Disney’s remake of The Little Mermaid is a bland multicultural fantasy in search of a lot more soul

There’s nothing like watching a live-action remake of a Disney animated movie to remind you how much times have changed. The Little Mermaid, the Mouse Factory’s latest redo of a beloved cartoon classic, manages to be an even safer update of the G-rated original, which already took Hans Christian Andersen’s sad fairy tale and made it a family-friendly love story by adding some peppy Howard Ashman-Alan Menken tunes and capping it off with a positive outcome.