Run time: 135 mins

Another year, another Disney animation remake. This time we’re going under the sea to revisit the adventures of the love-struck mermaid, Ariel.

This reimagining of the 1989 classic – itself an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale – retains much of the heart and soul of the original, and throws in a whole host of new characters and set-pieces (taking this over the two hour mark!).

Rob Marshall’s film follows Ariel (Halle Bailey) as she makes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to give up her voice so that she can meet her true love, Prince Eric (Jonah Andre Hauer-King), on land.

A star in the making, Bailey is perfectly cast as Ariel, she radiates with staggering beauty and plucky charm. It helps that she’s also a singer, so the musical numbers are belted out with perfect precision (none of that awkward Emma Watson auto-tune here). Her aquatic friends do have that realistic, but not-quite-real-enough appearance that’s all the more jarring when they start to sing (Sebastian the crab is especially creepy looking), but as you begin to fall under the film’s spell, you’ll hardly notice