Rediscovering Disney: The Little Mermaid

We’ve started trying to add to Baguette’s movie preferences. We had no luck with Cinderella (she only likes “The Work Song”) or Sleeping Beauty, and Lilo & Stitch got no reaction at all.

We tried non-Disney (or at least previously-not-from Disney) with Star Wars,* which was of momentary interest–right up until the cantina scene, at which point she started shrieking.

What is entering the rotation is The Little Mermaid. Baguette only watches about half of it, but that’s how she started watching Frozen, too. She asks for it by name (although the first time she did, when I asked her if she wanted to see Frozen, she said, “I want to see fish, please”). It’s a problematic movie, what with the stereotyped musical fish and the love-at-first-sight/hearing-without-any-real-knowledge-of-the-person.

BUT.

I’m actually less bothered by the movie than I expected to be. Because Ariel doesn’t know Eric, but he actually does have a lot of good qualities. True, he’s easily distracted and enchanted. He’s also brave, and a quick thinker. Ariel saves him, and he saves her as well. They’re mutually supportive.

What I’m saying is, they could do a lot worse.

That said?

Photo from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Littlemermaid-disneyscreencaps.com-2976.jpg
Photo from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Littlemermaid-disneyscreencaps.com-2976.jpg

That is a lot of Merpeople who sold their souls to Ursula. Now that he’s married off that headstrong youngest daughter, I think King Triton needs to take a hard look at reform.

*There was a brief window in which the original trilogy was available on DVD as it aired in the theaters. These are the copies we own, because I want to make sure that Baguette knows not just that Han shot first, but that Han was the only one who fired a shot.

4 thoughts on “Rediscovering Disney: The Little Mermaid

  1. Have you guys tried Nemo? That’s been the girls’ gateway movie drug for all of them.

    Also, since she loves animal so much maybe Lion King?

    1. We haven’t tried Nemo yet–so far, music seems to be the big hook for Baguette (ooh, hook, see what I did there?). And we need to get a blu-ray player for The Lion King; DVDs are currently retailing for $99-159 on Amazon. Blu-ray has been on our upgrade list for a while, and it’s cheaper to buy the player (or even a home player and a portable one) than to buy a new DVD.

      The real answer, of course, is eBay. Because with her love of zoo animals, I do think she’d enjoy The Lion King.

  2. My son knows both versions of the Star Wars trilogy . . . he far prefers the “Han Shot First” version 🙂

    And “Kiss the Girl” may be the all-time best Disney song.

    1. Your son is wise. And I really like that song. I think it loses out to the big Busby Berkeley numbers like “Under the Sea” and “Be Our Guest”–but then, I also think “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman” is a better song than “Let It Go” (and I’m not a “Let It Go” hater at all).

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