The Little Mermaid (Russian: Русалочка - Rusalochka) is a 29-minutes 1968 Soviet Russian animated film directed by Ivan Aksenchuk and produced at Soyuzmultfilm. Aleksandr Lokshin composed the soundtrack.
It adapts the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale of the same name, about a mermaid who, after reaching her 15th birthday, is allowed to swim to the surface. She saves the life of a human prince, falls in love with him and sacrifices her voice to a sea witch so she can turn human and be with him.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: The whole school of fish in the port of Copenhagen wear clothes or at least hats, and the female storyteller fish wears a babushka headscarf.
- Act of True Love: The Mermaid is given one last chance to save herself by her sisters, that is, killing the prince and his newlywed by using the magical seashell to cause a storm and destroy the ship. She can't bring herself to do it, allowing him to live happily with his new wife and thus dissolving in sea foam when the Sun rises.
- Adapted Out: The Mermaid's grandmother and the Daughters of the Air do not appear in this adaptation.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Instead of a knife to kill the prince with in order to save her own life, the Mermaid is given a magical seashell that can cause a storm to sink the ship by her sisters.
- The ending is an outright Downer, with no mention of the Mermaid becoming a Daughter of the Air and earning an immortal soul, although this may be explained by the film being probably based on the first version of Andersen's tale that didn't mention these things.
- Agony of the Feet: Every step is painful for the poor Mermaid once she has human legs.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: The mermaids (the protagonist included) are bare-breasted, but they don't have visible nipples.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: The Mermaid's voice (with singing provided by lyric soprano Viktoriya Ivanova). So beautiful that the Sea Witch demands it as price for the Mermaid to become human.
- Become a Real Boy: The Mermaid wants to become human so she can be with the prince.
- Big Red Devil: The Sea Witch has a devil-ish red skin and fangs, and appears in bursts of flames.
- Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: The prince ends up marrying a princess. The Mermaid's sisters buy her a way to kill the prince and become a Mermaid again to avoid death, but she can't bring herself to do it.
- Creator Provincialism: The short's Framing Device is set in Denmark, but the fish storyteller looks and sounds like a Russian babushka.
- Downer Ending: The Mermaid lets herself die instead of killing the prince to save herself.
- Driven to Suicide: The Mermaid chooses death over killing the prince and reverting to mermaid form.
- Evil Laugh: The Sea Witch cackles quite a bit, although she clearly explains everything that will happen to the Mermaid and at what cost if she chooses to go through with it.
- Framing Device: The story is framed by scenes featuring a bunch of tourists who visit Copenhagen, in Andersen's native Denmark. They stop by the famous statue of the Little Mermaid in the city's port, and a talking fish in the water below serves as storyteller.
- Generation Xerox: According to the Sea Witch, the Mermaid's great-great-great-grandmother also fell in love with a human and also requested to be turned into a human.
- Giant Poofy Sleeves: The prince has big shoulder puffs.
- Inner Monologue: When meeting the prince, the mute Mermaid's thoughts (her wish that he knew what she sacrificed to be with him) are voiced out for the viewer.
- Last-Second Chance: After the prince marries the princess, time's up for the Mermaid. Her sisters learn of what she did, and they buy an emergency solution to try saving her at a heavy price — a magical seashell the Mermaid will have to use to cause a storm and kill the prince if she doesn't want to die.
- Like Brother and Sister: At least on the prince's side. Once he marries the princess, he treats the Mermaid like a sister (in his own words), much to her sorrow.
- No Name Given: As in the original tale, neither the protagonist Mermaid nor anyone else is named.
- The Omniscient: The Sea Witch already knows the reason the Mermaid visits her before she even starts explaining, that is, to become human because she's fallen in love with a human prince.
- Pegasus: The Mermaid and the prince have a Flight of Romance on a winged horse in the Mermaid's Imagine Spot when she meets him in her human form.
- Power at a Price: As in the original story, the Sea Witch will not do magic without a sacrifice — the Mermaid's beautiful voice. And even then, the spells come with painful side effects.
- Regal Ruff: The king of the kingdom the prince and the Mermaid visits has a big ruff collar, and so do many nobles in his court.
- Silent Whisper: When the prince arrives at the court of the kingdom he's been arranged to marry the princess from, the whole court whispers in each other's ears as they see the Mermaid by his side.
- The Speechless: The Mermaid sacrifices her voice to the Sea Witch so she can turn human, and becomes mute as a result.
- Standard Snippet: The beginning of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor plays whenever the princess shows up.
- The Storyteller: Upon hearing the guide talk to the tourists in Copenhagen, a female talking fish laughs about humans "believing in love and not mermaids", and starts telling the story of the Little Mermaid to other fishes.
- Talking Animal: At the very least, the female fish with a headscarf who tells the story of the Little Mermaid.
- Truer to the Text: It is one of the most faithful adaptations of Andersen's tale.
- Unrequited Love: The Mermaid loves the prince, but she has no way to express it to him, and he rapidly comes to love a princess he believes is the woman who saved him instead.
- Westminster Chimes: The town clock heard in Copenhagen at the beginning rings this way.
