The Little Mermaid

With the 28^th Disney film The Little Mermaid, we have officially said “see you later” to the Bronze Age and are now saying “hello” to the Disney Renaissance!  This movie was originally planned as one of Walt Disney’s first films but the project was delayed for many reasons and then shelved for many decades.  In the mid-1980’s, finally, animator Ron Clements became interested in adapting The Little Mermaid but the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) at that time, Jeffery Katzenberg (who would become Disney’s rival years later when he founded Dreamworks Animation), wasn’t so sure as he thought the idea had too many similarities to a proposed sequel to the movie Splash.  Production on The Little Mermaid moved forward, though, and the film received critical acclaim.  Critics praised it for the animation, music, and characters and it was a huge box office success as well; and it ended up winning two academy awards for best original score and song.  I hope everyone loves this movie as I do! Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you!  

The Little Mermaid (based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale) is about a 16-year-old mermaid, Ariel, who has a fascination with the human world and dreams of becoming human herself.  Her father, however, is disgusted with the thought so Ariel tries to hide her desire from him.  One day, Ariel swims above surface and “meets” a prince named Eric and ends up saving his life.  Ariel then falls in love with Eric and yearns to be with him so, with the help of the evil sea witch Ursula, she ends up becoming human.  But Ariel exchanged her beautiful voice to become human so it’s up to Ariel and her friends, Sebastian (a loveable crab), Flounder (a fun fish who does not look like a real flounder at all), and Scuttle (a silly seagull), to figure out how to win over Eric before it’s too late. This movie has some good messages like, for example, even though Ariel was born a mermaid and not a human, this doesn’t matter to Eric at all; he doesn’t judge her for this and loves her “fins and all.”  The movie also has a fantastic soundtrack (though I’m sure people won’t want their kid to run around singing “Kiss the Girl”!).   Despite the great animation, wonderful soundtrack, and mostly fun characters, Ursula, the sea witch, is very scary and could give younger kids quite a fright!  Also, there’s something else that needs to be addressed here and that is the fact that some people have said that the portrayal of Ariel is sexist.  As I stated above, Ariel first yearns to be a human, not be married to a prince; she only becomes interested in romance when she sees Eric on a ship (and ends up saving his life twice, a first for a Disney Princess!).  Then, she ends up making a deal with the devil, quite literally, just to be with him; obviously, she shouldn’t have made a deal with Ursula and seems to regret it later.  Basically, Ariel chose to give up her greatest gift/talent just to be with a guy, and that’s just not something that I think any of us should ever have to do.  So, overall, I’d say that Ariel’s character is a mixed bag, and I would caution parents regarding both the portrayal of Ariel and of creepy Ursula.  I hope I haven’t turned anyone off of the movie because I think that kids should watch it and just have a conversation with their parents about it.  Some other things I like about this movie are that we get to know Eric a bit more intimately than past Disney Princes and that Ariel is the first Disney Princess to have some level of independence/spunk.  The best message I think that comes out of this movie is the importance of finding your own voice.  Ariel, a young outcast of sorts, sings about wanting to be a part of the human world because she doesn’t feel like she belongs in her world.  I won’t spoil the movie other than saying that, at the end, she ends up finding her own voice (quite literally and figuratively); and the overall message is that, even though you feel like an outcast, you have a voice that you can let be heard.

“You got your own style, now let it shine through and remember no matter what, you’ve got to be you.”

Sebastian, the uptight yet cool crab