In 1989, Disney released "The Little Mermaid and started The Disney Renaissance, a decade where the company reemerged as one of the best animation studios. In the last eight years, Disney has taken to remaking their animated classics as live-action movies. These have been very hit-or-miss. I liked 2016's "The Jungle Book," probably more than 1967's original. Given the overall mediocre quality of the others, I was not expecting a lot from this remake.

Ariel (Halle Bailey) is obsessed with the human world. She makes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), a sea witch, to explore the human world and win the heart of a prince.

Let's start with the bad. I did not like McCarthy as Ursula. I did not like her performance. I did not like her version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls." She comes off as cartoonishly evil, and it doesn't work for me.

With one exception, I actually enjoyed the new songs that were added. The song Scuttlebutt" was a surprise to me. The song is a bird singing about the news they heard. When it started, it gave me flashbacks to "Morning Report," which was added to a rerelease of "The Lion King." That song is widely considered to be terrible, and I hate it. I thought I was in for another disaster, but it was not nearly as bad as "Morning Report." I think the fact that Lin Manuel Marianada wrote it helped.

Halle Bailey is perfect as Ariel and is the best part of this movie. When she sings "Part of Your World" and its various refrains. She even brings a lot of charm to the section of the movie where Ariel cannot speak. These scenes add much more to the Ariel and Eric relationship than the original did. You can see why these two would fall in love with one another.

I went into this movie expecting it to be a bad movie. With a few exceptions, I had a lot of fun with it. I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It wasn't great, but it was one of the best live-action remakes, and there was enough to keep me entertained.

8/10

Rated PG for action/peril and some scary images

2hrs. 15min