As many of you know I have spent the last week in bed with tonsillitis, after exhausting all my rentals from Love Film (please see review), I thought I'd have a Disney marathon. I watched my favourite all time film from when I was a child - The Little Mermaid.

The Little Mermaid was released in the UK in October 1990.

The run time is: 83 minutes.


The Cast
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Jodi Benson is Ariel
Pat Carroll is Ursula
Christopher Daniel Barnes is Eric
Jason Marin is Flounder
Samuel E. Wright is Sebastian
Kenneth Mars is King Triton


The Plot
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Ariel the daughter of King Triton and one of 7 siblings, has an eye for adventure, she wants to be on land and explore further than the sea, much to her father's disgust and unapproval.

Ariel has many friends 'under the sea' like Flounder, Sebastian and more, but feels she needs to be on land with Prince Eric.

She decides the only thing for it, is visiting Ursula the sea witch in order to become human, of course there are conditions and Ariel has 3 days to make Eric fall in love with her, Ursula however has bigger and better things on her mind - like taking the Kingdom from King Triton and signing his precious daughter up to a contract she will not be able to fulfil is the way she thinks she can do it.

Ariel is given legs and three days, although another stipulation was NO VOICE. So she cannot speak or sing to the Prince. When things are looking up with the help of Flounder and Sebastian, Ursula has to take matters in to her own hands to stop Ariel coming through.

What will her father say? Who will come out on top? Will Ariel get Prince Eric and everlasting happiness? (This is Disney - what do you think?)

My Thoughts
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This film is perhaps a little harder to relate to, after all Ariel is a mermaid, but I'm sure many of you as I can appreciate many of us want to move for love, work, life and this is what this film is about.

I can honestly say as much as I love Disney films this has to be my all time favourite, I don't know if it's because when it came out I was the grand old age of 5, obsessed with swimming and longed to be a mermaid or perhaps I thought the animation as great. Either way, the story is every little girl's fairytale; it is something slightly different to all those other Disney Princesses.

I think this film can be perceived as more magical than some of the other Disney films purely because of the sea/mermaid aspect. I mean anyone could be a normal Princess like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White etc but Ariel is a Princess of a magical species.

It is complete fantasy but totally believable and relatable, in a way when you know it isn't actually real - is it?

All the main characters are very good and all bring something to the film, Sebastian is the older more sensible one in the gang, Flounder the younger more excitable one, Ariel the explorer who knows no boundaries.

Ursula and her sidekicks also add humour to the film, although they are the baddy's they are quite funny in parts.
I love the singing throughout this film and know all the songs by heart still. I love Disney musicals, and it's a shame they have stopped doing musicals with original songs. I liked the most recent Disney film with music, Lilo and Stitch although obviously the music was all Elvis (not a bad thing) but I like the cheesy songs designed and sung especially in these films.

Good old Walt was on the right path - why do things have to change?

Overall I think this film suits boys and girls and is a real family film. It has messages about friendship and also opens your eyes to relationships between parents and children, and I like the fact it says doing things behind your parents isn't always a good choice. The messages are not too in your face either which is helpful, I don't like preachy films.

Rating
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Adult: 4/5
Children: 5/5