The Little Mermaid is a pretty accurate live-action recreation of the original film. If you like the 1989 cartoon, you’ll probably like this one. Of course, that in itself can be controversial - if it’s so safe, what does this version offer that hasn’t been done before? The realistic animals, though well voiced (Daveed Diggs’ Sebastian a particular standout) are naturally less expressive than their animated counterparts, and this new version seems to have very little of substance to say about that source material. I expected that, so it didn’t really bother me. What I was struck by though was how much it wasted Halle Bailey’s voice.
There are three new songs in The Little Mermaid. This is to be expected - the second half of the film was originally lighter on musical numbers, an issue that was exasperated by the removal of Les Poissons. Musical adaptations also tend to add at least one new song so that it can be submitted for an Oscar. With Under the Sea winning an Academy Award in 1990 and Kiss the Girl also being nominated (not to mention the legendary place in the Disney pantheon Part of Your World holds), these three new songs were under pressure. Still, Bailey’s pipes were not tested.
The first of these songs is Wild Uncharted Waters, a song of yearning by Prince Eric, and the only new song of the film’s first half. It’s Eric’s answer to Part of Your World, and lets Jonah Hauer-King demonstrate his stage school voice, sounding exactly like A Prince In A Disney Musical. The third is The Scuttlebutt, a rap by Scuttle with some bars by Sebastian. Say what you will about Awkwafina, but you could not find a more perfect casting as an annoying loudmouth. While some will dismiss the song, the only one of the trio guaranteed not to be submitted for an Oscar, it fits both its place in the movie and its casting perfectly.
Then we come to For the First Time, Ariel’s new song. This song takes place in Ariel’s head while she rides from the docks to the castle, seeing the human world for the first time (hence the name). It’s a clever way to get around the fact your lead spends half the movie unable to speak, and it’s a decent enough song. I like Lin-Manuel Miranda (who wrote it), think The Little Mermaid has one of the best soundtracks across Disney, and I adore Halle Bailey’s voice, but I think that’s where the problem comes in.
Bailey sings For the First Time very well. She sings every song she’s given well. But it never feels like she’s being unleashed on audiences. Bailey first rose to fame with her sister, as part of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle. In fact, on the official soundtrack she is credited as only ‘Halle’, just as her sister released her debut solo album under the name ‘Chloe’, even though in their acting careers both are credited as Halle Bailey or Chloe Bailey. But the song doesn’t sound like it’s by Halle. It sounds like it’s by Halle Bailey.
What I mean by this is when you listen to Chloe x Halle, particularly their fantastic sophomore album Ungodly Hour, you hear Halle’s range. Across the likes of Wonder What She Thinks Of Me and Don’t Make It Harder On Me, the sisters work in perfect harmony, with the high notes and melodic texture added by Halle. Her backing vocals in Under the Sea have this flair to them, the R&B high pitch, the vibrato, and it seems like Disney knows who it has. The rest of the time, she’s used to sing in a classic theatrical style - she can do it, but she can do so much more.
I can understand not wanting to be experimental with Part of Your World. A lot of people will have it as their favourite Disney song, and ‘remixing’ it in a movie whose primary purpose is to cash in on nostalgia is obviously not smart. But For the First Time is new. It was written for the movie, and if director Rob Marshall is to be believed, Bailey was the first to audition for Ariel and no one else ever came close. If she really was such a bona fide no brainer, why not give her a song befitting her vocal style?
It wouldn’t need to be in the vein of Busy Boy, where she and Chloe warn women to stay away from men who send a lot of dick pics, nor like Tipsy where the sisters conspire to kill a man who treated them wrong. They always felt more like Chloe’s tracks in any case. It was not the lyrical content that seemed to waste her, but the arrangement. Typical of Miranda’s style, despite my usual appreciation of it, For the First Time sees lines lyrically overstuffed, meaning notes are to be rushed through rather than clung too.
We don’t hear Bailey get to reach into higher octaves or add her own spin the way we hear on Ungodly Hour. I know Ariel is a character who may act and sound differently to ‘Halle’, the stage persona of Chloe x Halle (presumably they didn’t really kill the man mentioned in Tipsy). Still, it’s a shame one of the most exciting young R&B singers has been cast as one of the most iconic characters (not just Disney Princesses, but movie characters anywhere), and those two concepts never really marry.
Bailey has excellent chemistry with Hauer-King, perfectly plays Ariel’s innocent curiosity, and despite my complaints at the arrangement, is clearly a great singer throughout. I don’t think she’s bad in the movie - I’m looking forward to seeing more acting work from her, even if it delays CxH3. It’s just a shame the film doesn’t give her as high a platform to shine as it might have.