The Little Mermaid ***** (1989, voices of René Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Kenneth Mars) – Classic Movie Review 2217

Writer-directors Ron Clemente and John Musker’s 1989 animation The Little Mermaid is an undiluted triumph, especially for the music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman. This Walt Disney studio cartoon is a scintillating fantasy loosely based upon the fairy tale story by Hans Christian Andersen.

A double Oscar-winner for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, it was the first Disney film to receive an Academy Award since Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and got Disney animation and the studio back on track after a longish period in the doldrums. It finds Disney successfully going back to its roots as the company’s first fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Jodi Benson provides the voice of beautiful young sea creature Ariel, King Triton’s youngest daughter, who has lost her love of life in the sea and longs to be human and enjoy a life above the water. She argues with her father over the barbaric fish-eating humans, goes to meet Ursula the Sea Witch to make a deal and then risks her life to marry the prince of her dreams. Prince Eric is voiced by the then 16-year-old Christopher Daniel Barnes.

As it is an Eighties Disney movie, there is maybe just a little too much sugar both in the story-telling and in the sentimental attitudes, and the young lovers are arguably a shade on the insipid side. But the other characters (particularly the sea king King Triton (voice of Kenneth Mars) and the wicked fairy godmother Ursula the Sea Witch (voice of Pat Carroll) are great, beguiling fun, the animation is extremely striking, attractive and sturdy, and this version of Andersen’s old fairy tale is water tight.

Best of all there is an extremely pretty original score and hit song (‘Under the Sea’), both of which won deserved Oscars. Other songs include ‘Kiss the Girl’, ‘Part of Your World’ and ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’. Menken and Ashman reunited with Disney in 1991 for another triumph, Beauty and the Beast, where they repeated their double Oscar trick of best original score and best original song.

Also providing the voices are Paddi Edwards (Flotsam & Jetsam), Buddy Hackett (Scuttle), Jason Marin (Flounder), Edie McClurg (Carlotta), Will Ryan (Seahorse), Ben Wright (Grimsby) and Samuel E Wright (Sebastian).

The Little Mermaid was the last Disney animated feature to use hand-painted cells and analogue camera and film work. More than a million drawings were made and 1,000 different colours were used on 1,100 backgrounds.

Halle Bailey will play Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2217

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