The well-known children’s movie,
The Little Mermaid, is a household favorite for many families. With a plot line
that, on the surface, seems innocent and sweet have some people worried about
the underlying issues it could cause in its young viewers. Like in so many
other situations there are two sides to the story. In this fairy tale of love,
good conquering evil, and eternal happiness there are dark aspects that, when
analyzed, could cause the viewer to question the morals that are being taught.
Ariel is a beautiful young mermaid who sees the world outside of the ocean as a
wonderful place that she would like to explore with a man that she finds very
enticing, unfortunately, her father is the king of the ocean kingdom and
doesn’t view the humans the way Ariel does. The strong-minded young girl makes
the decision to disobey her father and do all she can to explore the outside
world. This decision is something that a lot of people see as a positive part
of the movie, it’s a “coming of age” scene where Ariel takes the initiative to
be her own woman and claim her independence. This is a day that comes in every
young woman’s life and not letting the opinions of others influence her is an
example to young girls that can be very important, but the way she goes about it
is what raises a question in many critics minds. Ariel goes on a quest to find
a way to trade her tail in for legs and go find the prince she in convinced she
is in love with. Seeking the help of an evil sea witch named Ursula whom her
father had banished, Ariel finds her ticket to the human world. The young
princess signs a contract stating that in order to get her legs she must make
the prince fall in love with her in three days on land. This contract would be
much less disturbing if it weren’t for the fact that she had to do this without
a voice and the way Ursula would know the prince was “in love” with Ariel was
that the prince would kiss her. The moral dilemma behind this contract is very
hard to overlook. First, the premise that the 16 year old girl could find “true
love” without speaking a single word to a man she had never met before is just
plain disturbing. This instills in young girls that all you need is to be
physically attractive to make men love you and I think all parents could come
to a consensus that their little girls have much more important qualities than
that. On top of the shallow values depicted by the first part of the contract
the second part is what seems the worst to me. It states that after seducing a
man with your looks, the way you know that he really loves you with his whole
heart is through is sexual desire for you. In my opinion the negative aspects
of this movie prevail as the pros of what your children may learn from it are
much less powerful than the cons.
