The Little Mermaid 2018

     The setting of this film is Mississippi in the 1930’s.  Cam is a young reporter and his young niece Elle live together.  This is the only family they have left after Elle’s parents died.  Cam is worried about Elle because she has trouble breathing if she overdoes activities.  Cam is working for a local newspaper and he is traveling with Elle to Mississippi  to research a story.  Cam wants to find out if the healing water stories about this location are true.  It is supposed to be a miracle healing elixir.  They are staying at a local boarding house and they visit a nearby circus.  There are a LOT of things going on at this circus under the surface.

     I knew that this would not be anything like Disney’s Little Mermaid as soon as I started watching.  It is possible that this was released to confuse viewers into thinking this was a Disney movie?  I thought the story was interesting and colorful.  There are a lot of period details in the scenes.  There are old typewriters, Venetian blinds and men wearing shirtsleeves and suspenders.  At the circus there is a fortuneteller, a real mermaid, a beast, an elephant and a villain.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

85 min, Adventure directed by Blake Harris and Chris Bouchard with William Moseley, Poppy Drayton, Loreto Peralta, Armando Gutierrez, Shirley MacLaine, Gina Gershon, Shanna Collins, Chris Yong, Jo Marie Payton, Tom Nowicki, Lexy Kolker, Claire Ryann, Jared Sandler.

Note:  Imdb 4.2 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 20% critic 24% audience, Commen Sense Media Sandie Angulo Chen age 8+ 1* out of 5*, 1* educational, 4* positive messages, 3* role models 3* violence & scariness 1*, sexy stuff 1*, Metacritic 4.5* out of 10 stars with 6 user scores, Amazon 3.1* out of 5* with 88 reviews.  

Special Note:  Written by Blake Harris and an original story based on a Hans Christian Anderson story.  This film is one of three live-action movies named The Little Mermaid in production during 2017.  The movie trailer received over 40 million views in its first two weeks.  Most of the viewers thought this was Disney’s The Little Mermaid.  The Douglas General storefront was a location shot in Douglas, a small town in central Washington.