DAC 28: The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid - 9.2/10

Holy crap, have I been looking forward to this one like nobody's business. I grew up at exactly the right time for this movie. Among other things, it was the very first film I ever saw in a cinema. Imagine if I'd been born just a few years earlier - with Basil or Oliver instead of Ariel being my introduction to modern Disney, how different would my life be now? Anyway, enough with waxing nostalgic; how was the movie?

The music is absolutely incredible. I think everyone knows this. In fact, a good 3 or 4 of my top ten favorite Disney songs are in this movie, including numbers 1 and 2. And unlike most musicals that have a few good ones and a few duds, there wasn't a single song in this that I didn't like. They've come a long way out of the dark ages with their animation, and absolutely no corners were cut with it or the art here. What's more, the voice cast was perfectly fit to the various characters and everyone fit into the story greatly. All of the side characters were fun and again there weren't any at all that I didn't like. The villain was fantastic - hammy but definitely evil and scary without being too scary for kids. Everything fit right.

There was a lot of humor in this too, and very little was of the slapstick or over-the-top variety that is so relied upon these days. Some of the best moments come during the portion of the film when Ariel can't talk and we have to rely on her body language and facial expressions, as well as others' reactions to her for the humor. It was at different places both subtle and overt and the effect was genuine laughter as opposed to the cheap kind.

This film also takes its lead from Sleeping Beauty in having the romantic leads spend some time together to build up their relationship, which I love, and it took it to a much greater degree than the former ever did. Sure, it was only three days, but that's half a lifetime in fairy tale time, and a big improvement over nothing at all, or most of an afternoon.

The character of Ariel is an interesting one. She collects all kinds of junk and stores it in a vast room, meticulously sorted and has an almost obsessive need to gather more. We have a word for those type of people: hoarders. On the other hand, she collects them because of her fascination with the culture they originate from, and her fondest wish is to learn more about them and even join them. We have a word for this kind of people too: anthropologists. So I guess your interpretation of Ariel's character depends heavily on how cynical you want to be.

On that note also, I have heard some people say that they don't like the ending because Ariel gets what she wanted anyway without learning anything. I disagree. She did learn her lesson, and almost paid for it with her life and the life of everyone she cared about. I interpret the ending as Triton also learning his lesson that he cannot expect to control every aspect of his children's lives, and he needs to let them do what makes them happy.

So yeah, if you haven't figured it out yet, I pretty much love everything about this movie.