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The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
Encyclopedia
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation
and based on the Hans Christian Andersen
fairy tale
of the same name
. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film
in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and the first of the Disney Renaissance
. During its initial release, The Little Mermaid earned $84 million in North America
n box office revenue, and has to date earned $211 million in total lifetime gross.
After the success of the 1988
Disney
/Amblin
film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, The Little Mermaid is given credit for breathing life back into the art of animated feature films after a string of critical or commercial failures that dated back to the early 1980s. It also marked the start of the era known as the Disney Renaissance
.
A stage adaptation of the film
with a book by Doug Wright
and additional songs by Alan Menken
and new lyricist Glenn Slater
opened in Denver in July 2007 and began performances on Broadway
January 10, 2008.
), a sixteen-year-old mermaid
princess, is dissatisfied with life under the sea and curious about the human world. With her best fish friend Flounder (Jason Marin
), Ariel collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle (Buddy Hackett
) the seagull, who offers very inaccurate knowledge of human culture. She constantly ignores the warnings of her father, King Triton (Kenneth Mars
) and adviser, Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright
) that contact between merpeople and humans is forbidden, longing to join the human world and become a human herself.
One night, Ariel, Flounder and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean surface to watch a celebration for the birthday of Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes
) on a ship, with whom Ariel falls in love. In an ensuing storm the ship is destroyed and Ariel saves the unconscious Eric from drowning. Ariel sings to him, but quickly leaves as soon as he regains consciousness to avoid being discovered. Fascinated by the memory of her voice, Eric vows to find who saved and sung to him and Ariel vows to find a way to join him and his world. Noticing a change in Ariel's behavior, Triton questions Sebastian about her behavior and learns of her love for Eric. Triton furiously confronts Ariel in her grotto, where she and Flounder store human artifacts, and destroys the objects with his trident. After Triton leaves, a pair of eels, Flotsam and Jetsam (Paddi Edwards
), convince Ariel to visit Ursula (Pat Carroll
) the sea witch in order to be with Eric.
Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a nautilus shell. Within these three days, Ariel must receive the 'kiss of true love' from Eric; otherwise, she will transform back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula. Ariel is then given human legs and taken to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian. Eric finds Ariel on the beach and takes her to his castle, unaware that she is the one who had saved him earlier. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day, they almost kiss but are thwarted by Flotsam and Jetsam. Angered at their narrow escape, Ursula takes the disguise of a beautiful young woman named "Vanessa" and appears onshore singing with Ariel's voice. Eric recognizes the song and, in her disguise, Ursula casts a hypnotic enchantment on Eric to make him forget about Ariel.
The next day, Ariel finds out that Eric will be married to the disguised Ursula. Scuttle discovers that Vanessa is Ursula in disguise, and informs Ariel who immediately goes after the wedding barge. Sebastian informs Triton, and Scuttle disrupts the wedding with the help of various animals. In the chaos, the nautilus shell around Ursula's neck is broken, restoring Ariel's voice and breaking Ursula's enchantment over Eric. Realizing that Ariel was the girl who saved his life, Eric rushes to kiss her, but the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula reverts to her true form and kidnaps Ariel. Triton confronts Ursula and demands Ariel's release, but the deal is inviolable. At Ursula's urging, he agrees to take Ariel's place as Ursula's prisoner. Ariel is released as Triton transforms into a polyp and loses his authority over Atlantica. Ursula declares herself the new ruler and quickly grows to monstrous proportions.
Ariel and Eric reconcile on the surface just before Ursula grows past and towers the two. She then gains full control of the entire ocean, creating a storm with a maelstrom
and shipwrecks, one of which Eric commandeers. As Ursula attempts to destroy a trapped Ariel in the maelstrom, Eric turns the wheel hard to port and runs Ursula through the abdomen with the ship's splintered bowsprit
, mortally wounding her. After her death, Ursula's power breaks, causing Triton and all the other polyps in Ursula's garden to revert back into their original forms. Later, after seeing that Ariel truly loves Eric, Triton willingly changes her from a mermaid into a human. An unspecified amount of time later, Ariel and Eric have their wedding on a ship and depart.
Notable voice actors who provided additional voices include Tim Curry
, Mark Hamill
, Nancy Cartwright
and Hamilton Camp
.
's earliest feature films, a proposed package film
featuring vignettes of Hans Christian Anderson tales. Development started soon after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
in the late 1930s, but was put on hold due to various circumstances.
In 1985, The Great Mouse Detective
co-director Ron Clements discovered a collection of Andersen's fairy tales while browsing a bookstore. He presented a two-page draft of a movie based on "The Little Mermaid" to CEO Michael Eisner
and Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg
at a "gong show" idea suggestion meeting. Eisner and Katzenberg passed the project over, because at that time the studio was in development on a sequel to their live-action mermaid comedy Splash
(1984) and felt The Little Mermaid would be too similar a project. The next day, however, Walt Disney Studios chairman Katzenberg greenlit the idea for possible development, along with Oliver & Company
. While in production in the 1980s, the staff found, by chance, original story and visual development work done by Kay Nielsen
for Disney's proposed 1930s Anderson feature. Many of the changes made by the staff in the 1930s to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s.
That year, Clements and Great Mouse Detective co-director John Musker expanded the two-page idea into a 20-page rough script, eliminating the role of the mermaid's grandmother and expanding the roles of the Merman King and the sea witch. However, the film's plans were momentarily shelved as Disney focused its attention on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
and Oliver & Company as more immediate releases.
In 1987, songwriter Howard Ashman
became involved with the writing and development of Mermaid after he was asked to contribute a song to Oliver & Company. He proposed changing the minor character Clarence, the English-butler crab, to a Jamaican Rastafarian crab and shifting the music style throughout the film to reflect this. At the same time, Katzenberg, Clements, Musker, and Ashman revised the story format to make Mermaid a musical with a Broadway-style story structure, with the song sequences serving as the tentpoles of the film. Ashman and composer Alan Menken, both noted for their work as the writers of the successful Off-Broadway
stage musical Little Shop of Horrors
, teamed up to compose the entire song score. In 1988, with Oliver out of the way, Mermaid was slated as the next major Disney release.
, California
, Disney opened a satellite feature animation facility during the production of Mermaid in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
(near Orlando, Florida
), within Disney-MGM Studios
Theme Park at Walt Disney World. Opening in 1989, the Disney-MGM facility's first projects were to produce an entire Roger Rabbit cartoon short, Roller Coaster Rabbit, and to contribute ink and paint support to Mermaid.
Mermaid's supervising animators included Glen Keane
and Mark Henn
on Ariel, Duncan Marjoribanks on Sebastian, Andreas Deja
on King Triton, and Ruben Aquino on Ursula. Originally, Keane had been asked to work on Ursula, as he had established a reputation for drawing large, powerful figures, such as the bear in The Fox and the Hound
and Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective
. Keane, however, was assigned as one of the two lead artists on the petite Ariel and oversaw the "Part of Your World" musical number. He jokingly stated that his wife looks exactly like Ariel "without the fins." The character's body type and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano
, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss?
and the effect of her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride
when she was in space.
The design of the villainous Ursula the Sea Witch was based upon drag performer Divine. Pat Carroll
was not Clements and Musker's first choice to voice Ursula; the original script had been written with Bea Arthur of the Disney-owned TV series The Golden Girls
in mind. After Arthur turned the part down, actresses such as Nancy Marchand
, Nancy Wilson
, Roseanne, Charlotte Rae
, and Elaine Stritch
were considered for the part. Stritch was eventually cast as Ursula, but clashed with Howard Ashman's style of music production and was replaced by Carroll.
Another first for recent years was the filming of live actors and actresses for motion reference material for the animators, a practice used frequently for many of the Disney animated features produced under Walt Disney's supervision. Broadway actress Jodi Benson
was chosen to play Ariel, and Sherri Lynn Stoner
, a former member of Los Angeles' Groundlings improvisation comedy group, acted out Ariel's key scenes.
The underwater setting required the most special effects animation for a Disney animated feature since Fantasia
in 1940. Effects animation supervisor Mark Dindal
estimated that over a million bubbles were drawn for this film, in addition to the use of other processes such as airbrush
ing, backlighting, superimposition, and some computer animation
. The artistic manpower needed for Mermaid required Disney to farm out most of the underwater bubble effects animation in the film to Pacific Rim Productions, a China
-based firm with production facilities in Beijing
.
An attempt to use Disney's famed multiplane camera
for the first time in years for quality "depth" shots failed because the machine was reputedly in dilapidated condition. The multiplane shots were instead photographed at an outside animation camera facility.
The Little Mermaid was the last Disney feature film to use the traditional hand-painted cel method of animation. Disney's next film, The Rescuers Down Under
, used a digital method of coloring and combining scanned drawings developed for Disney by Pixar
called CAPS (Computer Animation Production System
), which would eliminate the need for cels, the multiplane camera, and many of the optical effects used for the last time in Mermaid. A CAPS prototype was used experimentally on a few scenes in Mermaid, and one shot produced using CAPS—the penultimate shot in the film, of Ariel and Eric's wedding ship sailing away under a rainbow—appears in the finished film. Computer-generated imagery
was used to create some of the wrecked ships in the final battle, a staircase behind a shot of Ariel in Eric's castle, and the carriage Eric and Ariel are riding in when she bounces it over a ravine. These objects were animated using 3D wireframe models, which were plotted
as line art to cels and painted traditionally.
into cartoons". Alan Menken
wrote the Academy Award winning score, and collaborated with Howard Ashman
on the songs.
Songs
* Note: "Vanessa's Song" is not included on any official Disney soundtrack of The Little Mermaid. It is a reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls
".
.
line of VHS
and Laserdisc
home video releases in May 1990, eight months after the release of the film. Before Mermaid, only a select number of Disney's catalog animated films had been released to home video, as the company was afraid of upsetting its profitable practice of theatrically reissuing each film every seven years. Mermaid became that year's top-selling title on home video, with over 10 million units sold (including 7 million in its first month). This success led future Disney films to be released soon after the end of their theatrical runs, rather than delayed for several years.
Following Mermaid's 1997 re-release in theaters, a new VHS version of the film was released in March 1998 as part of the Masterpiece Collection
and included a bonus music video of Jodi Benson
singing "Part of Your World" during the end credits, replacing "Under the Sea" as the end credit song. The VHS sold 13 million units and ranked as the third best-selling video of the year.
The Little Mermaid was released in a Limited Issue "bare-bones" DVD
in 1999, with a standard video transfer and no substantial features. The film was re-released on DVD
on October 3, 2006, as part of the Walt Disney Platinum Editions line of classic Walt Disney animated features. Deleted scenes and several in-depth documentaries were included, as well as an Academy Award-nominated short film intended for the shelved Fantasia 2006, The Little Match Girl
. The DVD sold 1.6 million units on its first day of release, and over 4 million units during its first week, making it the biggest animated DVD debut for October. By year's end, the DVD had sold about 7 million units and was one of the year's top ten selling DVDs. The Platinum Edition DVD was released as part of a "Little Mermaid Trilogy" boxed set on December 16, 2008. The Platinum Edition of the movie, along with its sequels, went on moratorium in January 2009. The film is set to be re-released as part of the Walt Disney Diamond Editions line.
" film.
During its original 1989 theatrical release, Mermaid earned $84,355,863 at the North American box office, falling just short of Katzenberg's expectations but earning 64% more than Oliver. The Little Mermaid was reissued on November 17, 1997, on the same day as Anastasia
, a Don Bluth
animated feature for Fox Animation Studios
. The reissue brought $27,187,616 in additional gross. The film also drew $99.8 million in box office earnings outside of the United States and Canada between both releases, resulting in a total international box office figure of $211 million.
, based on 52 reviews collected, the film has an overall approval rating of 90% based on various reviews collected since its 1989 release.
Roger Ebert
, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times
, was enthusiastic about the film and wrote that, "The Little Mermaid is a jolly and inventive animated fantasy—a movie that's so creative and so much fun it deserves comparison with the best Disney work of the past." Ebert also commented positively on the character of Ariel, stating, "... Ariel is a fully realized female character who thinks and acts independently, even rebelliously, instead of hanging around passively while the fates decide her destiny." The staff of TV Guide
wrote a positive review, praising the film's return to the traditional Disney musical as well as the film's animation. Yet they also wrote that the film is detracted by the juvenile humor and the human characters' eyes. While still giving a positive review, they stated that the film "can't compare to the real Disney classics (which appealed equally to both kids and adults)." The staff of Variety
praised the film for its cast of characters, Ursula in particular, as well as its animation
. Stating that the animation "proves lush and fluid, augmented by the use of shadow and light as elements like fire, sun and water illuminate the characters." Also praised was the musical collaboration between Howard Ashman
and Alan Menken
"whose songs frequently begin slowly but build in cleverness and intensity." Todd Gilchrist of IGN
wrote a positive review of the film, stating that the film is "an almost perfect achievement." Gilchrist also praised how the film revived interest in animation as it was released at a time when interest in animation was at a lull. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post
wrote a mixed review of the film, referring to it as a "likably unspectacular adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic." Hinson went on to write that the film is average even at its highest points. He wrote that while there is nothing wrong with the film, it would be difficult for children to identify with Ariel and that the characters seemed bland. Hinson concluded his review saying that the film is "accomplished but uninspiring, The Little Mermaid has enough to please any kid. All that's missing is the magic." Empire
gave a positive review of the film, stating that "[The Little Mermaid is] a charmer of a movie, boasting all the ingredients that make a Disney experience something to treasure yet free of all the politically correct, formulaic elements that have bogged down the more recent productions."
In April 2008 – almost 20 years after the film's initial release in 1989 – Yahoo!
users voted "The Little Mermaid" as #14 on the top 30 animated films of all time. Later, when Yahoo! updated the list in June of the same year, the film remained on the list but dropped six slots to end at #20. (Only three other traditionally animated Disney animated films- Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast
, and The Lion King
, respectively- scored above it in the poll even after the update.)
In 2011, Richard Corliss of TIME
Magazine named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".
The Little Mermaid, Disney's first animated fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty
(1959), is an important film in animation
history for many reasons. Chief among these are its re-establishment of animation as a profitable venture for The Walt Disney Company, as the company's theme parks, television productions, and live-action features had overshadowed the animated output since the 1950s. Mermaid was the second film, following Oliver and Company, produced after Disney began expanding its animated output following its successful live action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, and became Disney's first animated major box office and critical hit since The Rescuers
in 1977. Walt Disney Feature Animation was further expanded as a result of Mermaid and increasingly successful follow-ups—Beauty and the Beast
(1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King
(1994). The staff increased from 300 members in 1988 to 2,200 in 1999 spread across three studios in Burbank, California
, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
, France
. This period of Disney's animation history is sometimes referred to as the "Disney Renaissance
".
In addition, Mermaid signaled the re-establishment of the musical film format as a standard for Disney animated films. The majority of Disney's most popular animated films from the 1930s on had been musicals, though by the 1970s and 1980s the role of music had been de-emphasized in the films. 1988's Oliver and Company had served as a test of sorts to the success of the musical format before Disney committed to the Broadway-style structure of The Little Mermaid.
in 1977. The film won two of the awards, for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score
. The film also earned four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture—Comedy or Musical, and won the awards for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score.
In addition to the box office and critical success of the film itself, the Mermaid soundtrack album earned two awards at the 33rd Grammy Awards in 1991: the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
. Bolstered by the film's success and the soundtrack's Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards, was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
in September 1990 for shipments of two million copies of the soundtrack album, an unheard of feat for an animated film at the time. To date, the soundtrack has been certified six times platinum.
The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score as well as Best Song
for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's "Under the Sea
", sung by Samuel E. Wright
in a memorable scene. Another song from the film, "Kiss the Girl," was nominated but lost to "Under the Sea." The film also won two Golden Globes for Best Original Score as well Best Original Song for "Under the Sea." It was also nominated in two other categories, Best Motion Picture and another Best Original Song. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman also won a Grammy Award
in 1991 for "Under the Sea."
American Film Institute
Lists
Controversy arose regarding the artwork for the cover for the Classics VHS cassette when the film was first released on video when close examination of the artwork revealed an oddly shaped structure on the castle, closely resembling a penis
. Disney and the cover designer insist it was an accident, resulting from a late night rush job to finish the cover artwork. The questionable object does not appear on the cover of the second releasing of the movie. A second allegation is that a clergyman is seen with an erection
during a scene late in the film. The clergyman is a short man, dressed in Bishop's clothing, and a small bulge is slightly noticeable in a few of the frames that are actually later shown to be the stubby-legged man's knees, but the image is small and is very difficult to distinguish. The combined incidents led an Arkansas woman to file suit against The Walt Disney Company in 1995, though she dropped the suit two months later.
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
and based on the Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
of the same name
The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and the first of the Disney Renaissance
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to an era beginning roughly in the late 1980s and ending in the late 1990s, during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films mostly based on stories that were known to many, restoring public and critical interest in Disney.The...
. During its initial release, The Little Mermaid earned $84 million in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n box office revenue, and has to date earned $211 million in total lifetime gross.
After the success of the 1988
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
/Amblin
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, The Little Mermaid is given credit for breathing life back into the art of animated feature films after a string of critical or commercial failures that dated back to the early 1980s. It also marked the start of the era known as the Disney Renaissance
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to an era beginning roughly in the late 1980s and ending in the late 1990s, during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films mostly based on stories that were known to many, restoring public and critical interest in Disney.The...
.
A stage adaptation of the film
The Little Mermaid (musical)
The Little Mermaid is a stage musical produced by Disney Theatrical, based on the animated 1989 Disney film of the same name and the classic story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen...
with a book by Doug Wright
Doug Wright
Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
and additional songs by Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
and new lyricist Glenn Slater
Glenn Slater
Glenn Slater is an American lyricist who collabrates with Alan Menken and other musical theatre composers. He was nominated for the Tony Award, Best Original Score for The Little Mermaid and received his second Tony nomination for Sister Act.-Biography:Slater was born in Brooklyn, New York, but...
opened in Denver in July 2007 and began performances on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
January 10, 2008.
Plot
Ariel (Jodi BensonJodi Benson
Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
), a sixteen-year-old mermaid
Mermaid
A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head, arms, and torso and the tail of a fish. A male version of a mermaid is known as a "merman" and in general both males and females are known as "merfolk"...
princess, is dissatisfied with life under the sea and curious about the human world. With her best fish friend Flounder (Jason Marin
Jason Marin
Jason Marin is an American actor known mostly for his role as Flounder in The Little Mermaid.- Filmography :* 1985 - Back to the Future - Sherman Peabody* 1988 - Moving - Paperboy* 1988 - Inherit the Wind...
), Ariel collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle (Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...
) the seagull, who offers very inaccurate knowledge of human culture. She constantly ignores the warnings of her father, King Triton (Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
) and adviser, Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright is an American film and theater actor and singer who is best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid, for which he provided the main vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also voiced Kron in Disney's CGI film...
) that contact between merpeople and humans is forbidden, longing to join the human world and become a human herself.
One night, Ariel, Flounder and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean surface to watch a celebration for the birthday of Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes , also known professionally as C.D. Barnes and C.B. Barnes, is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1990s Fox television series Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and for his portrayal of Greg Brady in the films The...
) on a ship, with whom Ariel falls in love. In an ensuing storm the ship is destroyed and Ariel saves the unconscious Eric from drowning. Ariel sings to him, but quickly leaves as soon as he regains consciousness to avoid being discovered. Fascinated by the memory of her voice, Eric vows to find who saved and sung to him and Ariel vows to find a way to join him and his world. Noticing a change in Ariel's behavior, Triton questions Sebastian about her behavior and learns of her love for Eric. Triton furiously confronts Ariel in her grotto, where she and Flounder store human artifacts, and destroys the objects with his trident. After Triton leaves, a pair of eels, Flotsam and Jetsam (Paddi Edwards
Paddi Edwards
Paddi Edwards was an English-American actress. Born Paddy Edwards, she worked steadily in film...
), convince Ariel to visit Ursula (Pat Carroll
Pat Carroll (actress)
Patricia Ann “Pat” Carroll is an American actress. She performed in numerous stage productions, and portrayed the roles of "Bunny Halper" on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, Shirley Feeney's mother on ABC's Laverne and Shirley, and is the voice of the villainous Ursula in The Little Mermaid film...
) the sea witch in order to be with Eric.
Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a nautilus shell. Within these three days, Ariel must receive the 'kiss of true love' from Eric; otherwise, she will transform back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula. Ariel is then given human legs and taken to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian. Eric finds Ariel on the beach and takes her to his castle, unaware that she is the one who had saved him earlier. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day, they almost kiss but are thwarted by Flotsam and Jetsam. Angered at their narrow escape, Ursula takes the disguise of a beautiful young woman named "Vanessa" and appears onshore singing with Ariel's voice. Eric recognizes the song and, in her disguise, Ursula casts a hypnotic enchantment on Eric to make him forget about Ariel.
The next day, Ariel finds out that Eric will be married to the disguised Ursula. Scuttle discovers that Vanessa is Ursula in disguise, and informs Ariel who immediately goes after the wedding barge. Sebastian informs Triton, and Scuttle disrupts the wedding with the help of various animals. In the chaos, the nautilus shell around Ursula's neck is broken, restoring Ariel's voice and breaking Ursula's enchantment over Eric. Realizing that Ariel was the girl who saved his life, Eric rushes to kiss her, but the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula reverts to her true form and kidnaps Ariel. Triton confronts Ursula and demands Ariel's release, but the deal is inviolable. At Ursula's urging, he agrees to take Ariel's place as Ursula's prisoner. Ariel is released as Triton transforms into a polyp and loses his authority over Atlantica. Ursula declares herself the new ruler and quickly grows to monstrous proportions.
Ariel and Eric reconcile on the surface just before Ursula grows past and towers the two. She then gains full control of the entire ocean, creating a storm with a maelstrom
Maelstrom
A maelstrom is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft. The power of tidal whirlpools tends to be exaggerated by laymen. There are virtually no stories of large ships ever being sucked into a maelstrom, although smaller craft are in...
and shipwrecks, one of which Eric commandeers. As Ursula attempts to destroy a trapped Ariel in the maelstrom, Eric turns the wheel hard to port and runs Ursula through the abdomen with the ship's splintered bowsprit
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...
, mortally wounding her. After her death, Ursula's power breaks, causing Triton and all the other polyps in Ursula's garden to revert back into their original forms. Later, after seeing that Ariel truly loves Eric, Triton willingly changes her from a mermaid into a human. An unspecified amount of time later, Ariel and Eric have their wedding on a ship and depart.
Cast
- Princess Ariel, voiced by Jodi BensonJodi BensonJodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
:
- Benson, who was predominantly a stage actress when she was cast, was the choice to voice Ariel because the directors felt "it was really important to have the same person doing the singing and speaking voice". Co-director Ron ClementsRon ClementsRonald Francis "Ron" Clements is an American animation director and producer. He is one half of America's leading contemporary animation team with John Musker.-Life and career:...
stated that Benson's voice had "sweetness" and "youthfulness" that was unique.- Prince Eric, voiced by Christopher Daniel BarnesChristopher Daniel BarnesChristopher Daniel Barnes , also known professionally as C.D. Barnes and C.B. Barnes, is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1990s Fox television series Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and for his portrayal of Greg Brady in the films The...
- Ursula, voiced by Pat CarrollPat Carroll (actress)Patricia Ann “Pat” Carroll is an American actress. She performed in numerous stage productions, and portrayed the roles of "Bunny Halper" on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, Shirley Feeney's mother on ABC's Laverne and Shirley, and is the voice of the villainous Ursula in The Little Mermaid film...
- Sebastian, voiced by Samuel E. WrightSamuel E. WrightSamuel E. Wright is an American film and theater actor and singer who is best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid, for which he provided the main vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also voiced Kron in Disney's CGI film...
- Flounder, voiced by Jason MarinJason MarinJason Marin is an American actor known mostly for his role as Flounder in The Little Mermaid.- Filmography :* 1985 - Back to the Future - Sherman Peabody* 1988 - Moving - Paperboy* 1988 - Inherit the Wind...
- King Triton, voiced by Kenneth MarsKenneth MarsKenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
- Scuttle, voiced by Buddy HackettBuddy HackettBuddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...
- Grimsby, voiced by Ben WrightBen Wright (actor)Ben Wright was an English actor in radio, film and television. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Radio:...
- Flotsam and Jetsam, voiced by Paddi EdwardsPaddi EdwardsPaddi Edwards was an English-American actress. Born Paddy Edwards, she worked steadily in film...
- Carlotta the maid, voiced by Edie McClurgEdie McClurgEdie McClurg is an American character actress. She is known for her perky North Central dialect , common to persons from Middle America.-Career:...
- Ariel's Sisters, voiced by Kimmy RobertsonKimmy RobertsonKimmy Robertson is an American actress best known for her role as Lucy Moran in the TV series Twin Peaks. She was married to John Christian Walker from January 18, 2003 to September 27, 2004....
and Caroline VasicekCaroline VasicekCaroline Vasicek is an Austrian actress and musical actress.She has her training in dance, drama and musicals in Vienna completed. With ten years she was the first time on the boards, which mean the world and received twelve years with her first lead role... - Harold the Seahorse, voiced by Will RyanWill RyanWill Ryan is an American voice actor and producer–writer–composer, well-known for singing about the American West. In the late seventies he teamed up with Phil Baron as Willio and Phillio. They had regular gigs on television, radio and comedy clubs and universities throughout the US...
- Max the Sheepdog, vocal effects by Frank WelkerFrank WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
- Chef Louis, voiced by top-billed Rene AuberjonoisRene AuberjonoisRené Murat Auberjonois is an American actor, known for portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson , Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Chef Louis in The Little...
- Prince Eric, voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes
Notable voice actors who provided additional voices include Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
, Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
, Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Campbell Cartwright is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. She is best known for her long-running role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons...
and Hamilton Camp
Hamilton Camp
Hamilton Camp was an English-American singer, songwriter, actor and voice actor.-Early life:Camp was born in London, England, and was evacuated during World War II to the United States as a child with his mother and sister. He became a child actor in films and onstage...
.
Story development
The Little Mermaid was originally planned as part of one of Walt DisneyWalt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's earliest feature films, a proposed package film
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
featuring vignettes of Hans Christian Anderson tales. Development started soon after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
in the late 1930s, but was put on hold due to various circumstances.
In 1985, The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...
co-director Ron Clements discovered a collection of Andersen's fairy tales while browsing a bookstore. He presented a two-page draft of a movie based on "The Little Mermaid" to CEO Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
and Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
at a "gong show" idea suggestion meeting. Eisner and Katzenberg passed the project over, because at that time the studio was in development on a sequel to their live-action mermaid comedy Splash
Splash (film)
Splash is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge...
(1984) and felt The Little Mermaid would be too similar a project. The next day, however, Walt Disney Studios chairman Katzenberg greenlit the idea for possible development, along with Oliver & Company
Oliver & Company
Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated film in which a homeless kitten named Oliver joins a gang of dogs to survive on the 1980s New York City streets. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and became the twenty-seventh animated feature released in the Walt Disney Animated...
. While in production in the 1980s, the staff found, by chance, original story and visual development work done by Kay Nielsen
Kay Nielsen
Kay Rasmus Nielsen was a Danish illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century, the "golden age of illustration" which lasted from when Daniel Vierge and other pioneers developed printing technology to the point that drawings and paintings could be reproduced with reasonable facility...
for Disney's proposed 1930s Anderson feature. Many of the changes made by the staff in the 1930s to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s.
That year, Clements and Great Mouse Detective co-director John Musker expanded the two-page idea into a 20-page rough script, eliminating the role of the mermaid's grandmother and expanding the roles of the Merman King and the sea witch. However, the film's plans were momentarily shelved as Disney focused its attention on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
and Oliver & Company as more immediate releases.
In 1987, songwriter Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
became involved with the writing and development of Mermaid after he was asked to contribute a song to Oliver & Company. He proposed changing the minor character Clarence, the English-butler crab, to a Jamaican Rastafarian crab and shifting the music style throughout the film to reflect this. At the same time, Katzenberg, Clements, Musker, and Ashman revised the story format to make Mermaid a musical with a Broadway-style story structure, with the song sequences serving as the tentpoles of the film. Ashman and composer Alan Menken, both noted for their work as the writers of the successful Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
stage musical Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...
, teamed up to compose the entire song score. In 1988, with Oliver out of the way, Mermaid was slated as the next major Disney release.
Animation
More money and resources were dedicated to Mermaid than any other Disney animated film in decades. Aside from its main animation facility in GlendaleGlendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Disney opened a satellite feature animation facility during the production of Mermaid in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Lake Buena Vista is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is mostly known for being home to the Walt Disney World Resort. It is one of two Florida municipalities controlled by The Walt Disney Company, the other being Bay Lake....
(near Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
), within Disney-MGM Studios
Disney-MGM Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
Theme Park at Walt Disney World. Opening in 1989, the Disney-MGM facility's first projects were to produce an entire Roger Rabbit cartoon short, Roller Coaster Rabbit, and to contribute ink and paint support to Mermaid.
Mermaid's supervising animators included Glen Keane
Glen Keane
Glen Keane is an American animator, author, illustrator and director. Keane is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled...
and Mark Henn
Mark Henn
Mark Henn is a Disney animator, whose contributions to animation have included several Disney leading or title characters, most notably heroines. He studied in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts in the seventies. His work includes Princess Jasmine in Aladdin,...
on Ariel, Duncan Marjoribanks on Sebastian, Andreas Deja
Andreas Deja
Andreas Deja is as an animator most noted for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Deja's creations include the Disney villains Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Jafar from Aladdin and Scar from The Lion King. He is a recipient of the 2006 Winsor McCay Award.-Early life:Andreas Deja was born...
on King Triton, and Ruben Aquino on Ursula. Originally, Keane had been asked to work on Ursula, as he had established a reputation for drawing large, powerful figures, such as the bear in The Fox and the Hound
The Fox and the Hound (film)
The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 animated feature loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in the United States on July 10, 1981...
and Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...
. Keane, however, was assigned as one of the two lead artists on the petite Ariel and oversaw the "Part of Your World" musical number. He jokingly stated that his wife looks exactly like Ariel "without the fins." The character's body type and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano
Alyssa Milano
Alyssa Jayne Milano is an American actress and former singer, known for her childhood role as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss? and an eight-year stint as Phoebe Halliwell on the series Charmed. She was also a series regular on the original Melrose Place portraying the role of...
, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
and the effect of her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride
Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ride is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman—and then-youngest American, at 32—to enter space...
when she was in space.
The design of the villainous Ursula the Sea Witch was based upon drag performer Divine. Pat Carroll
Pat Carroll (actress)
Patricia Ann “Pat” Carroll is an American actress. She performed in numerous stage productions, and portrayed the roles of "Bunny Halper" on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, Shirley Feeney's mother on ABC's Laverne and Shirley, and is the voice of the villainous Ursula in The Little Mermaid film...
was not Clements and Musker's first choice to voice Ursula; the original script had been written with Bea Arthur of the Disney-owned TV series The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
in mind. After Arthur turned the part down, actresses such as Nancy Marchand
Nancy Marchand
Nancy Marchand was an American actress, whose career encompassed both stage and screen. She appeared in various theatre productions throughout the early 1950s, before being offered roles on film and television....
, Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson may refer to:* Nancy Wilson , American jazz singer and actress* Nancy Wilson , American singer and guitar player, member of the band Heart...
, Roseanne, Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
, and Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
were considered for the part. Stritch was eventually cast as Ursula, but clashed with Howard Ashman's style of music production and was replaced by Carroll.
Another first for recent years was the filming of live actors and actresses for motion reference material for the animators, a practice used frequently for many of the Disney animated features produced under Walt Disney's supervision. Broadway actress Jodi Benson
Jodi Benson
Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
was chosen to play Ariel, and Sherri Lynn Stoner
Sherri Stoner
Sherri Stoner is an American actress and writer. She was born July 16, 1965, in Santa Monica, California.She has worked extensively in animation. She was a writer and producer for such 1990s animated shows as Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. She is probably best known for Animaniacs, for which...
, a former member of Los Angeles' Groundlings improvisation comedy group, acted out Ariel's key scenes.
The underwater setting required the most special effects animation for a Disney animated feature since Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
in 1940. Effects animation supervisor Mark Dindal
Mark Dindal
Mark L. Dindal is an American effects animator and director, who created The Emperor's New Groove as well as Cats Don't Dance...
estimated that over a million bubbles were drawn for this film, in addition to the use of other processes such as airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
ing, backlighting, superimposition, and some computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
. The artistic manpower needed for Mermaid required Disney to farm out most of the underwater bubble effects animation in the film to Pacific Rim Productions, a China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
-based firm with production facilities in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
An attempt to use Disney's famed multiplane camera
Multiplane camera
The multiplane camera is a special motion picture camera used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another...
for the first time in years for quality "depth" shots failed because the machine was reputedly in dilapidated condition. The multiplane shots were instead photographed at an outside animation camera facility.
The Little Mermaid was the last Disney feature film to use the traditional hand-painted cel method of animation. Disney's next film, The Rescuers Down Under
The Rescuers Down Under
The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on November 16, 1990...
, used a digital method of coloring and combining scanned drawings developed for Disney by Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
called CAPS (Computer Animation Production System
Computer Animation Production System
The Computer Animation Production System is a proprietary collection of software programs, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company together with Pixar in the late-1980s...
), which would eliminate the need for cels, the multiplane camera, and many of the optical effects used for the last time in Mermaid. A CAPS prototype was used experimentally on a few scenes in Mermaid, and one shot produced using CAPS—the penultimate shot in the film, of Ariel and Eric's wedding ship sailing away under a rainbow—appears in the finished film. Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
was used to create some of the wrecked ships in the final battle, a staircase behind a shot of Ariel in Eric's castle, and the carriage Eric and Ariel are riding in when she bounces it over a ravine. These objects were animated using 3D wireframe models, which were plotted
Plotter
A plotter is a computer printing device for printing vector graphics. In the past, plotters were widely used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they have generally been replaced with wide-format conventional printers...
as line art to cels and painted traditionally.
Music
The Little Mermaid was considered by some as "the film that brought BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
into cartoons". Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
wrote the Academy Award winning score, and collaborated with Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
on the songs.
Songs
- "Fathoms Below" – Sailors
- "Daughters of Triton" – Triton's Daughters
- "Part of Your WorldPart of Your World"Part of Your World" is a song written and composed by the songwriting duo of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It was originally featured in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid, and is also featured in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film...
" – Ariel - "Part of Your World (Reprise)" – Ariel
- "Under the SeaUnder the Sea-Parodies:In 1991, this song was parodied by musician Tom Smith with his song, "On The PC". This song was re-written in 1999 as "PC99".The song was parodied on the TV show Kappa Mikey where Mikey tries to convince a squid to live on land with him....
" – Sebastian and Sea Creatures - "Poor Unfortunate SoulsPoor Unfortunate SoulsThe Jonas Brothers covered "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for the Little Mermaid two-disk special special edition of the soundtrack, released on October 3, 2006 to correspond with the two-disk The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD...
" – Ursula - "Les Poissons" – Chef Louis
- "Kiss the GirlKiss The Girl"Kiss the Girl" is a calypso song from Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman. In the film, the song was performed by Samuel E. Wright...
" – Sebastian and Chorus - "Vanessa's Song" – Vanessa/Ursula*
- "Part of Your World (Finale)" – Chorus
Poor Unfortunate Souls
The Jonas Brothers covered "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for the Little Mermaid two-disk special special edition of the soundtrack, released on October 3, 2006 to correspond with the two-disk The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD...
".
Release
The film was originally released on November 14, 1989, followed by a November 17, 1997 reissue. After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King, Disney announced a 3D re-release of The Little Mermaid scheduled for September 13, 2013. The film was also screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival1990 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Bernardo Bertolucci *Alexei Guerman *Anjelica Huston *Bertrand Blier *Christopher Hampton*Fanny Ardant *Françoise Giroud *Hayao Shibata *Mira Nair *Sven Nykvist...
.
Home media
In a then atypical and controversial move for a new Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid was released as part of the Walt Disney ClassicsWalt Disney Classics
Walt Disney Classics was a brand name used by Walt Disney Home Video on their American, Japanese, European and Australian home video releases of Disney animated features. The first title arrived in stores on December 6, 1984...
line of VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
home video releases in May 1990, eight months after the release of the film. Before Mermaid, only a select number of Disney's catalog animated films had been released to home video, as the company was afraid of upsetting its profitable practice of theatrically reissuing each film every seven years. Mermaid became that year's top-selling title on home video, with over 10 million units sold (including 7 million in its first month). This success led future Disney films to be released soon after the end of their theatrical runs, rather than delayed for several years.
Following Mermaid's 1997 re-release in theaters, a new VHS version of the film was released in March 1998 as part of the Masterpiece Collection
Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
The Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection was a line of VHS videos and Laserdiscs released by Walt Disney Home Video from 1994 to 1999. The Spanish counterparts began selling in 1995. Limited issue DVDs also have the same cover art....
and included a bonus music video of Jodi Benson
Jodi Benson
Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
singing "Part of Your World" during the end credits, replacing "Under the Sea" as the end credit song. The VHS sold 13 million units and ranked as the third best-selling video of the year.
The Little Mermaid was released in a Limited Issue "bare-bones" DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 1999, with a standard video transfer and no substantial features. The film was re-released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on October 3, 2006, as part of the Walt Disney Platinum Editions line of classic Walt Disney animated features. Deleted scenes and several in-depth documentaries were included, as well as an Academy Award-nominated short film intended for the shelved Fantasia 2006, The Little Match Girl
The Little Match Girl
The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a dying child's dreams and hope, and was first published in 1845. It has been adapted to various media including animated film, and a television musical.-Plot summary:On a cold New Year’s...
. The DVD sold 1.6 million units on its first day of release, and over 4 million units during its first week, making it the biggest animated DVD debut for October. By year's end, the DVD had sold about 7 million units and was one of the year's top ten selling DVDs. The Platinum Edition DVD was released as part of a "Little Mermaid Trilogy" boxed set on December 16, 2008. The Platinum Edition of the movie, along with its sequels, went on moratorium in January 2009. The film is set to be re-released as part of the Walt Disney Diamond Editions line.
Box office
Early in the production of The Little Mermaid, Jeffrey Katzenberg cautioned Ron Clements, John Musker, and their staff, reminding them that since Mermaid was a "girl's film", it would make less money at the box office than Oliver & Company, which had been Disney's biggest animated box office success in a decade. However, by the time the fim was closer to completion, Katzenberg was convinced Mermaid would be a hit and the first animated feature to earn more than $100 million and become a "blockbusterBlockbuster (entertainment)
Blockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry...
" film.
During its original 1989 theatrical release, Mermaid earned $84,355,863 at the North American box office, falling just short of Katzenberg's expectations but earning 64% more than Oliver. The Little Mermaid was reissued on November 17, 1997, on the same day as Anastasia
Anastasia (1997 film)
Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios....
, a Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
animated feature for Fox Animation Studios
Fox Animation Studios
Fox Animation Studios is an American animation production company located in Phoenix, Arizona and is a division of 20th Century Fox. After the bankruptcy of Sullivan Bluth Studios in Ireland in 1994, animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman returned to the United States and were hired by 20th Century...
. The reissue brought $27,187,616 in additional gross. The film also drew $99.8 million in box office earnings outside of the United States and Canada between both releases, resulting in a total international box office figure of $211 million.
Critical reception
The Little Mermaid received positive reviews and on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 52 reviews collected, the film has an overall approval rating of 90% based on various reviews collected since its 1989 release.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, was enthusiastic about the film and wrote that, "The Little Mermaid is a jolly and inventive animated fantasy—a movie that's so creative and so much fun it deserves comparison with the best Disney work of the past." Ebert also commented positively on the character of Ariel, stating, "... Ariel is a fully realized female character who thinks and acts independently, even rebelliously, instead of hanging around passively while the fates decide her destiny." The staff of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
wrote a positive review, praising the film's return to the traditional Disney musical as well as the film's animation. Yet they also wrote that the film is detracted by the juvenile humor and the human characters' eyes. While still giving a positive review, they stated that the film "can't compare to the real Disney classics (which appealed equally to both kids and adults)." The staff of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the film for its cast of characters, Ursula in particular, as well as its animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. Stating that the animation "proves lush and fluid, augmented by the use of shadow and light as elements like fire, sun and water illuminate the characters." Also praised was the musical collaboration between Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
and Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
"whose songs frequently begin slowly but build in cleverness and intensity." Todd Gilchrist of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
wrote a positive review of the film, stating that the film is "an almost perfect achievement." Gilchrist also praised how the film revived interest in animation as it was released at a time when interest in animation was at a lull. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
wrote a mixed review of the film, referring to it as a "likably unspectacular adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic." Hinson went on to write that the film is average even at its highest points. He wrote that while there is nothing wrong with the film, it would be difficult for children to identify with Ariel and that the characters seemed bland. Hinson concluded his review saying that the film is "accomplished but uninspiring, The Little Mermaid has enough to please any kid. All that's missing is the magic." Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
gave a positive review of the film, stating that "[The Little Mermaid is] a charmer of a movie, boasting all the ingredients that make a Disney experience something to treasure yet free of all the politically correct, formulaic elements that have bogged down the more recent productions."
In April 2008 – almost 20 years after the film's initial release in 1989 – Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
users voted "The Little Mermaid" as #14 on the top 30 animated films of all time. Later, when Yahoo! updated the list in June of the same year, the film remained on the list but dropped six slots to end at #20. (Only three other traditionally animated Disney animated films- Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
, and The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
, respectively- scored above it in the poll even after the update.)
In 2011, Richard Corliss of TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
Magazine named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".
The Little Mermaid, Disney's first animated fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
(1959), is an important film in animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
history for many reasons. Chief among these are its re-establishment of animation as a profitable venture for The Walt Disney Company, as the company's theme parks, television productions, and live-action features had overshadowed the animated output since the 1950s. Mermaid was the second film, following Oliver and Company, produced after Disney began expanding its animated output following its successful live action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, and became Disney's first animated major box office and critical hit since The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
in 1977. Walt Disney Feature Animation was further expanded as a result of Mermaid and increasingly successful follow-ups—Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
(1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
(1994). The staff increased from 300 members in 1988 to 2,200 in 1999 spread across three studios in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is the third most populous suburb of Paris...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. This period of Disney's animation history is sometimes referred to as the "Disney Renaissance
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to an era beginning roughly in the late 1980s and ending in the late 1990s, during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films mostly based on stories that were known to many, restoring public and critical interest in Disney.The...
".
In addition, Mermaid signaled the re-establishment of the musical film format as a standard for Disney animated films. The majority of Disney's most popular animated films from the 1930s on had been musicals, though by the 1970s and 1980s the role of music had been de-emphasized in the films. 1988's Oliver and Company had served as a test of sorts to the success of the musical format before Disney committed to the Broadway-style structure of The Little Mermaid.
Accolades
In January 1990, The Little Mermaid earned three Academy Award nominations, making it the first Disney animated film to earn an Academy Award nomination since The RescuersThe Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
in 1977. The film won two of the awards, for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
. The film also earned four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture—Comedy or Musical, and won the awards for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score.
In addition to the box office and critical success of the film itself, the Mermaid soundtrack album earned two awards at the 33rd Grammy Awards in 1991: the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
The Grammy Award for Best Album for Children has been awarded since 1959. Prior to 1992, the award was known as Best Recording for Children and was therefore open to any audio recording, whether it was an album, a single song, a recording of a book, or the audio from a television show or movie...
and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media has been awarded since 1960. Until 2001 the award was presented to the composer of the music alone. From 2001 to 2006, the producer and engineers shared in this award...
. Bolstered by the film's success and the soundtrack's Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards, was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in September 1990 for shipments of two million copies of the soundtrack album, an unheard of feat for an animated film at the time. To date, the soundtrack has been certified six times platinum.
The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score as well as Best Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's "Under the Sea
Under the Sea
-Parodies:In 1991, this song was parodied by musician Tom Smith with his song, "On The PC". This song was re-written in 1999 as "PC99".The song was parodied on the TV show Kappa Mikey where Mikey tries to convince a squid to live on land with him....
", sung by Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright is an American film and theater actor and singer who is best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid, for which he provided the main vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also voiced Kron in Disney's CGI film...
in a memorable scene. Another song from the film, "Kiss the Girl," was nominated but lost to "Under the Sea." The film also won two Golden Globes for Best Original Score as well Best Original Song for "Under the Sea." It was also nominated in two other categories, Best Motion Picture and another Best Original Song. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman also won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in 1991 for "Under the Sea."
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions—Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Ursula—Nominated Villain
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- Under the Sea—Nominated
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals—Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
—Nominated Animated Film
Controversy
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
. Disney and the cover designer insist it was an accident, resulting from a late night rush job to finish the cover artwork. The questionable object does not appear on the cover of the second releasing of the movie. A second allegation is that a clergyman is seen with an erection
Erection
Penile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...
during a scene late in the film. The clergyman is a short man, dressed in Bishop's clothing, and a small bulge is slightly noticeable in a few of the frames that are actually later shown to be the stubby-legged man's knees, but the image is small and is very difficult to distinguish. The combined incidents led an Arkansas woman to file suit against The Walt Disney Company in 1995, though she dropped the suit two months later.
External links
- The Little Mermaid—Official The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD site