The Little Mermaid

After struggling through my first midterm in one of my classes on Tuesday afternoon, I was definitely not in the best mood. Not wanting to start my other homework yet, I decided to watch The Little Mermaid first. Barely even twenty minutes into the film, I found myself in a remarkably better state of mind. Happily singing along to "Part of Your World" and "Under the Sea", two of my favorite Disney songs, there was no way that I couldn't be happy. Thanks to Ariel, Eric, Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle, my day dramatically improved for the better.

Later that night,with the details of the film still fresh in my mind, I sat down to read Roberta Trite's "Sub/Version of Andersen's The Little Mermaid". In her efforts to prove her argument that the Disney version is more shallow, materialistic, and sexist than Andersen's original story, Trite ultimately alienates her audience by adopting a point of view that is extremist. Personally, I found myself disagreeing with almost all of her assertions because she took everything just a little too far- her credibility was greatly diminished by her inability to provide evidence for her exaggerated claims. To cite just a few examples:


"Disney's message is obvious: If children are needlessly repressed, they may rebel by developing obsessive behaviors that cause them to reject their identity."

"Ariel's new obsession becomes the type of worship that makes the individual seem somehow larger than life and better than the rest of humanity. This implies that the only beings worth marrying are those who are perfect and that perfection is not only somehow attainable but is actually necessary for a man to be loveable."

"Ursula's corpulence underscores the anorexic appearance of Ariel's figure."

"Evils comes in the form of  a woman who covets the power of the male phallus. Ursula lovingly caresses Triton's trident while he is holding it. Her penis envy is stereotypical."

There is hardly any proof to warrant any of these four assertions that Trite confidently makes. It is far from "obvious" that Disney's message in creating The Little Mermaid was to illustrate to parents the repercussions of repressing your children; though Ariel's actions are rebellious, it is a far stretch to say that she is rejecting her identity because she feels repressed. Her fascination with the human world stems more from curiosity than anything else, as evidenced from the lyrics of "Part of Your World. Similarly, Trite's belief that Ariel's "worship" of Eric implies the necessity of perfection in relationships is utterly an exaggeration- nowhere in the film is Eric depicted as "perfect" or "better than the rest of humanity". Lastly, the comparison made between Ariel and anorexia is unnecessary, as is Trite's strange focus upon the largely nonexistent "sexual symbols" within the film.

Though I can understand how, in some ways, Ariel's obsession with becoming human and be with Eric can be seen as materialistic and sexist, I do not believe that this was Disney's intent. Rather, I view Ariel's disregard of the differences between the mermaid world and the human world as a message promoting acceptance. As Ariel and Eric's relationship illustrates, physical differences should not separate humans; it is character that is truly important. The closing scene of The Little Mermaid in which humans and mermen/sea creatures alike unite in celebrating the wedding of Ariel and Eric symbolizes the integration of all people notwithstanding race, social class, or ethnicity. When viewed in this light, the film encourages the audience, especially children, to be open-minded and accepting of cultural differences.