The course of true love never did swim smooth....

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2020)

This time, Hans Christian Anderson rescues the Disney animation factory from the fire - this is a wonderfully colourful and fun adaptation of his almost Faustian story of being very careful what you wish for. "Ariel" is a beautiful mermaid who is fascinated by what goes on ashore - and that only gets more obsessive when she espies, and ultimately rescues from a violent storm, the equally gorgeous "Prince Eric" and falls hook, line and sinker. Her sagacious father "King Triton" forbids her from seeing him again and so, like any resourceful teenager, she enters a pact with evil sea witch "Ursula" that allows her to become human for three days and go ashore to seek out her new love - but at what cost... The support characters are so good in this - especially Samuel Wright as the long-suffering chancellor/lobster "Sebastian" and Pat Carroll as the evil "Ursula" aided and abetted by her slippery eel sidekicks "Flotsam" & "Jetsam" and Alan Menken's songs, including, "Under the Sea" & "Kiss the Girl" jauntily carry it all along apace. 20-odd years later, it's still well worth a watch.