The Little Mermaid (1989)

If the period after 1966 was a dark age for Disney animation then the 80s was the darkest age of all and Disney animation itself was in danger of being shut down by the company’s new head hancho, Michael Eisner. Indeed, if the truly awful Oliver and Company hadn’t managed, somehow, to be profitable it’s a safe bet that it might very well have been the last 2-D animated Disney film instead of the Princess and the Frog. Then out of the blue came the monumentally popular Little Mermaid, a musical homage to Disney’s fairytale days based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson. This time, thanks to the work of broadway writer Howard Ashman, a whole new successful Disney formula emerged for a new and oh so willing audience that combined the high visual aspirations of the old Disney classics with a lively broadway style production that ushered in what is often refereed to as the “Disney Renaissance”. I prefer to call it the “Howard Ashman Renaissance”.

Ariel is a mermaid princess who is secretly obsessed with the human world above the ocean’s surface. Her father, King Triton, forbids her from pursuing her interest because he does not trust humans (who would? they eat fish). Thus when Ariel both rescues and falls for a human prince who nearly drowns at sea her father becomes furious and destroys her secret collection of human artifacts (I think she had the white album) which in turn sets up a scenario wherein the brash Ariel sells her voice to a vengeful sea-witch named Ursula in exchange for legs, which I suppose is sufficient for making her a human, so that she can leave the ocean forever and be with the prince that she apparently found intensely attractive. The catch is that Ariel has only three days to make the prince love her back, in the form of a magic Disney kiss (Love’s True Kiss), or else she’ll turn back into a mermaid and become a slave....or sea-weed creature, or something, it’s kind of vague.

This story might sound crazy and yet it really does work thanks to the clever writing and input from Ashman, his fantastic songs written with partner Alan Menken, and some very tight film making. Not a second is wasted rolling out the story which has, as you’ve seen, a tremendous amount of ground to cover. This end is only bolstered by the strong visuals which were apparently only even made possible thanks to the utilization of new computer technologies that allowed animators to mimic the kind of painstakingly rendered characters and backgrounds of Disney’s best looking animated films, a feat long thought impossible due to increased costs for conventional animation. Universally acclaimed at the time of its release this is still really engaging.

  I give it 4 bras made out of sea-shells.