, except for the small fish cape, lackluster.
What's more disastrous is that in the second half of the movie, the heroic sacrifice of Aquaman and the action of returning the Trident to the father after the Little Mermaid recaptures the trident further recognizes and strengthens the authority of this father. Although the big plot seems to have not changed, in terms of expression results, it is a big step backwards from the work 34 years ago. In countries like China and South Korea with a lot of Disney viewers, the criticism of the film this time is particularly loud, perhaps because East Asian audiences are more sensitive to the image of "strict and controlling fathers".
2.
A failed animated remake of a live-action
The two-dimensional animation remakes the live-action CG movie, and Disney contributed a classic failure story this time. The exaggeration, deformation and cartoonish fights in the animation are childish and secondary to the live-action movie, and the way to solve problems is like a child's play.
In the final analysis, it is the audience's different expectations for different forms of works. The audience has the highest tolerance for the worldview of two-dimensional animation, and everyone naturally accepts that Tom Cat can be restored in the next second when it is pressed into pieces of paper and torn into a leather band, and the sea witch who can also accept the trident grows as tall as a mountain, and can leak air in a blink of an eye like a balloon, and even laughs because of such cartoon fun.
But this is not the case with audiences' expectations for live-action movies. The audience accepts that live-action movies have fantasy elements, but requires a harmonious and self-consistent world view, even the setting of the fantasy part must be logical, and the part outside the fantasy setting, the audience will default to the logic of reality.
Because the actors are real, the audience will naturally expect the environment to be real and logically true. So in the live-action movie, Aquaman only cares about a few daughters and a crab will attract group ridicule; It is incomprehensible to poke the sea witch who got the trident with a ship; The sea king, who has a wife-killing feud with humans, turns his head and is happy with humans, which makes the audience even more angry.
The application of new technologies only presents a modest underwater world, and hardly contributes any memorable screen wonders. The watchability of the picture is not to say that it is difficult to match the back of "Avatar: The Way of Water", even the BBC's marine documentary is not enough, and the length of the film has increased by a full 52 minutes, which is a great failure to remake with new technology.
The story is not clear, the plot is awkward, the rhythm is protracted, and many other bad viewing experiences are mainly caused by not fully considering the audience's different audience psychology in the face of live-action movies and two-dimensional animation, simply copying the original content, and not innovating enough to make new technologies useless, and forcibly lengthening the duration.
Of course, the most controversial thing in the film is casting. Disney fairy tale movies have always been a position that reflects traditional aesthetics, and the choice of the protagonist this time has broken the expectations of many audiences.
African actress Hailey Bailey was originally a singer, and a large part of the reason for winning the role was because of her outstanding singing. She contributed a very moving singing voice, as well as unexpected screen styling and confusing performances. In addition, the prince who loves to work has shattered the romantic imagination of many audiences about the prince.
Breaking audience expectations in a movie is a high-risk thing. What do audiences expect from Disney Princess movies? There are princesses that conform to mainstream aesthetics, gorgeous big dresses, and possibly handsome princes, romantic love, and cute animal supporting characters. The live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" tears up almost all psychological contracts, which is one of the reasons why many viewers don't buy it.
3.
Is it really pluralistic, or is it pretending to be pluralistic?
So why did Disney make this seemingly thankless adaptation?
First of all, it is difficult to say that this adaptation is really as "unflattering" as some viewers think. "The Little Mermaid" achieved the first place in the first weekend of nearly $100 million at the box office, and although the estimated total box office of $500 million is still a loss relative to the $250 million investment, this may be more due to the surge in filming costs caused by the epidemic.
The movie not only has a good box office in North America, but the Rotten Tomatoes Index and poll reputation are not bad. What's more interesting is the composition of North American audiences: more than 30% of African-American audiences, 40% of parent-child moviegoers, and about 70% of female audiences. Obviously, the people that the film is trying to win - minorities, parents and children, women - have won over North America.
Let's talk about why the adaptation. In addition to Disney's long-term strategy of remaking classics with new technologies every once in a while to consolidate the brand's position in the hearts of new generations of children, and the legal strategy of extending the copyright term through continuous adaptation and remake, this remake really looks like an attempt to "rub" the dividends of the affirmative action movement at the lowest cost. After all, reflecting on patriarchy requires a bruised script change, but paying tribute to minorities requires just a few non-white actors.
From the perspective of communication, actors have such a characteristic identity, and the degree of attention and discussion are high, which is the most cost-effective communication material.
According to The Paper, African-American audiences, white audiences, Hispanic audiences and Asian audiences accounted for 35%, 26%, 25% and 11% respectively, which can be regarded as the report card of this attempt. Even if many people laugh at "this is not the daughter of the sea", Disney is not a failure.
After all, in a politically correct public opinion environment, attacking African-American actresses for not being beautiful enough is not a good argument, and Disney can counter that the people who express this view are not aesthetically diverse enough. Once the issue is relegated to the egalitarian, pluralistic aesthetic public opinion field, serious discussion of the content of the film will be somewhat limited.
The structure of American moviegoers has changed a lot in the past few years that we have not noticed. Anti-globalization is not only happening in the economic field, but also in the field of culture and concepts, and the great decoupling of the world is also quietly underway. Disney is a very mature company, and in the baptism of a hundred years, it has long become a skilled ideological surfer.
In the alternating changes of various concepts, Disney has sought advantages and avoided disadvantages in recent decades, and has hardly stepped on the void. Disney, once so adept at currying favor with audiences in overseas box office countries, may be more acutely aware than many companies that it is difficult to curry favor with everywhere on a global scale, and that trade-offs are imperative.
This time, Disney chose to take the local demand in North America as the first demand. It carried out a huge ideological speculation: put on armor and took up sticks, ate the dividends of egalitarianism, and at the same time occupied the moral high ground and blocked countless insults. When avant-garde doctrine becomes an ideology that lacks room for discussion, smart and profit-seeking players will inevitably try to arbitrage from it.
Are they really sincere believers in this doctrine? Maybe, maybe not, but they are really game-piercing people. Disney, as the largest entertainment company on the planet, is a ship that is too big to risk touching the ideological iceberg, nor does it dare not chase the ideological hot spot, it always knows who has the right to speak and who buys movie tickets.
Hollywood's mainstream films distributed worldwide have always been a business. Unfortunately, we used to at least believe that Disney really had craftsmanship and good craftsmanship when it came to making movies.
4.
Longing for love, but more yearning for an immortal soul
What is more worrying is that in fact, Andersen's original book is far deeper and more avant-garde than the movie in 2023. And Disney's strong marketing and poor creation may even shape children's wrong impression of this classic.
In the original text, although the mermaid loves the prince, the real reason that prompted her to run to the prince even if she left her relatives and gave up her 300-year life is that the mermaid does not have an immortal soul, but humans do. When the mermaid is loved by a human and married, the mermaid will get a share of human happiness and an immortal soul.
Every time the fairy tale mentions the mermaid's love for the prince, it also mentions her longing for an immortal soul. To some extent, although the mermaid loves the prince, the prince is also the way for the mermaid to obtain an immortal soul.
I believe that readers will be more convinced of this idea when they see the end of the fairy tale, and at the end of the story, Andersen gives a reward to the good little mermaid: she becomes an elf, and after completing 300 years of good work, she can create an immortal soul for herself. Hans Christian Andersen knew exactly what his characters longed for most.
All the efforts of the Little Mermaid to pursue love failed to win the man's heart and defeat the love rival, which was actually a practice that the other party did not know about and only related to the Little Mermaid's self. She paid a great price, but she kept her goodness, and the little mermaid will still have an immortal soul, which is not given to her by human love, but earned by her through her work. Neither man nor love made her, as the sea witch prophesied, but the little mermaid made herself.
Andersen's fairy tale is actually a hymn to mankind. In this fairy tale world, humans do not have the ability to resist the wind and waves of the sea, but create works of art; They do not have the ability to discern the truth, but their energy of love and loyalty is enormous; There is no life for up to 300 years, but there is a soul that does not die after death. And this last point is enough to make such a beautiful species as a mermaid envious.
This fairy tale is also a hymn to independent women, what the Little Mermaid pursues in a sacrificial and tragic way, not a man's love, in fact, it is his own sublimation, from the silence after death to the immortality of the soul. And men, for the little mermaid who gets an immortal soul, can smile and let go.
Even after reading the whole article, love is not the most moving emotion. Taking turns to tell the story of the sea, comfort the little sister who fell in love, often burrow out of the water side by side after the little mermaid left, gazing sadly, and giving up her long hair for her sister, is the model of "girls help girls". In this way, there is no jealousy and control, only understanding and concern for the female friendship, which is far more precious than the love of a scumbag.
Resources:
"North American box office | "The Little Mermaid" won local audiences, but the overseas market was miserable" | The Paper
Written by: Liu Rui
Editors: Juice, Lin Lan
Executive Producer: Master Mao
Picture: "The Little Mermaid" 2023 version of the official trailer,
The Little Mermaid 1989 animated version