A Fairytale Not Forgotten, But Maimed
Hans Christian Andersen published a story in 1837 and this tale, like many of his other works became a well known fairy tale. A classic. Then in 1989 something happened. Someone made a movie of this story. Sort of. It had the same name. It even shared a number of major plot points, but the ending... Let's just say so many artistic liberties were taken that the original storyline was murdered, dismembered, and then reconstructed into something that bears a faint resemblance to what it once was, much like Frankenstein's monster. I am speaking of The Little Mermaid . So, what did Disney's plot salad get right? A number of things: the little mermaid being youngest daughter of the widowed sea king, a bunch of sisters, her fascination with the surface world, a prince having a birthday party on a ship that sailed into a storm, her rescuing him and leaving him on a beach, trading her ability to speak and sing to a sea witch for legs, the princ...