Enchanting Myth Movie

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2001)

I'm a big mythology buff, and there is enough to hold my interest in this movie.I have to also leave it Disney to make a movie that both child and adult. Ariel has the cartoonish qualities that makes little girls want to be her, and a bit of Marilyn Monroe-like sexual innocence that attracts male fans. For mythology buffs, the figure of Triton, son of Poseidon, has been inserted along with several outlandishly named daughters from the sea-god's numerous wives. Even Ursula from a long line of successful Disney villains seems to fit in. While Scylla or Thetis might have fit it, Ursula could have easily come from the pantheon of Russian sea witches. At times in the movie though, it almost forgets it's underwater as these figures talk and move with little or no distubance, but the weightless look of the figures from odd angles augments the look at other times. I also love the repeated images that give homage to Denmark's Little Mermaid statue. The voice to role comparison also is excellant and Jodi Benson excells in her songs. This movie produced a great soundtrack and a great retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale by simultaneosly updating the myths of the Greeks.