Showing posts with label The Little Mermaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Little Mermaid. Show all posts

Monday, 15 December 2014

Blogmas 15: Frozen review


In a world that at times seems almost dominated by the culture of the Disney multinational media corporation, the fact that Frozen burst into cinemas in November 2013 to greet the reception it did makes its success wholly tangible. For those out of the loop Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen sees its revisionist take in the form of a feminist, all-singing all-dancing ice-athon. Disney has taken on Andersen's fairy tales before, in the form of The Little Mermaid and others, but the treatment this one received - Broadway singer Idina Menzel, sisters doing it for themselves Elsa and Anna, court jester snowman Olaf - is entirely postmodern and joyful. 
In my opinion entirely worthy of its fame as the 'best Disney film in a decade'. So, if you haven't jumped on the filmic bandwagon quite yet, take yo 2014 stress, 'Let It Go', and make this one of your winter 2014 films to watch.

Carpe Diem xx

To check out my Little Mermaid post, follow the link below:

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Disney and the Happy Ending: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Image: http://mslitjunkie.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/little-mermaid1.jpg

The loving husband. The doting wife. The disneyfication of romance and relationships is not lost on everyone. Ariel, like every other Disney princess since time time immemorial, *SPOILER ALERT* gets royally hitched after her 1 hour 18 minutes aquatic adventure. First wavers (and second) would turn in their graves. The Little Mermaid (1989) was the first film I ever saw in the cinema, aged about five. It is one of the few Disney films that I have not regularly rewatched throughout my life since, so when I watched it again recently I did so alongside the Hans Christian Andersen original (1837). Stark, unforgiving and sprinkled with magic, the tale ends - SHOCK HORROR - differently to the film. Ariel doesn't get her happy ending. A 15-year-old mermaid who travels with a talking tropical fish and Jamaican crab in search of human love and a human soul? I'd still recommend it. At any age.

Carpe Diem xx