"The Little Mermaid" Watch-over Glow Up

Where my daughter and I dissect a very problematic Disney narrative

For our Saturday night entertainment, Aya and I decided to converse and ultimately execute a well-orchestrated cultural analysis of a Disney classic, The Little Mermaid, playing on Disney+. When the film was released in 1989, I was a little older than Aya but close to her age, so it seems only fitting we both tackle this one together.

Warning: My nostalgia for this film lies with the musical score. The tale I didn’t find troubling as a kid and only find it more troubling looking back now, as a mom with a daughter. I am still loving the music this many year’s later, but the themes and words in the film, as Aya pointed out are pretty disturbing when it comes to topics of the male gaze and internalized misogyny. This many years later, I come back to, “If only Ariel had one decent adult mer-mentor. She just needed someone to trust!”

Beth:

Ariel is a 16-year-old precocious, curious child who dreams of having feet and fantasizes about the world outside the ocean. Can we blame her? Did you see her sisters? Her only friend is a flounder fish who sounds like he’s a 10-year-old boy. Like she’s majorly lacking female role models and friends her age. This is Disney, so of course, one of her parents is dead but in this movie it feels more predatory. Her relationship with her dad is dysfunctional and fractured. And her dad yells at her without any desire to actually hear her out. And don’t get me started on Sebastian’s desire to ‘control her’ and reign her in.

From Aya:

I agree, like dude get a life. And don’t get me started on Eric and Ariel’s relationship. Eric is 18 years old, Not such an age difference but when Ariel first see’s Eric she’s like “AWOOOGA!” If they immediately got together she would automatically become Princess. And that’s a lot of pressure considering she’s only really ever talked to sea creatures and seagulls.

Beth:

But remember, Ariel is a princess in her own right without Eric because her dad is a King of the seas. So she doesn’t need him!

Aya:

Yes but, Remember earlier I said, She really just knows sea creatures. And if they did get married right away, Ariel would wanna escape that life too because all she wanted to do was explore and not having the royal life. And also can we talk about how Huma-phobic King Triton is?

Beth:

He’s incredibly huma-phobic Aya. And he hides behind his fear of “other” in this case humans by wielding his trident and screaming rage at his daughter, normalizing anger. You said something really profound that I want to call out with an exclamation point. You said “if they did get married right away, she’d want to escape that life too” and that’s spot on. Ariel is a child, without a nurturing parent, no one to trust, and she craves an out because her life under the sea is so depressing and oppressive. She wants adventure and change and she sees Eric, a human as her way out. He’s a stud so she’s like, “Ok that looks good,” but in fact she will keep on making the same mistakes because she hasn’t really confronted all this sea trauma.

The whole “Poor Unfortunate Souls” number where Ursula entraps Ariel taking away her voice in exchange for legs. Did you know that the author of the original Little Mermaid tale, Hans Christian Andersen was in love with the famous opera singer, Jenny Lind and she rejected him not long before he wrote this story. How coincidental and messed up is that? It’s like this story was him enacting his revenge on her. Not to mention any other pretty women with good voices.

Also, how can Eric love Ariel when he never even has a conversation with her? Ok, now I remember that this bugged me when I first watched it. Actually the part that bugged me then is what bugs me now too. It’s that Eric’s obsessing still over the “her” he met in the sea who saved him and sang to him while this new Ariel is with him. It’s like, that moment was so big for Ariel that she spent the weeks after, legit pining for Eric which then culminated in her exercising really poor judgement (an effect of the fact that she had no experienced adult she could talk to or confide in) and made a really bad deal with the devil sea witch, giving up her voice just for this dull prince. And yet he can’t even recognize she’s the same person?? He has one job. One job. And yet he’s so easily deceived he almost marries Ursula…” But let’s be honest, as a sea princess, no one really listens to Ariel, so when you think about it, it’s sadly not as a big a loss as you’d think…Because Ariel’s value and worth in her sea world comes down to looking good and singing beautifully - songs without actual words. Which is pretty much the same in the human world.

Aya: I agree. The next part I want to talk about is when Eric first see’s Ariel, And they almost kiss! Then a few minutes later when they’re about to eat he look’s at her in awe. Now there’s nothing wrong with looking good but the fact that she feels’s like she needs him to tell her she looks good is the bad part. And during the meal they cook Seafood, Like how messed up is that!?!?!?!

Beth: Ok, that is messed up. She could be eating her friends! Yeah the waterbed too. Ariel’s giving away so much of who she is, just for Eric. Only to be out-smarted by that evil, shrewd sea witch!?

The contract is legal, binding, and completely unbreakable? Yeah, find that hard to believe. Ariel is a minor. It’s gold though, so ya know, it has to be true.

Ok, Ursula’s death scene is horrifying. Did we have to see her inflated body light up the sky by way of electrifying shocks?

Did you know the average age for a princess to be married in the 1500s was about 15 or 16 so ya know, we just have to assume this film takes place in that time period I guess.

Classic Disney ending: Down with the witch, male saves the day, woman/girl bride forgives men and all live happily ever after. The human world is a mess, but aren’t we all better off for it? How dare Ariel try and fix it with her fork.

Now what should be the ending?

Audience decide away