At the risk of sounding completely creepy discussing a Disney princess movie that’s older than I am, this has really bothered me for the past couple of years: What exactly is the moral of “The Little Mermaid”?
I was born in the very beginning of the Disney Renaissance, and I grew up watching and rewatching and watching again classics such as “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and later installment “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Hell, even “Beauty and the Beast” is pretty awesome since its male protagonist is a werewolf, and Detective Lenny Briscow from beloved crime drama “Law and Order” sings the best musical number as a CANDLE (RIP Jerry Orbach). But I’m sorry, everything about “The Little Mermaid” makes no sense to me, for several reasons:
1) Ariel is the whiniest protagonist Disney has ever created. She’s the daughter of THE KING OF THE SEA, how much more spoiled can you get? And if I’m not mistaken, she’s also the youngest, which automatically entitled her to be doted on the most. Rough life there, Ariel. Even worse, she goes from being royalty in the ocean to royalty on land. Rough, rough life. ”No Dad, family values mean absolutely nothing to me, I’m sixteen years old and that clearly entitles me to make a mature decision like abandoning my family who have provided me with a home for all my life to marry a man I’ve known for a couple of days. Also, I made deals with shady octopi witches: clearly a better decision than listening to you Dad, who’s THE KING OF THE SEA.” Wait, what? Ariel spends the entire first half of the movie complaining that her dad doesn’t understand her dilemma. Congratulations, you’re the FIRST teenage girl who’s had that problem. She whines and whines and whines, shuts up when they take her voice away (THANK GOD!), then whines some more until her father comes and saves her ungracious ass from her own mistake. Which leads to:
2) She’s not even good enough of a heroine to finish off the villain herself. That’s right, she has her new boyfriend who, let’s remember, she’s never actually talked to before, do it for her. So let’s recap: she wants to leave her family for her own selfish teenage reasons, she disobeys her father, runs away to cry about it, makes a deal with a clearly evil antagonist, gets royally screwed out of aforementioned deal, has her dad that she abandoned bail her out, and has her boyfriend kill the villain… we’re supposed to LIKE this girl??????
3) For the whole movie Triton is a tough-love kinda dad. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially considering Ariel’s naive and rebellious personality. Sure, he’s a little close-minded, but his disdain for humans isn’t completely arbitrary. Think about it, if you lived in the sea and saw these people throw nets into your house and swoop up the neighbors, you probably wouldn’t be too welcoming of them either. Circle of Life or whatever, this doesn’t mean Triton should LIKE them. He’s the most rational and sane person in the entire movie, but in the end he TOTALLY BITCHES OUT. Real tough-guy dads would’ve stuck to their guns, maybe even made a deal like Hades did: “Alright Eric, you get Ariel for summer and winter, I get her for Fall and Spring…” He admits he’s wrong, although it can be argued that he’s really not wrong at all— he’s a father trying to protect his daughter.
4) The sidekicks are extremely lackluster, especially in comparison to the other Disney Renaissance sidekicks. Abu was sarcastic and street-smart, and couldn’t even talk, Timon and Pumbaa were extremely fun but still independent in their own right, the servants in the Beast’s Castle kick ass at the end, and even Pegasus in Hercules plays a big role in the hero’s adventures. Flounder and Sebastian seem to be just there because they have to be, and spend the entirety of the film chasing after Ariel and making sure she doesn’t get killed.
5) Probably the worst offense of all is the difference from Hans Christian Anderson’s original story. Anderson’s text was surprisingly religious (a taboo topic Disney obviously couldn’t touch on) piece that actually had a decent ending. The mermaid (unnamed in this version) strives not just to be human, but to have a soul. In the end, when she does not marry the prince, she throws herself into the sea only to discover that she is granted a spirit because of her spirituality. Wow, not a clueless protagonist after all. Anderson’s mermaid seems to be a little more insightful and smart, along with having decent morals. Disney’s? Not so much. The writers must have thought, “Well, we can’t bring religion into this, so we’ll just have the annoying girl win in the end. People won’t mind/notice, so it’s not a big deal, right?”
And people don’t really notice. Most people I’ve brought this concern up to merely shrug and say, “It’s just a cute princess movie.” But when you think about, it’s quite terrifying: if little girls are watching this film, what are they learning from it?
1) It’s ok to disobey your parents, because they’ll admit they’re wrong anyway.
2) Family doesn’t matter, love does. Especially during your teenage years.
3) If you don’t talk in a relationship, men will love you that much more.
4) If you have everything in life, even if you’re born into royalty, it doesn’t matter. Your own personal interests trump all of that, so only giving thanks to your family when they act in your best interest is perfectly acceptable.
Sure, it may seem a little unfair to come down hard on this movie, but all the other Disney Renaissance movies had a blatant message they wanted to send:
The Rescuers Down Under: Don’t mess with the animal kingdom. That poacher had it coming.
Beauty and the Beast: Don’t be superficial, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Aladdin: Be yourself.
Lion King: Coming to terms with your identity is tough / the past should teach us, not haunt us.
Pocahontas: Americans are evil because they took away the New World from Native Americans.
Hunchback of Notre Dame: Accept outsiders as your own, we’re all different but we’re all still human beings.
Hercules: Being a hero has nothing to do with brute strength.
Mulan: Honor.
Tarzan: Same as Hunchback.
And what have you contributed exactly, Mermaid?
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