Review of The Little Mermaid (1989) by Wes T — 05 Nov 2013

After the death of Walt Disney in 1966, Disney animation had suffered a crisis in their animation department. While I found most of these post-Walt releases entertaining, and sometimes underrated, at the time, the majority flopped and many believed that Disney was losing their magic touch. That is, until the release of The Little Mermaid, a ginormous financial and critical success that led to the beginning of Disney's Second Golden Age, a period of mostly excellent Disney films, with other masterpieces including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. As for The Little Mermaid, it's an excellent film to start a second golden age on.

Loosely based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Little Mermaid is about Ariel, a rebellious mermaid teenager who is obsessed with everything human related and intends to be like them, which is something against her ruling father's wishes. Things get even more complicated after she rescues Prince Eric from a shipwreck and starts to fall in love with him. Because of her love, she foolishly makes a deal with the sinister sea witch Ursula, that by trading her fins and her stellar singing voice for some human legs, she can become the love of Eric's life, but must do so in three days or she'll become one of the witch's many mermaid slaves. With the help of the fish Flounder, the lovable crab Sebastian, and the dumb but helpful seagull Scuttle, Ariel has to convince Eric that she's his rescuer before it's too late, and Ursula takes over the sea kingdom.

To start off, let me say that I haven't seen this in a long time. My sister bought the recent Blu-ray release of it with her birthday money, so I ended up watching it for the first time in a long while. And I must say, in high definition, the animation is stunning. Positively stunning. The detail of the ocean is stellar, the looks and designs of the characters are incredible, and the combinations of early CG with 2D remains realistically strong. Disney releases some of the best restorations of their classic cartoons, and The Little Mermaid is no exception.

The characters here showcase wit and charm in the best Disney fashion. There has been some criticism nowadays by some over the Arial character, and her wild and obnoxious behavior, particularly her dedication to loving her prince, but in my mind, I'm not offended by Ariel's behavior. The mermaid is a teenager who, like all teens, make some decisions that they sometimes regret doing, and I thought Disney really pulled it off. Disney also pulled off the rough relationship between Ariel and her father king, Triton, in a heartfelt and meaningful way. Prince Eric is a great character as well, and is determined to find the perfect girl in his life. As with the best Disney characters, there are some pretty entertaining supporting characters. The fish Flounder is cute and memorable, Scuttle the seagull, voiced brilliantly by legendary comedian Buddy Hackett, while he's really dumb, he really wants to help, and is really funny in the process. Who wouldn't laugh when he describes a fork as "something to brush your hair"? But my favorite character is the lovable crab Sebastian, who's funny and extremely helpful to helping Ariel out in dire situations. There's also a brilliant villain, the sea witch Ursula, who's right up there with Disney's greatest cartoon villains. In the end, you'll realize she really was a witch after all, cause she's that sinister.

The Little Mermaid was the first of Disney's Broadway-styled musical numbers, and written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, these songs are fabulously incredible. Songs include the phenomenal ballad "Part of Your World", featuring incredible, and chilling vocals from the incredible Jodie Benson, the Oscar-winning catchy, reggae, and awesome stuck-in-your head, and my personal favorite, "Under the Sea", the brilliant villain song, "Pour, Unfortunate Soul", the catchy love song "Kiss the Girl", and the hilarious song "Le Possions", sung by a chef who really wants to eat crab for supper, and guess what crab he's after? Besides the incredible songs, Alan Menken scores an Oscar-winning score that is really incredible, showcasing some stellar instrumentations and emotional strings that makes Menken the great Disney regular he is.

I'm glad I watched The Little Mermaid again. The Alan Menken/Howard Ashman songs are stellar, the animation is beautiful, and shows that 2D animation is still the best in the business, the characters are wonderful, and while the ending of this classic story was changed to maintain Disney's happy-ending status, I was still wowed by this wonderful Disney treat. The Little Mermaid is definitely a great comeback film to begin the excellent Disney Renaissance.

"Somebody has got to nail her fins to the floor.".