The Little Mermaid

A few movie nights ago I opted for the Hunchback of Notre Dame as one of our picks, which was met with much opposition. After getting one of my friends to admit that Hunchback is, in fact, a good movie, he continued on to say that "...there's no denying that it is a complete bastardization of the the book." I cannot agree more with this statement, but it did get me thinking about some of the other Disney adaptations one day while I was driving around listening to Disney songs in my car, as I do quite often. With the amount of liberties that Disney has taken with it's stories in the past, why is Hunchback the one that gets picked on for it? Surely, there must be an adaptation that's more damaging, I thought. One such movie that struck me was The Little Mermaid.

Few need a recap of this story, but I'll go ahead and provide one anyway:

Ariel is the daughter of King Triton, ruler of the sea, and lives with her six (or so) other sisters in a huge undersea palace, with every luxury royalty can provide. But this luxury is not enough for Ariel, as she longs to live in the world of men, from which she's collected many strange artifacts in a secret cavern - a cavern which is secret because she knows her dad would lose it if he ever found out about it. Her interest in the world above is only heightened by a chance encounter with Prince Eric, whom Ariel rescues after a shipwreck (but not before serenading him with a beautiful, impromptu love song as he chokes on water.) Of course, it's not long before Triton finds the cavern and totally freaking loses it, destroying all of her possessions and succeeding to ruin her life. This leads Ariel to sign a deal with Ursula, who's long been exiled from the kingdom for unknown reasons. Ursula has a sketchy reputation, but luckily knows a bit of magic and makes a living from screwing over those "poor, unfortunate souls" who think they're about to have their dreams come true. She is essentially the devil. Ariel agrees to an arrangement in which she's temporarily turned into a human and must get Eric to fall in love with her and kiss her before the end of three days. If the terms are met, she stays human; if not, she turns into a slimy, sea slug thingy and becomes part of Ursula's gross sea garden for all eternity. Her fee for the spell is her voice - a sketchy deal indeed, but Ariel reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, Ariel has a hard time getting the prince to fall in love with her without her voice, as it was the beautiful love song that Eric associated her with in the first place. She also has a hard time not looking completely retarded as a human, which is a good reason for Eric to not want to marry her because, hey, he's a prince! What would the kingdom think, you know?

So two days pass and, aside from a close call involving a spiffy musical number in a boat with some singing fish, not much happens. Ursula, now becoming increasingly uneasy, decides to turn herself into a human and use Ariel's voice to get Eric to fall in love with her instead. It works, and they decide to get married THE NEXT DAY. To summarize the last bits of the movie, Ariel and her sea friends totally frack up the wedding (which is conveniently held on a boat), Ursula loses it, reveals to everyone that Ariel is a mermaid and that she is a scary octopus bitch, and she steals Ariel to add her to her garden. It's then that Triton shows up and makes a deal of his own, offering up himself to the slug garden in place of Ariel. Ursula jumps at the deal, reversing the transformation, and uses the opportunity to steal Triton's magic trident and then turn Ariel into a slug anyway. Turns out, this was Ursula's plan all along; she wanted to control the sea via the trident, using Ariel as a pawn to take down the king - how no one saw this coming is a mystery to me. Just when Ursula begins to transform into a towering column of tentacled doom and all hope appears to be lost, enter Prince Eric! His plan? Drive a boat straight into the middle of that bitch and watch her burn! Simple, yet effective. There's lightning, fireworks, explosions, and all kinds of awesome special effects. Sweet.

The story ends with Triton realizing that maybe he's been too hard on his daughter and uses his trident to restore Ariel's voice and turn her into a human for good. Music plays, rainbows appear, and Ariel and Eric are married as Triton and co. wonder if they'll ever see Ariel again. Meh... maybe in the direct to video sequel.





Let me first begin my stating that I love The Little Mermaid. Now that that's out of the way, here's what we've got in our story: a spoiled teenage girl who has everything she could ask for, yet somehow still think she's deprived. She's got a loving, responsible father with only the best intentions. While every father may be fearful of seeing their daughter grow up and leave one day, Triton's concern is primarily that of safety - the human world provides a serious threat to the merpeople, and he's really just trying to make sure she doesn't get killed via spear or fishhook - not unreasonable.

Perhaps Triton went a bit overboard destroying her stuff, but Ariel's next move - essentially selling her soul to the devil - is never justified. What follows is a situation where Ariel manages to mess things up so badly than only those around her can pull her out of the tangled mess shes managed to make. Ariel never grows or changes as a character - by the end, she relies on everyone else to fix the mistake she's created, and yet is still the same whiny teenager from the start. So I ask: does anyone else see a problem with this situation??? Why is a character who complains about her wonderful life, signs a deal with Satan, disowns her father for being responsible, and puts all of her friends in mortal peril still awarded with a happy ending? Ariel literally does nothing to earn anything in this story, and still gets everything she wants. What kind of a message is this sending to all the little girls watching, especially those who are prone to become followers of Paris Hilton and other such spoiled, rich skanks?

Of course, while we're on the subject on bastardizing books, the original Little Mermaid's ending plays out nothing like this. Ariel's motivations are far different; mermaids, according to the book, do not have souls, and eventually become sea foam when they die after 200 years of life - something that can be remedied by marrying a human. I'll spare the rest of the details, but the story ultimately ends with Ariel sacrificing her own life so that Prince Eric can live a happy one with an already human girl. Obviously, the movie deviates quite a bit from the original story - as much, if not more than Hunchback does. Both movies take many liberties with the source materials, but Hunchback, I believe, is the clear victor when it comes to telling something our youth needs to hear: life can be cruel and unfair, but it does absolutely no good to wallow in self-pity. Quasimodo, unlike Ariel, has been dealt some of the worst cards in life what can be dealt; he's deformed, orphaned, raised by an evil tyrant, and is forever locked inside a bell tower because, according to his master, the world will not accept him. After fighting the good fight, and rescuing the girl who ultimately does not reciprocate his feelings of love, Quasimodo discovers that, yes, life is cruel, but that doesn't mean you can't still make the best of it - a much better message for today's youth.

I seemed to have complained a lot about The Little Mermaid and yet have offered little to no solutions. So here's what I'd do to change the ending, if given the chance:

Option 1: The ending plays out much like it does currently, with one change: Triton and Eric end up in the garden, and it is Ariel who somehow has to defeat Ursula in the end. Given this scenario, she will have at least done something to earn her happy ending, and feminists would probably get a kick out of the princess saving the prince.

Option 2: After Ursula is defeated by Eric, we learn that only Ursula's black magic could have given Ariel legs, and she is to remain a mermaid. Ariel and Eric are dismayed by this discovery, but ultimately decide that their love is too great to let something like that get in the way, and they decide to somehow be together anyway. In this situation, Ariel is still bailed out by her friends, but does not get everything she wants - she has to work for her happy ending. This would be just the type of change in character she needs, and a perfect example of how two people can make a relationship work, despite great obstacles, if their love is great enough.

Option 3: Eric still saves the day, which is then followed by a scene where Ariel has to choose between Eric and his world or her friends and family. She then realizes what a spoiled brat she's been and decides to remain a mermaid, despite her love for Eric. Triton, clearly moved by his daughter's decision and change of character, decides to change Eric into a merman, thus rewarding Ariel for her new found maturity. The two live happily ever after, under the sea.


Like I said before, I still think The Little Mermaid is a great movie, but only when I consciously decide to look past the protagonist's obvious character flaws.

And damn it, one of these movie nights we are going to watch Hunchback! I swear, it WILL happen...