The release of the live-action “Little Mermaid” completes Disney’s recapitulation of its early ’90s animated renaissance. It’s interesting that of the big four (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King”) it saved the one that started it all for last.
The original animated musical exploded onto the world in 1989, becoming probably the second most important film in the Disney canon. In many ways it accomplished what “Snow White” had done exactly 50 years before, reestablishing Disney as a pioneer of entertainment storytelling, distinctly for families.
Like “Snow White,” part of the incredible success was due to loosely adapting Germanic fairy tales. These stories are broadly well known, so audiences have some idea what they’re getting, but Disney always changes them significantly. Sometimes, as is probably the case with the 1989 “Mermaid,” the changes improve the fairy tale. This actually puts them solidly within the Germanic tradition of fairy tale storytelling, because fairy tales are almost always compiled and edited from older traditions.
This time, though, they adapt themselves more than Hans Christian Andersen. Unfortunately, as tends to happen when a copy is copied, the final image is, to put it mildly, distorted. The 1989 “Mermaid” is an absolute masterpiece of animated and musical storytelling, due in no small part to the genius of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. From start to finish, no moment is wasted, and nothing is dull. It’s a masterclass in how to make a film.
Sadly, the 2023 “Mermaid” is not. The undersea
