Analysis Of The Little Mermaid And Sleeping Beauty

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Most children who grow up in America are familiar with Walt Disney Animation Studios and most importantly the princess films they make. The majority of the films consist of a joyful protagonist (woman) who overcomes an obstacle in their life. The obstacles will vary from princes to princess but in the end of the film the woman will have obtained a “happily ever after” with another person of the opposite gender. These movies that are mostly known for being joyful originate from a once tragic story. Two Disney princess stories that originally had a not so happily ever after for all of their characters are The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty.
One of Disney’s biggest blockbuster movies, The Little Mermaid, earned $211,343,479 after it was released (CITE MERMAID). This movie is known around the world for its protagonist Ariel: a kind young mermaid who is the daughter of the king of the sea, Triton. The version of The Little Mermaid that almost all people are familiar with is the 1989 version that was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker and written by Roger Allers (CITE MERMAID). This film consists of the basic story line as mentioned before; a woman overcomes an obstacle and ends up happily with a man. More specifically the story is about a mermaid who swims to the surface of the ocean out of curiously of the ship above her. She quickly falls in love at first sight with a human prince on deck named Eric. That very ship encounters a bad storm and the little mermaid (Ariel) ends up saving Eric by swimming him back to shore. In that moment on the shore, Ariel becomes infatuated with the idea of becoming human in order for Eric and herself to fall in love. Ariel’s father, Triton, strongly discourages any thoughts about meeting hu...

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...er heart” and was devastated that she was losing her love and would die. Ariel’s broken heart was far more hurtful than her physical pain. After Ariel watched her love be married off and her opportunity to have an immortal soul vanish her six sisters swam before her with their hair being chopped off and holding a knife saying:
We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. (Hans Christian, 2007).

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