As the harsh, unforgiving waves crash with abandon in the opening moments of Rob Marshall’s “The Little Mermaid,” there is a sense that a true loss of innocence is on the brink. In this new live-action adaptation things are not as bubblegum sweet and bright as the last time we visited Ariel’s story. The sea is rougher, less forgiving.
There is, as Ariel sings in the famed “Part of Your World,” something starting inside the heart of a tender, curious, and desperate mermaid the same way it did in 1989, but Marshall’s vision finds the raw humanity within the story, grounding a once-completely fantastical tale with a strong sense of realism that works to its advantage.