THE LITTLE MERMAID
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Disney Studios is clearly trying to create a classic for multiple re-releases by repeating the formula of some of Disney's most successful animated features. They probably have succeeded. Rating: high +1.
Walt Disney Studios built their reputation on animation, first with Mickey Mouse cartoons and later with their full-length animated features. Even among their feature-length animated films some seem to be more respected than others. The real classics are SNOW WHITE, SLEEPING BEAUTY, and CINDERELLA. The second-ranked ones are those such as PINOCCHIO, BAMBI, and PETER PAN. Then there are the third-ranked ones such as THE JUNGLE BOOK, THE FOX AND THE HOUND, and THE SWORD IN THE STONE. The ones best regarded are adaptations of well-known German and French fairy tales. They each seem to pit a young woman representing the forces of innocence and good against an older woman who represents decadence and evil. Often the older woman also represents the forces of witchcraft.
THE LITTLE MERMAID represents a return not just to the classic tradition but also to the classic formula. Disney Studios is faced with the competition of Don Bluth--who was bred in the Disney Studios and who left to form his own competitive animation studios (much as Walter Lantz did previously). Intentionally or not, in the holiday season of 1989 we are having the showdown between Disney and Bluth. I have not seen Bluth's ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN, but general scuttlebutt is that Disney's classic formula has resulted in a much better film than Bluth's source.
THE LITTLE MERMAID is the story--very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy-tale--of Ariel, a mermaid who is fascinated by the huge ship hulls she sees floating overhead. She also has a large collection of half-understood human artifacts salvaged from shipwrecks. Ariel's fascination with humans is in direct defiance of her father, King Triton, who wants Ariel to be happy, but entirely within the confines of his undersea kingdom. He has no interest in the "fish-eaters" who walk on two legs. Ariel is a minor departure from the heroines of previous Disney fairy tales in that she is strong-willed and intentionally disobedient. The film gives her more character than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Present to tempt Ariel is this film's villainess, the sea-witch Ursula. As Ariel is half girl and half fish, so Ursula is an octopus with a corpulent woman growing out of its head ... one of Disney's oddest-looking creatures.
The songs are by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who did the music and lyrics for the musical LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Their style in both works is more verse-dialogue spoken to music than the usual song poetry. It is still perfectly pleasant but it is immediately recognizable as being in the same style. What is a slight disappointment is that the artwork in THE LITTLE MERMAID is noticeably less detailed than in other Disney classics. (Each frame of film IS different. This is unlike Japanese animation which has very nice artwork but fairly jerky motion with drawings used for three or four frames each.) But the sketches have less detail so were more economical to draw.
The result of all this is that in some ways THE LITTLE MERMAID is reminiscent of the best of Disney, in some ways in seems the victim of cost-cutting. It represents an investment in the future by Disney and will probably be released to theaters several times before it is ever sold on cassette. This means if it sounds good you should go to see it in a theater. That is the only way to see it. As for rating, I would give THE LITTLE MERMAID a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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