I love C.S. Lewis's quote against the dismissal of "it's just a kids movie"...
“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children, is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

Honestly the thing I like about the original is that she does make mistakes through her own agency. The whole concept of agency means you’re going to trip up. You’re going to stumble and fall a bit, but you will also be able to make choices to improve yourself and fix your mistake

Ariel joining in during “Under the Sea” is a particularly compelling piece of evidence that the filmmakers genuinely made no effort to understand the basic plot of the original.

I always felt that the people who claimed that "Ariel traided her voice for a man" haven't watched the movie in a really long time, like, there's an entire song about how she loves things from the surface and how much she wanted to be in it, even as a kid I could tell that Eric was just the spark that ignited her actions, not the cause.

Also, I think it's kind of baffling that people tend to ignore how young and naive she is. Ariel's 16, according to the 1989 movie, which is not an age of great maturity and reasoning, and what is worse of all, Ursula intentionally tries to bargain with her right after her father destroyed her stuff, taking advantage of her emotional susceptibility, and also strained Flounder and Sebastian with the eels, the two characters that could convince her not to strike the deal.

"Children are too important to be left to shitty media" should be a battle cry to up and coming artists, and is an extremely impactful statement.  Thank you, sir.

I just wanna say that in all the videos I've watched discussing these films, no one has pointed out that Eric's good bean of a dog Max was the ONLY other side character that knew that Ariel was the girl Eric was looking for by her scent alone. Max immediately LOVED Ariel and was ecstatic whenever he saw her! He found her on the boat at the party, when she saved Eric he smelled her and went swimming after her, when she was turned human he smelled Ariel AGAIN and led Eric to her because he found what Eric was searching for. Also at the wedding scene Max literally growled at Vanessa(Ursula) because he knew she was evil. I always loved Max's scenes when I was younger because I like dogs and them adding a personality to Max was nice as well.

I'm so happy you pointed out that by having Ariel forget about wanting to kiss Eric it took away her charm and determination and ingenuity and agency as a female character.

Eric was a much better character than many have given him credit for. His love of the sea is shown before we even see Ariel. Later, the whole reason he has to be rescued, is because he left the safety of the launch, to save Max from the burning ship. Although Ariel admired Eric when sneaking a look at him on board the ship, her love grows for him when she rescues him from the burning ship, and brings him to the shore. This is sometimes known as the  Florence Nightingale effect. I genuinely liked Eric in the film, and his destroying Ursula at the climax, saving not just Ariel, but also Triton, is what shows Triton that he is worthy of being Ariel's husband.

The most interesting thing about the "true love's kiss" condition in the original was that...we never saw it work. Ursula actively sabotaged all attempts until it was too late. But that raises an interesting point:

Ursula made that condition because she didn't believe in true love. She was a cynical and self-centered person who preferred basic satisfactions (power, riches, lust) to some metaphysical concepts like loyalty, friendship, or true love. So, she was confident that Ariel, a mute girl thrown to a world that is alien to her, would fail spectacularly -- and even if the prince became attracted to her enough to kiss her, it won't be love. But then the prince turns out to be a kind, noble man who provides Ariel with safety and supports her as she explore the human world, after the kiss almost happens -- Ursula panics because she is not sure what she is dealing with exactly. She doesn't understand kindness or sincerity, and she doesn't understand what is happening between Ariel and Eric, which angers her. She lured Ariel into an impossible deal, but even the possibility of Ariel fulfilling the condition rattles Ursula enough to intervene and brainwash Eric into marrying her "Vanessa" persona.

So, we never get a confirmation if the true love is magic that works. It was merely a concept weaponized by Ursula and then turned against her.

They don't seem to realize that if you are worried that your audience will listen to the VILLAIN saying that girls should be quiet and take that to heart then you really don't have a lot of confidence in your protagonist, your story, or your audience 🤦

The idea of Triton setting out to impregnate mermaids of certain racial or ethnic groups so he could have the full set of diverse merdaughters is pretty damn funny.

"Children are too important to be left to shitty media."
This line hit me. How many of us remember being shaped or irreversibly impacted in some way by a compelling story?

One of the most gratifying experiences of parenthood is getting to watch the beloved, timeless stories from your youth be discovered for the first time again through the eyes of your children.

I was 9 years old when I saw the OG Little Mermaid. I knew what Ursula was up to in "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and I can't imagine anyone NOT understanding Ursula was tricking Ariel. I had high hopes for this movie and I was so excited...What a waste.

Ariel singing along with "Under the Sea" makes absolutely no sense and it also makes me irrationally angry.

59:52 There's a point missing here.  In the animated film, the contract Ariel signs is considered "legally binding" which prevents Triton from zapping it into dust and forcing him to give himself up. If Ursula rigged the deal then the contract thing doesn't work. Triton could then just destroy her.

Like, it's a dumb little detail but it does so much more, representing Tritons connection with rules and order and shows Ursula to be more smart and bold than this newer counterpart to do the whole thing essentially on the level. Like they thought it was a dumb detail they could change, but it kills so much.

In The Little Mermaid (89 movie), I never got the sense that Ariel was super worried about the time frame in which she had to get the kiss. At least not at first. She was caught up in the emotion of it, and figured she wanted a kiss anyway and could get it in 3 days, and just needed the means. And Ursula chose a kiss because she knew that this was something that would appeal to Ariel and was a way to take advantage of her youth and overconfidence and lack of foresight. The side characters and the audience fear the time and feel how quickly it races by and feel the sense of urgency. I felt this showed a lot about Ariel, and did a lot of character work, without explicitly spelling it out. A skill that the movie was particularly adept at, and that this new reimagining significantly struggles with.

Scuttlebutt needs to be a song that plays in criminal investigations to torture information out of people. Play it on loop and you'll get what you need in no time.

“Children are too important to be left to shitty media.”

I need that on a billboard

The true testament of this movie is that with the added time it made the story worse! That’s a feat in of itself. The original animated movie was around 85 minutes and it managed to tell an amazing story. Ultimate fail on Disney’s part.

The sad irony is, by having Ariel save Prince Eric both at the beginning and end of the Remake, they have essentially made Eric a plot device, and one that technically was unnecessary. In the original, Ariel saving Eric is what starts their relationship, and specifically changes Ariel's relationships with humans from mere curiosity from their objects, to be "Part of THAT world"  to a passionate longing (specifically to be with Eric), to be "part of YOUR world". The relationship comes full circle when Eric risks his life to save not just Ariel, but all of the merfolk, which proves to King Triton that Eric is not the "barbaric fish-eater" that he was convinced humans all were, which is why Triton has no qualms giving his daughter to such a man.

In the Remake, however, since Ariel saves not just Eric (twice), but also all the Merfolk, Triton has no reason to think any differently of Eric, since it was his daughter's obsession with him that got them in trouble in the first place, thus further souring the (apparently important/unimportant) human/merfolk relations. Heck, cut out Eric entirely, and just have Ariel make a deal to be human to explore the land, have Ursula show up, have Ariel ram Ursula, and bam, nothing changes. Because heaven forbid that a girl should need rescuing in 2023, even if it is to make the story and the romance better. I keep getting the feeling that these writers want handsome yet inoffensive men, when in reality most women want confident, dynamic men, and you can see why the movie is struggling to break even. Among a myriad of other reasons, as TLP has thoroughly outlined.

Your spoken word rendition of "Scuttlebutt" is going to be a clip for the ages. At least it ought to be. Every word perfectly dripping with humiliation and sarcasm, my god that was funny. Almost makes it worth having heard it to begin with.