#its so fucking exhausting when disney tries to convince me that their movies arent the thing that they are

[corvidcall]

just saw the live action little mermaid. it was actually surprisingly good!! i had some complaints (daveed diggs as Sebastian was fine , but it would have been better to have someone who was actually Jamaican, some of the underwater scenes were poorly lit, realistic fish Flounder looked nasty, awkwafina was unbearable, etc) but overall I think I came away with more positives to say about it than negatives. Ariel and Eric were really cute, and I liked that they really played up why they would have this connection (theyre both such huge fucking nerds!! they both want freedom and to explore!!). Melissa Mccarthy was actually good as Ursula, and it was fun whenever she was on screen. Two of the three original songs were actually pretty solid! (the third was frankly one of the worst songs I've ever been forced to endure)

but most of all im just glad that they didnt try to make it NOT the little mermaid. one of the things thats really annoyed me about a lot of more recent Disney movies is that they all seem to be... idk a little embarrassed to be Disney movies? Frozen's comments about how weird it is to marry a man you just met, the jokes in Moana about her being a princess, whatever the fuck was going on in Wreck it Ralph 2 with the princesses talking about how fucked up all their stories are. And then in all the live action remakes they keep trying to respond to criticisms (real or imagined) of the original films, with stuff like adding in all the bullshit abt Belles mom in beauty and the beast, or Jasmine's song about how she wont be silenced in Aladdin, or idk girlbossifying Shinzi and Nala in the Lion King. Its really grating, honestly!!! it immediately takes me out of the experience, and it just seems like Disney is trying to act like disney princesses are sooo embarrassing and cringe and problematic, like thats somehow NOT their bread and butter and like thats not why we all LIKE disney movies. its incredibly grating

so i was really glad that the live action Little Mermaid wasnt trying to convince us it wasnt actually a princess movie for little girls, or that it wasnt a romance. if anything, it was MORE a romance than the original, because so much more time was spent on eric and ariel and their bond. it was good!