It was alright. This was my first time watching the movie in almost a year but re-watching it made me realize that I had had a pretty good recollection of the movie which was good for when I was comparing it to the original story by Hans Christian Andersen. I think for this story, Disney went overboard in rewriting the plot.
Personally, I enjoyed the original story for its details and characters, even though some of those details seemed a bit more painful than necessary if it was going to be told to a child. However, he story's morals were still good. The original little mermaid was in pursuit of a the prince and a soul in the beginning but towards the end, she became focused on gaining a soul, even if it meant no prince for her. The little mermaid in the Disney version, Ariel, is focused on becoming a human to gain Eric and nothing else. I think one of the reasons this movie gets criticized a lot is because Ariel is so adamant about changing herself because she "loves" Eric. I mean, first of all, one would think that the fact that he has legs and she has a fish tail would be enough to ring a bell in her head and say "Nah Ariel, y'all are two different species. You need to chill and stick to a merman". But no, instead she seeks out Ursula in her creepy den in order to get some legs in the hopes that Eric will kiss her in three days, even though she can't talk!!
Who knows, maybe the fact that Disney promoted one species falling for another was their weird way of saying "Oh, love comes in all shapes and sizes" but that message is weakened when there is no "true love" to be seen. Ariel becomes obsessed with Eric for his looks and Eric is obsessed with Ariel's voice. Neither of those things equate to love. Therefore, I don't buy it.
I think re-watching it also made me realize why this movie was never one of my favorites, except for Sebastian's song and Ursula's song because they are catchy and I just can't resist catchy things most of the time. This is one of the few movies where the girl actually has a father figure present. Sure, Triton can be scary, especially when he is angry. I'd be scared of my dad too if he could shoot some zappy things from his trident whenever he feels like it. However, I think his concern was understandable. He claimed that humans were dangerous and when you live under the sea (hehe), of course the humans they meet are dangerous because they're usually fisherman that live to capture and kill sea-life. On top of that, humans are known for their inability to accept those that are different from them without having to run tests and experiment on those beings. If Ariel had been seen by those humans before she had a chance to to get legs, I really doubt she would have found true love or any love at all. Ariel does not see this though, she just sees her dad as someone who is being controlling and rebels against him. The scene where Triton is sitting alone in the dark saying, "What have I done?" just kills me because he was only trying to protect Ariel and she decided to act like a dumb teenage girl.
Overall, this movie is not for me. It's too superficial especially when it is compared to the original story. No me gusta.
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