The Little Mermaid (1989)

 “Hm. Teenagers. They think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you. ” – Sebastion

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (Theater in ’89, cable, video, DVD and 8 Apr 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A teenage mermaid longs to live life away from her home and is willing to do anything to get there.

My Take on it – The 80’s was a black hole for Disney animation and things were not looking good for the future of the studio and its animated movies until two men came around and changed everything; Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin.  They thought of the idea of doing the traditional Disney animated movie but to turn it into a musical where the characters would sing the main songs and give the movie a more joyful feeling.

The result was a wonderfully entertaining beginning to the resurrection of the studio and a slew of Oscars for musical scores and songs.

The story is a simple one about a rebellious teenager who thinks that only her life is difficult and if she were to live on land parents wouldn’t treat their kids the same way. (I always get a kick out of that) 🙂

The story is fun, but obviously the best parts of this film are the sings and music.  The Oscar winning song – Under the Sea is excellent, but so are the rest especially Part of Your World and Kiss the Girl.

Trivia fact: If you pause during the opening scene when King Triton enters the amphitheater, you can spot Goofy, Donald and Mickey in the crowd among all the merpeople.   I hadn’t known about this before and it was very funny to find them and see that it is true (unlike other rumors about “adult surprises” in this movie.)  I found this fact on IMDB. 🙂

I’m very glad that Disney was finally able to get their act together and bring us the first of numerous wondrous animated movies of the 90’s!  This is one of their best and one of my favorites along with Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1993) and The Lion King (1994)

Bottom Line – Amazing animated movie that put Disney back on the map for animated movies. One of Disney’s best movies. Highly recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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