Disney 53: The Little Mermaid

Every week of 2013, THN brings you a retrospective of a Walt Disney Animated Classic. From SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS to FROZEN, from the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s, to the wilderness years of the 1970s, each will be looked at with a loving, if critical eye.

This week, we dive under the sea to be part of the world of THE LITTLE MERMAID.

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

1989/ 82 minutes

And so began the Disney Renaissance; after almost two decades of misfires and failures, the duumvirate of Clements and Musker brought forth a string of some of Disney’s greatest and best-loved animated films.

The genesis of Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID began back in the 1930s, as part of a package film of short tales based on the work of Hans Christian Andersen. The idea was dropped for a number of reasons, but was given a second shot when Clements found a copy of the tale in a bookstore and created a treatment to then CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg (you remember, the guy that fobbed them off and started Dreamworks when he didn’t get that promotion he wanted). Anyway, Katzenberg passed, since they were already working on a mermaid movie, a sequel to SPLASH (1984) that got made into a TV movie in 1988 without either of its original stars. Katzenberg then changed his mind and got the ball rolling on both THE LITTLE MERMAID and OLIVER & COMPANY.

INTERESTING INTERLUDE: Disney’s first Andersen adaptation was a 1931 Silly Symphonies of The Ugly Duckling. It’s notable for being the first Silly Symphony that focussed on an actual plot, rather than the animators showing off to musical accompaniment. It’s not the most faithful adaptation; in this version, the Duckling is born to a farmyard chicken, and saves his adoptive family from both a tornado and a raging river/waterfall.

It was then remade in 1939, as a more faithful telling, and is a surprisingly modern take on the story, with the Ducklings’ “Parents” quite obviously arguing over his parentage. It’s quite dark and surprisingly vicious, and quite heavy emotionally, but does have some cracking sound design.

ENTER: PIXAR

THE LITTLE MERMAID was one of the first feature films to utilise a new process, developed by Pixar, called Computer Animation Production System.

In a nutshell, CAPS is a system which computerises the whole process of transferring animated drawings to celluloid using ink or xerography and painting the reverse side with paint.

Instead, the animators’ original drawings and background art were scanned into a computer, where they’re inked and painted digitally with an unlimited colour palate and new visual effects such as transparency and colour blending. The coloured frames are then combined with the scanned backgrounds in software that allows for camera positioning and movement, multiplane effects, and any number of other effects developed further down the line – including the blending of two and three-dimensional elements.

If you’ve ever used Photoshop to colour in a pencil drawing, or animated using Flash, it’s the same basic principle.

While 1990’s THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER would be the first Disney film to fully use the CAPS process, the penultimate scene of THE LITTLE MERMAID was one of a number of experimental scenes intended to test its effectiveness.

Despite this, THE LITTLE MERMAID was one of the most technically challenging (and expensive) Disney films for decades, requiring the founding of a while new animation facility at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and they even outsourced some work to Pacific Rim Productions in Beijing, mostly for the underwater bubble effects. The amount of time and money spent on the film worried Katzenberg, who warned his directors that since it was a “girl’s film”, it wasn’t likely to make as much money as the more family-oriented OLIVER AND COMPANY. THE LITTLE MERMAID would go on to prove him wrong, but a couple of theatrical re-releases may have had something to do with its estimated $211 million gross.

Anyway, on with the SYNOPSIS: Sixteen-year-old mer-princess Ariel is bored with her life under the sea; she has a loving, if stern father and lives safe and secure in a glorious undersea kingdom with her large family. Along with her best friend, the timid and lovable Flounder (though he’s clearly not one), Ariel collects trinkets and treasures from the seabed, artifacts of the human world she longs to experience. She makes frequent illicit trips to the surface to meet with Scuttle, a seagull and self-described “expert” on humanity.

One night, and with the King’s servant (and royal composer) Sebastian reluctantly in tow, Ariel travels to the surface to watch the on-ship celebration of Prince Eric’s birthday. Ariel is almost caught when Eric’s sheepdog, Max, catches her scent, but she promptly falls completely and helplessly in love with Eric, and goes on to save his life when the ship is destroyed by a storm. Eric is found on shore, unharmed and with no memory of what happened to him, other than the memory of Ariel’s remarkable singing voice. Each of them vows to find and be with the other.

Noticing a change in his youngest daughter’s behaviour, King Triton accidentally learns of Ariel’s activities when Sebastian lets it slip. Storming into Ariel’s hidden cave of wonders (no, not that one), Triton and Ariel have one of those arguments that every father has with their teenage daughter, which ends with Triton destroying the cave, leaving Ariel heartbroken.

Enter: Flotsam and Jetsam, the all-seeing eyes of the sea witch, Ursula. She’s been watching Ariel for some time now, looking for a way to settle an old score with Triton. And here she finds a perfect opportunity. Flotsam and Jetsam use a little emotional blackmail to entice Ariel into seeing Ursula. When Sebastian tries to intervene, Ariel suggests he go tell her father, something he’s “good at”. For the sake of the plot, Sebastian doesn’t go running for Triton, and instead follows her to Ursula’s lair.

Ursula offers Ariel the chance to be with Eric forever, with a few provisos; she has only three days to earn his love and become a human for the rest of her life; if she doesn’t manage it, she gives up her humanity, her mermanity, and her life to Ursula. As payment, Ursula demands her voice, which is captured and contained within a seashell pendant.

Sebastian and Flounder manage to get Ariel to the shore before she runs out of breath (presumably, Merfolk have unseen gills), and with Scuttle’s “help”, finds some impromptu clothing (she is completely naked bar the seashell brassiere, don’t forget).

The animation in this sequence is just exquisite, as Ariel finds her feet – literally – and silently convinces Sebastian to help her. It’s a beautiful little pantomime performance on Ariel’s part, and I tip my hat to the animators.

Further up the shore, Eric is still pining for the girl who rescued him, and has scoured his kingdom looking for her. Max catches Ariel’s scent, and leads him right to her. At first he’s confused; he’s sure she’s the girl that saved him, but she has no voice, and Ariel’s attempts to explain only confuse matters. Realising she’s been through something really arduous and affecting, Eric escorts her to the castle, where she is bathed before dining with Eric and his long-suffering manservant Grimsby, while Sebastian goes through the wringer – literally – and winds up in the kitchen and narrowly avoids being cooked alive in the film’s first real comedy sequence.

That night, Ariel watches Eric from her window. As Sebastian tries to plan a way of getting Eric to kiss her, she experiences the joy of a decent bed for the first time, and promptly falls asleep.

In the meantime, the entire Kingdom of Atlantica is out looking for her, and Triton is wracked with guilt over his actions.

Day Two, and Eric takes Ariel on a tour of his kingdom. Ariel is understandably thrilled by everything she sees and hears, learning to dance with Eric and almost crashing his carriage. As night descends, Eric takes her out in a rowboat. Scuttle’s attempts to entice a romantic mood by squawking Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet has almost the reverse effect, so Sebastian steps in, subtly serenading them and luring Eric into Love’s First Kiss, and dropping her name for good measure, but just as they’re about to kiss, the boat is overturned by Flotsam and Jetsam. Ursula congratulates her pets for their good work, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before Ariel wins his heart, and resolves to take matters into her own tentacles.

In the middle of the night, Eric stands on the balcony playing “Part of Your World” on his flute as Grimsby looks on. Grim manages to convince him to stop chasing after the girl from his dreams, when Ariel’s just sitting there right in front of him, but just as he resigns himself to the fact he’ll never hear that voice again, he hears it. Looking down onto the beach, he sees a new and mysterious woman, wreathed in mist, singing with Ariel’s voice. Eric is enthralled under this new woman’s spell. Literally.

Morning on the third day, Scuttle rushes into Ariel’s bedroom, waking her with the news that Eric is to be married that very afternoon. Ariel  rushes downstairs to see Eric in the arms of the mystery woman (her name’s Vanessa, but it’s only mentioned once). Despite his obvious mixed feelings, Grimsby obeys Eric when he demands they be wed as soon as possible – today. As Ariel runs out in silent tears, Vanessa smiles, caressing her seashell pendant.

A heartbroken Ariel watches the wedding ship depart, her dreams dashed on the rocks once again.

Scuttle, having missed the memo, flies out to the ship and hears Vanessa singing. Looking in on her, he’s horrified to see that Vanessa is none other than Ursula in disguise!

A SMALL ASIDE: I was talking about the animation for the mute Ariel earlier, but here we get a real treat from her voice actress, as Jodi Benson manages to capture Ursula’s attitude and malice with only a few short lines.

Anyhoo, Scuttle rushes to shore to tell the others, and while Flounder helps Ariel catch up with the ship, Sebastian dives to inform Triton – something he should have done in the first place, but hey-ho, the plot demands. On Sebastian’s order, Scuttle races back to the ship to hold up proceedings, gathering a small army of Ocean Animals to his aid.

On board the ship, the ceremony is about to begin, but before Vanessa can get a word in, the Ocean Animals attack. The animal-based  slapstick and humiliation of Vanessa causes the seashell pendant to be broken, restoring Ariel’s voice and breaking the spell on Eric, but before they can share Love’s First Kiss, the sun sets below the horizon. Tearing out of her disguise, Ursula dives overboard with Ariel, once more a mermaid, dragging her beneath the waves, and right into Triton. Triton demands his daughter’s release, but she’s legally bound to Ursula.

Back on the surface, Eric rows out from the ship; he’s lost Ariel once, and he’s not about to lose her again without a fight.

Ursula offers Triton a deal; his life for Ariel’s. Without hesitation, Triton signs the contract, giving up his Mermanity and power to Ursula, who is then attacked by Eric, wielding a harpoon. In the ensuing fight, Ursula accidentally destroys Flotsam and Jetsam, and in a rage, swells to enormous size.

Godzursula goes full Calypso, showing off her new godly powers by creating a vicious storm above, and a monstrous whirlpool below, which gathers a fleet of derelict ships to the surface. Ariel is thrown to the bottom of the whirlpool, but while Ursula gloats, Eric manages to gain control of one of the derelicts, and drives its bowsprit through her core, killing her.

With Ursula dead, all her magic is undone, and all the poor unfortunate souls in her keeping are released. A restored Triton rises to the surface, and he and Sebastian watch Ariel, watching Eric on the shoreline from afar (in a pose reminiscent of that statue in Copenhagen). Realising and understanding his daughter’s love for Eric, Triton gives the greatest gift he can. Ariel looks on in wonder and delight as her father makes her human once again, and even provides her with a dress as she walks up from the ocean, and into Eric’s arms.

Cut to the wedding, which is attended by both human and Merfolk. Triton and Ariel embrace, as Eric bows with respect and reverence to his father in law. The bridal ships sails away beneath a rainbow created by Triton, and all is right in the world.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Never enter a deal unless you know what you’re going to get out of it.

2. Love can transcend any barrier.

3. Don’t judge a person by the actions of their race or peers.

THE HEROINE

Voiced by Jodi Benson, Ariel was actually modelled on Alyssa Milano, star of TV sitcom WHO’S THE BOSS? and Schwarzenegger’s daughter in COMMANDO (1985), as well as model Sherri Stoner, who provided live-action reference, and according to Animator Glen Keane, his own wife.

Independent and kindhearted, she’s strong-willed enough to stand up to her father and to Ursula, and very protective of Flounder, who she kind of adopts as a baby brother. Her youthful innocent just radiates about her, and it’s hard not to care about her and her fascination with the human world, finding wonder in the little things we humans take for granted (like cutlery).

Despite this, she is one of the more heroic of the classic Disney princesses; while saving Flounder from danger is probably a daily thing for her, she risks her life and her being discovered to save Eric from a burning ship, even if she’s quickly overpowered by Ursula in the final fight.

Now, you could argue that she’s a little too devoted to Eric, and she does basically stalk him for a good deal of the movie, but given the circumstances it’s understandable.

I must confess to having a soft spot for Ariel; she was one of my first Disney Princesses, and I do have a thing for redheads.

THE HEROES

You may be surprised to know that the actor voicing Eric, one Christopher Daniel Barnes, was only sixteen years of age when he did THE LITTLE MERMAID. I certainly was.

In any case, Eric follows in the footsteps of SLEEPING BEAUTY’S Prince Phillip in that he actually has some relevance and involvement in the plot, rather than a walking plot device. He’s shown to be a competent sailor and a skilled helmsman. Eric’s not the kind of prince to sit around doing nothing; aside from being active in the general running of his ship, he thinks nothing of risking his life alongside the sailors to secure the ship when it’s caught in a hurricane, and climbing back aboard the flaming ship to rescue his beloved dog, Max. He’s also very much a man of the people, wandering through his kingdom with no apparent guard or security.

He also doesn’t think twice about literally diving into danger to rescue Ariel, something shared with her father, Triton. Voiced by Kenneth Mars, Triton is very much like his daughter in that they’re strong-willed and independent. He is, however, quite violently xenophobic, and to be fair, he has a point; the only real contact he or his people has with humans is when they show up in flipping great ships and try to murder the locals.

Despite this, Triton is a loving and doting father; you just know that each of his seven daughters has a place in his heart, and has him around their little finger. He has his violent and destructive outbursts, but he only has Ariel’s safety in mind, if not her happiness, and later accepts his actions as being too severe.

It’s the age-old story; if Triton had only had the foresight to sit and talk to his daughter, and put aside his deep-rooted beliefs and xenophobia, they may have found a better, less destructive way to resolve the conflict. Of course, the movie wouldn’t have been as interesting.

THE VILLAINESS

Voiced (mostly) by veteran actress Pat Carroll, Ursula is by far the best Disney Villainess since Maleficent, and very much alike in many ways. Both are powerful practitioners of dark magics who are out to settle a score. But while Maleficent does come across as a little petty – she’s pissed off for not being invited to a party – Ursula’s motives come across as a little more concrete. It goes a little deeper in the stage version, but Ursula obviously has a lot of history with Triton, and its him that she’s out to settle the score with, and Ariel is just a pawn in that campaign.

She’s also rather removed from the average Disney Villainess template (if there is such a thing) in that Ursula is, well, a rather large woman, as opposed to the svelte physiques of Maleficent or Lady Tremaine. But don’t for a minute think that that’s a detractor; she’s a formidable presence and her build only seems to enforce the perception of power.

Ursula is a schemer and a manipulator; she has a long and dark history of helping the poor, unfortunate souls who come to her, only to turn the tables at the last minute, and makes no attempt to hide her malice from Ariel. She also has a mean streak as wide as she is, which is best shown whilst disguised as Vanessa; she even kicks Max when he suspects her.

Now, it’s not often that the heroine and the villainess are voiced by the same person, but Jodi Benson excels in both parts, and one almost wishes she’d had more time to play with the character.

HER FATE: A rather grisly one, and again, much the same as Maleficent’s; having grown into a gargantuan beast, she is impaled by the hero and falls. However, her death is shown explicitly; she disappears beneath the waves and her magic is undone, but it’s only in the sequel that we learn she’s actually dead.

Does Chef Louis count as a villain? He certainly has it in for Sebastian, and is shown as being rather sadistic in his work, but then he is a chef seen from the point of view of the food, so… minor antagonist at worst.

SIDEKICKS AND HENCHMEN

Ariel is surrounded by friends who love her and would do anything to help her, albeit not without some reservations. Flounder clearly loves Ariel and gives it his all to help her in the final act, while Scuttle, for all his faults, is there when it really matters. But the “sidekick” that steals the show is Sebastian. Very much his own greatest fan, most of his actions are for himself as much as they are for Ariel, and there are times when he almost slips into the villains’ camp with his attitude towards Ariel (which is further explored in the prequel). He’s a bit pompous and very up himself, but he’s able to put that aside to help a young woman fulfill her dreams, even if it does put him in danger of being crushed, cooked and eaten.

Flotsam and Jetsam, on the other hand, are cut from very similar cloth as Roscoe and DeSoto from OLIVER & COMPANY; they’re both identical save a few defining features, and they serve their mistress without question, doing their utmost to scupper Ariel’s dream.  They also take part in the final fight, wrestling with Eric before their untimely and accidental death at Ursula’s hand. In fact, it’s their deaths that really push her over the edge and bring about her transformation.

MUSIC

OLIVER & COMPANY would in a way be instrumental in THE LITTLE MERMAID’s success; songwriter Howard Ashman (remember that name) got involved in Disney after being asked to contribute to OLIVER & COMPANY (he was the lyricist for its opening number, Once Upon a Time in New York City.) Amongst other things, it was Ashman’s idea to change Clarence, the English butler crab, into a Jamaican Rastafarian, Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian.

With this albeit minor change, the entire musical structure of the film was changed; the directors and CEO were also looking to revive the musical format, giving the film the structure of a Broadway musical with musical sequences as the tentpoles of the film. Ashman and his old mucker Alan Menken – with whom they’d worked on an Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, which would lead to the critically acclaimed Rick Moranis movie –  teamed up to compose the entire song score.
And what a score. From the opening number, we’re onto a winner, and Ashman and Menkin’s score excels with every note. Each song is a masterpiece in its own right, from the centrepieces Part of Your World and Under The Sea to Ursula/Vanessa singing to herself on board the wedding barge. The score quite rightly won an Academy Award, while Under the Sea won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

It’s also quite reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s Peter and the Wolf, in that many of the characters have their own instruments in the score; the French horn is used to symbolize King Triton, whilst the oboe is used to symbolize Prince Eric. Ursula is represented by the brass section while the flute almost always portrays Ariel’s vocals. Even Scuttle gets his own instrument; the Clarinet.

PLOT

Despite the changes brought to Hans Christian Andersen’s original story (Ariel survives, for one thing) THE LITTLE MERMAID is actually quite simple, with no real twists or big surprises, and that’s very much in its favour. It’s the characters and the score that elevate it above a simple cartoon film and into the animated masterpiece it became.

LAUGHS

Aside from the chaotic slapstick of the kitchen sequence, and the animal based humiliation of Vanessa/Ursula at the wedding, much of the humour is of the culture clash variety, from Scuttle’s muddled knowledge of human paraphernalia to Ariel’s childlike excitement as she sets foot in our world for the first time.

Like a lot of Disney films, much of the humour is at the expense of a handful of secondary characters. Here, it’s Sebastian and Scuttle; Scuttle is just an idiot, while Sebastian is one of those put-upon straight man characters, thrown headfirst into a situation he doesn’t want to be in. He also gets a lot of the best lines, mostly revolving around his own certain doom.

SCARES

THE LITTLE MERMAID is surprisingly dark at times, and I’m not just talking about Ursula. Absolutely, she is a powerful, intimidating and formidable presence, full of malice and dark vengeance, and that’s before she gets ahold of Triton’s power. But aside from that, Triton himself is a source of some trepidation. Everyone fears the disapproval of their parents, but with Ariel and Triton, that scene in her secret grotto is made all the more powerful. Triton is angry and betrayed, and even if his intentions are pure – he wants only for the safety of his children – his destructive rage hits deep.

Having said that, for me, the biggest scare comes just before the wedding; it’s the perversion of innocence, as Vanessa sings of her triumph in Ariel’s voice, tilting back the mirror to reveal Ursula’s true face.

MORAL/EDUCATIONAL VALUE

The film makes a strong effort to show the human world through the eyes of an outsider, and how something we take for granted, something as innocuous as a dinner fork, can be seen as a priceless trinket, a mysterious object d’art.

In her way, Ariel represents the wonder and excitement of childhood, and the urge to discover the new and unknown, while her father represents the structured conformity of adulthood; the responsibility of the parent and the monarch, the need for respect and obedience from their children. Ursula, and by connection Flotsam and Jetsam, represent temptation and vice, luring the innocent and preying on their dreams, offering them a chance for happiness with a bitter price to pay.

Putting aside the psychology, as Disney Princes go, Eric makes for a pretty good role model; he doesn’t let his status or his rank get in the way of his zest for life. He doesn’t shirk his responsibility – in fact he embraces new ones – standing and working side by side with the sailors of his ship, while the prim and proper Grimsby watches (and retches) from the sidelines. He’s not looking to make trouble or cause harm, he just wants to live his live by his own terms, and take his own path.

LEGACY

Almost a quarter of a decade on, and THE LITTLE MERMAID is still held as one of the best animated movies of all time, and one of the Disney company’s greatest masterpieces.

Like many films of the Renaissance era, a prequel TV series based on the film managed three seasons between 1992 and 1994, and generally focused on Ariel’s misadventures in Atlantica and the relationships with her friends and family.

The year 2000 gave us THE LITTLE MERMAID II: BACK TO THE SEA, picking up the story about 15 years or so on and is more or less a reversal of the original, as Ariel and Eric’s tweenage daughter Melody’s desire to swim in the sea gets her in hot water (so to speak) with Ursula’s sister Morgana. It’s… average.

2008 brought ARIEL’S BEGINNING, a prequel (one can tell by the title) which show’s Ariel’s first meeting with Flounder as she gets involved in an underground music club, at a time where all music is forbidden at the command of King Triton. It’s looked on as being “impressive for a straight-to-DVD release”, but not particularly memorable as far as soundtrack.

Andersen’s work would continue to be the basis for Disney films; FANTASIA 2000 had a segment (one of my personal favourites) based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier, while an intended third FANTASIA film would have featured The Little Matchgirl, which was later released as an extra on THE LITTLE MERMAID’s Platinum release.

And, lest we forget Disney’s upcoming FROZEN, based upon The Snow Queen.

A stage musical version of THE LITTLE MERMAID went on to replace BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on Broadway – they were worried that having two stage musicals based on Disney films would divide audiences and cause competition. It made a few changes to the story and integrated a few new musical numbers, and is still going strong with new productions in South America and Japan opening this year.

FINAL SCORE: 44

Sources: Disney Wikia, Disney DVD features, IMDb, Wikipedia, YouTube.