It was the time of Martin Luther and the Tudors. Of Da Vinci, the Medicis and the Borgias. Of Shakespeare, the Sistine Chapel, the Brunelleschi Dome…
Wait, we’re talking about the Disney Renaissance. Okay, let me start again.
It was the time of the rebellious princesses and the Alan Menken production numbers. Of CAPS, the Best Song wins and the Best Picture nomination. Of the celebrity voice actors, the princes with personality and the truly annoying sidekicks. And it all began with one little mermaid. Ba-dum tish.
If this movie didn’t exist, neither would this blog, and not just because it kicked off the second wave of fairy tale adaptations. No, this movie is the reason why I was all but quarantined from the Disney Princesses as a child. Or rather, the main character is why.
My mother hated Ariel with a burning passion and most likely still does. In her mind, the moral of The Little Mermaid was that good things come to little girls who disobey their parents. She was much more fond of using the original story to implant the message that little girls who disobey their parents end up dead, which probably explains a lot about me. But I digress. As a result of that, this was the one Disney movie that she would never let me watch.
I don’t really know why, but this seemed to cement in my mind the idea that the “traditional” Disney princesses were off-limits. I didn’t really mind at first, being more interested in The Lion King and its kitties. As I got older, though, I noticed my peers fangirling over characters like Ariel and began to feel like I had been cheated out of something that should have been part of my childhood. From that, I think, came my fascination with the DP brand that has plagued me to this very day.
It’s weird how this movie has had such an influence on who I am and I still haven’t seen it. Let’s fix that problem, shall we?
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