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!’
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!
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