The Little Mermaid is the Most Overrated Disney Movie Ever!

MegaSoulhero When people talk about overrated Disney movies, the one movie that seems to be brought up the most is Frozen. However, there is another Disney movie that I think is even more overrated and one that isn’t as good as Frozen. It’s called the Little Mermaid! A lot of people classify this as one of the best Disney movies of all time and a Disney classic. I don’t agree with either of those statements because this movie has some serious issues. So I’m gonna go through the entire movie from beginning to end to show you how messed up this movie is!

It starts out with King Triton’s daughters doing a concert while their father is watching and they discover that their sister Ariel, who is the main character and the one we’re supposed to be rooting for, is missing. So did none of them check to make sure that Ariel was in her spot before starting the concert? Also, I’m guessing that they’ve spent weeks, maybe even months rehearsing for the concert. So it seems unlikely that Ariel would forget all about it. Way to make me hate a character before she even appears on screen. That’s gotta be a new record. Ariel missed the concert so she could go exploring and so she could find more objects to add to her collection. She even has a friend named Flounder who, despite his name, isn’t even a flounder! I always forget that this character exists because he literally adds nothing to the movie. He’s an extremely useless character and doesn’t even have a lot of dialogue. His only purpose is to give Ariel someone to talk to. Ariel then goes up to the surface and a bird by the name of Scuttle tells her (incorrectly) what the objects she found are. I have no idea how he doesn’t know what a fork is despite being a bird who has supposedly seen those being used.

After Ariel realizes that she forgot about the concert, her father yells at her and tells her not to stay away from the surface since he doesn’t trust humans. The movie tries to make it seem like Triton is making the wrong decision by preventing Ariel from getting into contact with humans, but given what we humans do, I don’t blame him. So Ariel swims away crying to her cave filled with her collection of human objects and she starts singing. Part of Your World is a beautiful song and Jodi Benson has a lovely voice. My problem with the song, however, is the message. In the song, she states that she has everything, proceeds to show us the objects she has collected, and then says she wants more. This just shows how spoiled she is. Usually people want to leave their homes if they hate their current living environment. But this movie goes out of its way to show us how great Ariel has it. Making us wonder why she would ever want to leave. I understand that she’s curious and wants to explore, but she should at least be thankful for her current life. No pun intended.

Ariel sees a ship that’s throwing a party and she sees Prince Eric who she falls in love with despite knowing nothing about him. Then Ariel saves Eric after a storm causes a shipwreck. She starts singing as Eric regains consciousness and does does a pretty cool pose on a rock with the water splashing up against it. This has no purpose whatsoever, but it looks cool. This also makes want to ask. How does Ariel’s hair appear dry when she comes out of the water? Ariel starts acting a lot happier than usual which leads Triton and her sisters to be suspicious. Oh yeah. Her sisters barely even appear in the film. I know they’re not supposed to be the focus, but their screen time is so small that it makes me wonder why they are even in the film at all. So Sebastian starts talking to Ariel about how the underwater world is where she belongs and he stars singing a catchy song. Unfortunately, Ariel leaves in the middle of it. That’s rude. She could’ve at least waited until the song was over before forming an opinion. Even though she doesn’t agree with what Sebastian is telling her, she has to admit that it is a really fun song.

Ariel goes back into her collection cave and to find out that Flounder found the statue of Eric that she saw on the ship. Okay. Flounder is a little fish with tiny fins. I find it hard to believe he was strong enough to get that statue in there. Unfortunately for Ariel, Triton finds out about Ariel’s collection of human objects and that she rescued Eric from drowning after Sebastian told him. Then Ariel says the worst line in the entire movie. “But Daddy, I love him!” I mean, come on! You don’t know anything about the guy and you already claim you love him? I hate Ariel so much but anyway, Triton destroys Ariel’s stuff in rage and Ariel cries about it. I don’t see why Triton couldn’t just ground her or something. Triton really sucks at being a father sometimes. We’re supposed to feel bad for Ariel in this scene, but considering that she disobeyed her father numerous times, she got what she deserved. At least she ends up realizing that she shouldn’t interact with humans anymore and decides to enjoy her life under the sea. NOT! Instead, she goes to Ursula, one of the best Disney villains ever I might add, and makes a deal with her. I mean, it’s just a scary octopus lady who lives in a scary cave, has eels for pets, laughs maniacally, and has a bunch of polyps. She totally seems trustworthy. Basically, Ariel has to give up her voice in order to be given legs. She has a limited amount of time to make Eric fall in love with her. If she doesn’t succeed, then Ariel will join the others who got turned into polyps. So she gave up her voice and risked her own life just so she can get together with a guy who might not even love her back? Not smart. Not smart at all.

Ariel gets what she wanted and ends up getting a pair of legs and ends up meeting Eric. Since she can’t talk, Eric assumes that she’s not the one who saved his life. I don’t see why she can’t just write down what she’s trying to say. At the very least, Eric could’ve offered her a paper and a pencil. So then Ariel and Eric spend a couple of days getting to know each other. It usually takes at least a few months for people to fall in love, but Ariel only has 3 days to make him fall in love with her. This kind of makes her decision even worse considering that isn’t nearly enough time to get someone to love you. Relationships take time. In Beauty and the Beast, which came out a few years later, they don’t tell us how long Belle spent time with the Beast, but it feels like it was a while. They needed time to get to know each other before falling in love. Here, Ariel and Eric’s relationship ends up being rushed due to the time limit. They barely have any chemistry. Anyway, Ariel and Eric go on a boat ride through a swamp that foreshadows the Princess and the Frog and Sebastian sings a song to try to get Eric to kiss Ariel. Ursula makes it clear that the kiss has to be a true love’s kiss. So singing a song that pretty much pressures him into kissing Ariel won’t exactly help. Also, how is it that he can hear Sebastian say Ariel’s name but doesn’t hear the obvious song? Also, since Eric was able to hear Sebastian say Ariel’s name, does this mean that animals can somehow talk to humans in their universe? This is the only scene in the movie that implies this and it’s never brought up again. It’s just really confusing.

Later that night, Eric meets another girl and hears her singing, which leads him to believe that she is the girl who saved his life. This is Ursula in disguise and is using Ariel’s voice to get to Eric. So they attempt to get married THE NEXT DAY! I know that Ursula has Eric hypnotized, but how did all those other people set up an entire wedding in a day? Doesn’t matter because Ursula’s human form is insanely hot. Even the priest gets a little “excited” from looking at her. Ariel brought this on herself. She should’ve known something like this would happen. Luckily, with the help of Scuttle, they sabotage the wedding and Ariel gets her voice back. Eric then realizes that she was the one who saved him. They attempt to kiss, but time runs out before they do. Ursula attempts to turn Ariel into a polyp, but her dad comes in and decides to take her place. Makes sense since this was pretty much all his fault when you think about it. He didn’t really do anything to discipline Ariel. Then Ursula turns into a giant monster and she dies in the coolest way possible. Eric impales her with his ship. So yeah, Eric is the one who saves the day while Ariel practically did nothing to redeem herself. Oh! But it’s not over yet! After Ursula gets defeated, Triton decides to give Ariel a pair of legs and lets her be with Eric.... WHAT!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? Let me get this straight. Ariel disobeyed her father, she made a deal with an evil sea witch, she nearly got everyone killed, and her father rewards her by giving her what she wants!? What kind of message is that? Some of you might say that Triton’s the one who’s learning a lesson since he should let Ariel be free, but it was Ariel’s free will that caused all this stuff to happen in the first place! She doesn’t even do anything to even remotely deserve getting what she has been wanting throughout the movie! This is messed up! Messed up indeed!

So that was the Little Mermaid. After this rant, you’re probably thinking that I really hate this movie. But I don’t. I like it. I just don’t consider it to be one of Disney’s best. Sure it has nice songs, some decent characters (excluding Ariel) and some great animation, but there are a lot of flaws that I just can’t ignore. This doesn’t deserve to be called a classic. It’s not up there with movies like Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. It’s not a great film, but it’s decent.

Comments

Now that I read this, this movie is complete crap and deserves a 0% in Rotten Tomatoes. This movie wins the award for Most Unlikable Main Character and Most Crappy Moral. Unless you count a selfish teenager falling in love with someone just by looking at them, ignoring her father for the boy, and making a deal with one of her most valuable possessions who already couldn't look more suspicious. - TristGamer (4/6/2018)

Everyone has opinions but in my opinion it’s not overrated or underrated - visitor (4/7/2018)

I have never seen this movie as a child.
Now I feel like I made the right choice. - Drawbox (4/9/2018)

I like how everyone claims Beauty and The Beast is just Stockholm Syndrome but they never point out that Ariel fell in love with a guy she barely knew. Even as a kid, I didn't like this movie as much as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King or even Sleeping Beauty. At least the side characters (who had more screen time than our leads) were enjoyable. The songs and animation are the best parts of the movie. You can't get enough of "Under the Sea". - RoseRedFlower (4/9/2018)

It is a very overrated movie, but in your review you gave it a 8/10? That really confuses me. - iliekpiez (7/1/2018)

Um, no. I gave it a 7/10. - MegaSoulhero (7/1/2018)

So you think it is the most overrated because it is seen as one of the best in the genre of animation? - iliekpiez (7/1/2018)

Your reasoning continues to impress me. - Cyri (7/11/2018)