So the Little Mermaid didn’t die this time around, the Disney Renaissance was begun and Ariel became the template for damn near every Disney heroine that came after her. Happy endings all around!
While this isn’t my favorite of all the movies I’ve watched for this blog so far, I certainly wouldn’t mind watching it again sometime soon. The animation is fine, as well as the music. I wasn’t too sure about Ursula at first, but I can understand the following she has. While I don’t think she’s very funny as others have said, she’s a chillingly effective baddie when she wants to be. While characters like the Evil Queen and Maleficent have an element of glamor to them, Ursula is just repulsive in every way. You want to see her lose, and it’s genuinely scary when she temporarily wins.
Sebastian and Triton are both stern but mean well. They’re simple characters, but both quite effective. Flounder could have been written out, honestly. Scuttle can go die in a birdie boiler. But you don’t want to hear about them — you want to hear about Ariel.
I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here, as I got to know the princesses that Ariel influenced before I got to know Ariel herself. As a result, a lot of her traits are stuff that I’ve not only seen before, but seen refined. That said, she’s not a bad character and certainly not the horrible person that my mother made her out to be. She doesn’t become human just because of Eric, but out of a love of the human world in general. Does she know that making a deal with Ursula is a bad idea? Yes, but she quite clearly refuses the initial offer to be brought before her. She accepts the consequences of her deal and doesn’t expect anyone to fix her problems when things turn sour. On the other hand, the criticism that she doesn’t really change over the course of the movie is pretty legit. On the other other hand, she isn’t the first or last princess with this problem. My main problem hasn’t really got to do with her, but with what she wants. Or rather, who she wants.
A common criticism that gets leveled at Ariel is the “sells her soul for a man” thing. Once you dig beneath the surface, this is a gross oversimplification of her motives. However, her case isn’t helped by the fact that the man she apparently sells her soul for isn’t very interesting. In fact, he’s only slightly deeper than the princes of the classic era. While he appears to have other interests besides romance, that gets drop kicked out the window as soon as he hears Ariel’s voice. He spends a good chunk of the movie angsting over it to an almost disturbing point, and it’s really hard to see why Ariel likes this guy. For a while, it looks like they’re setting up some sort of lesson about real love vs. imaginary love. Eric accepts Ariel for who she is, and her being the girl he originally fell for is just a happy coincidence. But no, it still comes back to her voice. I feel like in the end, Eric still thinks of her as “the girl who sings pretty,” and she deserves more than that. It’s honestly kind of infuriating, if only because Disney expects us to believe that these two went on to reproduce.
…Am I taking this too seriously?
Anyway, long story short; while The Little Mermaid has its flaws, I’m glad it exists. It was an integral part of my childhood, albeit not in the normal way, and it was the springboard that allowed Disney to soar on to bigger and better things. How so, you may ask? Let me direct your attention to the stained glass pictures on your right…
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