MovieChat Forums > The Little Mermaid (1989) Discussion > Ariel has got to be the worst Disney pri...

Ariel has got to be the worst Disney princess


Ignorant, impatient, dumb, self-loathing, wanting what she can't have, her scene of but daddy I love him is laughable, she didn't even got to speak to Eric, at least Pocahonatas had several scenes were she got to know John Smith, and Eric is an absolute meathead.

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101 Dalmatians sucks azz.

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That is a masterpiece, probably the best Disney film. The script is flawless.

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No, it's crap. One of Disney's worst movies.

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tO A moron like you maybe, but it is a masterpiece.

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I am the moron? You can't even type properly and you think 101 Dalmatians is a masterpiece!

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It is a masterpiece, the best script they ever did, only an imbecile would not realize this.

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Only a delusional imbecile like you would think I'm the imbecile and that 101 Dalmatians is a masterpiece. It's a horrible script and they had it so easy with the book already been written. Disney screwed it up royally!

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Shut up imbecile.

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Thanks for proving my point.

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I agree. I love "101 Dalmatians". It's always been one of my favorites. The animated film, not the Glenn Close remake.

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You really don't like 101 Dalmatians?

Steve Harris of Iron Maiden is a Brony

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who is the princess in that movie btw?

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I would love to give a deep and thoughtful paragraph about why Ariel is a wonderful princess but I doubt you would care what I have to say. You've been at this for a while now I see so at this point you get nothing but a theme song to sing. You've been on the fence for a while, but I feel you've finally earned it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9gN2hdybFY

"If life is getting you down and needs uplifting, then please come dance with me!"

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Tiana and Jasmine are far weaker than Ariel for me. Maybe I'm being biased but that's my 2 cents.

Steve Harris of Iron Maiden is a Brony

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I don't even know where to begin with this... Ariel's not ignorant at all. She at least pursues knowledge and corrects any mistakes she made. And for the record, she's not dumb either. In fact, in her debut scene of raiding that ship, she told Flounder (who was obviously faking illness to get out of helping her) she suggested he stay out and be on the lookout for sharks, which if anything suggested that she was at least smart enough to know likely life-threatening risks and weigh the reward. And impatient? She waited for who knows how long to even interact with humans, and it's implied that she had a long enough lasting interest in humans to have built up at least one collection. That sounds like patience alright. And as far as her not speaking to Eric, to be fair, she never had the chance to do so (and besides, personally, I think the fact that she observed his actions anonymously got her to know him far better than if she talked with him, and if anything, simply talking to a person isn't enough to gauge whether they are what you think they are. Just ask Anna and Hans. She talked with him, yet it turned out he was simply putting on a show).

And Eric is no meathead at all. Actually, being the captain of a ship requires quite a bit of knowledge in Mathematics and Astrography since you need to know the nautical miles to a destination, so he actually would have been pretty intelligent, certainly smart enough to captain a ship.

Ariel is definitely not the worst DP by far. Heck, I wouldn't even call Belle the worst DP ever. That slot is taken by Merida, who is practically a sociopath.

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I agree with your lookout for sharks comment. When I first saw that scene I immediately made the connection that Ariel must be smart as she could ascertain the dangers involved.

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OK Now I saw this and just waited to think and ponder this

And to see WHAT if any response this would get

SOOOOOOOOOO As handle implies..............................

The film was marketed and NOT given much support by someone with the initials J K Since he signs the pay checks at Disney not many are gonna argue
And Disney wanted to try something different SO The animators decided to "tweak" the princess mold for a Disney film and we got in short a rebellious teen hence Ariel's Ignorance Being a teenager and slight cliche' this brings us to her impatience

If Ariel has flaws (AND YES SHE DOES) it is the forementioned due to lack of wisdom due to a young age and the fact that she is the youngest of six (Anyone remember the other six princesses?)

As to intelligence Ariel is NOT a product of the human world (Would she know what being dry is? Cooked food? Clothing?) so she would not know what human things are SO she looks for someone who does (Sadly her humanologist does not know what he is doing)

Self Loathing? Well that is a tough one since she does not like being a mermaid BUT DID SHE CHOSE THIS LIFE?

How many at a young age wished we were something or someone else?

Basically lets simplify this Ariel is a young girl who though well meaning is not perfect WHICH is why she is a popular character she is more human then most people realize As time goes by she may improve or maybe not
This is shown at end when she realizes her father does care about her feelings opinions etc hence her response at end Also because Disney films are SO influential people want the characters to be perfect and even then people have problems with that The Little Mermaid in 1989 was a bold daring attempt to try something new BUT not to intense If you did not like the film only th e overzealous fan would give you a hard time

NOW ANYBODY GOES CRAZY when their prized franchise is chastised. This trend started to go REALLY bad in the nineties and is a price of democracy

Bottom line Ariel is a free spirit who though well meaning is always not responsible or thinks things through but that does NOT make her the worst princess. She complains if things do not work out How many of us have done this?

The Dumb label is just as hard to stick as who is the beat one The original three would fill this bill as best or worse if they were not damsel's in distress

Also Disney takes the Fairy Tales they adapt and change them accordingly and convince people they are right with in your face marketing (Can you say Beauty and The Beast Frozen Hannah Montana.(yes not a princess in the royal sense BUT Marketed in your face)
And Again Ariel is NOT DUMB or SPOILED Irresponsible Stubborn not to focused and has lousy taste in men(Blame Snow White's Price for that) yes

Lastly 101 Dalmations 1960's side from questionable animation not Disney's worst The 1996 one despite Glenn Close NOW THAT WAS BAD AND IN YOUR FACE MARKETED

I generally do not go to sites on imdb to bash films like this UNLESS provoked and this statement borders on that hence the response and I tried to restrain myself here

As to Blueray it may look bad due to Disney's love/HATE relationship with the film

It was supposed to be in 3 D and was it?


AND THAT'S MY TWO CENTS

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"Would she know what being dry is?"

Doesn't she sit on a rock? She talks to Buddy Hackett's seagull character, right?

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Clearly, you've never seen Brave.

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Well, we'll have to take consideration that Ariel does get to know Eric when she becomes a human.

But it's interesting that you bring up "Pocahontas" in this regard, considering how it does have a similar issue to "Mermaid". In Ariel's case, she spied on Eric and actually saved him from drowning. Yet she sings to him and Eric never finds out who she really is (or the fact that she is a mermaid). Afterwards, Ariel is faced with a couple of obstacles to get to know Eric; She's a complete different specie than him and also has a father who strictly forbids her to seek him. Another obstacle is her deal with Ursula, who also has it's consequences of her own; She has to get him fall for her in order to be a human or otherwise she'll get turned back into a mermaid.

At least Pocahontas and John Smith's relationship was different. Pocahontas spies on Smith and they happen to meet and getting to know each other. However, Pocahontas is initially ignorant about that the Settlers are potentially dangerous and that they're not having the best agenda (at least initially). When she learns about the treat, at least she doesn't deliberately rebels against her father to see Smith. Though she goes with Smith when he approaches her in the cornfield, she deliberately wants to obey the rules, which is proven several points afterwards. And when the accident happens, at least Powhatan never gets to know about their relationship before the execution.

So in those cases, Pocahontas and Ariel's situations are different. At least Ariel had an obstacle to overcome before getting with Eric, whereas Pocahontas gets to know Smith and afterwards the obstacles get to hamper their relationship.

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I think the worst I saw was oliver and company

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I think the worst I saw was oliver and company

wat has oliver somethin`2 do with dis?

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Yeah, but she learned her lesson after daddy torched her private grove, and Ursula lied to her and tried destroying everything she loved. And she did eventually get to talk to Prince Eric, just not on camera.

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Its not that Ariel is the worst Disney princess, it's that "The Little Mermaid" has the worst moral-of-the-story.

Yeah, sell your voice, abandon your friends and family, deal with Dark Powers, and change your body to get the man you want, and you'll get your Disney happy ending! I'm sure everyone who has a daughter wants them to do the same.

That annoying girl from "Brave" was the worst Disney princess.

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Ariel is not my favorite Disney princess, Belle is. But when I see a post like this, I have to defend her. Ariel dreamed of living on land even before she put eyes on Eric, and I don't think she even was that close to her family during most of this movie (she hardly spent any time with any of her sisters, and she couldn't get along with her father). She wouldn't have gone to Ursula and agreed to her deal, if Triton had not been stupid enough to destroy her collection of human artefacts and put her in that vulnerable position. And I sure like that Ariel was the only person in the kingdom, who had the guts to tell Triton that all humans can't be all that bad.

Of course, Ariel was lucky that Eric was as good as she thought that he would be. But hey, it's a Disney movie. And remember that he was looking for some mysterious girl, whom he didn't really know a thing about except for that she had saved his life and that she had a beautiful singing voice? Yeah... So I say both of them lucked out. And I have also noticed that none of the Ariel haters brings up that Ariel and Eric had to help each other and defeat Ursula together. But they did, so I have to say that they deserved their happy ending!

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Remember in the original story, The Prince married another girl and the Little Mermaid committed suicide? Because she'd give up her voice and her family and friends and her life under the sea for a dirtbag man who never wanted her in the first place, and the story was meant to tell young people not to make asses of themselves in the name of love? Yeah, the ending that Disney chucked because it didn't fit their brand.

But then, it doesn't do to think seriously about Disney animated stories, because if you do, then you realize the moral of "The Lion King" is: If you're born into the upper class, you'll be forgiven no matter how much you fuck up your life.

Perhaps that's why "Little Mermaid" and "Lion King" have never been my Disney favorites.




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I seriously hate the original ending. It makes no sense at all from a modern perspective, and it seems to just be gruesome because Andersen was a depressed emo.

And how did you interpret the message if "Lion King" that way? It is more about taking your responsibility and not fleeing from your past.

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No, Anderson's story still makes sense. People haven't stopped doing idiotic things in the name of love in all the centuries the story has been around, and trying to get someone who's out of your league by completely changing everything about yourself still doesn't work. The original story isn't exactly a fun read, but IMHO it does make a valid point.

And "The Lion King" is about a really dreadful system of government.

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Well, I think I get your point. Even so, the message of the original story comes across as being less "be happy with whom you are and don't change yourself" than "you have no hope ever of making your dreams come true or getting the man you want". And that is indeed depressing, and reactionary.

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I don't think the original "Little Mermaid" story is intended to tell the reader that they can't make their dreams come true, more that being a damn fool won't make their dreams come true. I mean, how are you going to get a man without being able to talk to him? Legs and external genitalia aren't actually enough! The competition has those too, and they can give him... conversation as well!

But seriously, the moral of the Andersen story is probably intended to be "Changing yourself is no way to find True Love". I mean, everyone does that, when they're trying to get the attention of someone attractive everyone tries to present themselves as successful, emotionally secure, cool, popular, and free of dealbreakers... and everyone hopes that they can get the other person interested enough to stick around when the truth comes out. Of course the Little Mermaid is an extreme case, but some people really do things like faking backgrounds and getting plastic surgery in order to get what they want. Very can carry that off, because like the Little Mermaid, if they try to be something they're not, they find they don't understand what it is they're trying to be.

Egads, the more seriously I think about this story, the less I like the Disney "Little Mermaid".





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I hate pocahantas for obvious racist, sexist classist etc, follow up is hunchback of notredame (ableism) and beauty and the beast (stocholm syndrome, ableism)


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"Yeah, sell your voice, abandon your friends and family, deal with Dark Powers, and change your body to get the man you want, and you'll get your Disney happy ending! I'm sure everyone who has a daughter wants them to do the same."

My mother gave me the TLM video for my birthday and it became my favourite movie as a young girl. I never ended up doing any of those things, because, you know, it's just a movie???😕

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In the original story she doesn't get her man, and The Moral Of The Story is that it's a stupid idea to deal with dark forces and change your body to get a man, because what the hell kind of prince will marry a person with no voice? And the Disney film changed it to a "happy ending" where dealing with Dark Powers turned out to be a great idea!

But the heroine in "Brave" is irritating and destructive, she's still my nominee for worst Disney Princess.

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"The Moral Of The Story is that it's a stupid idea to deal with dark forces and change your body to get a man, because what the hell kind of prince will marry a person with no voice?"

Uhm, not really.

"And the Disney film changed it to a "happy ending" where dealing with Dark Powers turned out to be a great idea!"

Uhm, not really.

Seems to me you haven't read the story or watched the movie.😕

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Here's the original story by Hans Christian Anderson. In it, she will become seafoam (die) if she doesn't get her man within the time limit stated by the Dark Forces, and she doesn't and he marries someone else. Her sisters appear and tell her that she can go back to being a mermaid if she kills her prince, but she refuses and dies. And as with the "Little Match Girl", she dies a miserable and lonely death on Earth, and is rewarded with a very nice afterlife, and that's the original "fairy tale ending". Andersen's fairy tales could be very dark, although not as dark as the traditional stories collected by the Grimm Brothers*.

https://andersen.sdu.dk/moocfiles/littlemermaid.pdf

Of course Disney wasn't going to assure mainstream family audiences that if you sell your soul and repent and die you can still have a good afterlife! Naw, Ariel gets her man, she gets her voice and her family back, she even gets a victory, and no. It's never going to be a favorite film of mine.


* Read "The Robber Bridegroom" some time.

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I don't need a link, I own the story. The moral has nothing to do with making deals with dark forces or changing one's body for a man. If you TRULY want to know, the message is that finding happiness on earth is not important, but rather being able to live in the kingdom of God. It's a recurring theme in Andersen's tales.

Watch the Disney film and you'll see that the message is that Ariel made the wrong choice going to Ursula. But obviously Disney is not going to give the heroine a tragic ending.

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I agree with this. I would also say that the sea witch isn't a dark force. She's not a villain or anything, she's just a character who allows the little mermaid to get legs.

I think you've nailed it with finding happiness on earth not being important. Sure she liked the prince, but the whole reason she wanted to be human in the first place was that she wanted a soul. She was willing to have the agony of walking on 2 legs so that her life could have meaning. Her sacrifice of not killing the prince does allow her to have that chance when she joins the daughters of the air.

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Exactly.

I mentioned in another post the sea witch isn't necessarily evil (although not good either), she even warns her that it's not a good idea. The mermaid in the original tale is not impulsive, she's very determined to become human and gain an immortal soul.

I don't think Andersen condemns her actions at all, in fact, it was the only way for her to get what she desired.

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Ah. Well I would miss that, due to my belief system, which does not include being comforted by promises of a better afterlife.

In fact, stories of people like the Little Match Girl having a rotten life, dying, and being showered with goodies in the afterlife make me furious, don't get me started.

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I don't believe in the afterlife either, but it's clear Andersen did.

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Ariel and Eric defeated Ursula together, so they do deserve their happy ending.
I can't believe that people keep forgetting that!

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Look, the movie is obviously not trying to say Ariel made the right choice going to Ursula, but she would not have done so if Triton hadn't been so overprotective. Sure, a bit too simplistic, but it's a kid's movie. The point is that Ariel dreamed of becoming human and there really was no good reason for it not to happen. Why punish her because someone with bad intentions took advantage of her desperation?

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