buckmana EXACTLY! Ariel has so much agency in her own story, I feel like the biggest critics of this work haven't watched the movie since they were children. And it's not like she's even changing her appearance for a man! Her face still looks the same, she's still probably the same weight as she was before, she just has "two fins" instead of one and that was something she's wanted for years and years. Ariel wasn’t self-conscious about her tail so much as physically limited by it to get to the place she felt she truly belonged.
And I totally agree! Because everyone is a film critic and a video can go viral about the princesses not being feminist icons or whatever, Disney is under more pressure now than ever to create "perfect" characters, but in the pursuit of that what we get now are characters that aren't human enough and don't make enough mistakes and learn from them. If someone makes one bad decision and is forced to deal with the consequences of their actions and learned from that, is that a bad thing? Should every piece of media that contains people who are impulsive or lazy or selfish or passive have those characters all be considered bad people? What even makes a good person? Can any of us truly be considered good if we've made all those mess-ups in the past, even if we've learned and moved on from them? Side note, I've been watching The Good Place with Kristen Bell, definitely an excellent show for those interested in ethics and moral philosophy, also it's freakin' hilarious and the twist at the end of the first season puts it at a whole new level above any other show I've ever seen. Speaking of Kristen Bell, she was also in the news recently for criticizing Snow White, but for a different but similar-ish reason.
This reasoning I can understand a little more and shows the original story and adaptation to be more of a product of the times. But at the same time...Snow White is presumed dead at that point and only a kiss would wake her up, so it's not like she's even asleep? And also another bit of a double standard on the original stories- Princess Anna gets engaged to someone she just met and is stripped of her memories with her sister without her consent, so is Frozen not ok then either?
I think we can let fairytales be fairytales to enjoy at face value and create or find other stories for kids that provide them with up-to-date models of behavior. Fairytales don't need to be a "this is how you should live your life", even if they once provided morals and lessons for older generations. I see it more as entertainment. A story to me isn't entertaining if characters are without flaws and don't make irrational decisions- that to me is what drives the plot. I do appreciate stories more when characters see the consequences of their actions and learn from their mistakes. If not, then I think it's an excellent teaching moment for children. It's good to engage with your kids and discuss the story after you've read it and make sure you're on the same page about what is right and what is wrong. But even if things happen where a good character does bad things, it's a moment to show kids that nobody is perfect! Which I think is what Kristen Bell is going for here, and at least she's not banning these stories from her kids' lives but using them as valuable teaching moments of discussion and reflection- that's something I can definitely get on board with!
A review I saw of The Little Mermaid on Broadway sums this up in better words than I'd be able to come up with:
Another point to add for The Little Mermaid being more feminist than not would be this: “Daughters of Triton” indicates despite King Triton coming off as this benevolent ruler, he’s kinda exploiting his daughters by. showing them off. They serve him for his own bragging rights. Everyone who knows Ariel remarks at how lovely her voice is, what a talent she is, what a valuable asset she has. Ariel probably appreciates what they think but she doesn't depend on it. She doesn't want to become a concert soloist singer or anything like that. She is more interested in pursuing her own personals goals and interests/hobbies no matter what the people around her are saying. That seems REALLY feminist to me!
If I ever wrote my own screenplay of The Little Mermaid, I'd include a brief scene before Triton transforms Ariel back into a human where Ariel gets to connect with Triton and apologizes (she briefly apologizes in the movie after the sun sets and Ursula has taken her, and there is a scene like this in the musical, I think the original alternate ending had a short scene like this as well)- it'd be a nice moment for Ariel to say "I messed up and I'm sorry. How can I ever repay you?" and Triton can realize the errors in his ways and admit to her that she's helped him see that all humans aren't as awful as he once thought. I wish the film had more moments showing Ariel's genuine kindness and helpfulness, we see it a lot in the TV series but a movie is only so long, I think having more moments like that would have general audiences more likely to be on her side and see her as a good person who had a passion she needed to chase. I do get that the screenwriters were probably going for a "show, don't tell" way of having Ariel's facial expressions and emotions inform the audience that she is truly sorry (look at her face when she's faced with the reality of turning into a polyp, and Triton taking her place, all because of her actions).
Ursula rigs the human spell to depend solely upon Eric kissing Ariel- "not just any kiss. The kiss of true love,". And she's only got three days! The stakes are high! This forces Ariel, and by extension the movie as a whole, to focus more on Ariel getting together with Eric and less on Ariel getting to fulfill her lifelong dream of getting legs, and the film really gets the audience invested in this romance since Ariel's life is on the line or else she belongs to Ursula. Ariel was just naive and was taken advantage of by someone seeking to gain power, and when she realized Ursula's true motives, she lashes out at her, calling her a monster. That moment is really telling to me. It shows that she deeply cares about the pain she's caused her father and is angry that Ursula used her- she's ready and willing to beat Ursula up! (and we know Ariel's a strong gal from her opening the grotto door, saving Eric, etc. I'm not saying she could easily beat Ursula to a pulp but like, some serious damage could be done lol). And it's not like Ariel's a dummy just because she's 16. She is clever and can think really quickly, remember her actions getting out of the shark attack? She trapped him like it was nothing! And she adapted to human life impressively quickly- she learned how to walk and dance in little to no time at all. In Poor Unfortunate Souls, in an effort to manipulate Ariel, Ursula tells her to be “withdrawn”, and that “it’s she who holds her tongue that gets the man”, all to make her feel better about signing her voice away in the contract. But all of those things go against the very core of Ariel’s personality. So what does she do? Ariel doesn't bend at all to what Ursula describes as men's expectations of women. She's quirky, awkward, assertive, a risk-taker, a goofball, curious, and full of life and unafraid of showing her full range of expressions and emotions. She persists when she's afraid, she doesn't give up when everything seems hopeless, she cares deeply about the people she loves, she seeks higher knowledge and is basically an anthropologist, she's super confident in herself, oh I could go on and on! We like Ariel because she's not perfect, we understand her because we have felt like others haven't understood us, and we root for her when she pours her heart out. Maybe she didn't need to change, but the people around her did? She is learning what it is to be human.
So by the time we reach the big climax of the film, Ursula has completely taken advantage of Ariel and insulted her intelligence. Ariel doesn't engage with Ursula by way of confrontation or actual fighting until the point where Eric and Triton end up in certain danger - it shows that Ariel is willing to face the consequences of her actions, but not willing to let the people she loves be negatively affected by her actions. Ariel sacrificed a lot that made her own life directly inconvenient, but when it comes to the direct lives of her loved ones, she won't let them go without a fight. She never put anyone's lives at risk besides her own. But I do love that the film shows that she's realistic and not immune to fault. She's resilient, even if she takes two steps forward and one step back, she keeps going. Even though taking her dreams into her own hands caused so much damage, she learns from it and all her persistence and hard work pay off in the end.
The Little Mermaid is not just Ariel's journey to get to the place she knows she truly belongs, but also reminds us all to keep an open mind to the wonderful people surrounding us. Eric has this idea of his dream girl, and when Ariel comes into his life, he's not expecting the connection they have because he's built up his dream girl to be the one with the beautiful voice who saved him. Ariel proved to him, and to herself, that she didn't need to live up to his expectations to win him over. She just had to be herself. And when she gets her voice back, Eric doesn't think any less of Ariel because he's fallen in love with her as she is for who she is, not because she now fits right into his dream. The musical had a lovely moment where Eric and Ariel connected over dancing ("One Step Closer" and "The Contest") - Ariel is unable to sing to win Eric's affections, but that doesn't matter to him. He's realizing his dream girl was right there all along. Even when he hears Ariel's voice coming from offstage (Ursula), he doesn't care. He has made his choice, and so has she.
Triton believed all humans were awful because the only humans he knew about were cruel and wicked. Ariel's actions proved him wrong. When we plan out how our lives should be and who specifically we should be spending it with, we're limiting ourselves. To me, TLM teaches us not to limit ourselves just because of our own expectations, society's expectations, or our family's expectations. People say Ariel didn't change from the beginning to the end and only shows growth because she "whines and gets what she wants" - I disagree. From the moment we're introduced to Ariel all we know about her is that she skips rehearsal to go treasure hunting for human things and visits the surface to have them appraised (such a visit would be considered illegal). And it's established she does this a LOT. So we know that she doesn't really have much regard for her father's rules, but that's a very teenager thing to do like to defy authority, but she justifies it because she's engaging in learning about a culture she truly feels is her home. By the very end of the story, Ariel has grown up (granted she's 16 which isn't that realistic, but chalk that up to fairytale logic, and looking at life expectancies back then maybe it isn't all that unreasonable to be settling down at that age? Eric is pressured to settle down and he's just 18). She respects her father's authority. She knows why the rules were placed and she knows the harm she did by breaking them. She goes from nearly hating her father to realizing her father always loved her but didn't always show it, and relays it back to him with the line "I love you, daddy". And Triton too. I'm sure he thought Ariel was just being a punk teenager and was just trying to stick it to the man by not obeying his order, but when he learned the full extent of her true motives and saw how far she was willing to go, it became much more real and he understood that he maybe overstepped his bounds with a few of his rulings. Ariel didn't really have direct proof that humans were ok, but she felt it in her heart given everything she's learned about them (we'll ignore some plot holes regarding the TV series and that one episode with Hans Christian Andersen, etc). Her relationship with her father matures as they learn from one another. In this time of her own growth and development, she's finally being understood. To quote Sebastian, "Children have got to be free to lead their own lives."