Ariel - Blog Posts

ARIELL

Why we still love our Disney princesses 👸❤️🎉🥰

Animated Disney Princesses - Part 1

The Little Mermaid (2023)

The Little Mermaid 1989

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Also for people who think that Disney didn't make a good princess film with a good female role! I'm going to add a movie from 2015 which is pretty recent and did an amazing job at what they wanted to do with Snow white... Strange magic!!

Marianne had her heart broken by a man who she thought she could love but betrayed her and took her naivety and she rightfully became angry about it when people (her dad,sister, other fairies. Etc.) Tried to forcer her to take him back she stood up in what she believed it

When Dawn was kidnapped she went after her and tried to save her from the bog king and discovered that hey maybe not all people will hurt me if I let them in and they fell in love and the bog king knew she loved him when she didn't fall under the effects of the love potion!

Also, Dawn who loves to easily discovers that who she is looking for is right in front of her (Sunny her best friend) despite him being an elf and her a fairy they love each other.

And at the end, the cheater gets what he deserves

Rant incoming

I feel like the problem with a lot of Disney's live action remakes (and arguably Wish) is they're trying to appeal to a crowd that no longer exists, namely the people who used to claim that the Disney Princesses were sexist.

All the interviews tend to include, "Well she's not chasing a MAN anymore" which...almost no one sees the princesses like that, anymore. Virtually NO ONE still believes the princesses are man-chasing sexist caricatures of women.

Cinderella is now hailed as an abuse victim who stayed strong long enough to get help to get out of her situation. Anyone who says she should have saved herself is basically regarded as a victim blamer. And it's very clear in the film she wasn't looking to marry the prince, she just wanted a night off. She was the only one who wasn't in line to meet him. She didn't find out she met the prince until he went looking for her!

Snow White is now hailed for her negotiation skills, ability to calm down after extreme stress (she had a moment of panic and had to cry for a bit, but who wouldn't after finding out The Queen hired someone to kill you?), and ability to take charge of a house of adult men. And again, she was an abuse victim, this time trying to escape ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS. While she dreamed of her prince, it was secondary to her main goal of SURVIVAL. There are also entire video essays about how Snow White gave hope to people during The Great Depression.

Everyone acknowledges that Ariel wanted to be human BEFORE meeting Eric. We all know she was a nerd hyperfixating on humans, and also standing up to her prejudiced father.

We understand Sleeping Beauty wasn't the main character, the Three Good Fairies were, AND PHILLIP WOULD NEVER HAVE BEATEN MALEFICENT WITHOUT THEM! He literally depended on them! WOMEN SAVED THE DAY! But even then, is it really such a sin for a girl to fantasize about romance and fall for someone with corny pickup lines?

We all understand Jasmine just wanted someone to treat her LIKE A PERSON. She rejected every Prince before Aladdin because they treated her like a prize. So why did they need her to want to be Sultan? How did that make her more feminist when she already wanted to be treated like an equal and have a say in her future? Is it only empowering if you want a career in politics?

We admire that Belle, despite living in a judgemental village, was kind to everyone (even though she found the village life dull), and her story teaches girls that the guy everyone else loves isn't always a good guy. What's sexist about teaching girls about red flags? And she didn't start being nice to The Beast until he started treating her with respect and kindness.

Do I really NEED to defend Mulan or Tiana? I think they speak for themselves.

Rapunzel was yet another abuse victim who just needed a little help to get out of her bad situation. In this case, she also needed to learn that she was an abuse victim, and that what Mother Gothel did WASN'T normal, much like many victims of gaslighting.

And don't get me started on the non-princess animals.

Perdita had a healthy relationship with Pongo to the point she was open to express her pregnancy fears to him, and was ready to TEAR APART Cruella's goons for daring to touch her puppies as well as adopting the other puppies. Like, she was so ferocious the goons mistook her for a hyena! She's basically that "I AM THAT GIRL'S MOTHER!" scene from SpyXFamily if Yor were a dog. She and her husband were a TEAM.....but they made a Cruella live action to turn her into a girlboss?! The literal animal abuser!? THAT'S the woman you wanted to put on a pedestal when Perdita was RIGHT THERE!?

Duchess kept her kittens calm after they had been catnapped and was classy as heck. Nice to everyone regardless of social class during a time period where that was uncommon.

Lady stood up to Tramp when she believed he had abandoned her and didn't really care about her. She found out he was a heartbreaker and was like, "Nuh uh. No. You are not doing that to me! You put me through enough."

Miss Bianca from The Rescuers was IN CHARGE the whole movie, and was willing to risk life and limb to save an innocent child. THAT TINY MOUSE TOOK ON ALLIGATORS! And she picked Bernard to accompany her because he was the only one who wasn't ogling her. And then in the sequel SHE DID IT ALL AGAIN! I wish I were as brave as her.

Like, the public haven't accused these ladies of being sexist caricatures since 2014 (Actresses and actors don't count, they're out of touch like the rest of Hollywood) yet Disney is operating under the assumption that the public still thinks that way, hence all the "sHe'S nOt AfTeR a MaN iN ThIs VeRsIOn" talk.

The live action remakes are trying to attract an audience that doesn't really exist much, anymore, and back when it did exist, was comprised mainly of people who didn't actually watch the films. The Disney princesses are no longer seen as sexist, and feminine qualities are no longer seen as weak or undesirable.

My Thoughts On The Little Mermaid Live Action

I personally loved the movie.

The visual affects were stunning. It made it seem like it was actually taking place underwater, which was the point and they achieved that pretty well.

I personally don’t mind Flounder and Sebastian looking realistic because every other fish is also realistic in the movie, so they fit in and don’t look out of place.

I especially loved the music. I’m a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work in general, and he did not disappoint and amazed me with his work once again. In my opinion the songs were the most entertaining and enjoyable part of the movie and kept it from being boring.

The songs feel like musical theater songs, I’m not surprised by that because Lin-Manuel Miranda worked on them and he has worked for Broadway musicals before. They sounded fantastic.

The Scuttlebutt didn’t feel so out of place. Out of context it feels weird but with the context not so much. Because Scuttles mostly blabbers in the movie.

The rap wasn’t bad in my opinion.

Also, I found Daveed Diggs’ (he voices Sebastian in the live action) rap at the end of the song to hype up Ariel to get ready to be kinda similar to Daveed Diggs role in Hamilton as Lafayette when he was telling Washington to get his right hand man back for the war. If this was intentional, it felt like a nice reference.

I love how different Halle Bailey is to the original Ariel.

The original Ariel’s Part of Your World song seemed a bit melancholic and Ariel seemed resigned to her fate. Halle Bailey’s Ariel’s Part of Your World song was a combination of frustration and determination. This made the two reprises of the song later on in the film even more powerful. With one being hopeful and the other being sorrowful. I commend Halle Bailey on conveying all those different emotions, she’s an excellent singer and actress.

Unlike the animated film, Ariel doesn't actually go up to the surface until after her fight with her father which is a small but smart change that I liked. Instead of being rebellious because she's a teenager this version of Ariel is frustrated at the fact that she's constantly ignored and controlled and I like that Triton's unreasonable behavior effectively becomes the catalyst for her to go to the surface, I like that irony.

The storm in the beginning of the movie felt almost identical to the animated movie. The effects felt realistic and climactic.

I love how Ariel got a song when she first became a human. It made us see her perspective and understand her better.

Compared to to the animated Ariel, this version of Ariel was less Love Struck. Instead she seems to be more intrigued by Eric in the human world which does feel more realistic. It shows her curiosity for the human world a lot more. Which is a change I liked.

I’m glad they didn’t go for the love at first sight thing for the remake and gave Ariel and Eric time to bond. I loved the chemistry between them.

I personally prefer their bonding time in the live action over the dinner they had in the original, and we still got a “dinglehopper” scene.

Also, I found the way Eric learned Ariel’s name to be adorable.

In the animated film it's kind of a love at first sight moment with Ariel falling for Eric after he talks about looking for his dream girl but in the live action it's more like their kindred spirits both feeling pressured to live up to their family's expectations of them and sharing a desire to explore the world. They understood each other and related to one another without the use of words, which I find adorable.

I loved the market Eric and Ariel went to. The production team made a fantastic job, it really seemed like it could be a marketplace in the kingdom. I also love the choreography, the music and the dance for the place, it seemed very fitting and not out of place.

I also love how we got to see Prince Eric’s side of the story, he even had his own song.

In my opinion him being adopted gives him more character depth, him loosing his parents in a shipwreck gives him more reason to be so drawn to the sea.

When Eric recovered he sends people to look for the girl who saved him and I like that he takes a more active role in finding her in the live action, unlike in the animated movie where he’s just wandering around on a beach. Because of the incident his mother forbids him from sailing again which leads to our first new song of the film wild Uncharted Waters. The lyrics are filled with Maritime references which are a bit obvious which is good in my opinion because it makes the viewer understand them easier. It works for the new direction they've taken with Eric's character. It feels like a heartfelt song, I think Jonah Hauer-King made a great delivery of it.

I also liked how Ariel instantly forgot she had to kiss Eric. It made it seem like their love was even more “impossible” because if she couldn’t kiss Eric she’d turn back into a mermaid and be under Ursula’s control. It also made Ursula even more evil.

Ursula and Triton were actually siblings during the early development of the 1989 film but this dynamic was scrapped, I’m glad we got to see it in the live action.

I think Trident and Ursula being related helps with Ariel’s deal with Ursula.

Because Ariel had never met Ursula, she had just heard what her father said about her. She doesn’t fully believe her father because he also told her people are evil and she saw that to be false with her own eyes when she saw Eric. She was already doubting about what her father thought of “evil”.

She had also just gotten into a big fight with him and her trust for him had decreased.

She was also scared of her and thought about leaving but Ursula successfully manipulated her.

I also think the live action Ursula is pretty good. She’s manipulative and evil, she also has a great voice.

Overall, I think the changes were good changes and fit into the story.