Little Mermaid, The (2023)

image for Little Mermaid, The (2023)

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Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (violence, themes, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Little Mermaid, The (2023)
  • a review of Little Mermaid, The (2023) completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 May 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Little Mermaid, The (2023)
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes and violence, some scenes may scare young children
Length: 135 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Intrigued by all things human, Ariel (Halle Bailey) can’t help but push the boundaries in her quest to discover more about the mysterious creatures that live on land. Much to her father King Triton’s (Javier Bardem) displeasure, and the irritation of his trusty advisor, Sebastian (voice of Daveed Diggs), who is tasked with looking out for her, Ariel ventures to the surface to investigate a series of strange lights. Here she encounters a ship and first sets eyes on Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King). When the ship is dashed on rocks and catches fire, Eric is flung, unconscious, into the water and Ariel saves him, dragging him up from the deep and safely returning him to the sandy shores of his land. Despite her father’s fury and protective ultimatums, Ariel is unable to get Eric off her mind. In desperation, she seeks out Ursula the Sea Witch (Melissa McCarthy) and reluctantly agrees to give up her voice for the chance to become human. Ariel is given three days in which to get Eric to give her true love’s kiss, otherwise she will return to the sea and belong completely to Ursula. Unbeknownst to Ariel, Ursula has made her forget that she is meant to get Eric to kiss her and so it falls to her friends, Flounder (voice of Jacob Tremblay) and Skuttle (voice of Awkwafina), as well as the ever-present Sebastian, to try to help her beat the clock, find her voice and break a spell that threatens to destroy her happiness and bind her to the Sea Witch forever.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Teenage boundary testing; Prejudice and misunderstanding between species; Magic; Deceitfulness and Cruelty to sea creatures.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Sailors stab harpoons and spears at mermaids and dolphins.
  • The humans believe that mermaids lure sailors to their deaths.
  • Ariel hits a shark with a barrel and traps it in a mirror frame.
  • Ursula stabs a cute little crustacean with her fingernail and eats it with relish.
  • Eric’s ship is caught in a storm that drives the boat straight towards jagged rocks. The ship quickly catches fire and begins to break apart. Ariel is nearly hit by falling debris and Eric is blasted backwards off the ship and into the water where he sinks, unconscious, into the depths.
  • Ariel’s father reminds her that humans killed her mother.
  • With lightening blasts from his trident, Ariel’s father destroys her treasure trove of items she has collected.
  • Ariel rips a scale from her tail.
  • Ariel nearly crashes a horse and buggy into another man and his cart, into a market stall and into a flock of sheep.
  • A character questions if sea creatures are only food for slaughter.
  • Ursula’s creepy eels knock Eric and Ariel out of their boat.
  • Ursula transforms from a human into a sea-creature and knocks everyone to the ground as she grabs Ariel and dives off a clifftop.
  • Electric eels shock Ariel while holding her captive.
  • The eels grab King Triton and brutally electrocute him. Their repeated and prolonged shocks turn the king to dust, and he disappears into the water.
  • Eric throws a spear at Ursula, trying to save Ariel.
  • Ursula shoots the trident at Eric but zaps her eels instead, they explode and Eric escapes.
  • Ursula tries to crush Eric and Ariel with her tentacles.
  • A giant Ursula creates a violent whirlpool with her massive trident, stirring up a storm that lifts sunken ships to the surface once more. Ariel tries to avoid getting hit or crushed by debris, while Eric tries to climb on board a ship as Ursula blasts at him with her trident.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Ursula and her electric eel henchmen are evil and creepy. Her lair is dark and sinister-looking, the entrance is down the skeletal mouth of a dinosaur-sized crocodile and there are grabby, tentacle things that reach out and try to ensnare Ariel.
  • There are a few transformations that may disturb young viewers, especially the scene in which Ursula becomes a gargantuan version of herself, towering menacingly over Ariel and Eric as they fight to stay alive.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Ariel and Flounder are chased through a shipwreck by an aggressive shark determined to capture and kill them both. The scene is very intense and full of many narrow escapes before Ariel can trap the shark so that they can escape.
  • Ariel watches Ursula kill her father with his own trident. She is horrified and visibly distressed as she watches him vanish into a watery abyss.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Ariel is naked after her transformation into a human, though she is mostly covered by her hair and only her legs are shown. A sailor, who fishes her from the sea, covers her with a blanket until she is given proper clothes to wear.
  • Sebastian and Flounder try to convince Eric to kiss Ariel: setting them up for romance and quietly singing words to put the thought into his head.
  • Ariel and Eric nearly kiss on a couple of occasions and then finally kiss at the end of the story.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Some of the sailors drink what may be rum or grog. It is not openly stated, only implied.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Stupid
  • Idiot
  • Fool
  • Brat.

In a nutshell

The Little Mermaid is a live-action remake of Disney’s 1989 classic animation of the same name. The film features new songs, along with old favourites, a very diverse cast (that sometimes feels as though it is forced) and excellent vocals from Halle Bailey. This is a family film for all but younger children who are likely to be upset by the violence and some of the scary scenes.

The main messages from this movie are to follow your heart; to be open to new realities and not blinded by the beliefs or superstitions of others; and, perhaps most importantly, that no one should have ‘to give up their voice in order to be heard’.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Curiosity
  • Empathy
  • Courage
  • Determination
  • Kindness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Giving up who you are in pursuit of love.
  • Disobeying the rules parents have set to protect children.
  • Making deals with those who are deceitful or simply evil.
  • Blindly following what everyone believes and assuming that an entire population is bad, based on the actions of only a few.