And now we finally come to the one that changed everything. The 1980s were a rough period for Disney animation. Though the live action division was starting to turn around, thanks to the more adult skewing Touchstone Pictures and a string of successful films such as Splash, the family friendly Walt Disney Pictures label had churned out a batch of films that ranged from underperformers (Oliver and Company) to outright failures (The Black Cauldron) at the box office. The Little Mermaid was new animation head Jeffery Katzenberg’s attempt to revitalize the division, and it was shockingly successful. By returning to classic fairy tales and combining them with Broadway style musical numbers, Disney suddenly had audiences flocking to see its film in record numbers.
The film stands as a demarcation point between the old and the new Disney not just stylistically, but also from a technical standpoint. The animation is noticeably more polished than its recent predecessors, though it still retains some of their roughness and muted tones. It is additionally noteworthy as Disney’s last film to utilize cel animation. All films after Mermaid were hand drawn and then scanned into a computer for coloring, rather than traced and painted onto a cel. The most important feature of the film, however, is the music. Broadway composers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were hired to compose the music and their work transformed what a generation would think of as a “Disney” film. Their lively songs, perfectly mixing narrative with musicality, not only won them an Oscar, but became the de facto standard for music in an animated film.
I distinctly remember seeing this film in theatres as a child and being unimpressed. Thankfully, upon revisiting it now, that opinion has greatly changed. The music is still great and the animation very strong. This film can easily be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of age.
Up next: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
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