Despite The Dated Elements, Aladdin Still Entertains!

The Good: Strong female protagonist, Some impressive animation, Decent moral, Good voicework
The Bad: Some simplistic elements, Overwhelmed with sidekicks, Incongruent Genie schtick
The Basics: Aladdin is fun, but much of what makes it fun makes the film an erratically-executed story.


I have an interesting history with the film Aladdin. Back when I was in high school, I went on an almost surreal date one night. The local movie theater near me played double features and it was playing Aladdin and What's Love Got To Do With It? (the Tina Turner biopic). The surreal element came from how memorable the incongruent pairing of the films actually was. Until today, I had not seen Aladdin again. My wife, however, is a huge fan of Disney films and Aladdin in specific, and she has been waiting for so many years for the film to be released to own it for our personal library. We're on our second viewing again already and as she sings excitedly next to me, I find myself considering the film.

Aladdin is good, but the more I've learned about the film, the more it seems like its potential exceeded its execution. Perhaps made so popular by Robin Williams's voicing the Genie, Aladdin is shockingly dated - the half-life of an Arsenio Hall reference is remarkably short, it turns out! The mix of simplistic story for children and the volume of adult references (how many children will recognize a Jack Nickolson impression?!) seemed more disconcerting than smooth. Robin Williams might steal the show when he appears as the Genie, but he does so as a non-sequitor; the movie takes an abrupt turn for his schtick and has some trouble re-establishing itself when the title character is focused on again.

Starting with a peddler on the streets of Agrabah, telling the story that follows, Aladdin quickly flashes back to the story of Jafar the wicked adviser to the Sultan. He hires Gazeem to enter the Cave Of Wonders to recover a magic lamp, but the Cave Of Wonders rejects the servant. On the streets of Agrabah, the young Aladdin steals a loaf of bread to survive and, with his monkey companion, Abu, he manages to stay one step ahead of the lawmen pursuing him. Aladdin steps in when a Prince coming to woo the Princess acts abusively toward other children living on the streets. Inside the Palace, Princess Jasmine is feeling confined and loathes the idea of being forced to marry a Prince she neither knows, nor loves. As the Sultan laments his daughter's actions, Jafar bewitches the leader to try to find the identity of the person he might use to enter the Cave Of Wonders.

Sneaking out of the palace, Princess Jasmine gets into trouble trying to give an apple from a merchant's cart to a child. She is rescued by Aladdin, who takes her back to his hole in the wall, where they share a real conversation before the constables catch up with Aladdin. Aladdin is incarcerated by Jafar and Jasmine is told that Aladdin was put to death. Aladdin is used by Jafar to enter the Cave Of Wonders and recover a magical lamp. There, Abu discovers a magic carpet and when they become trapped int he Cave, Aladdin inspects the lamp and frees a Genie from it. The powerful Genie helps Aladdin by granting him wishes, with Aladdin promising Genie freedom as his last wish. But when Aladdin wishes to become a Prince, he draws the attention of Jafar, who steals the lamp to take over Agrabah and become all-powerful.

Aladdin has a lot to recommend it, not the least of which is a Princess who might be second only to Mulan (reviewed here!) on the strong and independent scale. Jasmine is likable, smart and independent. While she does not challenge having to marry someone, she challenges the Sultans law that she must marry a Prince, as opposed to someone she actually loves. Despite a climactic battle moment where Jafar entraps her, Jasmine is hardly a damsel in distress. Because Jasmine is characterized as both smart and independent, one of the most interesting aspects of her character becomes that she has a forgiving nature.

Aladdin, on the other hand, is characterized mostly as a liar, though he has a core of kindness. Aladdin is how he comes to learn the value of telling the truth.

Some of the moralization is prioritized over making sense for the story and for the characters. If the big moral of Aladdin is that there is value in honesty, the power of the wishes is oddly incongruent. Aladdin wishes to be made a prince in order to be able to woo Jasmine. Once the wish is granted, outside his name, he is not actually lying to Jasmine about who he is. If Aladdin wished to be, for example, a natural blonde and his hair turned blonde and he was then asked "are you a natural blonde?" reality would have been altered such that the answer would be, of course, "Yes." Aladdin is never asked "were you always a Prince?" But, either way, once the wish is granted, he is a Prince and it's not lying when he claims that he is. The defeat of Jafar is similarly a troublingly poor execution on the writing front. "All-powerful" is trumped, apparently, by the fundamental definition of what a Genie is. I was so shocked that the writers included the words "all-powerful" in Jafar's line because it just begs the contradiction.

Aladdin is filled with sidekicks, which is something I never noticed before. The three main characters - Aladdin, Jasmine, and Jafar - each have animal familiars and how they treat them is used as a form of characterization. That's pretty cool, but Iago is pretty obnoxious and the addition of the Carpet as a second sidekick for Aladdin seems more like a plot conceit or merchandising point than a genuine character.

The voice acting and the music in Aladdin are excellent. Despite the way that Robin Williams ad libs his way into making the Genie into a watchable, entertaining character who steals scenes, all of the voice performers do an excellent job at emoting. And the songs are fun and memorable.

Ultimately, Aladdin is fun and has some wonderful moments, but it is somewhat unsurprising that Aladdin is overshadowed by the Genie, Jasmine and even Jafar. Between their characters or their voice acting, they make Aladdin seem more mediocre than a character worthy of a princess.

For other works with Gilbert Gottfried, please check out my reviews of:
Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade Of Cartoon Comedy
Farce Of The Penguins
Clerks: The Animated Series

7/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not One Of Disney’s Greatest: The Great Mouse Detective Ages Poorly!

The Good: Generally fine animation
The Bad: Unmemorable music, Dull story, Bland characters
The Basics: Arguably one of the worst Disney ever produced, The Great Mouse Detective is a fairly generic reimagining of Sherlock Holmes as a fable.


My wife has been on a Disney kick. The latest in her long string of classic Disney animated films that she’s introduced me to is The Great Mouse Detective. Interestingly, The Great Mouse Detective was released when I was a kid and was age appropriate for going to see it. To the best of my knowledge, I did not and I had no interest in it. In fact, as one of Disney’s more lackluster (at the box office) films, it is somewhat unsurprising that it has taken me almost thirty years to catch the film. Now that I have, I’m surprised that the movie had any impact on my wife. The Great Mouse Detective might well be one of the least interesting, least memorable, least worthwhile Disney animated films ever produced.

A rare Disney mystery, The Great Mouse Detective continues the trend Disney has of making somewhat familiar stories into fables by replacing human characters with animals. In the case of The Great Mouse Detective, the characters are mostly mice and they are part of a story that is enough steps removed from the stories of Sherlock Holmes that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is not even credited in the writing acknowledgments. Even so, The Great Mouse Detective owes a large debt to the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and those who adapted the stories into films and television works. The Disney adaptation includes iconic aspects of Holmes such as his hat and his doctor sidekick.

As the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee approaches all of mousedom is thrown into chaos. Hiram Flaversham is kidnapped by a bat, Fidget, in front of his daughter, Olivia. Olivia meets Dr. David Q. Dawson in his search for the great mouse detective, Basil Of Baker Street. Basil is reluctant to take Olivia’s case until he learns that the bat was involved, as Basil knows that the bat works for his nemesis, Professor Ratigan. Ratigan is preparing his biggest, most destructive, plot yet for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Basil enlists Toby, the dog, to track down the bat and Ratigan with the idea of getting Flaversham back only secondary to his own agenda.

When Olivia is captured by Fidget, Basil recovers the bat’s “to do” list and has the chance to crack the case and find Ratigan. Basil uses the paper to track Fidget and Basil and Dawson head off to rescue Olivia from the villainous Ratigan. Heading off to the waterfront, Basil, Dawson and Toby go through a rousing song and dance number before they see Fidget and he leads them to Ratigan’s lair. There, Basil must outwit Ratigan and rescue Olivia and Flaversham.

What The Great Mouse Detective lacks entirely is charm. While Disney animated films cannot truly be accused of lacking originality (almost all of them are based upon works that are in the public domain), what they usually possess is charm and decent music. As one of the last underwhelming Disney films to precede the studio’s explosive rebirth that came with The Little Mermaid (reviewed here!), The Great Mouse Detective is lacking in the sense of magic, wonder, and catchy tunes.

Basil is a cheap knock-off of Sherlock Holmes as his elaborate experiment that ties the paper to the waterfront illustrates. Basil does not have any distinguishing characteristics or quirks that make him engaging to watch. Instead, he is a stiflingly generic detective. Even worse, Dawson is relegated to the status of pure sidekick with nothing that he brings to the investigative team. Unlike John Watson who both grounds and humanizes Sherlock Holmes in most of Doyle’s stories (and whose unique experiences make him an actual asset in the current BBC production Sherlock), Dawson is just a sidekick who bumbles around after Basil in The Great Mouse Detective.

Equally unimpressive is the adversary in The Great Mouse Detective. Ratigan is a somewhat ridiculous villain. Simply luring Basil to his lair leads the supposedly brilliant Ratigan to declare victory over the detective. Ratigan is not terribly smart; he trusts that Flavisham has constructed his killing machine without error and his motivation is not clear for the bulk of the movie. Instead, Ratigan is a generic enemy who wants to rule the world for no particular reason. The plot to replace the queen of mice is so flawed as to be laughable and that Basil is predictably able to thwart him is not a function of great detective work or impressive skill on Basil’s part as much as it is a plot inevitability. In other words, Ratigan is not so great as to enhance Basil’s stature and Basil’s mediocrity only makes Ratigan seem more ridiculous as a villain.

The animation in The Great Mouse Detective is adequate, but unexceptional. One of Disney’s first major motion pictures assisted by computers, The Great Mouse Detective illustrates early on how computers cannot save films that start with a weak script. In contrast, the voice talents employed in The Great Mouse Detective are universally good. Each of the performers is appropriately expressive. Barrie Ingham, however, does not speak in such a way that makes one believe that Basil is a mouse of superior intellect and that guts the premise of the film almost from the character’s introduction.

Ultimately, The Great Mouse Detective is a forgettable, dull fable that can be forgotten; when Disney puts it in the vault, one doubts there will ever be enough of a clamor for its release to warrant the studio to ever take it out again.

For other works with Eve Brenner, please visit my reviews of:
Walk Of Shame
“Remember” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Violations” - Star Trek: The Next Generation

1.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Disney Remakes The Robert Louis Stevenson Classic Creatively, But Unremarkably, With Treasure Planet!

The Good: Good voice acting, Decent story/themes
The Bad: Incredibly predictable, Erratic animation
The Basics: Treasure Planet was something of an unsurprising flop for Disney as it retells Treasure Island in a creative futuristic setting.


With the way Disney animated films redefine the classics for so many children, it is sometimes hard to recall that virtually all of the Disney feature films are simply retellings of classic (public domain) stories. The sanitized way Disney presents Grimm’s fairy tales has created a family-friendly children’s library of home videos for decades and the latest generation seems to have no idea that most of those films are based on stories that are usually gruesome and gory. Every now and then, Disney makes a much more obvious adaptation of a work that is less old. It did so in 2002 with Treasure Planet.

Treasure Planet, despite its futuristic setting, is an obvious retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island. It is one of Disney’s non-musical animated features and Treasure Planet has the distinction of being one of Disney’s all-time biggest box-office losers. Given the erratic quality of the animation (characters proportions change frequently and the film has unfortunately inconsistent physics in it), it is less of a surprise that this charmless movie did not catch on with its target child demographic.

As a child, Jim is told tales of the great space pirate Flynn and his massive treasure. Apparently, he plundered hundreds of planets all over the galaxy and somehow made off with the treasures of those worlds which he stashed somewhere secret. As a young adult, Jim Hawkins meets Doctor Doppler and unlocks a holographic map that Doppler was unable to access. Doppler believes that the map might lead them to the fabled treasure planet. They board Captain Amelia’s space pirate ship to go in search of Treasure Planet.

Aboard the ship, Jim is treated as a common deckhand and John Silver tries to keep him busy and away from the other alien deckhands. While Doppler develops a romantic relationship with Amelia, Jim uncovers a mutiny brewing among the disreputable deckhands. With the help of a tiny shapechanging alien, Doppler, Amelia, and Jim manage to escape the mutiny aboard the ship to reach the fabled planet where the treasure is supposed to exist. While outwitting the deckhands, Jim meets a baffled robot, B.E.N. With B.E.N.’s help, Jim unlocks the secrets of the Treasure Planet and learns how the long-dead pirate robbed planets all over the galaxy and the dangers he left behind to protect his stash!

Arguably the best aspect of Treasure Planet for adults like me is the participation of David Hyde Pierce as Doppler. David Hyde Pierce plays Doppler in a way that is surprisingly similar to his trademark character Niles from Frasier (reviewed here!) and as a result of some typecasting, he is given the best lines of the movie. For sure, Doppler is a somewhat snobby, fish-out-of-water alien character on the spaceboat and the role is well within Pierce’s established wheelhouse, but it does not stop his delivery of jokes from being enjoyable and virtually all that makes Treasure Planet watchable.

The story, of course, is one that is packed with themes of greed vs. altruism and the usual Disney coming-of-age story. Unfortunately, in this concept, Jim Hawkins is a largely unremarkable protagonist. Instead of developing his character to be truly compelling in any noticeable way, Disney crammed as many of its usual conceits into this production as it could. As a result, the Doppler/Amelia romantic subplot is a poorly-developed, thoroughly predictable plot device more than it is an organically-developed character interaction. The usual Disney sidekick appears in Treasure Planet in two forms: Morph and B.E.N., either of which seem like they could have been thrown in for a merchandising angle.

On the more factual front, the story is fairly predictable for anyone who knows the concept of Treasure Island. Greed leads mutineers to come into conflict with the brave intellectuals who run the ship and want to gain all the riches in the galaxy for undefined, nefarious, purpose. The film is essentially a few monolithic good characters versus a few monolithic bad characters with only John Silver as a shifty character that switches sides. But the change in allegiance that Silver goes through is more based on expediency than ideology, which makes Jim’s acceptance of him more a form of ignorance than character.

Amid the highlights of Treasure Planet are the vocal performances. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does an adequate job of playing Jim Hawkins with youthful exuberance, even if the character is somewhat unremarkable. Emma Thompson plays another strong female character in the role of Captain Amelia. The character might be a bit monolithic, but Thompson presents the leader of the ship as a credible authority. Her voice is strong and she is good for embodying that type of character in a realistic way. Similarly, Laurie Metcalf is good at vocalizing Ben’s mother and all of the rest of the cast does a decent job at giving their alien personas slight pirate accents.

Despite the erratic animation in Treasure Planet and the simplicity of the way the concept is reimagined, the shorter Disney film is not bad, just unremarkable save some of the performers and the way they rise to the occasion of presenting the material.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Frozen
Monsters University
Wreck-It Ralph
Brave
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
Ponyo
The Princess And The Frog
Bolt
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Lilo & Stitch
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Monsters, Inc.
Mulan
Hercules
The Lion King
Beauty And The Beast
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
The Aristocats
Sleeping Beauty
Fantasia

4.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Obvious Disney Hero Journey, Hercules Disappoints!

The Good: Decent voice acting
The Bad: Predictable plot, Obvious Disney conceits, Light on character development/complexities, Largely unmemorable songs
The Basics: One of the less memorable Disney films, Hercules is not at all enduring or very interesting at all.


My wife is a big Disney fan and she has helped give me an appreciation of the animated films that are largely for children. Hercules is not one that she has gotten me to appreciate. In fact, Hercules is one of the more disappointing Disney films with some wildly erratic animation. While it might not be the worst film, it lacks notable music or consistently good animation. It has a somewhat stylized form of animation, as opposed to realistic proportions and a realistic sense of physics to the universe.

Hercules retells the story of the classic Greek hero, in a Disney way. Unfortunately, the whole “Disney thing” is alive and well in Hercules. In addition to the usual comic relief sidekicks (in this case Phil – short for Philoctetes – and Pegasus), Hercules has comic relief dimwitted adversaries Pain and Panic who help to kill the momentum of the film.

Set in ancient Greece, the gods overthrow the Titans and take to Olympus. There, Zeus and Hera have a son, Hercules. Zeus’s brother, Hades, is deeply jealous of the boy and he learns that Hercules is the only thing that will stop him from releasing the Titans from their prison in eighteen years. Being a big picture guy, Hades enlists his minions, Pain and Panic, to get rid of Hercules. Unable to kill him, they drop him on Earth where he is adopted by two humans.

As a teenager, Hercules is told by Zeus who he is and to train as a hero, he is joined by Phil and Pegasus to learn to be powerful and responsible. Hercules is waylaid by Megara, a woman he rescues from Nessus, though she is not truly a damsel in distress. A pawn for Hades, Meg gets Hercules to perform heroic tasks, which make him a celebrity and put him in the crosshairs of Hades. With Hades planning to dispose of Hercules, Phil and Meg try to save Hercules, even as the hero loses his godlike powers!

Hercules is presented as a pretty unremarkable hero in Hercules. He is not particularly cute or inspiring and his fame quickly goes to his head. Meg is, initially, an interesting Disney Princess who seems to be more than just a simple damsel in distress. Unfortunately, even Meg’s initial sarcasm and inner strength turn into needing a man to rescue her and that is disappointing.

Danny DeVito provides a decent vocal performance as Phil, but the role is not one of his funniest or even more interesting parts. Similarly, Bobcat Goldthwait and Matthew Frewer play off one another well to embody Pain and Panic, though they are remarkably monolithic supporting villains and screw-ups. Both actors deserve better.

Hercules marks one of the first truly significant voiceover roles for James Woods and his portrayal of the villainous Hades. Woods is hilarious and expressive and Hades steals the show frequently from the other characters. In fact, Woods’s jokes and deliveries make him the most interesting character to watch, even when he is evil.

Even James Woods, though, cannot make Hercules worth watching or adding to one’s permanent collection.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Wreck-It Ralph
Brave
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
Ponyo
The Princess And The Frog
Bolt
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Lilo & Stitch
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Monsters, Inc.
Mulan
The Lion King
Beauty And The Beast
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
Sleeping Beauty
Fantasia

3.5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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After The Initial Reversal, There Is Little Original About The Princess And The Frog.

The Good: Adult tone in places, Decent animation, One or two catchy songs
The Bad: Very straightforward plot, characters and vocal performances, Erratic tone.
The Basics: The Princess And The Frog is, ultimately, very average Disney fare.


It takes a lot for me to get excited by a Disney animated movie these days, I’ll admit that. My wife is a bit of a Disney movie buff, so I’ve been watching more Disney movies in recent years than I ever thought I would. In fact, I joined the Disney Movie Club just to have a way to get her a whole bunch of movies she would want. It actually surprised me, then, that I had not yet gotten around to reviewing The Princess And The Frog, though we have watched it together several times now. While I am not wowed by The Princess And The Frog, I will say that I enjoyed it and that I actually like some of the darker, more adult, tones of the film. But that is actually part of the problem with The Princess And The Frog; it never fully commits to being an adult movie or a children’s film. The result is a movie that is more erratic than satisfying.

On one level, The Princess And The Frog seems to be a very typical Disney animated movie filled with talking, singing animals and enthusiastic music and all of the other things one usually expects from a Disney movie. But, there is also a reversal early in the movie that makes much of The Princess And The Frog instantly intriguing. Add to that, The Princess And The Frog has an intriguing set of villains and messages that certainly apply more to adults than care-free children. But for adults, The Princess And The Frog never fully lands it, returning to the typical, predictable mold of the Disney fairy tale by the film’s end.

Tiana lives in New Orleans. She grew up watching her father work long days to die before his time and before he could realize his dream of opening a restaurant. While her best friend, Charlotte, had everything handed to her from her wealthy dad, Tiana slaved away and is now a waitress saving for her restaurant. When Prince Naveen comes to visit, Tiana is given a catering job that puts her over and will allow her to purchase the restaurant of her dreams. Unfortunately for her, Prince Naveen, who is not at all wealthy, is enchanted by the villainous Dr. Facilier and turned into a frog. When Tiana tries to help the frog Naveen, she is turned into a frog as well.

Fleeing into the bayou, Tiana and Naveen meet Louis, a jazz-playing alligator and a lightning bug named Ray. Together, the quartet sets out for Mama Odie’s home to get the enchantments taken off the two transformed humans. As Facilier tries to get Naveen’s assistant – disguised as Naveen – to marry Charlotte for her father’s wealth, he uses his shadow allies to hunt the fugitive frogs. As Tiana and Naveen struggle to survive the frog hunters and shadow minions, Naveen starts to learn the value of hard work and Tiana slowly learns to relax.

The Princess And The Frog features both greater realism and a stronger sense of horror than most Disney movies. Facilier’s “friends from the other side” are nightmarish specters who are only loyal to themselves. Rendered as shadows that move fast and drag off the living, the assistants of Facilier are genuinely creepy, especially as they seem invulnerable, yet able to pull the living to their deaths. That sense of villainy is much darker than most Disney movies.

In a similar fashion, The Princess And The Frog features an on-screen casualty which lends it a more adult sense of weight. Facilier sadistically kills one of Tiana’s friends, illustrating that there are very real consequences for defying the voodoo practitioner. So, when late in the film, Facilier squares off with Tiana, there is the very real menace that her defiance might well cost her her life.

Unfortunately, those deep, adult aspects are blended in with a slapstick routine reminiscent of The Three Stooges. The secondary villains of The Princess And The Frog are a trio of hillbillies who hunt for frogs and whack each other about. When the father in the group is shot to reveal his polka-dotted (they are actually hearts in this rendition) boxer shorts, it is hard not to illicit a groan.

What, then, keeps The Princess And The Frog from receiving entirely dismal ratings? First, the animation in The Princess And The Frog is top-notch. The Princess And The Froglooks good, especially in the lighting and the stylized dream sequences shake the film up for the viewer’s eyes, making it a pleasure to watch. While Louis might be very simply rendered as a somewhat large alligator, the rest of the characters are distinctive and impressive for their appearance. Considering that the two principle protagonists are little green frogs and there was never a moment when it was unclear which one was which, the animators on The Princess And The Frog have a lot to be proud of.

As well, The Princess And The Frog has a few truly memorable songs. The jazz tunes are energetic and energizing and they breathe a life into The Princess And The Frog that some of the newer Disney animated features have not successfully done. Facilier’s “Friends On The Other Side” song keeps going through my head, so there is something to be said for just how catchy the soundtrack is.

Finally, the voice acting in The Princess And The Frog is exceptional. Keith David (Facilier), John Goodman (La Bouff, father of Charlotte), and Jim Cummings (Ray) are all emotive and expressive in their vocal performances. Bruno Campos, who plays Prince Naveen has an energetic delivery that is fun to listen to. And Anika Noni Rose is impressive as Tiana. Rose makes Tiana into a full-fledged Disney princess with willpower even as her character is a frog, by emoting extraordinarily well.

On DVD, The Princess And The Frog features animatics and other bonus features that enhance the viewing experience. The film may be, a strange mix of very typical Disney fare and attempting to appeal to adults, but it (mostly) works, making it well worth watching at the very least.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
Bolt
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Monsters, Inc.
The Lion King
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
Sleeping Beauty
Fantasia

5.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the movies I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Unsurprisingly Fun, The Little Mermaid Ages Well!

The Good: Decent music, Good animation, Generally good story, Interesting characters, Incredible DVD bonus features
The Bad: Disney conceits make it more a kid's movie.
The Basics: One of the most family-friendly Disney films, The Little Mermaid looks great in its 2-disc DVD format!



A few days ago, my wife fell ill and I did my best to tend to her. I'm not terribly good at that, but I tend to know what I like when I'm feeling ill. I tend to regress. My wife had a pretty strong love of Disney movies growing up, so it was no surprise to me that when she fell ill, she was thrilled when I brought home The Little Mermaid from the local library. As soon as she was able to sit up, she had me put the DVD in and I watched it with her.

What impressed me the most about The Little Mermaid, which – if I ever saw it – I had not seen since it was released in the late 1980s, was that in addition to having a truly timeless story, the film was actually surprisingly adult. Outside moments that are typically Disney, where characters exaggerate movements or look purposely ridiculous to garner a young laugh, The Little Mermaid tells a strong morality story and does it well. The dialogue is much more direct and less silly – the encounter between Ariel and Scuttle wherein the seagull informs the mermaid that items she found under the sea (a fork and pipe) are for entirely different things than what they are for (he says the fork is a hair styling device and the pipe is a musical instrument) notwithstanding – and the sense of menace is actually pretty impressive. I actually have a soft spot for The Little Mermaid: back after college, I played a game of Battle Of The Sexes on the radio and won tickets to my first concert by knowing that the mermaid's name was Ariel.

Ariel is the daughter of noble King Triton, living under the sea. When the conductor crab Sebastian attempts to have the greatest concert of his career, he is humiliated when Ariel's solo comes up and she is nowhere to be found. Ariel is, as is her want, exploring undersea wrecks and finding artifacts from humans with her friend Flounder. Realizing she has missed her concert, she is punished by Triton, who assigns Sebastian to keep her from getting into trouble. When a storm hits, the ship Prince Eric is on is destroyed and Ariel rescues him. Returning to land, Eric awakens and desires nothing more than to find Ariel and marry her, but she has returned to the undersea kingdom.

At that point, Ariel is approached by the sea witch Ursula, who offers Ariel a simple trade. In exchange for her voice, Ursula will grant Ariel a pair of legs and the ability to stay human if she can only get Eric to kiss her within three days. But if Ariel fails, Ursula will entrap Ariel in her garden of souls where she will wither. Ariel takes the deal and heads for land, leaving Triton to look frantically for her, and she struggles to get Eric to kiss her. But as the three days near their passing, Ursula becomes concerned that Ariel might actually pull it off and she takes human form to seduce Eric herself.

The Little Mermaid is a musical and it has memorable and catchy songs, many of which have translated into mass pop culture, like "Under The Sea." Fortunately, this Disney movie is not so laden with songs that they distract from the story or the flow of the film.

Ariel is a likable protagonist, though she is a very simple girl who wants nothing more than to challenge the authority of her father and live her own life. Her desire to learn and grow on her own is very real and makes her more than just a usual Disney princess walking around with a sense of entitlement. In fact, more than any other Disney princess that comes to mind, Ariel has a desire to learn, grow and develop beyond what she was born into. She does not perform for her father, instead she explores, asks questions and tries to learn.

Even so, like most Disney princesses, Ariel bats her lashes and flirts with Eric, in a very obvious way. The development of the relationship between Ariel and Eric is predictable and embodies the fairy tale more than an actual practical relationship. Even so, The Little Mermaid is fun and cleverly scripted to adapt the Hans Christian Andersen fable.

The Little Mermaid is performed with the vocal talents of Jodi Benson (Ariel), Pat Carroll (Ursula), Rene Auberjonois (for a song as Louis), Buddy Hackett (Scuttle) and Samuel E. Wright (Sebastian). Disney knows what it is doing and with The Little Mermaid all of the vocal talents are professional and emote wonderfully, making the animation work. The actors are all expressive and they sell each of their parts.

On DVD, The Little Mermaid comes with an impressive bevy of features. First, the movie is remastered so it looks better than it did in 1989. There is a second disc which includes deleted scenes (in the form of animatics), additional songs and a new music video. Featurettes explore the historical context of the film in Disney’s library and there are previews for the newer Little Mermaid spin-offs.

For other animated films, please check out my reviews of:
Igor
Despicable Me
The Nightmare Before Christmas

8.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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