What A Cartoon Movie! - The Little Mermaid

Christopher Daniel Barnes was also Greg Brady in those 90s Brady Bunch movies. He’s way more hilarious and entertaining in that role than as Eric.

Matt

Whats Tritons deal with hating on humans for eating fish? Nothing eats more fish than other fish...

Matthew Hansen

Divine and John Waters also worked together on 1974's "FEMALE TROUBLE", which while not only being a very insane, entertaining, and satirical work, was also the inspiration for the title of Judith Butler's 1990 book "GENDER TROUBLE: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity." For anyone not aware, Gender Trouble is a really foundational work on gender identity, queer theory, and on a broader level feminism in general - and is also pretty important to me, as I think reading it as part of my research in grad school helped me really figure out and understand some stuff about myself.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

I don't think there's a specific name for this trope but I've noticed that a recurring visual motif for Disney Villains is rings around their eyes when they're at their most villainous or insane. As mentioned Ursula gets them when she commands Ariel to sing and again when she sees her swimming away after her little poopsies explode. In Aladdin, Jafar has the eye-rings when laughing maniacally after taking control of Agrabah. Cruella DeVille has them when she tries to run the Dalmations off the road. Ratigan has them when he finally snaps and goes feral. More recently I noticed the Queen of Hearts has them for a split second when she screams her final "OFF WITH HER HEAD" that leads into the chase that ends that movie. Obviously not every villain gets this treatment (I can't imagine, say, Frollo with them) but it's a fun touch for their more cartoonish villains. I'm sure there are more movies with them and I'll be keeping an eye out in future rewatches.

Joshua Marchant

Speaking of the musical Chicago and Queen Latifah, "Poor Unfortunate Souls" kinda reminds me of "When You're Good to Mama" 'cause they're both cheeky songs about reciprocity (where the singer ultimately benefits more) with sexy thicc ladies and an oom-pah bassline

nina matsumoto

TLM was the very first Disney Princess movie I ever watched as a child. I don’t remember seeing it in theaters, but I do remember always seeing that beloved vhs suitcase on the shelf next to the tv. And thank you, Henry, for singing the best parts of the songs during this episode! You will always be welcome to sing with me and my cousin in the car, like we’re on broadway! In my opinion, the songs are the best part of this movie—and I don’t know a single person who couldn’t finish the line: “you want thingabobs?——“. Thanks for another great episode, guys!🧜🏻‍♀️💚

What about Cinderella—the first Disney blonde princess??

Kat Heagberg When "The Little Mermaid" was released, I was a four-year-old girl-child, so literally the ideal audience. To this day, I think I've seen it in theaters more than any other movie because once it hit the dollar theaters, my aunt took me to see it every single month when it was her weekend to babysit me right up until it came out on video. Before opening weekend, though, I remember getting super-excited by the TV trailer, which would come on multiple times during my post-preschool cartoon watching. I remember very clearly that the line where Ariel says "My father's gonna kill me!" was always included in that trailer. As a 4-year-old, I didn't really understand euphemisms yet, nor did I know the story of the Little Mermaid at all, so I was like "Got it. That's the plot. Her father is trying to kill her and she has to stay alive." Then I was super-confused when I saw the movie and that wasn't the plot at all. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I finally figured out that that was just an expression.

Kat Heagberg

I like this movie a lot more now than when I was a kid. As a boy, yes, I feared the "girl movie" label tacked onto this, but I still saw this in the theater and was exposed to it quite a bit at home through my sister. Objectively, I think Aladdin is probably the best and my personal favorite from this era, but Little Mermaid is the one I probably return to the most. It's tidy, and I think the thing it has going for it over all of the other Renaissance films is the collection of songs. I think Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King all create more impressive set pieces with their songs, but for my money none of the other soundtracks complement their film better than The Little Mermaid. And this film has good set pieces with those songs, they just clearly were working with a very different budget and tech. The songs in this one can exist outside of the film better than most as well, where as I feel "Be Our Guest" or "Friend Like Me" is far less interesting when it isn't paired with the visuals. I think the last chunk of the movie is saved some by the animation. I think the animators did a great job emoting Ariel and working around her lack of a voice. I agree with the criticism that Eric is a boring character who exists just to be something the princess wants. I also think the movie doesn't really need him to do much else though, it's Ariel's story and for those who want more from Eric they'll probably get that with the remake that will likely show us how his parents died and he'll get to be yet another Disney protagonist with dead parents. 20 years ago I probably had a more cynical take on this film, but now I just see it as something that's fun. It doesn't linger on anything long enough for boredom to set in, I enjoy the performances, and the visuals are still a joy even if they aren't on the same level as the bigger films to follow. I'm also very glad that Howard Ashman got to at least bask in the success of this film to some degree since he was unfortunately robbed of that with the films to follow.

Joe Hodgson

I don't know how I goofed that up, but it shows how quickly podcast information leaves my brain. - Bob

Talking Simpsons

I'm pretty sure the "large chested mermaid" from One Piece Henry was thinking of is Shirahoshi, the Princess of Fishman Island who is locked in a tower for her own protection in a very Disney-esque setup. Also because I ate the Pedant Pedant Fruit I must point out that Arlong is a Fishman, not a merman. Merfolk do exist in one piece, but fishfolk are a more common sight. They're more like anthropomorphic fish while merfolk are your classic fish tailed merpeople.

Nero Wyvern

The Archdeacon in Hunchback was actually David Ogden Stiers! He also did Radcliffe in Pocahontas, Cogsworth in BatB and Jumba in Lilo and Stitch. One of Disney’s more less spoken about go-to guys but always reliable talent! The soundalike to Kenneth Mars in that booming, commanding voice is definitely apt, though!

Blake R.

As far as Blondes go, Aurora is the obvious old school Disney one, but Rapunzel from Tangled is the modern one that comes to mind the quickest. Her abundance of blonde makes up for the years of lacking all in one shot I guess.

Pumpkinbob

Oops I meant to leave this comment here but found I left it on the preview post by accident! The oft repeated thing that "Ariel gave up everything instantly for a man" that has been featured even in some musicals has always been such bullshit imo. Before Ariel even knew Prince Eric existed she wanted to be on the surface because she had an intellectual curiosity about all their wonders, technology, and way of life. She had been collecting human stuff and keeping it secret for years. She fell in love with that blank slate man but her motivation for being "part of their world" was always one of self fulfillment.

Paul