The Little Mermaid

Disney may be a monolithic juggernaut of a corporation that has appealed to practically everybody worldwide for almost a full century, but they’ve also faced severe plunders multiple times. Most remember their extreme successes, but people forget that Disney hasn’t only had bad flops in its past, they’ve had entire periods and years of failures when it comes to their films and properties. In these specific sour years, each one has had a film that has reinvigorated the spirit of the Disney magic and helped lead the company back into its positive roots, and the one that arguably had the most to fix was The Little Mermaid. In the underwater kingdom of Atlantica, a civilization of merfolk lives under the command of King Triton (voiced by Kenneth Mars) who holds a firm law that all merfolk are never to interact with the human world or its inhabitants. However, his youngest daughter, Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson) is extremely fascinated by the human world and wants to discover as much as she can through collecting various treasures and artifacts with the help of her fish friend, Flounder (voiced by Jason Marin) and her seagull friend, Scuttle (voiced by Buddy Hackett). Although her father’s advisor, a crab named Sebastian (voiced by Samuel E. Wright), tries to keep her in line, Ariel’s obsession with the human world eventually leads to her discovering a human prince named Eric (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes) and falling in love with him after saving him from a shipwreck. Now wishing to become a human herself, she is coaxed into making a deal with Ursula (voiced by Pat Carroll), a sea witch who agrees to turns her into a human for three days in order to win her prince in exchange for her voice and the threat of turning back into a mermaid and belonging to her if she fails. With time at the essence and without the ability to tell him that she’s the one who rescued him, Ariel and her friends need to find a way to woe the prince, all the while Ursula plots from behind the scenes to foil said plan all for the means of taking down Triton and gaining command of the seas. The Little Mermaid was a massive success upon release and was credited as the film that gave that classic Disney spark back to the brand when it desperately needed it, leading to a new renaissance of successes for the company.

A component that was crucial to the success of this film was the fact that it was based on a fairy-tale property, which were usually the most successful films for Disney even leading back to their first feature length film. The titular fairy tale written by the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen seemed prime for a film adaptation, and it was actually supposed to one of the earliest Disney films along with Snow White but was met with a lot of delays. Both times Disney pitched the idea for the film (one during the 1930s, the other during the 1980s), they ironically shared similarities in how they made changes to the original source material, resulting in the film mostly following the baseline of the story while altering a good chunk of the content (the ending of the original story is maybe not the most Disney-friendly). If you actually look at how the Disney film presents this narrative, its almost an exact opposite approach to what the tale was going for; transforming a cautionary tragedy about over-obsessing on puppy love and diving head first into a situation without thinking of the consequences, into a typical light, upbeat and emotions-first Disney adventure all about pushing for your own happy ending. With that said, the delivery of said story in this film is quite effective, as even all these years later, the pace, direction and clarity of the narrative is well handled and perfectly emulates the Disney feel and sparkle. Even just disregarding the fact that it’s a fairy-tale that clearly leads its way nicely into a princess narrative as well as working as a musical, the very straightforward ‘’follow-your-dreams’’ mentality and the very quick to grasp characters and motivations makes it very identifiable and pretty timeless and accessible to all ages. There’s something delightfully charming about its direction and even though there are some elements that feel a little basic by today’s standards, the movie did take a few steps forward for the time when it came to their princess movie formula (this was their first princess film in over 30 years) so you take what you can get. It maybe could’ve done with a few more sprinkles to flesh the story out in more complex ways, but considering how much of the film benefits from its emotionally-engaging atmosphere, brisk pace, and a delightfully wholesome nature that just screams ”Disney”, its a film thats weirdly very effective with being to-the-point and not dancing around unneeded material.

Most of the characters, like most of the characters within this Disney renaissance period, are pretty well known and beloved by this point, adopting traits that have become known as common for most of the Disney films of old, but feature enough additions of modern flavor to really make them stand out here. Ironically, the two that most people seem to have an issue with are the leads. The princes of these films have always just been reserved for arm-candy at this point, so him not having much to work with is fine, but people do seem to be pretty conflicted on the character of Ariel. Despite being a pretty iconic princess in her own right, people either love or hate her in this film, and the character does have a fair of both good and bad to her. First off, her design is very distinct with the green tail and flowing red hair making for an instantly recognizable look against the princesses before her, she’s one of the first Disney princesses to have agency and passions outside of just a prince as well as being an incredibly expressive character with some great comedic moments, she ends up saving his life more than he does her, the romance between the two is at least given three days to blossom (which is still incredibly short, but in comparison to earlier where it was a single encounter, that’s a lot of time), and her moments interacting in the human world are very endearing and makes people relate to her. However, she is a character that is also pretty whiny, her motivation goes heavy into ‘’give up whole life and family for a guy I saw once’’ really quickly, and she isn’t a character that evolves in the story and if anything gets rewarded for causing a lot of trouble throughout the film, so it’s a mixed bag, but overall, the character does still work. All the side characters are very likeable, funny, and instantly iconic, with Samuel E. Wright adding a maternally commanding but still endearing centre to Sebastian, Buddy Hackett getting some pretty great lines as Scuttle, and Flounder’s adorable design and voice make up for how little he actually contributes to the film in the grand scheme of things. Ursula as a villain is fantastic and easily cemented as one of the great Disney baddies; being a character that provides great comedic energy as well as legitimate intimidation, a great design infamously inspired by drag performer Divine which leads way to a lot of fun wicked expressions, and Pat Carroll doing an amazing job at giving 110% in creating this character that just loves being evil in the best way possible. Even a character like King Triton who could very easily be the standard ‘’jerky father who doesn’t understand’’ archetype is given just enough of a heart and remorse for his cruel actions to make him feel more than just that trope, and despite also having little screen time, really leaves an impression on the audience.

The animation for this film was given much more money and resources than any Disney animated film had for a long time, and was the last traditionally hand-painted animated film for Disney before they transitioned to using digital means. With this in mind, the movie is a very great looking picture that combines a lot of colorful environments, amazingly expressive characters, and wonderfully flowing movements that captures the grace of old Disney, but also the liveliness of modern Disney. Its sweeping and magical, but it can also be active, energized, funny and even dramatic and emotional as well. It still a marvel watching the smoothness of the line-work on the characters, the majesty of the colors and how they reflect the mood of every scene they’re emphasized in, the surprising scale to some of the spectacle (especially during the climax) and the coziness that comes from watching a traditional 2D animated film this expertly crafted. The music is also incredibly top-notch, with songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman from Little-Shop-of-Horrors fame providing some very iconic musical numbers that are still hummable and instantly recognizable to this day.  Every number is a stand-out; Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl, Poor Unfortunate Souls, Under the Sea, etc, they all sound great, the instrumentation and unique calypso-style Caribbean feel is fantastic, their manner in moving the story forward is not to the extent of later Disney projects, but definitely pushed the genre in the right direction (Part of Your World is a very strong ”I want more” song) the lyrics and melodies are infectiously memorable, and the Broadway styling of the music helped reshape how the music operated in some of the Disney movies going forward, creating a range of song numbers from soft and reflective, upbeat and festive, booming and threatening, to romantic and soothing.

Out of the four films of this era between 1989 and 1994 which are considered the big hitters for the brand (that being The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast), each one has something magnificent about them that makes them classics, and The Little Mermaid feels like the quintessential portrayal of the familiar homely charm of a Disney film. Aladdin had the fun and modern factor, Beauty and the Beast had grace and elegance to its visuals and storytelling, The Lion King had scale and grandeur to its more mature narrative with Shakespearean themes, and The Little Mermaid has strong heart and runs its emotions front and centred against its very digestible plot, helped out by a likeable cast, great animation, a really fun villain, wonderful music, and a timeless atmosphere. Its definitely had its haters over the years with people pointing out some of the ethical flaws surrounding its message and conclusion, but what this film did right has had a much stronger impression on its audience than anything it did wrong, and for that it deserves to stay crowned among one of the greats for the company.  The Little Mermaid is still making life under the sea inviting to so many young and old for several decades now.