Spoilers

Today is October 30th 2023 it’s the day before my 34th birthday. & I’m doing my a to z of physical media still. & because L happens to be next I had to pick the greatest Disney movie of all time. Ariel is my girl & this is going to make me cry at how perfect it is.
(also me in June 2025 sorry this has taken such a long time to post this is what happens when you spend a year watching films at the cinema to do the 100 club & dont actually catch up on the back log).

So lets get the elephant in the room out the way first, she says shes an adult, babes i watched this just before turning 34 i aint got my life in order what made you feel like youd fallen in love at the age of 16 to a man you only just met whos another species. Also why didnt she just write down her name & situation to let Eric know before the shenanigans went down… yea she had all this coming to her.

Okay issues out the way, let my love in commence.

Amazing songs. Lush. All either party time or pure heartbreak. Part of your world, stunning especially as she swims around her little hide away, looking at all the stuff we just dont care about in our lives that shes scurried away from ship wrecks. Its beautiful. & the reprise we get a little bit later as she leaps up the rock. Goosebumps, its rather splendid.
Also some absolute bangers in under the sea & Poor unfortunate soul. Disney dont do villain song so r villains like they used to when we were little do they. I mean Charles Munts is the closest weve got but thats now nearly 15 years ago but since them im trying to think of one. Its hard, Ursula has obvious motives & took peoples wants & desires to get her own. She was bloody brilliant. & then to use ariels voice to make sure eric feel under her spell was so clever. Proper mermaid lore of the sirens call to take men to their death. However how no one had noticed the population of Mur people drop as there was at least 50 to 100 mermaids trapped as creatures in her garden i have no idea.

Some disney film no side kicks, is that cos ariel got them all, Flounder, Sebastien, Scuttle & Sam (epic fluffy pup).

I like how the film we meet all but ariel in the first 10 mins of the film. We meet the humans talking about the depths of the sea, we then see everyone travel to the celebration, we meet Triton (which was named first him or his triton) Sebastien & her sisters & then we finally meet ariel else where. busy being chased by bruce from finding nemo.

So her dad has a fork on his triton but finding one in a ship wreck is like ahhh this is odd? Scuttle had flown into one too many windows hadnt he. Bless him. As a kid hes funny as an adult hes irritating. I get why my parents always rolled their eyes at him.

All these films would be so much better if people actually fucking communicated with each other. Seriously. Ask you daughter where shes gone, get those sisters to talk, get prince eric to talk more. So much stuff could be resolved by asking maybe 4 questions.

I clearly have a type & me now looking at Prince Eric, he was clearly the start of that type (isnt imagining Pedro in that out fit but its hard after SAG not to cos damn the man slayed as him{even though he wasnt trying to be}) He was the ultimate hero though for little me. He talked about what he wanted. He had big eyes, kind smile & was willing to risk it all for the girl who saved him. Ohh & he saved the dog.

I get triton ish. But did he really need to destroy all of her collection, all of it? Maybe destroy the statue (because lets be honest even eric was like what the fuck) but all her stuff. Yea he went a bit to far with it. No wonder she rebelled.

The leg reveal i still love. She is genuinely so excited to finally have her legs & is like yessssssss. Sebastien then also talking about going back & then seeing her face drop & realises shes now happy with who she is at last is wonderful.

Why did Eric not recognise her face? It wasnt that blurred when she sang to him. But he still took her in.

Everyone always goes ariel is eating her friends in the sea. Do you all think shes vegan? She must only eat fish or plants so she probably did recognise it as a food. It would have been weird if they had served her up beef or lamb.
Eric is bewitched by her at the dinner. Why did it matter if she was mute, he was clearly attracted to her. He should have fessed up to it there & then.

Kiss the girl & their little day out together is so sweet & she gets to do all the things he wanted to do when a mermaid dreaming of being a human. But how jarring would that have been for prince eric hearing all those animals screech. Yes it looks so romantic in that lagoon & is lush but he must have been very confused.

SHE WAS SINGING WITH A STOLEN SET OF PIPES!!!
Best line of the film

The whole wedding on the boat is bat shit for so many reasons.
1)eric spent ages going im looking for the right person, then doesnt get with ariel as hes not who she though & then marries a girl not even within 24 hours of knowing her. I get the spell but still bit much.
2) how slow is that boat going if flounder can catch up to it
3)who gets marride at that time on a boat bad weather as the day turns into night
4) then the ceremony is chaos.
& then after all that, when the spell is broken & ariel is right they spend so long chatting & not kissing. Idiots. Urgh. I love how her heart breaks as she slips to the floor with her feet returning to a tail.

Poor flotsam & jetsam. Both funny little eels who do just their job & then get killed no wonder Ursula went bat shit. Would you liek it if someone killed you besties & henchmen or pets? no you wouldnt. Ariel then is like the worst damsel in distress & is bloody lucky prince eric did catch feelings. Not a nice way to go a ships rudder to the heart.

So how does the disney magic work cos Ursula just sent her up with legs but triton put her in something from fashion week to walk out of the sea of. She looks bloody lush though as she finally get her man.

& then the end when she thanks & hugs her dad & says she loves him as a kid i was like awwwwwww. As an adult, heart-breaking as we now all know our dads would do anything for us to make sure we were happy, that hurts. Also she had rebelled throughout so for her to realise he did it all out of love is a bloody big thing for her, even if she was a bratty kid still.

The score & the visuals for the 80s are stunning. This ran so the 90s disney movies could be the greatest disney movies of all time.

Yea Ariel is still my girl despite her flaws & this is still my favourite animated film of all time. Im not sure its ever going to be beaten, its going to be a speical film to outs this. Shes always been there for me & ive always felt part of her world.