The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure is the second show to debut at Disney’s Hollywood Studios these last few weeks to compliment the new Disney Villains show as this revamped production gets a fresh new lease of life as advanced stage production and some epic puppetry come to life before your very eyes.
This retelling of Ariel’s beloved story is a much more condensed version of the full film as we jump and skip over much of the films story and get straight to the curse and the first kiss scenes with the prince in a matter of minutes.
A little rushed in places The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure is rather beautiful to watch with a skim over the front of the stage that shows projections and adds a level of magic and depth to the actors and puppeteers on stage.
Whilst the skim provides this depth there are screens on stage that sadly are blurred by the skim which almost ruins some of the scenes (particularly those with Ariel’s dad and Sebastian).
The larger-than-life Ursula practical effect puppet is jaw-dropping it really is and the acting was pretty spot-on during the particular performance I watched and the songs were wonderful to hear on stage.
From Part of Your World to the classic Under the Sea there’s enough tunes here to keep your foot tapping but with how speedy this stage show races through the story it almost feels rushed.
Ariel’s floating / swimming effect is nicely done but the stage at times was giving away the illusion of how she floats along with highlighting the puppeteers when they should be hidden, a few teething issues during my particular run-through that made the production feel rushed but it’s a much more rounded show than the Villains show if albeit put on fast-forward.
The technology just needed a small tweak but you could see the potential of what this technically advanced show has to offer and once the initial bugs are ironed out it’ll be quite the spectacle, a very refreshing and immersive show that just needs tightening up a bit to really make it sparkle.
Check out my VLOG below for my initial thoughts on both this particular show and the Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After.
