As Good as You Remembered It

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2016)

Just got the Diamond Edition and watched this in Blu-Ray, so what better time to review it than now.
For the maybe one of you reading this who hasn't seen The Little Mermaid: it is the tale of Ariel, a sixteen-year-old mermaid who falls in love with the dashing Prince Eric, much to the dismay of her father, King Triton, who forbids her from going up on land. So what is she to do but make a deal with the sea witch, Ursula? Having three days to- without her voice- make Eric fall in love with her or join Ursula's posse of poor, unfortunate souls, she tries her hardest and is helped by the King's hand, Sebastian the crab, and her friend, Flounder the... um, flounder. But Ursula does not play fair, and has a sleeve full of tricks.
I won't spoil what happens, but again, you already know.
This is the film that kickstarted the Disney Renaissance, that brought The Studio That Walt Built back from the brink of oblivion and to artistic and financial prominence. Imaginative to the core, it was a major step forward for Western animation. All modern Disney movies are built off the Little Mermaid as much as the Bambi or Snow White, perhaps more.
I'd go into the songs, but what's the point: you all know how good they are. My personal favorite is Part of Your World (also Ariel's leitmotif, if you listen) but everyone has their own favorite. They have become cultural touchstones for everyone over a certain age, a light in a pit of darkness. Alan Menken is one of the greatest composers of modern times, and I will hear no word to the contrary.
Ariel is my favorite Disney princess of all time, and certainly my favorite of the 2-D era. They do not try to make her too much of a role model for girls and thus too perfect. She is imperfect and there is nothing wrong with that. She has so much personality, so much energy, so much curiosity. Anyone who doesn't like here has always struck me as someone that I want to stay far, far away from.
If you were wondering, the Diamond edition is definitely worth it. The animation was beautiful for its time, and it still holds up today, but with the boost of digital restoration, it pops. The water is so blue, Ariel's hair is so red, Flounder is so yellow, and so on and so forth. If nothing else, it's worth buying just for that ten-second clip on the menu screen, of Ariel bathed in the light of a full moon. This movie is eighty-five minutes long. I could stare at that clip for that long and then some.
If you expected me to say something negative about this, sorry to disappoint you. It doesn't quite have the awe factor of The Lion King, but it is a starkly innovative film that has impressed generations already, and will continue to impress more generations in the coming years.