fairy_bean wrote:the little mermaid was stung by critism when it first came out though, due to the sexism and representation shown with ariel. Kathi Maio describe it as "a new nymphet quality to the virginal heroine" which is due to her costume, and descibed it as "deing informed by the eroticizing of the pubescent female"
(info frm
http://www.newint.org/issue308/dolls.html)
the article fairy_bean posted the link to wrote:It’s prototypical Disney. Young women are natural-born happy homemakers who lie in a state of suspended animation until a man gives them a life.
But back when these fairy tales take place, women didn't usually (if at all) have jobs, other than taking care of the house and the children; children have to do chores, anyway- Snow White and Cinderella were forced to do chores, and even though they were forced a lot harder, surely, than most children/young adults living at home, the fact that they did chores is pretty normal.
the article fairy_bean posted the link to wrote:Disney’s take on Hans Christian Andersen is the ‘same old, same old’. Except, for the first time, there is a new nymphet quality to the virginal heroine. Above her green tail Disney’s Ariel wears only a string bikini top made from a couple of sea shells. And as innocent, wide-eyed and flipper-tailed as she is, there is something distinctly sexy about her too. Her image may not be informed by feminism, but it has most certainly been informed by the eroticizing of the pubescent female, so common in Western advertising and popular culture.
Why not also complain about the centaurettes in
Fantasia or the mermaids in
Peter Pan? That's just what mermaids wore/wear. Melody probably would've wore seashells, if it weren't for Disney worried about parents' groups complaining or something (I'm just speculating).
the article fairy_bean posted the link to wrote:Like Disney heroines before her, Ariel is looking for a romantic solution to the yearning in her heart. (Andersen’s mermaid looks for human love only as a means of achieving her true desire: an immortal soul. Disney’s mermaid sees a cute fella as her be-all and end-all.) Ariel will do anything to have the bland handsome Prince fall in love with her...Hence, in The Little Mermaid, we are given a female protagonist who is literally silenced by her desperate need for male approval. ‘Shut up and be beautiful’, the movie seems to tell young girls.
But who isn't looking for a romantic solution to the yearning in their heart?!? Ariel already was interested in the human world when she saw Eric...he was a cute, interesting human! She didn't know that she'd one day end up with him- but she sure did daydream about him (but what girl, or any person, hasn't daydreamed about a crush?!?). If non-animated people had the option of having a way to be with the person they wanted to be with, surely most people would jump at the chance! The movie isn't so much saying "Shut up and be beautiful", as it is saying, dreams really can come true.
the article fairy_bean posted the link to wrote:But she is nevertheless forced to abandon completely her sea world (her family and friends) for the land-locked kingdom of her Prince. In the end, Ariel is a woman without a social support system, investing her entire life in a romance.
When two people get married, though, they essentially leave their families to start a life together. They don't leave their families in the sense that they'll never see them again, just like how Ariel didn't leave her father and sisters and would never see them again- she could go to the shore, and they could go to the shore, and they would be able to visit with each other!
Chernabog_Rocks wrote:Anyways, I agree with Littlefuzzy, Ariel pulled a lot of crap and ended up happy which isn't really fair to her friends, family etc.
I guess this can sum it all up: Life isn't always fair...!?!
But, King Triton and Ariel's sisters saw how happy she was with Eric...as long as she is happy, they can't be to upset...better to be happy than miserable!
Chernabog_Rocks wrote:Anyways, she may have every right to go against him BUT that's not sending a good message to kids is it? "If you don't like how your parents act then rebel! There's no consequences at all you'll end up happy"
Obviously there are usually consequences to rebelling against your parents. Ariel had consequences, too- remember when Triton destroys her grotto?!? She was crushed!!! My mom got rid of a lot of my belongings, and I hadn't even done anything wrong, and I was crushed...I still am! I love how Ariel sticks up for herself ("I'm 16, I'm not a child anymore", or whatever she says). It's necessary to stick up for what you want, especially when you're a teenager. I can relate to Ariel in the sense that my parents (my mom, really, but my dad never stood up for me) didn't want me (and didn't let me) to do things that I wanted to do (I very badly wanted to do community children's theater and take vocal lessons). I ended up being depressed from about 16-18 (really 18 was such a tough age for me)...I like to think that my life would be so different if I were just allowed to express myself and do what I had a passion for. If you have a passion for something, just like how Ariel had a passion for humans and collecting human things, and for Eric, then you should go for them- do whatever you can (without harming yourself or your loved ones) to make your dreams come true. Good for Ariel, I say. Parents should love their children unconditionally- they may be mad at them if they do something bad, but they'll get over it...and they'll always still love them, even when they screw up.
Goliath wrote:I think it's a way better message than "Always do as your parents tell you to, no matter how wrong they are". I think it's important that teenagers learn critical thinking and question authority. And, to counter your point, I think nearly being killed by a giant sea witch *is* a pretty big consequence. I think Ariel learned her lesson, because, yes, of course it was wrong to go to the witch, but the rebelling per sé is not a bad thing.
I completely agree. Sometimes parents think that they know best, but they don't. In my example above, my mother only cared about me getting good grades, not that I had a passion for the arts. I played clarinet in school from grades 5-10 (and I only didn't continue because my parents hadn't let me join the high school marching band, and the stage band teacher left after 10th grade, so the class was no more), and my mother went to one, maybe two, concerts of mine in all those years. She gave two excuses: "I don't like to go out at night" and "I hear you when you practice; I don't care about the other kids". Was she right? Hell no, she wasn't right- it still affects me to this day, just to have had such unsupportive parents has screwed me up a bit. I was at my parents' house on Christmas, and we were watching the Disney Christmas parade. At one point there were characters and dancers dancing, and my mother said, "I can't believe you wanted to do that/throw your education away for that", or something to that affect (I had done a character audition at WDW when I moved to Florida, and was put on the waitlist...I never got hired as a character, though)...I have such respect for performers- I know that it's hard work, and I wish that I was in the field...It hurts that my mom has that mindset. I don't think that she's right, and as I said, it all still affects me to this day. I'm proud of Ariel for going for what she wanted. Yes, it wasn't always easy, and yes, it was very scary, but it all turned out great for her in the end. Sure, she missed her family, but she could still visit them. Sometimes, if you want something bad enough, you have to make sacrifices. You have to put yourself first, if you're in the position to (like if you don't have children). As Chris said:
xxhplinkxx wrote:At least you won't have the lingering question of "what if" following you for the rest of your life.
Chernabog_Rocks wrote:Going to Ursula was a stupid idea, she should have been tipped off from the start by the creepy eels
I agree to an extent. Ariel went to Ursula because she was told that she could help her. Ariel didn't know before going to Ursula what exactly would happen, or what the consequences would be. She was just going after what she wanted. Instead of just daydreaming, she did something about it.
Goliath wrote:However, I think Triton is unreasonable to forbid Ariel to learn about humans in the first place. Which makes Ariel break the rules. So I think Triton started the vicious cycle.
I agree. I think, though, he thought that if she's so interested in learning about humans, she will eventually go up to the surface to learn first-hand how they are, and of course that's just what Ariel did.
Goliath wrote:My favorite part is the one in which Ariel admires the statue of Eric in her cavern, and Triton enters, and they have a huge fight over it. Then she shouts: "daddy, I love him!" That moment gives me goosebumps.
I think the (voice-)acting was *so* strong. Evenly strong is the acting of Ariel after Triton has destroyed her cavern, and she lies there crying, when she tells Sebastian and Flounder to leave her alone. It's those tiny little 'details' which get to me the most.
And again, I agree with Goliath! I don't know if I'd call that my favorite scene in the film, but it is so emotional- I can't help but tear up. Again, it's something I can relate to- you having such a passion for something, and your parents just taking your dreams away from you. As Goliath had said in a previous post, the movie is so real- it's so easy to relate to.
xxhplinkxx wrote:So when Ariel becomes human and became the Queen (I'm guessing?), do you think she made a law banning all seafood in her kingdom?
I hadn't ever thought of that, but it seems very likely that she would!
xxhplinkx wrote:And the whole "Queen" thing brought up another point. Did they become King/Queen when the got married? Where the hell are Eric's parents? Why weren't they present at their own son's wedding? Tsk tsk.
Well, since he's Prince Eric and not King Eric, I assume that they're alive. Maybe they were at the wedding and the film just doesn't show them- we don't see every guest!
Escapay wrote:Maybe they disowned Eric when they found out he was in love with a fish.
That made me laugh.
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As terribly hard as it is for me to choose favorite DACs,
The Little Mermaid is my third favorite (
The Black Cauldron and
Aladdin are my top two). I was 4 when the movie came out, and I had so much merchandise from it- dolls, clothes, books, etc. I love it for the reasons I mentioned above, the relatablility and realness of it. I love the music, and the characters, and the colors, and the story...I love all the DACs (even though I have some that are not as favorites as others), but for some reason, this just stands out as such a great film. I can't really describe why I love it...part of is surely is nostalgia, but everything just fits together so well- the music, characters, colors, story, etc.
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A short but interesting article about Sherri Stoner (the live-action model for Ariel and Belle):
["Sherri Stoner, story editor, reference model: there's something about the girl - she's a human 'toon." People Weekly 35.nSPEISS (Spring 1991): 65(1). General OneFile. Gale. Orange County Library System (FL). 12 Apr. 2009
<
http://0-find.galegroup.com.iii.ocls.in ... rodId=ITOF>]
Sherri Stoner's career is all wet. And she's gurgling all the way to the bank, thank you very much. Although Stoner, 31, has shown up on TV's Little House on the Prairie and Murder, She Wrote, she is invisible in her biggest hit, The Little Mermaid. As Disney Studio's reigning "live-action reference model" -- the behind-the-scenes human model for Ariel in Mermaid and for Belle in the currently filming Beauty and the Beast -- the 5 ft. 2 in., 92-lb. actress enjoys one of the least-known leading roles in Hollywood.
Could Milli Vanilli talk to a teapot? She has cavorted for days in a tank of cold water, talked to an imaginary teapot and a cabinet (memorizing and lip-synching her lines), ridden horses, danced with an imaginary prince and battled imaginary wolves while animators videotaped her gestures and expressions to lend their subsequent drawings greater verisimilitude. Right now, this is just her moonlight work -- a couple of days a month at Disney ($500 per day) -- leaving the unmarried Stoner plenty of time to focus on her regular job. She's a story editor at Tiny Toon Adventures -- a cartoon show, of course.
She always thanks the little people . . . even if they're not human: "I know they are just cartoon characters," says Stoner, "but I try to bring real emotions to the work. If it's there, it will come through in the movements."
The seaweed is not always greener: "I love what I'm doing, and it really doesn't bother me that my face isn't up there on the screen," says Stoner. "Since I've discovered my writing talents, I have no big dream anymore about being Michelle Pfeiffer. Doing these Disney movies, I feel I'm involved in something special, something that will live forever."
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And this is very interesting:
[B., Stewart, James. Disney war. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.]
P. 102:
Splash was now safely in the distant past, and Katzenberg and Eisner gave sme thought to developing "Mermaid" as a live-action project. Writer Michael Cristofer, who' won a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Shadow Box, briefly worked on a script, but Clements persuaded Katzenberg to give him and John Musker a shot at the script.
P. 103-104:
Oliver had been a first step, but no one had ever approached an animated film as though it were a Broadway musical. Schneider had been right that a musical needed a unifying score and lyrics. Mermaid felt fresh, original, and exciting. Still, Katzenberg cautioned that the commercial potential of a film about a mermaid was probably limited by its appeal to young girls.
Early screenings were not as promising as the songs. Katzenberg, in particular, had problems with the third act's resolution of the threat from Ursula. It simply didn't make any sense that the gentle mermaid Ariel would be so easily able to overcome the all-powerful sea with Ursula...
At one early screening, kids squirmed during the musical sequence "Kiss the Girl," a gentle lullaby that was still in black-and-white sketches. "We're cutting that song," Katzenberg said as soon as the screening was over."
"You can't cut that song!" Ashman practically yelled.
"Okay. We'll cut it in half," Katzenberg replied. Ashman looked wounded. Everyone tried to change Katzenberg's mind, and finally the lead artist, Glen Keane, got him to leave the song alone for one more screening. Ashman and the others held their breath as the sequence, now in full color, played. No one in the audience budged, and the song stayed. But "Fathoms Below" was cut; unlike a Broadway show, Katzenberg didn't think audiences would sit through a lengthy opening musical number.
In another early screening, Eisner was perplexed by Sebastian's sudden transformation from Ariel's foe to friend...At his behest, new scenes were created- a beach encounter between Ariel and Sebastian, and, at the climax, a scene where Eric destroys Ursula by crashing his boat into her.
Little Mermaid was the first animated film to use CAPS...Mermaid was going over its already high budget of $40 million, and because of costs, the full artistic potential of the new system couldn't be tapped. The colors used for Ariel, for example, were scaled back from eleven to seven, saving nearly $750,000. And in the end, only the scene where Ariel and the Prince head off into a rainbow as the undersea characters wave was computer-generated.
Obviously "Fathoms Below" wasn't cut...was it scaled back? Was it cut but then reinserted? That's one of my biggest problems with Jeffrey Katzenberg (which extends into my issues with DreamWorks, I guess): he just didn't get animation...he thought you could just happily edit things out and that everything would be okay, but it wouldn't be okay!
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I just found a quote from a book, but X'd out the window, so I don't know what book it is from, but it mentioned the musical score being written before any animation began, so the score helped to shape the story. Is this true?
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[Eisner, Michael. Work in progress. New York: Random House, 1998.]
P. 184-185
Excited as we were, nearly all of us believed that the core appeal of The Little Mermaid would be to young girls. However, from the very first screening on the Disney lot, the film played strongly to all segments of the audience, including adults. It contained all of the elements that would become signatures of our subsequent animated movies: great original music; clever lyrics; a wry sense of humor; a strong, evocative story; and dazzling animation.
I agree with the clever lyrics, but everything else mentioned appears in earlier Disney films, too...what are your thoughts on this?
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[New York Magazine, Dec 4, 1989, P. 143]
"Sea of Love" by David Denby
The great news about Disney's new animated feature, The Little Mermaid, is that it's consistently funny...This movie...doesn't have the blooming, fluttering sweetness that marred the Disney films of the fifties and that made one want to run to the nearest meadow and stomp on butterflies and daffodils. The good humor is clean.
...
Ariel is meant to be a typical American-mermaid teenager, with spunk and enough drive to go after what she wants. Jodi Benson, who does her voice, sounds like every ambitious young performer we've ever heard in musicals; she's a bit shiny for my taste, but the voice is ardent and pure-sounding. Eric is boringly drawn as a sort of stupid seafearing hunk, and he's followed around by an Eager Dog, the one unfortunate concession to kiddie-movie forumula.
...
The resolution of The Little Mermaid sweetens Andersen's ending considerably, but the movie holds its comic edge. Trying to get the prince to come across, Sebastian composes another calypso number, "Kiss the Girl," and the whole above-ground animal kingdom sings and smooches in what could almost be a parody of the old honeyed Disney tone...The best of animation has combined with show-business savvy, making The Little Mermaid the most entertaining animated feature since Yellow Sumbarine.
I found that to be an interesting review. The film definitely has its funny moments, but the review almost makes it seem like the film is a straight-up comedy. And what is he talking about the films of the fifties?!? None of the DACs of the '50s are sticky-sweet! There is suspense in all of them, there is violence (not horribly graphic, but still), there is emotion...I just don't get what he means. And I don't think that Eric comes across as dumb at all! And there's nothing wrong with Max! The reviewer had no problem with Scuttle (I like Scuttle, FYI), yet he has a beef with Max!