Disney Princess Review: The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid

I am sure I do not need to tell anyone how important this movie is. After Who Framed Roger Rabbit Disney started its Disney Renaissance Era, possibly the greatest period of Disney since it’s beginning. These films featured great music, great animation, and memorable moments that we still carry with us to this day. The Little Mermaid is the flagship for the Renaissance era and introduces a new breed of princess in Ariel. It was also the first Disney relationship to have the longest development before they even kissed: three days, but that’s pretty much it. The sequel, The Little Mermaid 2 is considered by most critics to be lazy, dull, a waste of time and nothing but a chance to watch Ariel sound like her father.

The Little Mermaid still has some of the same classic elements of the older Disney Films; great villains, a bland prince, and a strong supporting cast. Ursula’s role in the film along with her song Poor Unfortunate Souls has secured her role in not only Disney history but as a recurring villain in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. She is not as composed or as sophisticated as Maleficent and is more like Rattigan in the fact she is more like a kid at Christmas about her evil. Eric plays the role of generic and seems as largely removed from the narrative as his predecessors until the end. As for supporting cast, I personally enjoyed Flounder and Sebastian. I like Flounder because I think many guys can relate to him, the friend following the pretty girl to hell and back. Sebastian because he was well Sebastian, there is something to be said about a character whose job is actually getting the music started in a Disney Film. The other two characters that I think are worth mentioning are King Triton because he is possibly the only dad that is scary in Disney next to Zues in Hercules. He is also one of the few side characters in Disney that is really only understood by watching all three films (be strong if you do), his fear and hatred of humans stems from the fact that humans were responsible for the death of his wife. Next is the Chef, now if there was anyone who enjoyed his job more than necessary it was him. He enjoyed to the point where you might think he was an axe murderer or a character from Sweeney Todd.

Now let us look at the Princess Ariel. Ariel is one of the most controversial lead characters for Disney, people either hate or love her. Let us look at her positives first. Ariel is very passionate; she has such a great desire for learning and experiencing new things and I admire her for that. She is in my opinion one of the biggest dreamers in the Disney Universe. She has a lot of drive, when she wants something she goes for it. She does not wait for her prince to find her; instead she goes looking for him. However, Ariel does have a considerable amount of faults and they tend to be her strengths. This is easily seen in the performance she was supposed to be in at the beginning of the film, that wasn’t something thought up recently, that had to be rehearsed and you expect me to believe she just forgot!? She had a solo, one of the most important (if not the most) roles in the show. She forgot because she wanted to explore a sunken ship, she gets a kind of tunnel vision when it comes to her curiosity.  One thing is she falls for Eric right after seeing him for the first time, not meeting, seeing. Every other Disney Princess before gives some sort of vibe that they had at least known of one another with the exception being Cinderella (and we talked about that). Her love of him seems more symbolic than romantic. Eric symbolizes the life she wants. She can best be viewed as one of the first fan girls ever, as she even has a shrine dedicated to two things; the human world and Eric. She even talks to the statue. Sadly, it gets worse; in the film it is no secret to anyone that Ursula cannot be trusted, Ursula even tells her and even makes it clear what will happen if she fails to get the kiss of true love from Eric. Yet she makes the deal anyway, maybe she’s sure she can get the kiss or maybe the pros outweigh the cons for her. She seems to forget that during the three days she is human and does not seem to care about how stressed out Sebastian seems. The best moments with Ariel is when she could not speak. She just seemed to be more fun without her voice, you can say and convey a lot with silence and Ariel does. I mean it was just so much fun and we learned more about her that way. That was the girl Eric was falling in love with, the person and not the voice.

One thing I noticed which was something brought up by Nostalgia Chick, is that Ariel does not change. She does not learn anything after taking this huge risk and still gets exactly what she wanted, and actually, it is better than what she wanted. I mean there is a brief three to five seconds where she apologizes but what did she learn that could be viewed as a life lesson? I think it might have been better if Ariel had seen maybe the darker side of human life that we are not perfect but no, she gets exactly what she wanted and everything is as she wanted. She seems to obviously be a teenage girl, believing she knows everything and ready to throw it all away for what she thinks she wants. That really hurts Ariel as a character and kind of contradicts her as a whole.

Ariel on the surface would probably be a bit annoying in real life, and strange without knowing her. She is a fan girl and I can see her being someone obsessed with something she loves to the point of it being dangerous but when turned into a positive I think it can be a good thing. She seems much smarter and likable in other works like her own series where she is fleshed out a bit more. Ariel in the movie was really just a product of the times; she was the princess who stood in between the women of the pre-renaissance and the renaissance itself. If she were made later on I honestly think she would have been better as a character if she came later in the Renaissance.

I’m going to give Ariel a C- to a B. She is a more complex character than she shows on the surface. She has drive, she takes chances and her behavior I think works because of her age but it is easy to see how she can get on people’s nerves. She isn’t perfect like Snow White, Cinderella, or Aurora, she is more human and capable of making mistakes. Like Eilonwy, she may have just been ahead of the times.