The Biggest Way Disney's The Little Mermaid Differs From The Original
And we are not talking about, you know, the obvious one.
There has already been some backlash regarding the announcement of an upcoming live-action remake of Disney 's The Little Mermaid. Quite understandably: not everyone loves remakes, especially of the iconic films of our childhood, and not all the remakes of Disney are equally good or even good at all. But most importantly, Disney has not much to offer to replace the gags, the jokes, and the extreme naivety of the original material. So the real big question is: what is original and what Disney has to change to make the old story work in the new world?
As we all very well know, the animated musical of 1989 was very loosely based on the literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in the first half of the 19th century. But there are very few things in common between the two. Both have the mermaid, the prince, and the sea witch that prepares a potion to give the mermaid beautiful legs instead of a beautiful voice.
But all the other parts of the musical were simple inventions of Disney's storyteller. In Anderson's fairy tale, there was no loving father king Triton, no ever-plotting evil Ursula, no Sebastian the crab, and no Flounder the fish. It was definitely much less exciting to be under the sea in Anderson's world because all his mermaid wanted was to gain an immortal soul and live in Heaven. The prince was seen more as a tool, and not even a necessary one.
But the biggest difference between the original story and the Disney version was that The Little Mermaid is not a love story at all. The unnamed mermaid from the fairy tale wanted to marry the prince but has given him up the moment she realized that he didn't and would never love her.
What she really wanted was an immortal soul, and she did get it in the end. Ariel from the film wanted the prince, and she did get him, but there is something unsatisfying in the whole turn of events.
The story of Ariel is basically the story of going from being the possession of her father into being the possession of her husband.
So if The Little Mermaid is to be remade successfully, it probably has to focus more on the heroine finding out what she really wants not with whom she wants to be. The classical girl-meets-boy story would probably not work in our time and day. And we all wonder if Disney truly understands it.