YMS: The Little Mermaid 

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Ursula’s voice actress was a broadway star, she could act, and improvise. I swear they only casted Melissa because of her body type.

THANK YOU for mentioning the voice acting problem, I am so fucking tired of VAs being pushed out of roles bc some shiny big celebrity would sell more.

Not to mention that Under the Sea is Sebastien arguing to Ariel to stay in the sea. And they turn it into a duet. It killed the whole purpose of the song.

The character design even breaks the realism. Sebastian is a ghost crab, they live on beachs, not underwater.

remember how important it was that once Ariel lost her voice you NEVER HEARD HER SPEAK AGAIN including internal monologues and songs... So when she got her voice back it felt earned...

You can't deny that Awkwafina really channeled a squawking sea bird throughout her performance.

Ariel says the humans light the sky with "Fire", when she has a line in a song that says "What is a Fire?". They didn't think anything through with this one.

You know who would've worked perfectly for the role of Scuttle? Dan Povenmire, the voice of Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb. Hearing Doofenshmirtz's voice come out of Scuttle would've been the best part of the movie. No questions asked

Modern Ariel: "Filling the skies with fire!" Old Ariel: "What's the word? 'Burn'?" *One of these reflects that fire can't exist underwater.*

Ariel: "Humans eat fish?!" Also Ariel: *casually watches Scuttle eat fish*

Dear Disney, A character being loud and annoying isn't funny, it's loud and annoying. Sincerely, Your audience.

I think the reason they made Ariel forget her deal was because someone was really upset at the idea of a character having an ulterior motive for kissing someone. In which case, just add a scene where Ariel can't bring herself to kiss him. I don't know why they thought having her lose her agency was the better option.

So Ariel is ok with Skuttle diving into the water and eating a fish in front of her but questions humans eating fish.

Sebastion doesnt look like a hyper realistc crab, he looks like a hyper realistic dead crab. Crabs dont look like that until they are boiled

When you mentioned "Let's highlight the singer and not the character" it all made so much sense, it's like they don't want the characters anymore, that's why the remakes feel so soulless. Meanwhile you have the actress who played Vanessa in this remake and gave her 200% on it and everyone loved it because it represented the ACTUAL character.

It's sad when a RU-vidr has a better understanding of art than the people who are paid millions of dollars to produce it. YMS is the hero we need right now.

You know what’s really sad? I guarantee you they had to force Skuttle’s conversation to be underwater because it would’ve been too much extra work to animate the conversation on the surface with rippling waves and whatnot. So in this movie that’s supposed to be way more realistic and “live action,” we get to see a bird talk underwater

I was not expecting a 30 minute video. I didn't think Adum still had any fucks to give at this point. Anyways, after "Scuttlebug" was over, somebody in the theatre yelled out "What the hell was that?" and we were all laughing for a good minute. That man spoke for us all.

Adum saying "There IS no plaice, there IS no bass!" sounds so Dr. Seuss to me it enhanced the review like 20x

The fact that they not only didn’t cast a drag Queen to play Ursula, but then had the gall to invite a slew of drag queens to the premiere for promotion… Devine was literally the inspiration for the character, and Pat Carrols voice was so perfect because it had that ominous male like undertone to it… it could’ve been such a cool full circle moment.

You know I'm not a hollywood writer man, but "they filled the sky with lights" or "they filled the sky with color" i feel is a lot less threatening than Ariel rejoicing about them rending the heavens in flames

In the original "Under the Sea" the entire song is sung by Sebastian (save for occasional interjections from other fish) and Ariel doesn't say anything because she doesn't agree with the song. The song is essentially just Sebastian nagging her to let go of the human world, it's not her song. She jams out to it a little but she LEAVES the scene before Sebastian is even finished. It makes sense for her character to not really take part in the song, vocal ability be damned. In the new one they force Halle into it because Daveed just can NOT carry the song and he desperately needs her assistance. I like Daveed Diggs, but they sacrificed characterization for a bad casting choice

Eric’s 2 plot reasons for existing in the original are to 1. Be the love interest 2. Drive the boat into Ursula. Like. That’s the agency he has in the original, being a boat boy who can help beat the big bad and wrap things up in a satisfying way. Everyone has something to do. I can’t believe they take away his one useful act xD

21:02 There's no way to illustrate it clearer than this. *Original:* Ursula sings (better), while she walks from the camera and the camera follows (commanding presence). She interacts with her minions, and has this kind of sensual madame personality, the shot flows around her and then the camera closes up for the witch line for more impact. *Re-make:* Melissa Mcarthy's face. It looks like a casting pitch or a camera test, seriously

This movie made me appreciate just how insanely good Sebastians original voice is. When he gets excited he pulls you in to his emotion. The new one makes me wonder how much he actually cared.

Ariel asks if fish were just food to humans. Meanwhile, Skuttle eats a fish right in front of her. 😂

If Disney weren't absolute cowards they would've hired a drag queen to play Ursula like God intended

In the Broadway musical, Eric also had a song, which they clearly tried to top here and failed. The song from the stage version, Her Voice, 1) is gorgeous, and 2) while it doesn't move the plot along a ton, it conveys Eric's confusion and desperation and how he is almost haunted by the voice he heard, which fuels his internal conflict later in the story (where he wants to choose Ariel despite being still drawn to "the voice") Ariel's added song also sounds like it's trying to compete with "Beyond My Wildest Dreams", which in the musical takes the place of the scene in the og movie with her and Eric in the market (and uses some of the instrumentals from that scene) and is about how excited and grateful and fascinated she is to be on land I don't know why we needed new music when iconic Disney composers already wrote additional bangers for freakin' Broadway!!!!

It's VERY funny that they put so much focus on Eric and his sailing skills, but that ends up just being a vestigial part left over from the original movie because it NEVER PAYS OFF in the film. He and Ariel swap places and she, a person who's never set foot on a boat before and doesn't know what a steering wheel is, steers the ship into Ursula rather than the person who LITERALLY got a song about sailing inserted into the movie.

I can't hear Under the Sea without mentally seeing Adum smiling menacingly at me in a shower.

Something VERY few people mention is the "part of your world" reprise on the rocks and the 3D rigging on her hands making Ariel look like the grudge scaling up the rock. It was terrifying

my mom deadass told me she liked the new one because its realistic and im like "yes, mom. the realistic mermaid that you can totally connect with. the fish look so real that i dont wanna cuddle them, i want them for dinner."

Awkwafina is a prime example of nobody telling her shes not funny because they feel bad and she has somehow made a career out of it

I'll never get tired of hearing Adam angrily exclaim "JON!" (Corrected the spelling finally. 😅)

Now this is some really great criticism of the new TLM. When someone says they don’t like the movie or that it’s bad, they are mostly accused of “racism”. Stop using Halle Bailey as a shield to avoid the truth that this live action adaptation is of bad quality. Ariel’s race is the last thing anyone would care about when it comes to this movie. Like where did the 250 mil budget go when the main promo they did for the movie was calling out people for “being racist”?

15:53 I don't think that take was what's intended. Imo, OG scuttle completely believed the nonsense he's feeding Ariel. He's not a trickster, he's deluded. Look at his face at 16:11 and tell me that he's purposely feeding her a lie. It's more possible that the smug looks he gives is because he really believes himself to be an expert, and Ariel just doesn't know enough to call him out. There's also other moments later in the movie, like when he seems to earnestly listen for Eric's pulse by putting his foot near his ear, or when he tries to add 'mood music' before Sebastian steps in. Moments of floaty animation and manic expressions.. Like the movie kind of goes out of it's way to show you, the viewer, that he's just that stupid, but he's good at disguising it. Lmao sorry for the.. scuttle character analysis, I guess? The live action scuttle sucks either way but I just found it weird to compare the two as if scuttle wasn't also a dumbass in the og.

When Ursula said to Ariel "It was you. You were the Little Mermaid all along", I broke down in tears.

Okay Ariel being shocked-upset about fish being eaten on land is funnier given that Scuttle is seen diving for fish

I cannot believe Lin Manuel didn’t remake the chef song. Lin himself played the chef in the background. He would totally give himself a song.

Being a black woman, I got called a pick-me for not liking this movie-despite being stoked for it and not wanting to believe that it would end up being a bland mess like the other Disney live action remakes.

I can't wait for the Princess and the Frog remake. Imagine all the awful realistic frogs and bugs.

Ah yes, let's make Sebastian, a character who literally sings a song called "under the sea", a species of crab that can't survive underwater (or at least can't survive saltwater). That makes sense! 🤪 Edit: Also when king Triton says "you're a mermaid" does anyone else hear Nicolas Cage?

I’ve never seen such a blatant misread of the original Scuttle. He wasn’t lying to Ariel, he was an idiot. He didn’t actually know what he was talking about, but believed he did. If that’s the impression you got from Awkwafina’s take on Scuttle, then they did it right. Scuttle is a fool, not an egomaniacal prankster.

Dude Les Poissons was the shit as a kid, that "He he he, hon hon hon" got me every time. Hell going watch it now 😂

It’s honestly wild how every single Disney Remake REFUSES to even get slightly creative with the musical numbers.

Another thing, from the design perspective. I always felt that the idea of Vanessa's design (Ursula transformed) was that she looked like Ariel but evil. In that way, Eric could mistake her because of her voice and because he saw her in shadows he could not tell she was a redhead. The new Vanessa looks like the cartoon one. But no one could mistake her for the new Ariel.

My grandmother (who's seen tons of childrens films throughout her life) took my niece to watch this movie because I told her no, and she said it was the most agonizing movie she ever had to sit through. She kept checking the time to see how much was approximately left as she couldn't wait to get out of the theater 😂

15:53 I'm pretty sure he's just an idiot, not consciously misleading Ariel. Look how excited he gets when he holds up the fork, staring intently at it.

15:49 I don't think that's the intention of the original Scuttle. He's not trying to manipulate Ariel or lie about the trinkets she brings while he knows better, Scuttle genuinely believes he's an expert on human stuff and that he's helping her. We get evidence of that through the spyglass gag at the start. If he was a sort of manipulative 'salesman-type' trying to trick her, we would have probably gotten more blatant clarification of that personality, like with Ursula's 'pathetic' line in her song. Love the deep dives as always though!

Not only the word ''Pathetic'' in Ursula's song was now stupidly addressed to Ariel for some reason, but she addresses the line "This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl" to her two companions lmao

Vanessa’s actress barely had two words in this movie but her acting and facial expressions in the little screen time she had, such a good job imo! I was living for her performance, I didn’t expect it at all I actually was squealing with excitement cause the rest of the movie was so MEH I was so surprised

despite all the negative reviews and knowing this movie was going to be garbage I still decided to take my kid to watch this movie mainly because she is a huge Little Mermaid fan, and 15 minutes into the movie and she asked me if we could watch something different, this says it all when a 10 year old did not enjoy a "remake" of her all time favorite movie.

I love how he keeps editing in the part where the guys in the blue suits are crawling on all fours while she’s sitting on one of them. It gets more hilarious each time he shows it.

The entire ending is what makes me so blindingly angry at modern writers that I think I have become actually ill. The entire point of the climax of the animated movie is that King Triton was wrong about humans. It is not just that Ariel fights back and learns her lesson it is also about Triton witnessing a human, who has no stake in this fight outside of his selfless Love for his daughter, to attack a creature many thousands of times bigger than him. It's a win for the ocean and a win for the land. Removing that from the movie removes the plot from your movie.

11:11 fucking THANK YOU for adressing this, I'm so sick of mermaid media where they're all "oh no fish are friends not food uwu". Like. a) yes, Fish in the ocean eat each other all the time. It's where they live! and b) imagine a mermaid making up a story about humans and then being shocked when meeting actual humans, because the humans eat other mammals. IT'S THE SAME THING! Edit: THE BIRD LITERALLY EATS A FISH RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM AND THEN THEY TALK TO IT HOW IS THIS SHOCKING TO HER?!

Have you seen the Little Mermaid stage musical? I work in community theatre and have worked on this musical (as music director). Twice. 1. Eric has a song in the musical, but it’s arguably a better song than the one in this film. It’s called “Her Voice.” Eric actually does a ton of singing in the musical, because they generally cast a guy who can actually sing in musical theatre (generally…) 🙄 2. Ariel does have an “inside her head” song in the musical. It’s called “Beyond My Wildest Dreams.” It’s a better song because the tone isn’t all over the place and the subject matter makes more sense. I didn’t care for “For the First Time,” I thought it had a jumbled message/story. But yeah, there’s quite a lot of “singing inside her head” in the stage musical, so this was not just a choice made for this movie. 3. King Triton sings in the stage musical, and apparently also had a song in this movie but it was cut. Can Javier Bardem even sing? 4. Ursula’s song was pitched up in the stage musical. Why? Because contraltos are hard to come by, but also because the ending high notes are much flashier and more impressive when the key is raised. I also think really bass-y whispering doesn’t translate as well to the stage. Musical theatre is about evoking emotion in the audience, sure, but it’s also about spectacle. Us musical theatre folks in the audience are totally here for the extra riffs, the higher belted notes, etc. I don’t think raising the key hurt the song’s impact. 5. Lin Manuel Miranda needs to keep his hands off Disney classics and just… chill for a while. Little Mermaid didn’t need a rap. Anyway, I agree with a lot of your criticisms because this is a FILM and not a stage musical. However, I think it’s only fair to direct your criticisms at the right target. A lot of the choices you thought were made for this movie were actually done in the stage musical first, then added to this movie. Sadly, just like with Beauty and the Beast and others, they did not use the extra songs from the musical (which were composed by the same guy and fit the tone of the rest of the show), but they had all new songs written that unfortunately have a more modern and generic style to them and just don’t feel like they belong.

Honestly, I think Ariel singing a song in her head after giving up her voice could have been genius if it were better executed. If it were like a dreamlike sequence with a short, slow ballad, where the singing gets cut off when she wakes up while her mouth is still moving to the song, and then she remembers sadly that her voice is gone... It could have been such a good addition, emphasizing the impact of having lost such a huge part of who she is.

Most egregious vfx problem is she doesn’t even look like she’s underwater.

The “look at all these b****s” bit with Triton had me rolling!

28:33 I love that Adam made and posted this BEFORE that interview with the actress playing Snow White in an upcoming live action remake who said she absolutely WILL NOT be saved by a prince. Omniscient!!!

Part of the "warmth" you're talking about between the Sebastian voice actors is that the original voice actor is a baritone, while the new one is a tenor. Obviously there are other factors going into the performance, but that makes a big difference as far as "warmth" goes. They did the same thing in the stage adaptation of Little Mermaid.

Y'all remember in the special features for the film version of RENT when one of the actors mentioned how they kept closing their eyes while singing and the directors had to educate them on how to sing with their eyes open because that's necessary for musical theater? Every time I see Halle singing that's all I think about.

11:55 is always a little funny to me since I've always found Adum's voice to be really calming 😭

I've never seen a movie comparison that better shows you how much "I DONT CARE" every single person working on the remake screamed.

Sebastian is terrifying. That is all.

28:48 Also, in reference to this change, in Ryan George's Pitch Meeting for this movie, he mentioned how by changing this from Eric saving everyone to Ariel doing it, it removed an important part of King Triton's arc, as Eric saving the mermaids from Ursula was what finally convinced him that not all humans were monsters. So, basically, here we have another example of an important plot point of the film being changed due to the people who changed it not understanding why it was there to begin with.

24:39 The mix between the two is night and day. 90’s TLM is Ariel’s voice with an echo that pans left to right like a vortex that’s stealing her very breath. Plus Ursula’s line is double tracked to give it a dark undertone 20’s has everything audible as ARIELS VOICE for some reason and EVERYTHING IS CLEAN AS A WHISTLE. I hope Disney goes so bankrupt that they abandon this mindset they have and start taking chances with passionate artists, again.

The saddest part is the animated version was able to convey genuine emotion and make the world seem alive, while the live action version was just hollow and lifeless.

My wife loves disney, and has tried to excuse a lot of their recent... creative projects. This movie made her finally turn to me and say "This company has fucking lost it."

No joke, Adam’s knowledge on music and how they enhance or detract from a film has led me to appreciate music more than I would have otherwise.

I loved the little “mystery subplot” of your review involving who at Disney is insisting that the character designs be “realistic”. The first time you asked I thought to myself it’s got to be John but you saved the reveal for later in the video. And then the reveal. Genius.

2/3 of the children I took to this movie fell asleep in the movie theater and I think that’s all I really need to say

Didn't think I'd go my entire life without hearing Adam sound like Michael Jackson but I'm glad it happened

The much better way Disney could cash in on nostalgia is to make new films but in the animation style of the 90’s era

I honestly thought the king died because my sister was so surprised he blew up like that. I always thought Eric saving Ariel in the original made sense because she saved him first

I was upset that Javier wasn’t more angry in the scene where he destroys all Ariel’s things. I feel like it needed more intensity which is frustrating, because he totally could’ve done that

The funniest part about this is that LIZZO auditioned for Ursula, she actively pursued the role. An actual singer, who has a great voice that could hit the notes required from this movie…and they went with Melissa McCarthy lol Edit: Nevermind, apparently Lizzo is a shitty person to work for.

Something about Scuttle's underwater scene actually ruins Triton's motivation later for being mad at Ariel. Because Scuttle is underwater, Triton had to be mad that Ariel was at a shipwreck instead of meeting a seagull above water. From what I could tell, Triton wasn't really concerned about the sharks she encountered rather than she went to a human-made structure. Later in the film, however, all of Triton's daughters including Ariel were cleaning up a shipwreck! Is he fine with them going to shipwrecks or not? With Scuttle being above water in the original, it reinforced Ariel's desire to be on land and Triton had a simple but understandable reason to be mad at her.

the ending really chafed my nipples eric saving ariel is the thing that makes the most sense thematically: she saved him, so now he saves her also the whole point is that her dad doesn't want her going up to the surface because humans are evil monsters that killed her mom, by having eric save the day she gets to say "see not all humans are bad" and her dad can re think his position but this way what is left? she goes "this man isn't bad so i saved him" her dad could just say "he wouldn't have done it for you" and stab eric in the face with his trident, roll credits what in the name of fuck

Old Disney was trying to make good art. New Disney is trying to make money. They just hire names people recognize and use IPs that are popular and they don’t care at all about what made the original movies work.

Jodi Benson did the singing but they brought in Sherri Stoner to do the mannerisms. The animators animated from watching her act out the scenes. Both women get props for creating the beloved character we know today. But Stoner is the reason we have all of Ariel’s quirks and mannerisms. You can have a voice but you don’t have the whole character without the body language too.

Holy shit that lip sync dodgeball bit was amazing. God bless you Adam you are a national treasure 😂

I have a four-year-old second cousin and she does not like the live-action remake but she loves the original. She looks more like Halle than the original Ariel but she doesn't like the live-action remake. I have seen other comments of kids not liking the remake which shows that kids aren't fooled and that they know good movies and not shameless remakes

9:21 how quick you stopped and apologized 😭💀💀

It hurts to look at especially having seen the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. When they covered The Little Mermaid, you could see so much the animators and Howard Ashman went through to make the film. The fact that Howard Ashman and Glen Keane fought till they were blue in the face to keep Part of Your World in the film is extremely emotional. Seriously I highly recommend the documentary.

All these hyper realistic animal characters remind me of those ironic "this is how smash graphics will look in 2013" memes with uncanny depictions of the characters.

9:33 you know what's funny about this? In the musical, there was a song that fit this role. It was called "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" and it was sung while Ariel was getting cleaned up by the maids. And I think it was a nice addition (although this might be bias as I was a preformer when my high school preformed it). And the song before that was a Scuttlesong called "Positivity". It took place when Arial washed up on shore. And it was pretty good and fit the movie. I think King Trident got a song in the musical (or at least, singing roles) and the eels got a song too

I hope that guy who frolicked through Disneyland in an Ariel dress is having a nice day

that turtle shot is so fucking funny dude. every damn time

Fun Fact: RuPaul revealed on his podcast that he was considered for the role of Sebastian but did not get the part after not wanting to play the character with a Caribbean accent like in the original film.

I know this wasn't touched on in the video, but the idea of Halle Bailey not understanding Alan Menkin's legacy just rips my heart out.

After this video I decided to watch the original Little Mermaid, and my god "Part of your World" is so incredible. There are other Disney films I think are overall stronger, but that song is probably my favorite from the Disney Renaissance, which means of all of Disney's history. The songwriting, the animation, the voice acting just all came together with such perfect harmony, I could honestly gush about it all day. And it's another reason why I have no interest in watching the remake. Just that specific point in the original being done so well makes me never want to see it butchered.

I love how Sebastian in this film is a species of crab that *can't survive in the ocean*.

Slowly but steadily, YMS is becoming a movie-music review channel. I'm down for it.

I really want to believe that Hallie was told "do the dovey eyes CONSTANTLY, never stop! And that is how you look like a Disney Princess!", because to me it's so weird how inexpressive she is? Like her face is actually paralyzed some way and considering how flat everything else, I have to believe that was part of the direction more than a choice from her part.

Defenitely cackled watching that dodgeball bit, very effective lol

I'm picking up on the positive change in Adum's energy in this video, the added extra skits, the added jokes in dialogue, it's all just fantastic and this is my favourite video in a while.

Sebastian looks like one of those disgusting comedic close-up shots from Spongebob

10:10 OH that's just how she says "free"