WALT DISNEY: THE LITTLE MERMAID

The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 17, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. During its initial release, The Little Mermaid earned $89 million in North American box office revenue, and has to date earned $211 million in total international gross. Ariel, a sixteen-year-old mermaid princess, is dissatisfied with life under the sea and curious about the human world. With her best fish friend Flounder, Ariel collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle the seagull, who offers very inaccurate and comical knowledge of human culture. Ignoring the warnings of her father (King Triton) and court musician (Sebastian the crab) that contact between merpeople and humans is forbidden Ariel still longs to be part of the human world; to this end she has filled a secret grotto with all the human artifacts she has found. Sebastian, who is assigned to watch over Ariel and be sure she does not visit the surface again, tries to convince her that its better to live under the sea than in the human world. One night, Ariel, Flounder and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean surface to watch a celebration for the birthday of Prince Eric, with whom Ariel falls in love. A sudden storm hits, during which everyone manages to escape in a lifeboat--except for Eric who goes back to rescue his dog Max. He almost drowns saving Max but is saved by Ariel, who drags him to the beach. Although it seems that his heart isn't beating, Ariel notices that Eric is breathing. She sings to him but dives underwater when Max returns to Eric. Upon waking, Eric has a vague impression that he was rescued by a girl with a beautiful voice; he vows to find her, and Ariel vows to find a way to join Eric. She is convinced by a pair of eels that she must visit Ursula, the sea witch, if she wants all her dreams to come true. Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days. Within these three days, Ariel must receive the 'kiss of true love' from Eric; otherwise, she will transform back into a mermaid on the third day and belong to Ursula. As payment for legs, Ariel has to give up her voice, which Ursula takes by magically removing the energy from Ariel's vocal chords and storing it in a nautilus shell. Ariel's tail is transformed into legs and Sebastian and Flounder drag her to the surface. Meanwhile, Triton discovers Ariel and Sebastian's disappearance and, wracked with guilt over his behaviour, orders a search for them.
More money and resources were dedicated to Mermaid than any other Disney animated film in decades.
Another first for recent years was the filming of live actors and actresses for motion reference material for the animators, a practice used frequently for many of the Disney animated features produced under Walt Disney's supervision. Broadway actress Jodi Benson was chosen to play Ariel, and Sherri Lynn Stoner, a former member of Los Angeles' Groundlings improvisation comedy group, acted out Ariel's key scenes. Effects animation supervisor Mark Dindal estimated that over a million bubbles were drawn for this film, in addition to the use of other processes such as airbrushing, backlighting, superimposition, and some computer animation. The film was also screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. In a then atypical and controversial move for a new Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid was released as part of the Walt Disney Classics line of VHS and Laserdisc home video releases in May 1990, eight months after the release of the film. Mermaid became that year's top-selling title on home video, with over 10 million units sold. The Little Mermaid was released in a Limited Issue "bare-bones" DVD in 1999, with a standard video transfer and no substantial features. The film was re-released on DVD on October 3, 2006, as part of the Walt Disney Platinum Editions line of classic Walt Disney animated features. The film won two of the awards, for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score. The film also earned four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, and won the awards for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Score. In addition to the box office and critical success of the film itself, the Mermaid soundtrack album earned two awards at the 33rd Grammy Awards in 1991 - for Best Recording for Children and Best Instrumental Composition written for a Motion Picture or Television. To date, the soundtrack has been certified six times platinum.