The Little Mermaid Returns

I'm not ashamed to admit that THE LITTLE MERMAID is one of my all-time favorite movies. In fact, it's my second favorite movie. THE LITTLE MERMAID came out in 1989, a time before Disney Princesses was a brand name. Back then it wasn't a girl-movie, it was just a really good movie. And it was a time when cartoons were still considered strictly kids stuff. It was the double punch of THE LITTLE MERMAID and then THE SIMPSONS a few months later that made animation acceptable for all ages. I've always loved cartoons especially the Disney animated features, so even though I was 16 years old when THE LITTLE MERMAID debuted I was there opening weekend to see it.

Most of the Disney animated films of the 70's and 80's are pretty good but until that time none of them held a light to the films created under the supervision of Walt Disney. The last great animated Disney film was THE JUNGLE BOOK and that was in 1967. So the weekend before Thanksgiving 1989, a couple of friends and I went and saw THE LITTLE MERMAID at a Saturday afternoon matinee. We were expecting a film on par with the previous year's OLIVER & COMPANY or 1981's THE FOX AND THE HOUND, instead we were blown away by how fantastic the film was and how they were once again able to perfectly capture that "Disney Magic" that had been missing from their films for the last 22 years. I fell in love with the film instantly! I felt it was the first Disney classic that I got to experience first hand!

A couple of days later I was discussing the movie with my bestest buddy Grant who had seen the movie with me that Saturday. "Was it really that good?" we wondered. It seemed almost like a dream...the theatre was kind of noisy and we had bad seats, we didn't really remember all that much from the movie. So we went and saw it again that Tuesday night. On a quiet weeknight screening we were able to really enjoy the film better and we were right...it's a fantastic movie!

THE LITTLE MERMAID is the only movie I've seen in the theatre seven times! I saw it two more times in it's initial run, I saw it once on the big screen in a theatre at Walt Disney World, and I caught it two more times in it's rerelease in 1997.

Now in 2006, THE LITTLE MERMAID is coming to DVD in a 2-disc edition loaded with bonus features and a brand-spanking new digital print of the film. It will, no doubt, look better today then it did when I first saw it 17 years ago! The extras on the disc include a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, and a feature spotlighting a Little Mermaid ride that was planned for the Disney Parks but never built. The ride is reconstructed in digital format for viewers to take a ride! There's also music videos and a show about the real life sea creatures that are animated in the film.
This DVD comes out October 3, the same day as the reissue of the soundtrack! The soundtrack will also be a 2-disc set with the original soundtrack that was released in 1989 and a second disc with songs from the movie performed by popular artists of today.

Now that I have two kids, I don't get much chance to dust off the surround sound on my home theatre system. But you can bet the night of the 3rd, we'll have it cranked up jammin' to Under the Sea.