The true story of Disney's The Little Mermaid [Part 1/2]

in #teammalaysia5 years ago (edited)




source

What is going on Disney fans, i am back after a long hiatus on steemit and today we're talking about the Little Mermaid. Everyone knows the story of the Little Mermaid right? I mean how could you not? It's a classic story of the importance of love, friendship, family and that satisfying feeling when you run the bow of your ship into the stomach of a giant sea witch.

It's a fantastic movie in one of Disney's all time greats but you might not know is today's subject of discussion. The much darker fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen that inspired the film. I'll warn you right now, this might just ruin your childhood but if you're not faint of heart, just sit back and relax. Let us dive in, to the madness.




So lets start with a really quick recap of the Little Mermaid we all know and love, and for those who haven't seen it in a while and might need their memory jog. The story follows a 16 y/o mermaid princess who's bored with life and the underwater Kingdom her father rules and is curious about the human world. One night she saves a prince named Erik from drowning and that's all it takes for her to fall in love with him. She is willing to try any means necessary to get a taste of that sweet bipedal life so she makes a deal with the sea witch named Ursula where in exchange for her voice, she gets a brand new set of legs. Ursula also told her she have 3 days to receive the kiss of true love from Prince Erik and stay human but if she fails, she'll be turned into a polyp and Ursula will own her forever.

It is not the fairest deal but Ariel accepts anyway and when she gets to land things actually end up going pretty great. The kiss from Erik seems right over the horizon until Ursula decides to cheat her own way to the princes heart by disguising herself as a human. Luckily Ariel is able to interrupt their wedding ceremony before the two say their "I Do's" and reveal the truth about Ursula which in turn makes her pretty mad, unfortunately though mad does not mean stab proof and she ends up being slain by Erik and he and Ariel get to live happily ever after.




So that is Disney's version of the story and while the ending isn't necessarily light hearted, it's still nowhere near and dark as the original, that being sad Disney did use the original as inspiration of course so they have pretty similar beginnings.

Hans Christian Andersen's version of the story also follow a young mermaid princess who's not satisfied with life in the underwater kingdom her father rules. Interestingly though her motivation for wanting to live life on land are a little more complex than Ariel.


source

Just like Ariel, she's fascinated by humans but her interest stems more from exploring shipwrecks and conversation with her seagull friend. This little mermaid learns about humans through stories her grandmother and all her sister tell her and unlike the seagull they actually know what they're talking about. The problem is the kingdom that she live in has a rule where mermaids aren't allowed to go to the surface until they're 15 y/o. When the fairy tale starts, the mermaids is only 10 y/o and the stories that she listens to contribute significantly to her infatuation with human life.

The catalyst that sets the story in motion happens shortly after she turns 15 when she saves a handsome prince from drowning and falls in love with his unconscious body, curious about what would happened if she didn't save him she ask her grandma if humans can die like mermaids can, despite the fact that it wasn't included in the movie, this is actually a really important part of the story so you might wanna pay attention.

Her grandma tells her that even though mermaids can live up to 300 years, they don't have immortals souls like humans do, instead of ascending to the world above the stars like humans do when they die, mermaids simply dissolve into seafoam and ceased to exist any longer. Pretty morbid but there is a solution to this, if a mermaid is able to make a human love her with all his heart, even more than he loves either of his parent and marry her, she'll be given a soul of her own.

So as you can see the little mermaid motivations are a little more complicated than Ariel's, yes she is interested in human life and yes she is already in love with the prince but she also wants to go to an afterlife, unfortunately for the princess, there's no way a human could ever love a mermaid, partly because they're two totally different species but also because they think their fish tail are ugly. Yes that is the exact word in the story, this is also where the story gets weirder and weirder and if you thought the contract Ariel sign was bad, wait until you get a load of this deal.




Read the second part of the story here




(http://steemxp.com/)

Sort:  

You’ve been upvoted by TeamMalaysia community. Here are trending posts by other TeamMalaysia authors at http://steemit.com/trending/teammalaysia

To support the growth of TeamMalaysia Follow our upvotes by using steemauto.com and follow trail of @myach

Vote TeamMalaysia witness bitrocker2020 using this link vote for witness

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Vasco from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 70112.96
ETH 3549.99
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71