#live action little mermaid

[noctefuror]

Together at last ⚓️🩵

[frozenvepar]

The last two pieces I made for MerMay 2023, and they had to be one of me, and one of the two Ariels in their premier gowns!

[animatorroseoak]

Live action little mermaid… it was so good oml

[missamerican-pie]

[artist-issues]

And another thing.

The original The Little Mermaid is about understanding. One of the main plot devices is that the witch takes what from Ariel, ladies and gentlemen?

Her voice.

Ariel did not leave the sea “for a boy.”

Ariel left the sea to be understood. Because for the whole first part of the movie, we’re shown hints of what her life is already like, and how she’s tried to be understood but nobody’s listening or communicating.

She’s introduced by describing a ship as amazing and wonderful, while her fish friend clearly does not understand and wants to get out of there.

Even her best friend doesn’t share her love for another world.

Her first interaction with her father, count how many times he’s speaking over her.

He has this prejudice against humans, and because she’s disobeyed him, he won’t listen to any of her evidence that they may not all be bad.

Even when she has a voice and a cavern full of proof that humans aren’t all barbarians, her father won’t listen to her, so he can’t understand.

And the truth is, she doesn’t have that much proof. She knows that humans are clever and make “wonderful things,” and that’s what she bases her belief in them on. But those beautiful objects, and her pretty ideals, are not enough to make her abandon her family and culture and world.

When she sings and talks about why she wants to be Part of That World, it’s because she wants to understand it. And, subconsciously, Ariel also hopes to be understood up there. Where they make cool devices, and maybe daughters can stand instead of being reprimanded. There’s this hope for freedom and being known associated with the surface.

But it’s not until she meets Eric that those ideals are really, actually, proven true.

Ariel sees Eric out on the sea exploring instead of staying in a palace on his birthday. He gets a gift from the closest person to him, and it’s clear that even the closest person to him doesn’t understand his tastes—he doesn’t want an over-dramatic statue of himself. He sticks to his ideals in an argument that somewhere out there, is the right girl for him. But he doesn’t have to leave the argument in frustrated tears. In the end, he risks his life to not only watch out for his friend, but nearly dies going back to a burning ship to save his dog.

Eric personifies everything Ariel has always idealized about the Human World—AND he might understand her.

In her one observation of him, she finds out that he, a human, is:

A Prince, but nobody can tell him what to do.

More interested in activity and exploration than palace ceremony.

Unable to relate to his closest companions.

Handsome—beautiful, not a savage.

Criticized for “silly, romantic notions” but sticks to the idea of something wonderful out there in the great beyond.

Brave, self-sacrificial, and compassionate to animals.

Eric is, all at once, everything Ariel always hoped a human could be, and yet still so like herself. They have twin souls.

She’d rather be exploring human ships, he’d rather be out exploring the sea. She believes the surface world is good and beautiful, he believes in the girl of his dreams, no matter what anyone says. She has nobody who gets excited about new adventures, and he has nobody who gets excited about new adventures.

When she sees him, she falls in love not just with his upstanding character, or even the human world he represents—she falls in love with the hope that he might understand her in away nobody under the sea does.

Then the ironic thing is, she’s got to make him understand who she is and what she should mean to him without a voice. And unfortunately, that’s really hard because he is suddenly associating his dream girl with a voice and a magical rescue.

As close as they may get when she finally does meet him face to face and gets herself human legs, Ariel and Eric can’t be together until he knows who she is, for real. After all, how can love be true without understanding?

And we’re not DONE with understanding. Because even after he learns what and who she is and still commits to her and saves her and loves her, Ariel’s back to having a tail. She’s back to being in a world where he can’t be.

Except now, Triton is the one who understands. He finally sees what they’ll do for each other—and that Eric, ”savage, spineless, harpooning fish eater with no regard” saved his daughter. He sees that they love each other and are each worthy of the other’s love.

It’s not until Triton understands what Ariel has known and felt all along that he gives her human legs the right way.

That’s the point of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. “True love is found in understanding and sacrificing for one another.”

Triton had the sacrificing idea down, but he didn’t have understanding. Eric had understanding, but he didn’t have the chance to sacrifice for it.

Ariel has both. She understands that Eric’s world is not only barbaric, but beautiful, and she’s willing to sacrifice her tail to be understood in that world.

That is what this movie is all about. And because they’re probably willing to sacrifice critical scenes, like the Prince saving the day (which is important because it provides Triton with a new understanding of humans) or the girl leaving the ocean to be with the boy (which is important because what she really wants is to be understood) the creators of the Live Action Little Mermaid are going to miss the point and ruin the movie.

[irisbleufic]

I absolutely love that the live action Little Mermaid shows to exactly what degree Eric is the same kind of nerd that Ariel is. It’s fucking delightful.

[ankle-beez]

Very much a classic Dreamworks move to release a thing where a Disney parody is one of its main focal points very closely to the Disney thing they're making fun of

[prismatica-the-strange]

Out of this selection of my romantic F/Os...

[clairedelune-13]

Out of all the overreactions on the internet, I feel like the seething hatred for Rachel Zegler is ridiculous.

The backlash over her being Snow White is exactly like when Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel. Like, they did nothing wrong?

So what are ya’ll crying about?

[noctefuror]

All I ever think about is you

There you are, over me

Taking me with your song 🎶

[frozenvepar]

More Mermay 2023 drawings - went through a big Live Action Little mermaid phase (which, to be honest, I am still going through lol). The top three pieces were inspired by one of my faourite artists, @lukaswerneck. The bottom two were my take on a live action version of Urchin and Gabriella, from the Little Mermaid TV series.

[sunflower-of-versace]

[always-aaack-for-everlark]

Anyone else lie awake at night crying over the fact that in the live action Little Mermaid, Prince Eric sits on the stairs outside on the balcony at the end of the movie because he’s waiting everyday for Ariel to come back from the ocean up that path that leads to the beach since that’s how she came back to him the last time he was looking for her during the engagement party or are you normal

[artist-issues]

Can we talk about the climax of The Little Mermaid?

I would like to point another thing out that I noticed on my rewatch.

The ship that Eric uses to shish-kebab Ursula IS the ship that Ariel is exploring in the beginning of the movie.

The ship that she explored instead of going to her musical celebration.

The ship that led her to go to the surface and get yelled at by her dad.

Her dad, who believes she should have let Eric drown because it would be "one less human (spineless savage harpooning fish-eater barbarians) to worry about."

Her dad, who understands at the end of the film that Ariel loves Eric, and was right to do so, because he just saw how Eric saved his daughter in the face of impossible odds and bear certain death, even though she's a mermaid.

It is very important that Eric save the day, USING the ship that symbolized Ariel's belief in the beauty of the human world and willingness to sacrifice and take risks to explore it.

Because it's Eric's heroism that convinces Triton that Ariel's love is as real as her beliefs about humanity. It's no longer a silly teenage girl who's lost her senses about a boy and is too naive to make the right decisions. It's a teenage girl who believed in the possibility that not all humans are barbarians, and some are worth loving--and she was right. And Triton needed to SEE THAT.

If Ariel saves herself, all that would prove to Triton is that she can handle the consequences of her own actions. But if Eric saves Ariel, it proves to Triton that humans can be good and Ariel's choice to love one was real and true.

That is very important. And a pretty amazing way to show it, having Eric stab Ursula with the shipwreck.

[missamerican-pie]