The Little Mermaid (film)

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Template:Cleanup-date Template:Infobox Film The Little Mermaid is a Disney animated feature adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and first released on November 15, 1989 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It is the twenty-eighth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. Grossing over $111 million in the U.S. and an additional $99 million worldwide, this movie is given credit for breathing life back into the animated movie genre after a string of critical and commercial failures (The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company), signaling the start of a decade-long period of successful Disney movies.

An upcoming stage adaptation of the movie is planned with additional songs by Alan Menken and new lyricist Glenn Slater. The book for the musical has been completed by Doug Wright. The musical is planned to open on Broadway in 2007.

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film follows the story of a headstrong sixteen-year-old mermaid named Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson), who is dissatisfied with life under the sea. Ignoring the warnings of her father, King Triton (voiced by Kenneth Mars), the ruler of the merpeople, and the court musician, Sebastian the crab (voiced by Samuel E. Wright), Ariel and her best friend, a fish named Flounder (voiced by Jason Marin), often sneak up to the surface of the ocean. There, they collect human artifacts with the help of a goofy seagull named Scuttle (voiced by Buddy Hackett). Ariel knows that contact between the humans and merpeople is forbidden, but she longs to be part of the human world.

Worried about his daughter's behavior, Triton assigns Sebastian to look after her and report on her activities. Sebastian discovers that Ariel has been collecting all of the items she finds on the surface in a secret underwater grotto, but he decides not to tell Triton for Ariel's sake.

Unknown to anyone, all of this is being observed by Ursula the sea witch (voiced by Pat Carroll), who for many years has been seeking a way to exact her revenge upon King Triton for banishing her from the kingdom. She sees Ariel as the perfect pawn in her quest to rule the seas.

That night, Ariel and Flounder travel again to the surface to watch a fireworks celebration for Prince Eric's birthday. Eric (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes) is presented with a giant stone statue of himself, commissioned by his guardian, Grimsby, who is pressuring Eric to find a bride and marry, so that he can assume the throne. The birthday celebration is cut short when a violent storm moves in and Eric's ship is destroyed. Eric is lost at sea and almost drowns before he is saved by Ariel, who has taken a liking to the prince. She disappears just as he is awakening, and Eric finds himself enthralled by the memory of her beautiful singing voice.

Ariel spends the next morning floating around the underwater palace in a daze, and Triton attempts to extract from Sebastian the name of the person she is in love with. When King Triton learns that his daughter is in love with a human, he becomes furious and destroys Ariel's grotto, including the stone statue from Eric's birthday party that Flounder had managed to find for her.

Ursula decides that now is the time to make her move, and she assigns her pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam (both voiced by Paddi Edwards) to bring Ariel to her underwater cave. There, Ursula makes a deal with the princess to transform Ariel into human form for three days. Within these three days, if she plans to remain a human, she must give Eric the "kiss of true love"; otherwise she will transform back into a mermaid at sunset on the third day. If this happens, Ursula will own her very soul and wither her down into a polyp, to join her garden of other lost merfolk.

As agreed, Ursula makes a potion to change the little mermaid. As "payment", she takes Ariel's voice and makes her unable to speak, knowing that Eric remembers Ariel only by her voice. A bubble grabs Ariel and rips her tail into two legs, turning her into a human. Sebastian and Flounder bring the drowning and helpless Ariel to the surface, where she takes her first breath of air in one of Disney's most memorable shots. Flounder and Sebastian help her to the beach, where she is taken in by Eric. He has no idea who Ariel is and what she has done for him, and she is unable to tell him.

While Ariel enjoys living in the human palace and spending time with Eric, Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle try to get Ariel and Eric to kiss, while Ursula is trying to prevent the very same. Taking the guise of a beautiful young human girl named Vanessa, Ursula appears onshore, singing in Ariel's voice, which is housed in a magic nautilus shell around "Vanessa's" neck. She casts a spell of enchantment on Eric, who immediately arranges a marriage ceremony, much to Ariel's dismay. The ceremony is set to take place at sunset, which is coincidentally when Ariel's deal with Ursula ends. Sebastian runs to inform Triton, while Scuttle, Flounder and Eric's sheepdog Max stall the wedding by getting all sea and air animals to distract the attendants and the participants of the wedding. Scuttle and his fellow seabirds pull at "Vanessa's" hair and conch necklace, after a flock of seagulls fly between her causing her to stumble, Max bites her bottom and become susceptible to revealing her true identity. "Vanessa" is distracted, and the conch shell is broken, restoring Ariel's voice to her. Realizing that Ariel was the girl who saved him the night of his celebration, Eric rushes to kiss her, but he is too late; the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. "Vanessa" transforms back into Ursula, and, grabbing Ariel, disappears into the sea.

Triton catches up with Ursula and attempts to destroy the deal she made with Ariel, but is unable to do so. Before Triton's eyes, Ursula begins the process of transforming Ariel into a polyp, but then she offers Triton a deal: she will accept Triton's soul in the place of Ariel's. Triton accepts and is transformed into a helpless polyp, sacrificing himself for his daughter.

Ursula takes Triton's crown and trident and declares herself ruler of the sea. Ariel tries to stop her, and accidentally causes Ursula to destroy her pet eels. An enraged Ursula transforms into a giant and attempts to destroy Ariel. Eric sails out to sea and joins Ariel in the fight against Ursula, but the two of them appear to be no match for the behemoth, who forms a massive whirlpool that drags wrecked ships from the bottom of the sea. She then uses the trident to blast Ariel into the bottom of the whirlpool, where she is trapped and helpless. Ursula raises the trident to finish Ariel with a blast of energy, but Eric jumps aboard one of the vessels and rams the bow of the ship through her heart, killing her.

With Ursula dead, the polyps in Ursula's garden, including Triton, are all changed back into merpeople. Noticing how unhappy his daughter is and how much she truly loves Eric, Triton decides to give Ariel what she wants. Ariel watches in astonished delight as she is changed permanently into a human, and walks gracefully to shore before her proud father's eyes. She runs into Eric's arms, and the two finally kiss. Shortly afterward, she and Eric are seen kissing again, this time at the true wedding. Both humans and merpeople turn out for the wedding, and Triton accepts Eric as a part of the family. Eric and Ariel sail away into the sunset to live happily ever after.

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The Little Mermaid theatrical release history


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Significance

Image:Tlmposter.jpg

The Little Mermaid is an important film in animation history for many reasons:

  • It marks a return to the musical format that had made Disney films popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, after a test run with Oliver and Company the year before. It features seven original songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, who also served as the film's producer.
  • This film was the most special-effects-laden Disney film since Fantasia forty-nine years prior. Effects animation supervisor Mark Dindal estimated that over a million bubbles were drawn for this film, in addition to the use of other processes such as airbrushing, backlighting, superimposition, and some flat-shaded computer animation.
  • The happy-ending wedding scene at the close of the film marked the first use of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) in a Disney feature. CAPS is essentially a digital ink-and-paint and animation production system that is used to take the animators' drawings and color them digitally, as opposed to the traditional method of tracing onto cels using ink and paint (see Traditional animation). The rest of The Little Mermaid is painted traditionally. All subsequent Disney features have used CAPS instead of traditional ink-and-paint.
  • This film and Beauty and the Beast signalled a renaissance in Disney animation; the films brought in large amounts of revenue and acclaim, and the Feature Animation department began significant expansion, going from about 300 artists at the time of this film to 2,400 by 1999.
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Voice cast

Actor Role
Jodi Benson Ariel the mermaid and Vanessa
Samuel E. Wright Horatio Felonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian
Pat Carroll Ursula
Christopher Daniel Barnes Prince Eric
Kenneth Mars King Triton
Jason Marin Flounder
Buddy Hackett Scuttle
Ben Wright Grimsby
Rene Auberjonois Chef Louis
Paddi Edwards Flotsam and Jetsam
Edie McClurg Carlotta
Will Ryan The Seahorse
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Songs

  • "Mysterious Fathoms Below", performed by Sailors
  • "Daughters of Triton", performed by Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella and Alana
  • "Part of Your World", performed by Ariel
  • "Part of Your World (Reprise)", performed by Ariel
  • "Under the Sea", performed by Sebastian
  • "Poor Unfortunate Souls", performed by Ursula and Ariel
  • "Les Poissons", performed by Louis
  • "Kiss the Girl", performed by Sebastian
  • "Happy Ending", performed by Merpeople
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Controversy

The Little Mermaid has been at the center of controversy regarding supposed subliminal sexual content in the film. It was said that on an early promotional poster and video cover, one of the castle spires had a striking resemblance to a circumcised phallus, or penis. (This was on the Walt Disney Black Diamond Classics video release.) The spire in question did in fact look as described, but the inclusion of such a design is most likely accidental. The artist of the design, who did not work for Disney itself, did not notice the resemblance until a member of his youth church group made him aware of the controversy. He claimed to have rushed through the background detail "at about four in the morning." Later promotional posters and video/DVD covers have been re-designed to exclude this content. However, this single castle spire led to the creation of a cult in the San Francisco Bay Area, created by Castro Valley resident Daniel Nowicki, that worships the phallus, and sees it as a sign that Walt Disney was sent by a higher authority to fight the prudish impulses of American society.

Also on another issue, it was said that the priest performing the wedding between Eric and Vanessa (Ursula in disguise), was suddenly exhibiting a very obvious penile erection. Although at first glance it seems that way, it can clearly be seen in the film that the alleged erection is actually the priest's bony knee poking through his robe. Nevertheless, The Walt Disney Company has been in the recent years the subject of attacks and even boycotts regarding not only this film, but others such as The Rescuers, Aladdin and The Lion King, which have been accused of containing similar sexual references.

These two issues have also been regarded as being urban legends about The Little Mermaid. The following two external links lead to pages on the Urban Legends Reference Pages that explains those legends with more detail:

  • A phallus was drawn on the video cover for the movie by a disgruntled artist.
  • A minister becomes aroused during the wedding scene in the movie.
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TV series and Sequels

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Trivia

Image:Thelittlemermaidplatnuimedition-finalcover.jpg

  • Glen Keane, the supervising animator for Ariel, jokingly stated on the Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD that Ariel looks exactly like his wife 'without the fins'. The character's body shape and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss? and the effect of her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride, when she was in space.
  • The world of The Little Mermaid, Atlantica, appears in all three games of the Kingdom Hearts series, where Ariel teams up with Sora (the main character of the series), Donald Duck and Goofy to fight Ursula thrice. In order to blend in with the atmosphere of Atlantica and survive underwater, Sora becomes a merman, Donald's legs become tentacles like an octopus', and Goofy becomes a sea turtle.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in Atlantica without transforming, and wonder why they can still breathe air. Ariel has stolen the trident for Ursula, who promises to use it to find the missing Flounder. However, Ursula actually kidnapped Flounder, and Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ariel fight and defeat her. Ariel promises to tell the truth about what she did.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 2, Atlantica features a series of music based mini games in which you tap buttons in tune with the beat, much like in the game Parappa the Rappa, featuring new songs such as "Swim This Way," "Ursulas Revenge," and "A New Day is Dawning," and features songs from the movie such as "Part Of Your World," and "Under the Sea," with vocals by Sora, Donald, and Goofy. It, like some of the other Kingdom Hearts 2 versions of worlds that were in Kingdom Hearts, more closely follows the plot of the movie than the first game.
  • In Ursula's spell to turn Ariel human, she uses types of caviar in her incantation. (E.g., Beluga, Sevruga...)
  • The movie will be finally re-released on DVD on October 3, 2006 as part of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's Platinum Collection of the classic Walt Disney animated features. Deleted scenes, new musical sequences and several in-depth documentaries in the style of the Platinum release of Cinderella in 2005 are expected to be included.
  • Mickey, Goofy and Donald are briefly pictured in the scene where the merpeople are greeting King Triton.
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See also

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External links

Template:Disney animated features

da:Den lille Havfrue (film) de:Arielle, die Meerjungfrau es:La sirenita fr:La Petite Sirène (film, 1990) ja:リトル・マーメイド pt:The Little Mermaid (filme) ru:Русалочка (мультфильм) zh:小美人鱼

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