I’m guessing many women who grew up in the early ’90s have a complicated relationship with The Little Mermaid. Ariel is an impossibly appealing protagonist, the kind that makes you want to spend hours in the pool practicing your perfect emerging-to-the-surface hair flip. But even from a young age it’s easy to see that she’s stuck in a rather regressive story. Ariel transforms herself into a mute human to woo a man she just met. At one point she yells, “I’m 16 years old. I’m not a child anymore!” and rather than treat that exclamation as an ironic one, the film ends with her marrying a guy she’s known for three days. In other words, she’s the perfect encapsulation of the “Disney princess problem.” As a character, Ariel’s inquisitive, spirited, and independent.
The Little Mermaid (aka The New Adventures of The Little Mermaid) is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation base...
With Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Edan Gross, Kenneth Mars. The 1989 animated feature adapted by Disney for TV in a prequel that leads up to the events of the film.
I’m guessing many women who grew up in the early ’90s have a complicated relationship with The Little Mermaid. Ariel is an impossibly appealing protagonist, the kind that makes you want to spend hours in the pool practicing your perfect emerging-to-the-surface hair flip. But even from a young age it’s easy to see that she’s stuck in a rather regressive story. Ariel transforms herself into a mute human to woo a man she just met. At one point she yells, “I’m 16 years old. I’m not a child anymore!” and rather than treat that exclamation as an ironic one, the film ends with her marrying a guy she’s known for three days. In other words, she’s the perfect encapsulation of the “Disney princess problem.” As a character, Ariel’s inquisitive, spirited, and independent.
The Little Mermaid (aka The New Adventures of The Little Mermaid) is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation base...
With Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Edan Gross, Kenneth Mars. The 1989 animated feature adapted by Disney for TV in a prequel that leads up to the events of the film.
