The Little Mermaid
Director: Ron Clements and John Musker
Year Released: 1989
Rating: 2.0
A sixteen-year-old mermaid who exists to aggravate her father falls in love with a human being, leading to her stupidly making a deal with the devil - in the form of an old female octopus - which allows her to gain legs but lose her voice. As I am neither a child (age wise - my parents argue that I am Peter Pan incarnate) nor a teenage girl this failed to work for me on an emotional level; likewise, the animation, compared to another animated classic released the same time, My Neighbor Totoro, is not impressive (though I'm admittedly being persnickety). If anything, the soundtrack - featuring the incredible Jodi Benson as Ariel - is justifiably famous, and the Freudian readings make sense.
