First Trailer for Live Action THE LITTLE MERMAID Looks Like It Should Go Straight to VHS

This is not the Disney live action version of The Little Mermaid. There are no talking crabs or adorable neon colored fish. This is the other live action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, based on Hans Christian Anderson’s original fairy tale. It looks… pretty much terrible, but maybe kind of wonderful? I don’t know. The setting (the circus in the South) and the apparent framing device (old person telling a story to younger relatives) do give me a sort of Big Fish vibe, which I love, but it also seems pretty much like a Feature Films for Families joint. I bet I would love it if I had grown up watching it without knowing it was bad, though. I still have affection for The Buttercream Gang after all.

This take on the classic follows a journalist and his little sister who travel to Mississippi to find a real mermaid. There is an evil ringmaster. True love ensues, I am sure.

The actually decent cast includes Shirley MacLaine, Poppy Drayton (who shared the screen with MacLaine on Downton Abbey, oddly enough), William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Royals), Loreto Peralta (Instructions Not Included), and Gina Gershon (Empire). The Little Mermaid is directed by Blake Harris and Chris Bouchard. Blake wrote the screenplay as well. The movie is expected to come out sometime this year, although no official release date has been announced yet.