The "darkness" of the 2023 The Little Mermaid was a deliberate but controversial cinematographic choice by director Rob Marshall and DP Dion Beebe. They aimed for "photorealistic immersion," attempting to replicate how light actually behaves 100 feet underwater, where the red spectrum of light is absorbed first, leaving only blues and greens. In 2026, film critics note that while this added a "gritty" realism, it struggled with the limitations of modern HDR displays and theatrical projectors, which often made the "Under the Sea" sequence look murky rather than vibrant. Another factor was the heavy use of "Dry-for-Wet" filming, where actors were suspended on wires in a dark studio with CGI water added later; if the digital lighting didn't perfectly match the practical light on the actors' skin, the scene often appeared shadowed or dim. A supportive peer tip: if you watch it in 2026, viewing it on an OLED screen with the "Filmmaker Mode" setting helps retrieve some of the lost detail in those deep-sea blacks.