The Little Mermaids Underwater World Needs To Avoid Lion Kings CGI Realism

The Little Mermaid’s Underwater World Needs To Avoid Lion King’s CGI Realism

The Lion King remake was criticized for its overly realistic CGI. Here’s why The Little Mermaid would be wise to avoid the same mistake.

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The Little Mermaids Underwater World Needs To Avoid Lion Kings CGI Realism

In order to avoid The Lion King’s harsh criticisms, The Little Mermaid needs to avoid realism with its underwater world. Director Jon Favreau’s technical achievement with his remake of The Lion King was visually stunning. But the hyper-realism of the movie’s animals didn’t sit well with fans and critics from a storytelling perspective. The Little Mermaid can successfully avoid similar critiques by dodging the same issue with its underwater creatures.

Assuming it follows the same patterns as Disney reboots before it, The Little Mermaid will follow the exact story as its predecessor. The upcoming movie follows the story of Ariel (Halle Bailey), a young and outspoken mermaid who dreams of life above the surface. She makes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) and trades her voice for legs. Ariel makes it on land and immediately falls for a prince. But with no voice, the catch is that she can’t speak to him. Her best friends Flounder the fish, Scuttle the seagull, and Sebastian the crab help her on her journey to find true love and get her voice back.

Flounder, Scuttle, and Sebastian are fully realized characters with complete thoughts and feelings, and their facial expressions need to express that. The same can be said for the animals in The Lion King. But due to the CGI realism that Favreau implemented, every character looked incredibly expressionless. That took away from the more emotional moments in the Disney movie. In order to avoid that same mistake, the upcoming Little Mermaid’s underwater world needs to be far less realistic than The Lion King remake was.

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The Lion King has plenty of famously emotional moments within the story. Mufasa’s death, Simba and Nala’s reunion, and Simba learning that Scar arranged his father’s death are just a few of the most emotional scenes in the movie. In the original animated film, the audience could easily read every emotion and reaction on the characters’ faces. But as The Lion King remake was focused on creating animals that look as real as possible, that emotion was lost. The movie’s technical feat was almost too good. The Lion King remake simply looked like a nature show instead of a movie with characters who had a range of thoughts and feelings. The remake was successful enough to spawn a sequel for Disney, but its push for hyper-realism in The Lion King characters’ mouth movements was unsettling and distracting.

While The Little Mermaid may not have the same level of emotional moments as The Lion King, the sea creatures in the film are Ariel’s support system. She turns to them when she’s frustrated, scared, or trying to work out her feelings about Prince Eric. Not to mention, her animal friends are the focus of The Little Mermaid’s most iconic songs, “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl.” Applying the same overly realistic CGI to Ariel’s animal companions Scuttle, Sebastian, Flounder, and the other supporting sea creatures would distract from the big moments in these scenes.

In order to avoid the same criticisms that The Lion King faced, The Little Mermaid would be best served to add little fantasy back into its realistic CGI. Not to mention, a more colorful and animated world would better match the story’s tone. That way, the sea creatures could truly be a part of Ariel’s world without looking like they can’t show emotion.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/little-mermaid-live-action-remake-cgi-lion-king-photorealism/

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