I was scared by it as a kid and thought the movie itself was okay. If you want to get your chance, look out for the 25th anniversary Blu Ray edition this September

Isn’t it? Since I still didn’t grow up on it and have gone so long without seeing it, being it’s considered one of their greatest if not the very greatest, I know it’ll be an event. It’ll be a huge experience. I’ll probably see it someday when I’m at my lowest point or to mark some big moment in my life. Corny, but there it is.

But fun discussing it with you.

You have not seen the movie? That’s surprising

I think Jasmine and Aladdin are both pretty bland to be honest. I dont think Ariel’s joy at being on land are a mere seconds. We see it throughput her time there. To me it is clear. She’s a misfit. She tells Flounder “I just dont fit in here”. Her father doesn’t understand her. She dreams of going to land where “I just dont see how a world which makes such beautiful things could be bad”. Then she sees Eric and is smitten with him and she saves his life which is going to endear you to another person. Her father finds out and destroys all her human possessions. What does she have left? Nothing and Flotsam and Jetsam tempt her and Ursula is a pretty great salesperson. The first thing she shows Ariel is herself with legs- her dream. Ursula keeps the real consequences sort of vague. This is why later on Ariel says “Daddy I’m sorry. I didnt mean to. I didnt know”. So she gets transfered and Sebastian says maybe she can go back and he looks at her and says “and be miserable for the rest of your life”. To me that’s not just a little crush but a lifetime yearning. You then watch her as a human and she is delighted with everything from puppets, to bubbles, to the dinglehopper.
Anyway to me the movie works as Ariel’s journey and like I said the 3 times they’ve tried to puff it up with new songs and story have all failed. I sell new songs. I sell the remake but I hope it gives what you and others want.

Well to me thet part wasnt enough. Again we needed more than just half a second scene. To me it came off as an after thought. As the scenes with her totally smitten with Eric just dominated that whole sequence. I agree with you about this story being about Ariel growing up and maturing but i strongly disagree with not having to develop Eric character just because its Ariels story. Plenty of stories have supporting characters but they always find time to flesh them out. Your basically making Eric into nothing more than a plot device. Which is a general complaint that supportig female characters are saddled with sadly in most male centered stories (MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL). If those stories recieve criticism for it then so should the Little Mermaid. I say look at two examples from Disney in Aladdin and Tangled. In both instances the story centers on one characters journey but also both Jasmine and Finn are strongly fleshed out as characters which i feel made both relationships in both films stronger. Thats one of the reasons Im excited for this remake because i want to see them get that part right in much the same way the recent Cinderella film did for the original.

As for Howard Ashman yes i agree his music is a masterpiece but that doesnt mean you cant add to it. If they feel again so be it the original is still a masterpiece no matter what. But i dont see a problem with trying.

I see it differently. Eric is definitely part of it but she has just had her possessions, her ties to the human world, destroyed by her father. What left does she have there? One of the first things we see of her on land is her going to town and marveling at everything she sees. Look at her glee at the puppets and everything in the town? To me that is her way of saying it is more than just for Eric.
The Little Mermaid is Howard Ashman’s masterpiece and in my opinion the additional songs in the Broadway musical are not up to his level. I think they are mediocre at best and the story feels like filler where the feature film is a tightly constructed story about a girl who is uncomfortable in her own skin. As I said she sings about the human world before she meets Eric. He’s just the catalyst to do something about it. That’s why we don’t need his character to be explained more because it isn’t his journey. He’s an ancillary character. Ariel is the one who is growing up and figuring out where she belongs.
In my view they have tried 3 times to write additional Little Mermaid songs and they have all been lame. No Howard Ashman. No new songs!

But we will probably have to agree to disagree on this one. Thanks for sharing your POV

Yes i agree those were great elements. But the problem is they didnt follow through with it. The story would have been much stronger had they focused on that in the second act with Ariel and Erica developing love story. Instead we got something else and the movie forces us to assume that she gave everything up for Eric and thats all. It also didnt help that Eric is barely a character in the movie. It would have been nice to develop him more so we see why Ariel falls in love with him besides him being good looking. If its dismissed far too easily then thats a problem with the film not the viewer. We shouldnt be doing their homework for them.

Well I won’t stop you