This is a movie I've been looking forward to rewatching for a while :) I love the Disney Princess movies (except maybe Brave, still need to watch that again) but The Little Mermaid brings back so much nostalgia for me. This movie isn't number 1 on my favorite DP movie list but it's still one of my all-time favorite movies.
Today's rewatch: The Little Mermaid
Last time watched: 2017
How much did I like this movie as a kid?
I hope you're all comfortable because this is going to be a long one. When I was little mermaids were my favorite thing and it was all because of The Little Mermaid. For the first few years of my life I could only watch the movie once every two weeks because that was when I was spending a weekend at my dad's house and he was the only one who had the vhs copy (it was the first released one too!). When The Little Mermaid was rereleased in theaters in the mid to late 90's, I was 5-7 years old and I don't think I had been to the movies before so it was a new experience for me and I didn't even know what we were seeing until the movie started, and I was so incredibly excited. After that my mom was able to get her own vhs copy of the movie and I was able to watch it whenever I wanted! And because I loved The Little Mermaid so much I had gotten a couple The Little Mermaid theme birthday cakes, I had an Ariel doll, a talking/singing Ariel mirror, Ariel and Eric barbies, an Ariel/Flounder pillow (which I still have!) and in mine and sister's room at our dad's house he was somehow able to get cardboard cutouts of The Little Mermaid and decorated our walls with them so we could see our favorite mermaid as we fell asleep. I even got a picture with Ariel as a mermaid on my very first trip to Disneyland and I remember how happy I was to see her! When I was little I actually thought mermaids were real (I was one of those kids who thought the stuff that happened in movies really happened) and I remember when I was 6 or 7 I was watching the movie and I said to my older sister that I wanted to be a mermaid when I grew up...only to then be told bluntly that mermaids weren't real.
Yeah, I still remember the heartbreak. I still loved mermaids and I still loved the movie even after that disappointment. When I heard there was a sequel I was excited and of course my mom got me the movie the day it came out and I loved it! And then when I heard that The Little Mermaid was getting another sequel I was, again, excited despite being 15 and deemed "too old" to be excited for something like that. I ended up being so very disappointed because I didn't think it was as good as Return to the Sea. I was so bummed out I rewatched the first two movies to "cleanse" myself. And OF COURSE in 2013 or 2014 when the Diamond Edition of The Little Mermaid came out I preordered it and not only got it the day before it was actually released, I got a set of pictures from the movie (like Ariel in her iconic singing on a rock while water splashes in the background, Ursula doing one of her famous evil looks, etc) that I somehow ended up losing after I moved out of my mom's house. But then in my late teens, early twenties I was hearing people like Lindsey Ellis hating on Ariel and the movie teaching girls it was okay to change for a man and I actually bought that for a while. I still feel so embarrassed for believing that for a while. I watched this movie every now and again but one rewatch that was important to me was the last time I watched The Little Mermaid in 2017. I had gotten the news recently that my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. I lived far away from home at the time so I wasn't able to see him at all and I was feeling so depressed. One night my husband asked me if I wanted to watch a movie after work and I could pick; The Little Mermaid was the first movie that came to mind. That night we watched the movie together and I felt closer to my dad, even tearing up a little when Ariel said, "I love you, daddy." at the end. I didn't watch the movie again for a little while until today. I still love the movie, it was just hard to watch for a while. I'm hoping to someday have a Little Mermaid themed aquarium with little fishies named after Disney fish characters.
Why I love this movie so much:
First off, this movie has one of my favorite openings in a Disney movie. i'm not talking about Eric on his ship and the crew talking about merpeople, I'm talking about when we get underwater and we hear this soft version of Ariel's songs and see sea creatures of all shapes and sizes before we see the merpeople swimming to Atlantica. That always gives me shivers. This movie is one of the reasons why I was so in love with the ocean and sea creatures when I was younger.
I still laugh really hard at the fact that King Triton gets this impressive introduction with the dolphins, the fanfare, and the mini lightshow from his trident but then when Sebastian is introduced he has goldfish and kazoos.
I wish there were more movies where Jodi Benson sings, she has such a beautiful voice no matter the character she's doing like Ariel or Vanessa or Thumbelina. I'm not a great singer but I still love to sing Jodi Benson's songs, especially Part of Your World. Any time I hear that song I can't help but sing along. I've watched some of The Little Mermaid tv series so I know she sings in that show too but I can't get into it like the movies.
Scuttle still never fails to make me laugh. He ties with Genie and Timon and Pumbaa on the funniest sidekick list for me. I still call a fork a dinglehopper and a pipe a snarfblatt. And Scuttle's not the only sidekick I love in this movie, I love all of them, even the minor ones we see once. Like we have sea creatures joining in on Sebastian's song without question and when Scuttle was getting reinforcements the animals coming to help just heard 911 and jumped in to help without hesitation and not even knowing what the emergency is.
I still wish we could have gotten an explaination for Ursula's past, especially since she brings up that she lived in the palace at some point. When Ariel's Beginning was announced I had hoped this was going to be part of the plot but then we got Marina...Ursula is one of my favorite Disney villains; she has one of the best villain songs, has the creepiest hideout, she's got all this self confidence in her appearance (she looks fabulous and she knows it!), and she's so incredibly evil with making deals by demanding payment she knows will be impossible so she can add souls to her collection and using live creatures for her spells and eating small creatures alive. And Flotsam and Jetsam are so creepy with creepy voices to match.
This isn't exactly something I love but I just want to point out that Les Poissons is so...incredibly...hard to watch.... Like, yes, we eat fish and everything but after being under the sea and watching all the fish play instruments and have fun and then sea this guy chopping up their heads and pulling out their bones it's like...why? For the love of all that is holy, why?
I may poke fun at Ariel saying, "Daddy, I love him!" and "You don't even know him!" when talking about Eric but I still love them together. I don't mind love at first sight in the classic princess movies but I love that in this movie there's love at first sight and even though Eric doesn't know Ariel is the one he's looking for, they spend time together and we see them having fun together and it's enough for Eric to change his mind about looking for the girl who saved him and instead choose to be with the one he's spent all this time with. Of course, she is the one who saved him but I still think it's adorable. I love the sweet looks they have when they look at each other or when they're thinking of each other and their interactions. Every time I watch this movie I always find myself thinking, "KISS HER, YOU FOOL!" And oh my gosh no matter how many times I watch Eric lift and spin Ariel at the end I still love it!
I've seen people talk about how Tangled totally ripped off the tour of the kingdom and then the boat ride but I have to ask, "Is that such a bad thing?" and "Isn't that something Disney's done before?" We have more than one evil stepmother, more than one snarky animal sidekick, more than one character raised by a different species, more than one princess singing to animals in the forest...Honestly, I don't even notice the "rip off" in Tangled unless someone says it because even if Disney did copy it from The Little Mermaid, Tangled did a good job and made it it's own. I love both versions of the tour and boat ride, we see both princesses excitedly run around seeing new things and new people like they wanted, dancing like they wanted to, and ending the day with a romantic boat ride, one with sea creatures playing a romantic song for them while the other with beautiful lanterns surrounding them.
As much as I question King Triton's choices in this movie like yelling at Ariel and destroying her collection I still feel sad for him when he made the sacrifice to save Ariel from Ursula's deal and he at least felt terrible for what he did when no one could find Ariel. Even though we don't see him actually apologizing he at least saw how much Ariel loved Eric in the end and granted her wish to be human and be with the human she loved. I still tear up when Ariel says, "I love you, daddy" at the end. I don't care what anyone says I still think that was a sweet moment!
Princess:
So here's the thing, I absolutely love The Little Mermaid and when given the chance I will always collect Ariel merch...I still only like Ariel enough to only be 4 on my list. Let me just explain, I love Ariel's sense of adventure and her curiousity and how much of a romantic she is and all that but there's some things I really have to question. Like her making fun Flounder and calling him a guppy after he almost got eaten by a shark. That is hardly the time to tease someone for getting scared. That'd be like if I almost got hit by a car (I got hit by one once when I was 14) and got called a chicken afterwards. Then there's the fact that she sometimes doesn't seem to...care about others? Like she sees Ursula using live creatures for her potion to make Ariel human and while Ariel does look pretty shocked she still doesn't seem to care. And we don't see her react to Eric and Grimsby about to eat crab nor is it even mentioned at all what Sebastian went through in the kitchen. That might be on him because maybe he didn't tell her though I don't understand why he wouldn't. And then in the climax Ariel seemed more concerned about Eric than making sure her friends were okay (they were right there when Ursula was getting bigger, remember?). Look, I still love her, I grew up wanting to be her or be like her, I just wish she had been a bit more tactful. She's staying as 4 on my list because I love her enough to keep her that high up.
Movie:
This movie is always so fun to watch for me! Other than Les Poissons, I sing along to all the songs, the characters are all still likeable (yes, even King Triton by a little bit), and while the animation isn't as impressive as the animation in the 90s like The Lion King or Aladdin, for its time the animation was beautiful especially during the underwater scenes. This movie is 4 on my list too and that's where it will stay!
Rating: 9/10
Would I watch it again?
YAAAAAS
Next movie will be The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea!
Today's rewatch: The Little Mermaid
Last time watched: 2017
How much did I like this movie as a kid?
I hope you're all comfortable because this is going to be a long one. When I was little mermaids were my favorite thing and it was all because of The Little Mermaid. For the first few years of my life I could only watch the movie once every two weeks because that was when I was spending a weekend at my dad's house and he was the only one who had the vhs copy (it was the first released one too!). When The Little Mermaid was rereleased in theaters in the mid to late 90's, I was 5-7 years old and I don't think I had been to the movies before so it was a new experience for me and I didn't even know what we were seeing until the movie started, and I was so incredibly excited. After that my mom was able to get her own vhs copy of the movie and I was able to watch it whenever I wanted! And because I loved The Little Mermaid so much I had gotten a couple The Little Mermaid theme birthday cakes, I had an Ariel doll, a talking/singing Ariel mirror, Ariel and Eric barbies, an Ariel/Flounder pillow (which I still have!) and in mine and sister's room at our dad's house he was somehow able to get cardboard cutouts of The Little Mermaid and decorated our walls with them so we could see our favorite mermaid as we fell asleep. I even got a picture with Ariel as a mermaid on my very first trip to Disneyland and I remember how happy I was to see her! When I was little I actually thought mermaids were real (I was one of those kids who thought the stuff that happened in movies really happened) and I remember when I was 6 or 7 I was watching the movie and I said to my older sister that I wanted to be a mermaid when I grew up...only to then be told bluntly that mermaids weren't real.
Yeah, I still remember the heartbreak. I still loved mermaids and I still loved the movie even after that disappointment. When I heard there was a sequel I was excited and of course my mom got me the movie the day it came out and I loved it! And then when I heard that The Little Mermaid was getting another sequel I was, again, excited despite being 15 and deemed "too old" to be excited for something like that. I ended up being so very disappointed because I didn't think it was as good as Return to the Sea. I was so bummed out I rewatched the first two movies to "cleanse" myself. And OF COURSE in 2013 or 2014 when the Diamond Edition of The Little Mermaid came out I preordered it and not only got it the day before it was actually released, I got a set of pictures from the movie (like Ariel in her iconic singing on a rock while water splashes in the background, Ursula doing one of her famous evil looks, etc) that I somehow ended up losing after I moved out of my mom's house. But then in my late teens, early twenties I was hearing people like Lindsey Ellis hating on Ariel and the movie teaching girls it was okay to change for a man and I actually bought that for a while. I still feel so embarrassed for believing that for a while. I watched this movie every now and again but one rewatch that was important to me was the last time I watched The Little Mermaid in 2017. I had gotten the news recently that my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. I lived far away from home at the time so I wasn't able to see him at all and I was feeling so depressed. One night my husband asked me if I wanted to watch a movie after work and I could pick; The Little Mermaid was the first movie that came to mind. That night we watched the movie together and I felt closer to my dad, even tearing up a little when Ariel said, "I love you, daddy." at the end. I didn't watch the movie again for a little while until today. I still love the movie, it was just hard to watch for a while. I'm hoping to someday have a Little Mermaid themed aquarium with little fishies named after Disney fish characters.
Why I love this movie so much:
First off, this movie has one of my favorite openings in a Disney movie. i'm not talking about Eric on his ship and the crew talking about merpeople, I'm talking about when we get underwater and we hear this soft version of Ariel's songs and see sea creatures of all shapes and sizes before we see the merpeople swimming to Atlantica. That always gives me shivers. This movie is one of the reasons why I was so in love with the ocean and sea creatures when I was younger.
I still laugh really hard at the fact that King Triton gets this impressive introduction with the dolphins, the fanfare, and the mini lightshow from his trident but then when Sebastian is introduced he has goldfish and kazoos.
I wish there were more movies where Jodi Benson sings, she has such a beautiful voice no matter the character she's doing like Ariel or Vanessa or Thumbelina. I'm not a great singer but I still love to sing Jodi Benson's songs, especially Part of Your World. Any time I hear that song I can't help but sing along. I've watched some of The Little Mermaid tv series so I know she sings in that show too but I can't get into it like the movies.
Scuttle still never fails to make me laugh. He ties with Genie and Timon and Pumbaa on the funniest sidekick list for me. I still call a fork a dinglehopper and a pipe a snarfblatt. And Scuttle's not the only sidekick I love in this movie, I love all of them, even the minor ones we see once. Like we have sea creatures joining in on Sebastian's song without question and when Scuttle was getting reinforcements the animals coming to help just heard 911 and jumped in to help without hesitation and not even knowing what the emergency is.
I still wish we could have gotten an explaination for Ursula's past, especially since she brings up that she lived in the palace at some point. When Ariel's Beginning was announced I had hoped this was going to be part of the plot but then we got Marina...Ursula is one of my favorite Disney villains; she has one of the best villain songs, has the creepiest hideout, she's got all this self confidence in her appearance (she looks fabulous and she knows it!), and she's so incredibly evil with making deals by demanding payment she knows will be impossible so she can add souls to her collection and using live creatures for her spells and eating small creatures alive. And Flotsam and Jetsam are so creepy with creepy voices to match.
This isn't exactly something I love but I just want to point out that Les Poissons is so...incredibly...hard to watch.... Like, yes, we eat fish and everything but after being under the sea and watching all the fish play instruments and have fun and then sea this guy chopping up their heads and pulling out their bones it's like...why? For the love of all that is holy, why?
I may poke fun at Ariel saying, "Daddy, I love him!" and "You don't even know him!" when talking about Eric but I still love them together. I don't mind love at first sight in the classic princess movies but I love that in this movie there's love at first sight and even though Eric doesn't know Ariel is the one he's looking for, they spend time together and we see them having fun together and it's enough for Eric to change his mind about looking for the girl who saved him and instead choose to be with the one he's spent all this time with. Of course, she is the one who saved him but I still think it's adorable. I love the sweet looks they have when they look at each other or when they're thinking of each other and their interactions. Every time I watch this movie I always find myself thinking, "KISS HER, YOU FOOL!" And oh my gosh no matter how many times I watch Eric lift and spin Ariel at the end I still love it!
I've seen people talk about how Tangled totally ripped off the tour of the kingdom and then the boat ride but I have to ask, "Is that such a bad thing?" and "Isn't that something Disney's done before?" We have more than one evil stepmother, more than one snarky animal sidekick, more than one character raised by a different species, more than one princess singing to animals in the forest...Honestly, I don't even notice the "rip off" in Tangled unless someone says it because even if Disney did copy it from The Little Mermaid, Tangled did a good job and made it it's own. I love both versions of the tour and boat ride, we see both princesses excitedly run around seeing new things and new people like they wanted, dancing like they wanted to, and ending the day with a romantic boat ride, one with sea creatures playing a romantic song for them while the other with beautiful lanterns surrounding them.
As much as I question King Triton's choices in this movie like yelling at Ariel and destroying her collection I still feel sad for him when he made the sacrifice to save Ariel from Ursula's deal and he at least felt terrible for what he did when no one could find Ariel. Even though we don't see him actually apologizing he at least saw how much Ariel loved Eric in the end and granted her wish to be human and be with the human she loved. I still tear up when Ariel says, "I love you, daddy" at the end. I don't care what anyone says I still think that was a sweet moment!
Princess:
So here's the thing, I absolutely love The Little Mermaid and when given the chance I will always collect Ariel merch...I still only like Ariel enough to only be 4 on my list. Let me just explain, I love Ariel's sense of adventure and her curiousity and how much of a romantic she is and all that but there's some things I really have to question. Like her making fun Flounder and calling him a guppy after he almost got eaten by a shark. That is hardly the time to tease someone for getting scared. That'd be like if I almost got hit by a car (I got hit by one once when I was 14) and got called a chicken afterwards. Then there's the fact that she sometimes doesn't seem to...care about others? Like she sees Ursula using live creatures for her potion to make Ariel human and while Ariel does look pretty shocked she still doesn't seem to care. And we don't see her react to Eric and Grimsby about to eat crab nor is it even mentioned at all what Sebastian went through in the kitchen. That might be on him because maybe he didn't tell her though I don't understand why he wouldn't. And then in the climax Ariel seemed more concerned about Eric than making sure her friends were okay (they were right there when Ursula was getting bigger, remember?). Look, I still love her, I grew up wanting to be her or be like her, I just wish she had been a bit more tactful. She's staying as 4 on my list because I love her enough to keep her that high up.
Movie:
This movie is always so fun to watch for me! Other than Les Poissons, I sing along to all the songs, the characters are all still likeable (yes, even King Triton by a little bit), and while the animation isn't as impressive as the animation in the 90s like The Lion King or Aladdin, for its time the animation was beautiful especially during the underwater scenes. This movie is 4 on my list too and that's where it will stay!
Rating: 9/10
Would I watch it again?
YAAAAAS
Next movie will be The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea!
This is what I think Merida's princess list would be if she were fan of Disney Princesses. We will never know for certain what Merida's princess list would be, but we can make general assumptions. I think while some of you may not agree with every placement, the general ranking of who would be at the bottom, middle , and top of her list will be the same in all of our opinions:) Thanks to wavesurf for helping me out!
10. Aurora
Predictably, Merida wouldn't have a taste for the classic princesses. Aurora would likely be in last place. Merida's main gripe against Aurora would be that she let...
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10. Aurora
Predictably, Merida wouldn't have a taste for the classic princesses. Aurora would likely be in last place. Merida's main gripe against Aurora would be that she let...
