Full Movie Plot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(1989_film)
The Little Mermaid, released in 1989, was the first film in what was called the Disney Renaissance, which was Disney's return to power in the animated movie world. After having their movies beat out by competitors', Disney produced The Little Mermaid which went on to beat competitors’ records and become the highest-grossing animated movie for that time. The Little Mermaid was a critical turning point for Disney; it renewed the public's faith and interest in Disney by capturing them with the story of Ariel, a mermaid princess who dreamed of someday walking on land and marrying a prince.
At the beginning of the movie we meet Ariel, the 16-year-old daughter of King Triton, who is unhappy with her life under the sea and wants to be human. She's not interested in just being the king's daughter and living a life of luxury; she wants something more out of life. Initially, her curiosity and nonconformity reminded me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but she soon changed. One night, Ariel swims up to the surface (against her father's orders) and sees Prince Eric on a boat. Soon after that, she becomes obsessed with him. She still wants to be part of the human world, but now it's only to marry Prince Eric. It seems that after seeing (not even meeting) the man she wants to marry, she suddenly loses all her ambition. She gives up her voice and her life under the sea in order to make a desperate attempt to get Eric to marry her. Nowadays, people would call her crazy for being so desperate, Prince Eric probably wouldn’t be so charming, and Ariel would most likely end up on the show 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom. I guess Ariel was supposed to be a role model to girls for following her dreams, but in modern-day America, she’d be looked down upon (or super famous on a reality show, but that’s kind of the same thing).
Ursula, the sea witch and villain of the story, forced me to notice a pattern in Disney princess movies. It seems as though whenever there is a beautiful young princess, there is an old, jealous woman trying to take something away from her. It’s happened countless times – Ursula tries to take away Ariel’s voice (and freedom), the evil stepmother tries to enslave Cinderella, the Queen tries to kill Snow White so she can be the “fairest of them all”, and Maleficent tries to kill Aurora out of pure hate. It’s a subtle detail but it could have a fairly large influence on how well kids like the movies. In this psychological strategy, Disney is able to ally itself with the kids by depicting adults as the villains. Nickelodeon has used a similar strategy in past years (depicting adults as either stupid or cruel) and been wildly successful. I’m not saying that the sole reason Disney movies are successful is that they have old women as villains; I’m just suggesting that the character choices that Disney makes are meaningful and somewhat clever.
As a whole, I found the movie enjoyable – there were funny characters and a fun soundtrack – but I’m not sure Ariel is a suitable role model for young girls. She disobeys her father, runs desperately after a guy she doesn’t even know, and in the end gets everything she wants. The movie was great, but this Disney princess is not a suitable role model.
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