The Little Mermaid

By Tina Grenon

The Classic Fairy TaleThe Little Mermaid

The classic fairy tale was written in 1836 by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson. The ending to his story was not very happy because the prince ends up marrying another princess and the mermaid is left alone. Her mer-sisters gave their hair to the sea witch to keep her from dying, but in return they were to give a knife to the little mermaid and have her kill the prince. Of course, she couldn’t bring herself to kill the man she was in love with and accepted the fact that her own life would be taken. She was suppose to be turned into the sea salt foam but when she refused to kill the prince she was sent to be with the daughters of the air where although she still had an immortal soul, she may gain one by doing good deeds.

Artwork from Hans Christian Andersen’s Version

Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Disney has owned the rights to The Little Mermaid since 1941. Work on the mermaid film was stopped in 1943 due to a strike by workers and in the 80’s it was revisited. After the idea was presented to the CEO’s at Disney in 1985 it was given the go-ahead to begin production. “More money and resources were poured into making The Little Mermaid than any other Disney film in decades” and it was “the first film to win an Academy Award.” “The little mermaid was the last animated film to use hand-painted cels along with analog camera and film work.” “Over one million drawings were done in total.”

Disney Continued…

“The directors insisted that every one of the millions of bubbles be hand-drawn not Xeroxed for this film.” “The wedding scene at the end of the film was the first time CAPS (Computer Animation Production System)was used in a Disney feature.”

UNDER THE SEA

UNDER THE SEA

Original Art Pieces Created for the Film…

Original Walt Disney Production Cel from The Little Mermaid$2,200.00

Did You Know? The characters in the classic tale were

nameless

The classic tale describes the intense pain in transformation unlike Disney’s version which omits pain altogether

There is a grandmother who cares for the young mermaids in the classic tale

Flounder and Sebastian were Disney creations and not part of the original tale

Movies with mermaids:

Splash the Movie-1984Aquamarine-2006

Games with mermaid theme:

Dress up gamesBoard gamesVideo games

"Did You Know... The Little Mermaid Edition, Part 1." Did You Know... The Little Mermaid Edition, Part 1. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

"First Animation Art - Cedar Rapids, Iowa." First Animation Art - Cedar Rapids, Iowa. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

"Introduction." Introduction. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

"The Little Mermaid." Hans Christian Andersen:. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

"Trivia." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Works Cited