‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy Erase Any Doubts About This Remake’s See-Worthiness

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Here’s the funny thing about “The Little Mermaid”: Ariel spends most of the film wishing she were human, wondering what it’s like to go walking around on those … what do you call ’em?

But practically every girl who sees the movie dreams of swimming in the opposite direction — which is to say, they want to be mermaids … or else an animated Disney princess. “The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake,” as the song goes, and the most important thing about remaking this particular favorite for a fresh generation is maintaining the fantasy that any of us can be Ariel, when in fact, it takes a one-in-a-million talent like Halle Bailey to fill those flippers on-screen.

Every time Disney decides to redo one of its beloved library titles, a chorus of skeptics rise up to ask, “Why?” The advance pushback seemed especially strong with “The Little Mermaid,” which isn’t just any old Disney toon, but the one that launched the animation studio’s ’90s renaissance, kicking off a string of hits that included “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” nearly all of which have received the “live-action” remake treatment (never mind that some of these are every bit as animated as the films that inspired them — they’re meant to look like the cartoons have come to life).

At least half of Disney’s recent cover versions have been colossally disappointing, turning touchstones of Americans’ collective childhood into garish CG eyesores while threatening to tarnish our memories of the original.