The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is one of Disney's best animated motion pictures. It tells the classic Hans Christian Anderson story of a mermaid who wishes she could be human in order to capture the love of a human prince. The animation is beautiful, in fact I think this is one of Disney's most flawless films. It features lovable characters: Ariel the little mermaid is one of my favorite 'Disney girls', Sebastian the crab, Scuttle the wacky seagull, Flounder the... flounder, Triton Ariel's father the Sea King and of course prince charming- Eric. And don't think I forgot the most despised octopus of the oceans- Ursula and her two eels Flotsam and Jetsum. Great beginning and great ending... and of course a lovable story. The music is beautiful (and rightfully won the Oscar for best score and best song). The score is by Alan Menken (who also provided us with the scores of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast). Some of the most beautiful Disney songs are in The Little Mermaid- Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl and for a little bit of dancin' Under the Sea. A movie for all ages, you will be enchanted by Ariel's world under the sea, by the wacky characters, the cruel but in a strange way lovable Ursula, the score, the songs, the story and the animation. I hope everybody has The Little Mermaid in their video collection to one day show their children and grandchildren or any youngster (or adult for that matter). You will be captured by Ariel and want to be part of her (most intriguing) world.

The Little Mermaid is one of those films I grew up with when I was a kid - something that the whole family can watch and never really get sick of. The imagination brought into this fairy tale (despite the fact that the ending is vastly changed from the original to please the kids) is simply superb. Songs, music, characters are all terrific.

While I think Beauty and the Beast stands as Disney's best animated film, The Little Mermaid is still one of the top ones to check out. A story about Aeriel - the young mermaid curious about the human world who ends up falling for Prince Eric of the human race.

And all the other cute characters such as Sebastian, Flounder, not to mention a very sinister villain with the Sea Witch. It all makes for a great time and has a good deal of emotion in it too.

I really miss Disney films made in this era - they were done so well and I will always be a huge fan of them. The ones nowadays - while they aren't horrible, just seem to be a bit too modern and hence don't have that magic as the old ones - probably because they focus more on doing references to other things rather than coming up with original ideas that felt fresh.

I probably never would have seen this movie if my mother hadn't persuaded me to take my little brother to see it. I enjoyed it a lot the first time, but it was only when I saw it again a couple of years later on video I realised just how superb a movie it is. It's not a clever or complex movie, it's not the kind of film which works on an adult level as well as on a children's one. However, three aspects of it make it truly great:

1: The music. 'Under The Sea' richly deserved its Oscar, but 'Part Of Your World' deserved it even more.

2. The animation. Quite simply, it's absolutely gorgeous. The underwater scenes in particular take your breath away.

3. The Story. How can you resist a love story that touching?

I urge anyone with even a touch of sentimentality about them to set their predjudices aside and see this movie.

I saw this movie when I was very young and I loved it. It had a perfect fairy-tale ending and totally followed the formula for Disney movies in a great way. It really got it's message across with catchy tunes and fun characters.

On the down side, while it had a great message, it didn't stay true to what Hans Christian Andersen wrote. I hadn't read Andersen's version until very recently, but I loved it. I thought it had a much better and far more realistic message than the Disney movie. Andersen said that if you're a good person, while you may not get your reward in life, being good is it's own reward. Disney, on the other hand, said that if you risk everything for the one you love, things will work out in the end. While that's a nice message for little kids that is very unrealistic. Good people are hurt all the time.

I've heard people say that if girls grow up watching this, they will learn that big breasts, a small waist, and having a man by your side are what's important in life. This movie was made the year I was born, so naturally, I grew up on it. I don't hold myself to unrealistic standards or feel like I must have a man to go on. So, while I don't know about all the other little girls out there, but Disney didn't corrupt me.

Disney animated films had become somewhat second-rate by 1989 and it appeared that one of the great genres in the cinema was on life-support. But that all changed with "The Little Mermaid". The film is a cinematic classic that tells the story of a young mermaid princess who just wants to be human so she makes a deal with an evil sea witch to get her wish, but she loses her beautiful voice in the process and she must be kissed by her true love to get it back. A really great motion picture that has some really memorable songs in it. 5 stars out of 5.