![]() ![]() Halle Bailey’s luminescent performance is a large part of Ariel’s transformation into a more well-rounded character. The positive changes made in Rob Marshall’s live-action remake The Little Mermaid show us what Ariel’s character looks like without those cliches. But her trajectory eventually yields to the fairy-tale formula, with Prince Eric rescuing her from the villain and celebrating with a wedding. She has a genuine interest in something besides domestic skills: studying and collecting objects from the human world. As Roger Ebert put it at the time, Ariel is a “fully realized female character who thinks and acts independently, even rebelliously, instead of hanging around passively while the fates decide her destiny.”Īriel saves the life of her love interest, Prince Eric, stands up to her tyrant father, and dares to face the Sea Witch. Ariel felt like something new for Disney: a daring, outspoken young woman who isn’t afraid to pursue what she wants, instead of sitting by a wishing well, patiently hoping her world will change. Previous Disney princesses, like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty’s Aurora, are kind and caring, but they’re mostly beautiful ciphers who take care of their households and flit around with cutesy forest animals encircling them. When the animated movie reached theaters in 1989, it had been 30 years since the studio’s previous princess film, Sleeping Beauty. ![]() ![]() The Little Mermaid was a game-changing project for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ flagging animation department, but more than that, it completely redefined the idea of the Disney princess. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |