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Episode 5 - The Full Smoke on 'The Little Mermaid'
39 Plays2 years ago
Dive in with us on this week's episode of The Study Pipe as we take a deep sea journey into the colorful, musical world of Disney's live-action remake of 'The Little Mermaid.' Will this film make a splash or simply float on the surface? Our hosts, Zach and Andrew, navigate through the waters of this reimagined classic, exploring its narrative waves, visual coral reefs, and melody currents. Get your fins ready as we discuss the daring performances, the revamped music, and how this new rendition compares to the animated treasure we all remember. Will the film earn a flurry of 'Puffs of Approval'? Let's find out. Remember, life under the sea is better than anything they got up there...or is it?
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Transcript
Introduction to the Study Pipe Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
What's up, guys? This is Zach. And I'm Andrew. Welcome into the study pipe where we're going to be talking and diving into some deep conversations about cinema and going over a wide range of intellectually stimulating topics. So let's sit back, light up our metaphorical study pipes and get going.
Disney's Live Action Trend
00:00:22
Speaker
Hey, we are going to be talking about. The Little Mermaid. Little Mermaid. Disney's back. Live action.
00:00:33
Speaker
volume in the live action reboots, remakes, right? Yeah. This is a, so Disney's back in their live action remakes.
Initial Predictions and Reactions to 'The Little Mermaid'
00:00:45
Speaker
And this is also one of the movies that we were forecasting for the rest of the year. And we had some preliminary predictions for what we thought were going to be going down with Rotten Tomatoes, audience reactions and things like that. And most importantly, what we would think of the film.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I think I'm wrong again. We didn't talk Guardians, I don't think, recently, but I was wrong about Guardians. I was wrong. Yeah, I was wrong.
00:01:19
Speaker
here, but slightly, I think, I think I called, you know, so, so far, it looks like critics like the movie looks like users enjoyed it. That could change. I suppose it's opening weekend, but I thought I wouldn't like it. And I actually,
Halle Bailey's Ariel: Casting and Performance
00:01:43
Speaker
you know, we both saw the movie tonight and I do like it quite a bit.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm happy to be wrong in this instance. Yeah, no, this is a, I really liked this movie too. I thought it was great. It's Fresh from Rotten Tomatoes and, you know, just to, and to recap the rest of my prediction is I thought this, the audience was going to be really negative on this one. And so far it looks like it's getting some overwhelming support from audiences. What's to that right now? 95% audience rating for Rotten Tomatoes. That's amazing.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, 95. I mean, that's pretty high. Yeah. I mean, that could change if people come in, review bomb, and do all this kind of stuff. But, you know, 95 is awesome. So the nice thing about Rotten Tomatoes is after the whole Captain Marvel fiasco, is they actually just put in a, where you have to verify that you've bought a ticket to the movie.
00:02:41
Speaker
So if people are going to review all of it, then they're going to be chiming up the box office number two. Good. Pay me, damn it, for your hate. Let your hatred flow through you and your money flow into my wallet. Well, yeah, I mean, hopefully it sticks because, you know, I think they did a great job. So I guess before really diving into what we thought worked well, um,
00:03:10
Speaker
I mean, this movie has been in the making for quite a few years now. There's controversy leading up with the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel. You know, Internet was freaking out about that. But, you know, after seeing it,
00:03:31
Speaker
She did an absolutely wonderful job. I mean, she's a singer. She's a part of, what is it, Chloe Haley with her sister? Oh, yeah, she's an amazing voice. She knocked it out of the park in my opinion. Incredible, incredible voice. And they picked the right person. I mean, the songs, the singing in the movie was great, awesome.
Caribbean Influence and Representation
00:03:57
Speaker
You know, the budget we're looking at, I think somewhere I read in the $200 million range. $250 million according to Wikipedia. Cash, $250, wow. I mean, that's quite a big budget. You can see where the money went.
00:04:20
Speaker
The set pieces were great, the CGI was great. Oh man, and the island like dancing and singing stuff that they had in there.
00:04:28
Speaker
was so well done. It was so colorful and beautiful. It reminded me of the Caribbean, being in like Puerto Rico or any of these beautiful islands where you see all these floral colors and everyone's lively and having a good time and playing music. I really liked that they had a cast in there that was reflective of the Caribbean.
00:04:57
Speaker
these white people from Northern Europe, I assume, you know, they had English accents. Um, but you also had the, like, I dunno, that Creole kind of mix of folks and, and, you know, all these different, like you see in the Caribbean all represented and it made it feel like, Oh yeah, this is just another, I don't think they, did they name the Island in the movie?
Comedic Elements and Notable Performances
00:05:21
Speaker
I think it was a fictional Island, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, like that's a good point. I can't remember what the, uh,
00:05:27
Speaker
what the island was named or if they even named it. I know they show it on a map, but you know, it just it made me think like, oh, this is a really could be a real place, you know, like this is what the Caribbean looked like when I was down there. All kinds of different characters, people doing their thing, vibing. You know, I like the outdoor markets they showed in the movie. I thought that was really cool. Oh, and when they did the boat ride through the lagoon with the fireflies. Oh, man.
00:05:57
Speaker
Kiss the girl. That was a good sequence. That was really good. Sebastian really stole the show there. Sebastian throughout the whole movie was, certainly there were jokes that were like,
00:06:11
Speaker
four kids and whatnot in the younger audience. But I liked all his little under the breath murmurs towards the king who was played by Javier Bardem. They had some heavyweight actors in this. Oh, yeah. That was a great cast. Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy, she killed it as Ursula. Ursula, yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
She had the voice down Pat. Yeah, she did. I'm, you know, I was thinking that when I was watching it, I was like, she's doing a real, I don't know if it was intentional. It had to be that she was like really, it felt like paying respect to the animated version of Ursula and like how she sounds, you know, animated movie. I thought she was like spot on. Yeah. She was terrifying at times too.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, I liked how, and she was funny in, in, in like some good, not over the top ways. I mean, there's certainly a couple of moments where it was over the top, but it worked well. It landed with me. Yeah. Was that, was that Awkwafida as Scuttle? Yeah. At first I was kind of irritated because in the, uh, the animated movie, it's a guy, right? Playing the seagull.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think it like I remember I haven't seen it in a long time, but I was expecting like a male voice, a goofy kind of like airhead kind of guy. And, you know, she says, oh, we're going to go talk to her. You know, I was like, oh, I wonder who this is and what the twist is going to be on it. And, you know, I tried not to read too much into it before I saw it. You know, I tried to stay away so I could go in.
00:08:05
Speaker
kind of fresh, you know, empty slate, no expectations. And when Awkwafina hit, yeah, I like Awkwafina, but I can, I find her obnoxious from time to time. But I thought she was okay. I think she pulled it off. By the end of the movie, she earned my respect.
Prince Eric's Character Arc and Romance
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. By the end of the movie, I was, I was interested in the character and I was laughing at the jokes. Yeah, it definitely took a little bit to get used to.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, it took a little bit for sure. And, you know, I think that that was kind of the feeling for me of the whole movie with everyone, you know, because I like the animated film. You know, I mean, it's been a while, but I grew up watching it, you know, all this. And I liked the film a lot. So kind of going in and the live action and things are a little bit different. You know, my brain is kind of reconciling, you know, the differences and
00:08:58
Speaker
I was hesitant at first, but as it went on, each character won me over like Eric, you know, Prince Eric, who who plays him. I had never seen this guy before. Jonah Howard King. Yeah, apparently he's in a dog's way home and little women, which I didn't see either. Yeah. I'm looking through his filmography and.
00:09:26
Speaker
There's definitely nothing I would recognize him from. Maybe I just need to see more films. Yeah. At first, I was kind of like, I don't know how to feel about this guy, but over the course of the film, by the end, I was like, yeah, I dig him. He's cool. He's a cool guy. And I think they did a good job, not trying to get into too many spoilers here, but they did a good job.
00:09:52
Speaker
in the very beginning of the film introducing you to what kind of man he is. Because if you take it at face value and you kind of back up a little bit, what's actually happening is two characters who'd never really met before fall in love really, really quickly, right? And the cynic and me sit here and go, well, how realistic is that? Why would they love each other? Blah, blah, blah. But after I was thinking about it while watching it,
00:10:22
Speaker
In the very beginning of the film, they open up showing Prince
Film's Mythology and CGI: A Comparison with 'Avatar'
00:10:26
Speaker
Eric and the kind of man he is. He's on the ship. They're in the middle of the ocean. And he's in the mix with all of the people, his sailors, the people who are working the ship. And he's wanting to not just be a leader by telling people what to do, but leading by being in the front, by working with them,
00:10:51
Speaker
you know going through the struggles with them and immediately you can see like this is a guy and he says he tells it to. I don't know if it's his first major or whoever the advisor to his mom who's I think the queen. He tells him I want to be a different kind of leader like I want to do things differently so you can tell he's you know compassionate kind of person and early on you know their admirable traits that I think they showcase pretty well.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And that they have an aerial kind of have that similar wanting to explore the unknown in a very similar fashion. Yeah, I thought they did a real good job of like paralleling the two and you know that make it makes you believe that they would get together and fall in love because he wants to like get out and
00:11:45
Speaker
get out of his castle and really restore the island and the kingdom back to its former glory by doing new and interesting things out at sea. And Ariel, I mean, same thing. She wants to get out of the sea kingdom under her father's rule and get on to land and go and do what the humans do. So they're both trying to really leave the lives they have behind.
00:12:12
Speaker
And it's kind of got that Romeo and Juliet thing going on with two rival fractions that don't trust each other. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they do a good job kind of selling that throughout the film, you know, why don't they
00:12:28
Speaker
like each other. And I really liked that mythology is real. I mean, obviously it's a mermaid. So you have to expect that some level of mythology is real in the movie universe that this takes place in. But I thought it was really cool to see the humans like acknowledge mermaids and like the sea gods and all that is like
00:12:54
Speaker
Like common, like, Oh yeah, you know, that's, that's old news. And we're not surprised, you know, there wasn't no, like, Oh, they're, they're actually real. It was like, Oh my God, it's a mermaid. It was like, Oh, okay. That's about right. I told you to be careful. You know, these damn mermaids will kill you. Those sirens will take you to the wrong side of town. You know, almost got Odysseus, dammit. Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker
for anyone who appreciates Homer and the Odyssey reference. The Odyssey, but I don't know. Hopefully it's not a spoiler. It's been out for thousands of years. Thousands of years. I don't think Homer would mind. No. But no, I thought it was pretty cool that the mythology of the world made sense enough to get you to buy in and tag along on the ride.
00:13:51
Speaker
I hate to say it because it's it is objectively good, the CGI, the water and all that. It's good. But Avatar, the way water ruined my expectations for underwater
Critique of CGI and Musical Elements
00:14:04
Speaker
scenes. You know, James Cameron did such a good job with the way of water that, you know, he set the bar so high. Watching this at first, I was kind of like,
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, this looks good, but like it doesn't look avatar good. And I had to check myself. You know what I mean? I did like, Hey man, this is an avatar. This is a billion dollars spent on this movie. Oh yeah. Cause I have the attention to detail that James Cameron put in and all the new technology invented. Yeah. You know what it did have though? Aquaman CGI water stuff, right? With the light floating hair or whatever the,
00:14:45
Speaker
the wavy underwater hair. I thought it did a good job building on that tech. It was an improvement over Aquaman in that sense. Yeah, I agree. I like that all of Ariel's sisters were like different nationalities, different ethnicities. It really made it feel like
00:15:06
Speaker
you know, the king is the king of the whole ocean of the world. And his daughters are from all these different regions of the planet. And, you know, they're coming together. I can't what they say the coral moon every so often they come together. Yeah, that the show because you dad. Yeah. So, you know, you get this sense of like, oh, this is much bigger than just like,
00:15:31
Speaker
where they're at in the movie. It's not just this island and Prince Eric and Ariel, but the family in the kingdom spans all of the oceans and seas of the world. So I thought that was really cool. That was great. What he has his daughters go at one point to disperse and go track down Ariel. You can see that they all shoot off in different directions too, almost implying they're literally scouring the corners of the earth.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah, to find her. And she's not down there. She's up on land. She's down the street, actually. Yeah, really. She's probably like 150 yards away from where you're at. Yeah. Just go straight up and look out. Yeah, just jump out like the dolphin's doing. Get a view of your surroundings, damn it. And you'll see her. She's up in that castle. Yeah, man.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I knew I was going to enjoy this movie, but it exceeded my expectations. It's one of the better Disney Live actually makes in my opinion. You know, I agree with that. So, you know, at the beginning, it said I didn't think I would like it. Not only did I like it, I would say I loved it. I thought it was just cool, man. There were so many shots. Like, I don't care. You know, I'm sure there are people who listen to this and are like, man, the little mermaid would.
00:16:54
Speaker
What are you talking about? Get out of here. Get out of here, you fool. What are you talking about? Never listen to your podcast again. Yeah, no. I challenge all you bastards who are thinking these thoughts. Javier Bardem. Okay. Javier Bardem. And Tanchagore. Okay. And he's, when he's in a scene, I almost thought he was about to say, Ariel, call it, call it right now.
00:17:21
Speaker
He was going to do it. He was so menacing, but as a loving father menacing, when he was on the screen as the king, I was like, I don't want to mess with this king.
00:17:35
Speaker
This guy's a badass. His Spaniard accent thick and laying down the law and he's telling her, you're not going up there. You're not going up on land. He's got a serious green presence. Yeah. Anyone who wants to knock this movie,
00:17:53
Speaker
I say you're not a film fan, because at least the fact that Javier Bardem is in this, and not only is he in it, but when he's on screen, you're forced to pay attention. You have to pay your respects to that. You have to. And I'll hang my head on that. I'm dying on this hill, that no matter what, if you hate Ariel, you hate who they cast, you hate all the singing, you hate all this other stuff,
00:18:22
Speaker
there's no way in your right mind as a film fan, a lover of cinema that you can knock Javier Bardem in this. He did a fantastic job. And then I'd say, you know, after that, Melissa McCarthy, she killed it. You know, we were saying that we thought she did great with the voice, but perfectly cast, you know, she, she was on it, man. Like she, I was impressed. I was very happy, you know, definitely the,
00:18:51
Speaker
I have one more thing that is under that. You know, after you think about Javier Bertem, just before you go in, ask yourself if you've already tried to dislike the movie because you don't like the casting. And if that's the case, really ask yourself where that's coming from inside yourself because it's kind of fucked up. Yeah. Amen, dude. Straight up. Like if your butt hurt that Ariel, like Halle Bailey is playing Ariel,
00:19:18
Speaker
Get over it and watch the film and you'll enjoy it. I promise you because you have heavyweights. Melissa McCarthy, she's been nominated for two Oscars. She's not like this isn't just some comedic actor that's coming in to do this role or even a dramatic actor.
Flounder and Supporting Characters
00:19:35
Speaker
She's a heavyweight. She's been recognized for Bridesmaids and Can You Forgive Me? Right. These movies like she has star power herself and
00:19:47
Speaker
She can act her ass off, and she does. Javier Bardem. He got the Oscar for No Country for Old Men. He's a heavyweight. This isn't a remake, live action, remake, low effort. Let's just go cash the checks. You know, we're Disney corporate evil overlords, which they can be. Don't get me wrong.
00:20:08
Speaker
There's definitely a few of those. Yeah, there are for sure, but they spent $250 million on this. You can see it in the cast they selected. You get what you pay for it. Yeah, and you can see it right now with the early audience response. And what is it? We were looking at the projected box office for the weekend, and the early estimates are
00:20:31
Speaker
that with the Memorial Day weekend, it's going to clear $120 million domestically. So this is a... It's no chump change. Yeah. 120, 135 over the weekend? Yeah, post-pandemic numbers too. That's a big draw. It is. And mind you, Aladdin back in the same weekend over Memorial Day weekend in 2019 pulled 110 before the pandemic. So Aladdin pulled 110.
00:21:00
Speaker
With Will Smith's ass before he started slapping people and acting a fool. His stock was still good. His stock was good then. But yeah, 110. So if they come out post-pandemic this weekend and hit 120, 135, that's great. Oh, yeah. Disney will be a static. I know that the expectations for this movie is that eventually it'll make around $800 million worldwide.
00:21:29
Speaker
So that film will definitely be profitable. I think, uh, anyone, you guys listening to this, I think, uh, this is a movie for all audiences. Um, you know, it can be cheesy a little bit at times. And I'll be honest, it took me a second to get used to how Flounder looked. Flounder, I was like, dude, you're looking rough, buddy. Give that boy some milk.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure about the ultra-realistic CGI for the fish, but I guess that's a personal taste thing. Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. I was kind of like, how'd you do my boy flounder like that, you know? Like, how'd you come out with that? Like, oh, this is what we're... He also, I thought he was kind of relegated a little bit, you know? Yeah, he didn't have that big of a part. He kind of was just present a few times.
00:22:22
Speaker
which, you know, overall, I'd like we both like the movie. Oh, yeah. But that would be a criticism I have is that, you know, Flounder was kind of took the backseat. Sebastian, I think of the the Critter, you know, ensemble, Critter cast, you know, the the group of friends. I think Sebastian stole it. Yeah, I'm guessing that when they were going through the script and things like that and kind of
00:22:51
Speaker
getting this ready for live action. They realized that they had something with Sebastian and we're just going to give them the screen time because it really worked. They just ran with it. He was hilarious. All his little comments he made. His little action scenes and trying to get on the carriages. Yeah, everything. It was cool. Who did Sebastian's voice? David Diggs? David Diggs?
00:23:15
Speaker
If I'm saying his name, right? I think so. Oh, this guy. Oh, he's in Hamilton, bro. Oh my gosh. He plays. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
00:23:32
Speaker
Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, he plays in Hamilton. Oh my God, that is awesome. He's a Tony Award winner. Yeah, Hamilton's awesome. I love Hamilton, seen it live, watched a bunch of times on Disney Plus, love Hamilton. This, wow, that makes me, I didn't know that going in. That makes me even happier and like respect, that is so cool.
00:24:00
Speaker
that nice, nice. He pulled the axon off really good too. Like really well. Yeah. He did great. That was a no, no, no. Wasn't disappointed Sebastian at all. No, no, he killed that. Well, I hope he, uh, gets more stuff, you know, from that he deserves it for sure. I could listen to be a voice actor all day.
00:24:26
Speaker
Damn. Nice. So Aquafina, you know, she did Scottle. I think she did a decent job. It was good. I gave her a thumbs up. Who's Jacob Trambly? He's Flounder. What's he been in? I'm so bad. Oh, he's the baseball kid from... Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I know him.
00:24:50
Speaker
I know him. Yeah. Yeah. You know him for being slowly tortured to death for five minutes by a Dr. Sleep. That's my horror roots coming in. Dr. Sleep. That's right. Uh, what else was young for a long time? Yeah. He's been eight years old for 20 years. It feels like he's 17 dude, a voice or whatever. They filled this.
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, using good boys that like kind of raunchy comedy. Oh yeah. It was all right. He's a little kid in the room. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. With Brie Larson. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Okay. The cast. I mean, overall good cast. I wasn't really disappointed in any of them. I thought they all killed it.
00:25:47
Speaker
They, they did a good job. Um, Rob Marshall, man, respect, right? Yeah. He's a, he's definitely a hit or miss director. Like, you know, should go back to Chicago. That was great. Uh, nine. That was a, that's definitely a misstep in my opinion. Did you like into the woods from him? I actually liked like, okay. So I am very,
00:26:17
Speaker
I, I, maybe I'm in denial. Okay. Anyone who's listening, maybe especially musical lovers, they're going to see. I think I don't like musicals, but then I watch some musicals and I'm like, I dig this. Like I'm, I'm about it. Into the woods is one of those that I didn't love, but I didn't hate. And from time to time I go back and like watch it and
00:26:46
Speaker
I guess that means I'm okay with it. I'm happy that it exists if I've revisited it. So maybe I need to come out of the musical closet right now and just accept the fact that I like musicals more than I think. The next episode will be on Cats. How about that? Okay. Please, please. James Corden. I'm glad he doesn't have a show anymore for the record.
00:27:14
Speaker
Vicious rumors about that guy. That'd be very nice. Many, many rumors about him not being nice. But, um, yeah, Rob Marshall. So into the woods, I give him a thumbs up for that. Chicago. Um, of course, uh, Oh, I didn't realize he did that. Yeah, that goes way back. I haven't seen the movie.
00:27:36
Speaker
2005. I since 2005. So he opened up with Chicago, then memoirs of a geisha. So boom, two bangers right out the gate. Nine. Yeah, I mean, I feel like like that's not a bad movie. But it's a bad movie. Because the cast they have in that movie weren't used the way people wanted them to be used. That's my take on nine.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe it's a hot take. I don't know. I have a sour taste in my mouth based on a movie because I broke a big string of great films and performances by Daniel D. Lewis. He was on such a role at that time. He was, but I respect the hell out of him for going out and doing a musical. Yeah, definitely.
00:28:30
Speaker
But Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides was weedy whack. So that was the next one up. And then into the woods, Mary Poppins Returns. I actually did not see that. It's still on a list for me to go check out. So I did not see it. I liked that one. What a big Mary Poppins concern. I thought Emily Blood did great. I mean, I heard good things about it. Well, man, holy shit. So it all makes sense now, folks who are listening.
Rob Marshall's Direction and Musical History
00:29:00
Speaker
The singing in this movie in The Little Mermaid was excellent. Halle Bailey killed it. She sounded amazing. Dare I say even better than the original songs? Oh, no problem. Before we got on, I was listening to the original songs again to see how they compared it. Actually, way better. No offense to the original film. Yeah, she killed it.
00:29:24
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of music in this film, and it makes sense now, because the guy who made the film did musicals his whole career besides Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, maybe they should have made that Pirates of the Caribbean and musical, and it would have been great. Maybe that was the missing ingredient. Maybe they should have had Jack Sparrow sit there drunk, singing about how much he loves to be drunk for like a good 30 minutes of the film. I'd watch that for two and a half hours.
00:29:54
Speaker
I think I would too. I'd watch him run around drunk, yeah, the whole film. I mean, that's basically the first movie. Sinking his ship when he rolls up to port. Don't drink and drive your ship around, I guess. Yeah, drink and boat. It's worse than fire. Wow, okay. That makes sense. Rob Marshall, tip of the hat to you, fellow. He did a great job. He's a musical genius, I guess.
00:30:24
Speaker
Based on the resume here. Yeah, he has a good track record. Give him that. For sure. Damn. If they do a sequel, get him back in the saddle and let him do it. To do a sequel, they should make the both mermaids this time. Yeah. Get Eric down in the water, Dan. We'll see. Eric's rode around. They had mermen running around. They showed a couple of them. Mermen, more women.
00:30:50
Speaker
Yeah. What is Ursula? She's a half human octopus. What do you call her? They call her Sea Witch, right? That's fair. We'll call her. If you're half octopus, some kind of witcher goes on there. But if you're half dolphin, you're all right. You're chillin'.
00:31:11
Speaker
So, okay, well, I think this movie, you know, this extended review of this movie warrants the new rating system we're going to start to utilize moving forward, right? We're employing in the theme of the study pipe, we're going to unveil, start utilizing moving forward a one to five
00:31:40
Speaker
puffs rating system? Is that where we've landed with this? Yeah, yeah. So basically, you know, you want to visualize it as like a number of puffs of smoke coming out of a pipe. So if there's no puffs, that means you're not putting in your pipe and smoking it. You know, one puff is like, you'll, you'll hit the pipe a little bit, but you're not that interested. Or it's not that quality of
00:32:05
Speaker
That's up to the smoke. It's not old Toby, all right? Tolkien would not approve. Yeah, Gandalf would not be smoking this. But I think for the little mermaid, Gandalf would definitely smoke this. And I want to give this four puffs. Four puffs of the study pipe. Is that right? That is right. You're not allowed to disagree.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah,
00:32:40
Speaker
Damn, man. I mean, we can't agree all the time. And I don't think we do, but I think I'm sitting around four puffs, too. I'd call it Old Toby, finest weed in the South Florida. Very Lord of the Rings, paying my respects. I'd put it in my pipe.
Favorite Scenes and Character Dynamics
00:32:59
Speaker
I'd puff on it quite a few times. It was good. I liked it. I think I'd give it, yeah, like, yeah, four puffs out of five.
00:33:02
Speaker
I guess...
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah. I hope it does well. And I feel like five puffs, that's reserved for like the cream of the crop, the top of the top. Yeah. That's, I mean, five puffs is like, you're sitting in your study smoking on this, thinking about it all day long, you know, you're having a good, deep, you know, introspective soul searching about what you just saw on that screen. So no, it can't be five. It wasn't that good, but it was damn good. And
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah, and one thing I want to go back on when I was talking about cinema lovers having to pay some respect to this film. It was very cinematic. There were beautifully composed scenes
00:33:58
Speaker
that really, when they were on the screen, when these sequences were occurring while I was watching, I was like, dude, this is beautiful. Even if you are a hater and you don't want to listen to a musical or whatever, you can't sit here and honestly say that what you're seeing on the screen
00:34:17
Speaker
is not top tier production quality, beautifully composed lighting, cinematography. And I go back to two big sequences in the film that really like I was just vibing with. When Ariel is walking around the outdoor market with Prince Eric and all the colors, it's very,
00:34:43
Speaker
Like I said, I mean, it's very Caribbean style, beautiful outdoors, you know, there's singing, dancing, so many different characters. I thought it was composed really well, looked really cool. And then the the lagoon, you know, the lagoon, we've touched on it, but that was like,
00:35:02
Speaker
you know, the black of the sky and, you know, the reflections in the water and the fireflies and the singing and, you know, even just like how they used Scuttle and Sebastian Flounder to do the singing, you know, the kiss, the girl and all that. It just looked
00:35:20
Speaker
So good. And I was laughing too because of how he, Sebastian was kind of, you know, he's like, we got to convince him to kiss the girl, you know, and it was so, it was funny, but also like intimate and very cinematic. I loved it, man. I'll go see it again for sure. Yeah, that's a, I could, you know, I think we're both at agreement on this one. We're not always going to be at agreement on these types of films, guys.
00:35:50
Speaker
But I think that this is one of those movies that's going to capture just the general audience's attention. And most people are going to like this. They're going to be in the same boat as Zach and I. Once you see that lagoon shot, like Zach is saying, the sequences are just amazing. Great shot composition, great colors. You feel transported. It almost makes you nostalgic for a place that you've never been to. That's a good way of putting it, Andrew.
00:36:20
Speaker
Thank you. Never been there but you're like that's somewhere I feel like I could go and like I miss, I long for. Exactly. It made me feel like I need to go out and explore the world like Ariel wants to. So what was your favorite part of the movie? I mean outside of the lagoon because I think we keep going back to that and it was really it was done so damn well.
00:36:45
Speaker
I get a kick out of the cheesy romantic stuff. Just the hat bit. It wasn't a big detail, but the straw hat that Eric buys in the village and it's kind of going back and forth as you're going through the whole first date.
Final Thoughts on Audience Appeal
00:37:03
Speaker
I don't know. I thought it was cute and charming and it really tied together with the blossoming of the romance.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, I dig that. I really I mean, that was the other scene. I really liked the, you know, date in the nearby village market. So I agree with that. I think. Oh, gosh, what was another good one? You know, the hair flip coming out of the water, the hair flip, they recreated it. I thought they did it, man. I thought they did it justice. You know, she busted out of the water. She flipped her hair back. Yeah, man, it was cool.
00:37:44
Speaker
I'm happy that I'm wrong. I'm happy that I was wrong on this one. Ideally, every movie that I say I'm not going to like, I'll turn out to like, because there's never a shortage of great movies. You always need great movies. That's true. And everyone wins when you go to a movie that you enjoy, obviously. Sure, there are people who are trolls and they like to hate, but even they'd agree. There's going to be a lot of people that secretly like this movie in one minute.
00:38:15
Speaker
It's probably true. But I will say I'm going to die on the hill. Halle Bailey killed it as Ariel. Even the red hair and like, I liked kind of like that, like, like I'm saying, the caribbean influence, she had a little bit of like the dreads in there.
00:38:33
Speaker
A little bit that look like it look cool man. It looked like it was in the just the vibe of like the Caribbean. That kind of like sun bleached red hair, but a little bit of blonde hues in there. Yeah, it's like she seemed very much in place for the scene. Yeah, it's like I'm vibing with this, you know.
00:38:54
Speaker
Obviously, when she was cast, she's not a redhead. So it was like, how are they going to pull that off? But it looks good. It looks like them. Very natural. She looked great for the character. Yeah.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah, definitely hope. Um, you know, it's kind of crazy because I was looking at like what she's doing and whatnot. And I hope this launches her into, of course she has a singing career and all that, but I hope this launches her into doing more film because I thought she acted her ass off. She can obviously sing. We all knew that going in. Uh, but yeah, I'd love to see her in other movies doing stuff, you know? Oh yeah. Did you, did you get the trailer for the color purple before the film?
00:39:41
Speaker
No, not not in my screening. Yes, but I've seen the trailer with her in it and that's Oscar bait baby So we may be seeing her blow up here pretty soon In the realm of filmmaking, you know, yeah, so We will we will be keeping an eye on her career and see where she goes All right. So what what's up next that we're reviewing so
00:40:11
Speaker
We both gave this one four puffs of smoke. This is our detailed review of the Little Mermaid. We are rambling here for 40 minutes, but I think we did a great job staying away from spoilers.
00:40:24
Speaker
and just kind of dancing around what we liked, who's in it, you know, performance, you know, assessments, if you will, ratings, but also production kind of spin there. Going into this next review, I think is, is it Spider-Man? Is Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse? Oh man, I think it's going to be great. So June 2nd, that's when you can expect our
00:40:49
Speaker
Our next review to be dropping. Zach and I will both be checking it out this coming Thursday. We'll record that night and get that episode out to you guys. Yeah. And then I think in between this one and that one, we have a couple of surprises of interesting topics coming out. We've been working on some pre-production stuff and trying to come up with some interesting ideas and topics and fleshing them out. So hopefully you guys will like this when the time comes for them to drop.
00:41:20
Speaker
Amen. Any parting words before we conclude? Yeah, go see The Little Mermaid. If you like it, come comment on our stuff. Let us know what you think about it. I thought it was great. I hope you guys think it's just as great as I did. Yeah, go see it. Bring your family. Make an event out of it.
00:41:41
Speaker
go check it out, take a date, it's very sappy in a good way, and bump the soundtrack. That's what I'm gonna go do. I'm gonna go find the soundtrack and revisit it. I gotta do a compare and contrast with the original. Oh, definitely. Yeah, with that, thanks for listening, guys and gals.