I feel like this movie is one of the more progressive movies for men out there.

  • Eric is much more humanized in this version, and he has his own song this time around "Wild Uncharted Waters: https://youtu.be/BiRgpDIGY8k) asking the audience to empathize with him and his desires. He is never portrayed as dumb or unintelligent, and if anything, he is portrayed as very intelligent and knowledgable about the world, educating Ariel about the human world. The movie never vilifies Eric, or undermines him for being a heterosexual white man.
  • This movie is one of the healthier depictions of love out there, and you genuinely feel the budding love between Ariel and Eric. It's a great movie to teach girls that you should care and respect your partner, and the way Ariel treats Eric is very sweet. If couples were more like Eric and Ariel, we would have less hatred in the world. Ariel is portrayed as a man lover, not a man hater.
  • The movie makes a small change with Triton near the end trying to get the viewer to empathize with him more.
  • Some of Ursula's lyrics which are rather sexist and degrading towards men have been removed, which originally makes men out to be superficial and shallow, as if men only care about a woman's looks and not her personality: "The men up there don't like a lot of blabber... They think a girl who gossips is a bore!... Come on, they're not all that impressed with conversation... True gentlemen avoid it when they can"
  • Ursula is a great female antagonist, and it's not often we see female antagonists in shows these days when movies like Frozen, Princess and the Frog, have male antagonists. Seeing Ariel fight Ursula to protect Eric is badass, as well as fight alongside Eric to kill the sea witch, is epic.
  • Ursula disguises herself as an attractive woman as a human named Vanessa, when she is portrayed as very demonic on the inside. The movie teaches boys to be wary of hot women because they have the capacity to be very evil.
  • The entire message of the movie is that you can't judge entire groups by the actions of a few people we meet.

I thought the movie was pretty good and very emotional (at least an 8 out of 10 imo), and it captures the essence of the original, especially when you compare it to the rather awful Mulan remake. Halle is also a fantastic singer and captures the essence of Ariel very well:

https://youtu.be/bdBdtm9pukY

They upped the quality of the remake compared to other live-action remakes, and I hope men don't feel discouraged from seeing this. It's a progressive movie for both men and women. It's sad to see both men and women rooting for this movie's downfall. One young woman was crying in the theatre because she felt so much empathy for Eric and his grief near the end of the story.