Least objectionable of the new Disney movies

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 1999)

This movie has a lot of enjoyable features to it, and is not too badly tainted by Disney's now omnipresent anti-male, anti-tradition bias. Ariel is for the most part a genuinely appealing character, and only occasionally falls into the California brat style that Disney movies usually present as their ideal. The anti-male bias comes out in the treatment of her father, King Triton, who is presented as a bigoted blowhard, but he also is allowed to be a popular and kind-hearted ruler, and genuinely fond of his children, which balances the picture to some extent. On the other hand, he is the one who has to learn that he is wrong, not Ariel, whose foolishness puts everyone in peril. When she disappears to pursue Prince Eric, it is her father who is left worried and regretting what he has done, while she is having a carefree adventure on dry land. The handsome prince is a bore, as is usually the case in these movies, but Sebastian and Ursula are presented with a lot of energy and provide the funniest moments in the film.