My Micky Mouse Degree Part 2: The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid, Disney, 1989. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Starring Jodie Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Pat Carroll and Kenneth Mars.

This film was my life for roughly six months whilst I did my dissertation. I watched it about 50 times, listened to the soundtrack endlessly and immersed myself so completely into the merchandising that I dreamt I was a mermaid several times. Yeah, I was not great company, to the point where my sister, who loves Disney and who’s favourite film has been The Lion King since she was two, quietly pleaded that I might, y’know, want to shut up about the damn The Little Mermaid for two seconds please (unfortunately, this was two weeks before the deadline, so that wasn’t going to happen. Sorry for that sis). But, throughout this, I didn’t even once consider that I could even find the film less than amazingly wonderfully beautiful. But I very quickly became aware that there are some who either don’t care for The Little Mermaid, or even actively dislike it. So this blog will show how they are super wrong and why this film is awesome.

First, the story is one of the tightest ones Disney has ever come up with. Human obsessed mermaid Ariel saves and falls in love with Prince Eric, and since such an action is forbidden by her own father King Triton, she runs away to make a Faustian pact with the Sea Witch Ursula so she herself can become human. This story must have been inspired by Vladimir Propp’s 1928 Morphology of the Folktale, a blueprint for all Western fairy tales. If you watch the film with Propp’s book in your hand (like I did, several times), you can tick off the plot points as they go, and not a second of film is wasted or sidetracked from the story. This is a massive improvement on the likes of Cinderella, which though gorgeous, spends a good eternity and a half messing around with mice and cats, which serves nothing expect the fact that it’s kind of cute. Which is okay, but The Little Mermaid has epic storms and a properly satisfying ending.

Though Hans Christian Andersen’s original Mermaid story is haunting and angst-ridden, it doesn’t really have much of a plot, and no villain to speak of. Somehow, everyone is passive and there isn’t very much to say about the characters – they don’t even have names, just roles they fulfil. Even the Sea Witch acts as a fair minded businessman who warns the Mermaid exactly what she’s in for; nothing is surprising and everything is heartbreaking. So Literature zealots who act as if the Disney Company slapped their grandmother because they changed things, I disagree that the changes made were for the worse; actually, they’re probably for the better. The Sea Witch has agency and causes actual conflict, King Triton has a story arc which turns him from a bigoted, scared patriarch to a caring, selfless father figure and Ariel is both victim and hero, an active character who makes mistakes (really stupid mistakes which only a teenager would think of) but is a fully developed character who earns her right to a happy ending (seriously, listen to the soundtrack). 

This isn’t to say the film is just an exercise in plotting and story development. Nope, it’s Disney’s first Broadway musical, thanks to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Not only did they structure the songs within the story (something which is surprisingly rare pre- Mermaid for Disney) but they gave each character their own flavour and style, making the soundtrack a varied, awesome extravaganza of what Disney mixed with Broadway could do. Ursula has the big drag queen moment in Poor Unfortunate Souls, where she gets to glam up and wig out to this massive rousing chorus, pumping up to the huge finale –watch it again, it’s really a remarkable mix of animation and music.

Sebastian is the only character who has two separate songs (though Ariel sings several times, she only sings the motif from Part of Your World) but both of them work together as their own little story arc. So Under the Sea is this showstopper of a song, which is really a desperate plea for Ariel to get back to reality and save Sebastian’s shell. Everyone’s having this great calypso time, all the fishes are loving it:

I love this bit. Look at all the fishes watching the chorus line of lobsters! 
They’re not in the show, they’re all just like, ‘hey cool, street theatre!’
 

But Ariel has her back to it, and obviously this big number isn’t working for her.

Ariel: ‘Meh, calypso oysters, seen it before, don’t care’

But, when Sebastian starts looking out for Ariel and helping her, he sings Kiss the Girl, a pop ballad which uses steel drums to connect it to the Caribbean calypso, but also uses violins and a tiny dash of electric piano (the scourge of 90’s Disney pop, but used sparingly and well here) to invoke a romantic, quiet atmosphere where true love can blossom. Sebastian’s gone from creating loud, fun but ultimately hollow set pieces to loving, thoughtful music which serves his audience of Ariel much better. Marvin Gaye wishes he was as smooth as Sebastian.

There are so many other things about The Little Mermaid which are worth serious, in-depth analysis, but there’s just one more thing I think needs clearing up. And that’s Prince Eric’s apparent blandness.

Hi guys!

 So I’ve heard many people complain that this chap is the weak link in the film and that after all Ariel goes through, she’s pinned her hopes and dreams on a guy who just seems... nice. Not interesting, but... nice. The problem with this is that it devalues Ariel’s struggle for her human freedom, making it seem like she’s given up everything and everyone for a guy who’s only merits are his castle and dog.

This is wrong though, since Eric was actually quite revolutionary in terms of Disney Princes. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both have once scene each with their Princes, and Snow White’s guy doesn’t even have a name, he’s just Prince Charming. Cinderella's Prince isn’t even dynamic enough to search the kingdom for her himself, he just gets married to her at the end, with no thought given to his hopes and dreams at all.

'Hey, you look kind of familiar. Welp, guess that 

means we’re in love'

Not so with Eric! After he’s rescued from his ship, it’s implied that he’s spent days wandering the beaches of his kingdom, looking for the woman who saved his life. He’s made up his mind – he’s going to find her and marry her, because he’s a stupid teenager like Ariel and that’s what they do. But see how he’s actually looking for this mystery woman? And not just passing it on to his butler like he would his shopping list? He’s an active character! But not only that, he realises that the awesome woman he’s been spending all of his free time with might be better even than a mystery, life saving lady, and he falls in love with Ariel, not the elusive lady of hotness he had his heart set on. He’s actually changed his mind about marriage, based on someone else’s personality – do you know how often that happened in Disney films before The Little Mermaid? Zero times!

If you haven’t seen it since you were a kid, I’d watch The Little Mermaid again and appreciate it for the superior piece of filmmaking it is. If you still don’t like it, Well, I guess that means more merchandise and t-shirts for the sane amongst us. It’s up to you really. Take us away, Sebastian!