Why So Blu?

The Little Mermaid (2023) – Best Buy Steelbook Edition (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Disney and their live action remakes have landed upon one of its most important and pivotal titles in the animated history – The Little Mermaid. The live action redo from Rob Marshall made itself some monies this summer, but ultimately underwhelmed and wasn’t the smash they’d been hoping for. The film arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with Atmos sound and a handful of featurettes. Released on September 19th, there were many store exclusive editions to choose from. This particular reviewer was given the Best Buy limited edition steelbook to cover for this review.

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Film

The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, Ariel is a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. Longing to find out more about the world beyond the sea, Ariel visits the surface and falls for the dashing Prince Eric. Following her heart, she makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to experience life on land.

You always go into these films hoping for the best and coming up usually underwhelmed or simply whelmed. The Little Mermaid is no different. Whereas the original Disney animated film was one of the most important in their history; a film that saved the studio and broke open an incredible streak of elite animated musicals, this new one is an also ran that is pretty flat and dull with a nice star turn by its lead performer.

If there’s one thing to praise this film about, its Halle Bailey. Personally, during the opening scenes, she was merely fine. Its when she lost her voice that she took the role and film to another level for me. She’s quite impressive with her body and facial language. Bailey is top tier akin to the best of a silent star while grounding it in today’s film climate. Contrast that with her veteran costars who very much disappoint in this. Melissa McCarthy looks bored and restrained and Javier Bardem gives one of the weakest performances of his career.

Another thing that does not flash at all is the photo realism approach to the sea creatures who talk and sing. There’s a deadness to all of them as these expressive performers burst at the seams while there is zero emoting from the creature. I don’t know why they keep going for this, but its all flat and dull in these movies. And then, sometimes super creepy (Flounder).

Unfortunately, The Little Mermaid just did not do it for me in most of the facets here. The music is the same as it ever was. The visual effects aren’t impressive and overall its just the same story but just with nothing to prove here by the studio. Disney is probably never going to be as hungry again as they were in 1989, but boy if only 1/3 of that were here, we might be talking about something more interesting at the end of the day.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: The Little Mermaid actually impresses quite a bit in its 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray debut. Its a pretty vivid looking image that feels more colorful and with pop than it did in the theater even. Its a crisp image with strong details and I think the CG effects hold up better here than on its Blu-ray counterpart which seems a hair strange. But it is what it is.

Depth:  Depth of field is solid and a bit above average. Scale is pretty solid with good pushback in many of the interior scenes. Movements are smooth and natural with no issues from any motion distortions.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural. They provide good shading and nighttime sequence both on land and under the seas. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction:  Colors actually jump out better here, especially when it fills with more character like Ariel’s sisters underwater. HDR helps add glow to Ursula’s tentacles, Triton’s…triton, fireworks, flames and more.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are discernible from any given distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 7.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Japanese

Dynamics: The Little Mermaid carries a pretty sufficient and engaging Dolby Atmos track. Disney’s September releases are all pretty on point for once. Volume is at a good level and the impact of the deeper tones hits pretty just right. Its both well layered and playful in its schematic around the channels in the room.

Height: From above you get some wave/sea noises, debris, singing, ship sails sounds and plenty more in a mix that keeps the ceiling channels mostly grounded.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer hits good on the bass of the music, the crashing of ships being damaged, water roaring, magical forges happening and more.

Surround Sound Presentation: The whole room is well thought out and pretty accurate. Rear and side channels capture off screen sounds accurately from cut to cut and the rolling sound has good force in any direction when it moves around the room.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp. Singing feels at one with the standard dialogue when they transition.

Extras

The Little Mermaid comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code. This particular edition comes in limited steelbook packaging, only available from Best Buy. All bonus material is found on the standard Blu-ray disc.

For a look at the steelbook packaging, here’s a video:

Hotter Under the Water (HD, 26:15) – A five part making-of that goes from its concept, challenges, casting and plenty of on set and behind the scenes stuff that shows how it all came together. Complete with plenty of interviews and knowledge, this is a rock solid companion piece to the film.

Song Breakdowns – A little bit of a behind the scenes for some select songs and their performances in the film.

• Wild Uncharted Waters (HD, 4:17)
• Under the Sea (HD, 5:18)
• Kiss the Girl (HD, 6:02)
• Poor Unfortunate Souls (HD, 6:41)

The Scuttlebutt on Sidekicks (HD; 6:49) – A piece devoted to the creature side character in the film. Awkwafina is the only one of the voice actors here for interview.

Passing the Dinglehopper (HD, 3:55) – This featurette focuses on the original Ariel voice, Jodi Benson, and her cameo in the film.

Bloopers (HD, 2:00)

Summary

The Little Mermaid jumps into a sea full of mediocre and dull remakes of Disney animated classics. At least it introduced us to Halle Bailey, who hopefully has a big career in front of her. This 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray release has a terrific presentation and some decent extras to make for a worthwhile pickup.