The Disney Renaissance begins with a splash - The Little Mermaid

28 – The Little Mermaid

1989's The Little Mermaid started an era in Disney history known as the “Disney Renaissance.” These movies are some of the best reviewed and most popular movies in Disney Animation Studio's long history. I have been really excited to get to this stuff since I started writing these reviews for a few reasons. First, I know their quality is almost legendary among fans. Secondly, these were the movies I really got to grow up with through the early 90s. The first movie, The Little Mermaid, is a return for Disney in many ways. It's the first real attempt at a musical and their first attempt at a fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty.

The story is about Ariel, the youngest daughter of the King of the Sea Triton. She is very bored with her life under the sea and wishes to learn about humans and their world despite her father's protests. She ends up falling in love with a human prince after she rescues him from a boat wreck. After her father reprimands her for making contact with a human, Ariel makes a deal with the evil sea witch Ursula to become human. She ends up making a deal that isn't exactly fair and has to find a way to stop Ursula from using the opportunity to take King Triton's position.

We know exactly what kind of person Ariel is when she doesn't show up for a concert for her father to explore a sunken human ship. They set up her character really well and we get to see that she's brave and has a fascination with the human world. We also see that she has a great fish friend named Flounder who is very timid but stands up for Ariel when he needs to. We also meet Scuttle, a seagull, that she brings her findings to so he can tell her what they are. He is often wrong and seems to be quite dumb but he also clearly cares about her and is actually really helpful at times. Immediately, I really like that she actually has a personality. She probably has the strongest personality of any female character I've seen in these Disney movies so far. She has issues that, I think, many people can identify with. She wants to explore a world unfamiliar to her and has trouble making her father understand her. What teenager hasn't gone through something like that?

The prince she meets, Prince Eric, has some different issues. He is being continually pressured to find a wife but thinks that when he meets her he'll “know.” He's clearly a big romantic and we later get to see that he's also incredibly brave. During a big storm he swims back to the burning ship to rescue his dog, Max. Max doesn't really get to do much but add some humor and show off that Eric is very kind but I liked his presence. After he gets rescued from the shipwreck by Ariel, he gets a bit of an obsession with her and keeps looking for the girl he heard singing when he got rescued. Prince Eric is definitely the most well developed Prince there has been in Disney so far. Again, I really liked that he had a personality and wasn't just there to end up with the heroine.

King Triton was another really great character. He thinks humans are all barbarians so he doesn't let Ariel interact with them at all. His big problem is that he has a very short fuse and doesn't try to understand Ariel's point of view. He also clearly cares about her greatly, wanting to protect her and regretting when he loses his temper. He asks the crab and court composer, Sebastian, to look after her. Sebastian is a big stick in the mud and also doesn't want Ariel interacting with humans. He later realizes that she is unhappy and decides to support her decision to stay on land.

The one who gives Ariel the opportunity to be a human is the Sea Witch Ursula. She formerly lived in the palace but was banished. She uses magic to make deals with merpeople to improve their lives but turns them into polyps when they can't pay her fee. She has a real creepy design but she feels different than most of the Disney villains I've seen so far. She is much more conniving and doesn't use force until it's necessary. The scene where she makes the deal with Ariel is great. The deal she makes is just ingenious too. She makes the deal that Ariel needs to make Prince Eric fall in love with her in 3 days but at the cost of her voice. She convinces Ariel that men don't even really like when women talk. You know she can't be trusted but Ariel is just so desperate. She uses her eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, to go spy on Ariel for her and generally just add to her creepiness.

Right from the beginning of the movie, something just feels different. I really try hard not to have any preconceived notions before I go in to these movies so I hope I still managed to do that. It just seems like that “Disney Magic” was back in full force. Although I really liked The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company, they did feel like they lacked a bit of that “magic” and timeless quality. The amazing animation definitely contributed to it. It is definitely the best looking Disney movie I've seen so far. The music was also great. Even though this movie had a ton of musical sequences they were all fantastic. They were fun and interesting and always helped move the story along or let us get to know the characters better. “Kiss the Girl” was especially great with Sebastian setting up a ridiculous romantic situation to goad Prince Eric into kissing Ariel. The movie definitely has a really simplistic idea of love, much like the other fairy tale Disney movies, but I think they handled it really well this time. Eric thinks that he'll just know when he meets the right girl but it ends up that he actually has to get to know Ariel better before he commits to a decision. He decides that he loves her even though he's been desperately searching for the girl he heard singing that is, of course, Ariel herself.

I didn't really have any huge problems with this movie. Flounder probably could have had a bigger role. I just liked his character and his and Ariel's relationship. I thought it was a bit lame that Eric was hypnotized near the end because I wanted to see some more conflict with his decision, but I think they still handled it well. In any case, this is a fantastic start to the famed “Disney Renaissance.” I don't want to be pessimistic, but tomorrow is a sequel to a movie I wasn't a huge fan of...

28 down. 25 to go.