Oh dear. So many resources and good intentions, but....
Throughout the entire production, every live-sung lead got utterly lost: lost in the sound mix and/or crowd noise (although Ursula fared best, with her clearer diction), and lost in often-frenetic visuals that had so many elements that focus was difficult (although gimme gimme those huge aerial jellyfish!). Ariel was annoyingly smidge flat most of the time. Sebastian was far from “showstopping:” he moved embarrassingly poorly—and what was with his lazy costume (apparently he “looked ridiculous” in his claws so they were ditched last-minute) and makeup?
The whole production felt constrained by prerecorded instrumental tracks. It was earnest, surely, but the contrast between focused, edited animation and mostly-drowned-out, overchoregraphed ultrabusy live sequences just left me feeling it was more gimmick than magic.
I will ALWAYS watch a (mostly) live musical—last point being that broadcasting it on a school night seems to have made no sense if the object was to engage young people in live musical theater.
1
C'mon folks. It has to be emphasized how excruciatingly bad Auli’i Cravalho's "Part of Your World" was. Utterly flat throughout, and often not even close to the needed notes. Worse then any high school production. Yeesh.
3
The mashup of film and live action felt very contrived. It gave the whole production a stop/start feeling. AND the point of LIVE is to have the singers NOT pre-recorded. Much better to hear the Queen flub a lyric than seeing her rush to hit her mark on the sound stage. This by-the-numbers staging kept the whole show from feeling spontaneous.
1
Wow! I thought the production was cute and creative. I have never watched one of these live musicals, but taped it to watch with my daughters. My kids enjoyed it and I’m sure others did as well. I’m sure my expectations were much lower than others who left reviews. If viewing through children’s eyes, I’m sure it was great.
IMHO Queen Latifa was outstanding no question! Shaggy was a great pick but stiff. John Stamos was John Stamos, funny but arrogant. The rest of the cast was fine. I loved the costumes and the set designs. I do wish the ending had more live and less animation. I really would’ve loved to see more Queen Latifa. In fact, I would’ve loved to see more Shaggy after he’d loosened up. Not sure if that costume was too stiff, but he could’ve done so much more with the part.
All in all, it was fun to watch. I can’t believe it came out 30 years ago! To me, that’s more mind blowing!!! 🤯
4
It is a classic movie, a delight. This presentation was not entertaining, in fact, annoying.
2
A dreadful embarrassment.
Almost as bad as John Legend trying to be the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar. Whose idea was that?
2
I didn't waste my time watching "The Little Mermaid Live".
My local ABC affiliate had too many references to the show during what was supposed to be their local news programs in various time slots.
I don't think that shilling for a production by the corporation that owns the local TV station is appropriate when there is a lot of local news, elections, national and international news, etc. that is more worthy of the limited time available.
2
Gave it 30 minutes out of curiosity, because I do love the film and it’s music.
The cast tried hard, but this was just awful. Just bad.
4
This was a good idea. The live production had some fine moments. There were also some problems, both in concept and execution, perhaps worth discussing.
But as for the bottom line, I think my wife had the key question: Where is the value-added here?
3
Renáta Baťa Good afternoon,thank you very much,for Queen Latifah-URSULA. I watched FB websites at the night from location (Prague, Czech Republic) and I was really fascinated by person(women),who made me very happy! The performance is very nice. She was very charming whatever she does. Thank you,thank you ,thank you for the wonderful experience.For Queen Latifah ,even words are not enough.❤️❤️❤️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️
3
Boy, I think just the opposite of this article. I thought the music was really poor, especially Shaun Spicer-like Sebastian and John Stamos, but the visuals were terrific, especially the jelly fish over the audience. In Disney fashion, the graphics effects were outstanding, but the voices and the off-pitch songs that had no musical climaxes and the audience overriding the audio were really amateur. Poor production, but good idea.
4
I feel bad criticizing any effort to bring musical theater to new, bigger audiences, but I think this production was just...too much. Somehow, it felt to me like a Disney ice skating show. The weird transitions between the film and the live performances, the super-loud and somehow artificial quality of the applause, and the overly-aggressive, hyper-produced live numbers made it very hard to connect with anything at all. I kept wishing the performers, most of whom sang reasonably well, were allowed to be more spontaneous or loose, somehow. They seemed restrained by what must have been incredibly tight direction. Very little personality came through; even Queen Latifah (who sounded great) didn't seem to be allowed to have fun with the role. I think the live production of "Grease," while flawed, was infinitely better, because it allowed character development. Still, I applaud ABC for taking these risks and hope they keep trying.
8
"Overall, “The Little Mermaid Live!” probably wouldn’t have been the best way for a newcomer to experience the original movie"
understatement of the year
2
Couldn't disagree more about the quality of the singing, Queen Latifah excepted. Auli'i Cravalho was unexciting at best, losing Part of Your World for lack of good phrasing and interest, and Shaggy was chronically flat at the top of phrases, totally cringe worthy. How not to love Under the Sea? Have it sung by someone who can't do on pitch. The whole affair was in the same league as NBC's Peter Pan, arguably the worst musical televised live, without a star female and a Captain Hook who appeared to be drunk or on drugs.
15
Agreed. Singing especially by Cravalho was cringeworthy. Clearly she is talented, loved Moana, but either her nerves got to her or she was auto tune with an inch of her life for that movie ...both possibilities make me super sad.
1