Little Mermaid

Released in the year I was born, Little Mermaid has been an odd film for me to really sit and review. On one hand I can praise it's strong points, while pointing out the weaker areas, while on the other hand I have a bit of nostalgia that often blinds me. More recently however, I've begun to be less blinded by nostalgia as a certain part of the film constantly hampers the film for it's enjoyability factor for me.

First, however, lets get the stronger areas out of the way. Visually this film was gorgeous for it's time, and it can still hold up really well today. The underwater scenes are really well done and painstakingly so with all of the bubbles and light reflections upon the rocks and surfaces. You can really tell they put a lot of time and effort into this and the opening is really pleasing visually to watch. The backgrounds are constantly interesting to watch, save for the odd one here and there which has a bit less to it.

As far as the songs go, the vast majority are easy to pick out and quite memorable. Part of Your World, and it's reprise are the first of many "I Want" songs where the hero or heroine sings about what they want to the audience to further their character. Under the Sea is bouncy and rather fun, though I don't seem to remember it as well as I used to. Certain parts of the song just aren't quite how I recall it, but that is probably bad memory more than anything. The real stand out song however is Poor Unfortunate Souls. This is one of the best villain songs Disney has to offer and starts out really slow, with an almost waltz like feel before it gradually becomes louder and more crazy as Ursula's evil nature is seen.

Characters. Little Mermaid, for myself, has a lot of great supporting characters. When I was younger I never really cared for King Triton, yet now I really enjoy his character and how he evolves through the film. Prince Eric is certainly a step up from the previous princes who were much less involved in their films, and even earns a pair of sidekicks in the form of his sheepdog Max, and his advisor, Grimbsy. Flounder and Sebastien  make for a good pair to balance Ariel, both looking out for her best interests but in different ways. Scuttle is... a bit annoying, but he not enough to drag things to a standstill. Ursula is very much my favourite character from the entire film. From her entrance, to the finale she never ceases to entertain and frighten. When she becomes gigantic Ursula there is a large sense of power to her and only becomes more awesome, resulting in a really grisly demise.

So what about Ariel? To be honest I really don't like her. At all. If Disney did one thing right about Ariel it would be that they really captured the essence of a 16 year old girl. Oh did they succeed at that. The thing, however, is that Ariel is so selfish. She puts everyone in danger because she has a crush on Eric and refuses to listen to her father's orders. During the second half of the film, she is barely capable of doing things herself and largely requires her friends help to get her to the happy ending, which she doesn't even deserve after nearly handing over all the tridents power to Ursula. She makes so many mistakes and only gives a very brief two second apology to her father for all the trouble she caused.

Now, yes, I do understand that she's unhappy with her situation. That does not, however, give her the right to handle things the way she did. Cinderella was unhappy with her situation, but still managed to get out there and make things better without putting others at risk. I could continue the comparisons, but it's probably best that I don't. So, in having a main hero who I find very flawed, it hampers my viewing of the film and because of this I have to take a mark off, giving Little Mermaid the following score.

4/5