Disney Movie Countdown Day 14 - The Little Mermaid

Biggest Memory from this movie: watching it with Cousins in Marshfield and hearing my aunt's Ursala impression. It's a nice memory, and Little Mermaid remains a very good movie. Now that I'm a good decade older than the 16 year-old Ariel, I really get where King Triton was coming from. He terrified me when I was younger and now I pretty much agreed with him the whole movie; except for the part wear he trashed her collection. That's a bit of an over reaction. I guess though, if I found out my youngest daughter was obsessed with say, man-eating cougars and wanted to run off and marry one, and had a secret shine built to their greatness, I'd probably be a little upset too. Anyway, Ariel is pretty much what you'd expect from a curious, confident teenager. She could use better parenting (this is a movie where a mother could negate the whole plot with a nice heart to heart), but sometimes, you just gotta let kids make mistakes and hope they don't hand your mortal enemy the keys to the kingdom and the super powers that go with it.

As for the movie itself, Ursala is one of the more entertaining Disney villains. She's smart, witty, and capable. She's also one of the few villains to get straight up murdered. She gets run through by the prow of a ship! Quick, name another Disney Villain intentionally murdered by one of the heroes. I'll wait. . . doesn't happen very often does it? I'd say this is some sort of subtle jab against women/fish people, but I have a feeling it has more to do with the fact that you can't easily slip and fall to your death standing in the ocean.

The supporting characters are awesome. Scuttle, Sebastian, Flounder, Louie the crazy Chef. Quick nerds, who played the Chef in Little Mermaid? I'll give you a hint - Deep Space 9. Answer: Security Chief Odo. Look it up. The man has the funniest song in the movie and he's a Sci-fi icon. Speaking of music, The Little Mermaid begins a run of some of the best music in the entire history of Disney, and it's all as good as you remember.

9/10

Tomorrow, I'll be watching either Snow White or Mulan, I'm leaving it up to the readers to vote. post your vote in the comments or on my facebook page.