Disney’s live-action remakes have all raised the same complaint when it comes to the realistic interpretations of their animal characters. Now The Little Mermaid looks set to repeat the same issue as those faces by the likes of The Lion King as the first good look at Sebastian the crab has received a very mixed response from fans of the classic 1989 animated movie.
Although Disney is yet to reveal a first full trailer for The Little Mermaid, images of upcoming merchandise from the movie has given fans a look at one of the film’s most iconic underwater characters, Sebastian the crab. A new jigsaw depicts artistic versions of Flouder the fish, Scuttle the Seagull and of course Sebastian the crab, as well as the titular mermaid herself. However, the image also gives a look at how Sebastian is going to look in his live action iteration, and it once again proves that turning and animated animal characture into a more accurate interpretation has its drawbacks.
Sebastian’s new appearance does follow the trend seen in most of Disney’s live-action re-imaginings of their classic animations, such as Aladdin, The Lion King and the Disney+ release of Lady and the Tramp, taking away the cartoon elements of the character and instead giving him a more realistic appearance. However, like in those previous movies, the natural world doesn’t exactly allow the animal characters to be quite as expressive as their animated counterparts and that is something that comes across as the main issue again with Sebastian.
