The Little Mermaid: the recent Disney “live-action” remakes of their animated classics, more than most, seem to come with a conundrum: if one sticks too closely to the original, the new one feels unjustified; add too much, and it disfigures what once was beloved. It is a balance that Rob Marshall fails to accomplish: his new film adds almost one hour to the original run time, and every new element (be it a new song or a new story beat) just bloats what was once tight and snappy. The pair of new songs, by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, don’t match the musicality of the rest (which remains lovely) and are not all that interesting (or revealing). The staging for most musical numbers is also rather uninspired. Halle Bailey is luminous as the protagonist, the curious and headstrong youngest daughter of the King of the Seas, played with gravitas by Javier Bardem. Her counterpart and love interest, alas, is played with the charisma and charm of a wet towel by Jonah Hauer-King. Melissa McCarthy nicely fills the shoes of the great villain Ursula. The film looks great, with the cinematographer Dion Beebe’s camera being very fluid underwater and capturing production designer John Myhre’s and costume designer Colleen Atwood’s colourful work nicely.