The Little Mermaid

Allow Disney to take you on a nautical adventure filled with music, villains and fair maidens...

Under the sea is a world you couldn't imagine, but which is much more similar to your own world than you might think. The Little Mermaid is a brilliant musical fantasy that only Disney could create.

"The Little Mermaid" is in fact a 16-year old, lustrous red haired mer girl who is perhaps not as mature as she should be. Ariel (Jodi Benson) prefers scavenging among the ruins of old ships rather than attending musical concerts for her father, King Triton (Kenneth Mars). Her two best friends are a yellow-and-blue boyish fish named Flounder (Jason Marin) and a cross-eyed, often inaccurate seagull named Scuttle (Buddy Hacket).

Ariel lives in a world of fantastical reveries which has prompted her father to appoint Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright), a caribbean-inspired crab, to be her trustee babysitter. Sebastian discovers Ariel's secret grotto where she keeps all of her "earthly treasures" that she's managed to save from destruction.

More than anything Ariel would like to experience life with humans and sings the poignant song "Part Of Your World". When a horrible rainstorm overturns Prince Eric's (Christopher Daniel Barnes) ship, Ariel finally has her chance. She rescues Eric and is immediately in love. Poor Sebastian tries to distract her, even singing the Jamaican-esque "Under The Sea", but Ariel ignores him. Even a fight with her father can't shake the headstrong Ariel, so she decides to take her request to live on land to the sea witch Ursula.

Ursula (Pat Carroll) is an obese, purple skinned octopus-woman who, with the help of Flotsam and Jetsam(her coniving eel henchman), persuades Ariel by singing "Poor Unfortunate Souls" to relinquish her voice in return for human legs, but she is only allowed to keep these legs for three days. If by the sunset of the third day she hasn't kissed Eric, then she will be turned into one of the pitiful polyps that Ursula keeps in her secret lair.

Ariel has lost her voice, but gained a Prince. They almost kiss while Sebastian serenades them with "Kiss The Girl", but their boat is tipped over by Flotsam and Jetsam. Equipped with Ariel's angelic voice, Ursula transforms herself into raven-haired Vanessa with the intent of stealing Eric away.

But being that this is a Disney movie, do you really think it's going to have a sad ending? I thought not. I urge you to watch "A Little Mermaid" and to fall in love with the idea that it is a profound movie which has lessons that can apply to not only mermaids, but to humans as well.