Before beginning, I want to acknowledge other more mainstream interpretations of The Little Mermaid. It has been alternatively described by some reviewers as a feminist movie what with its heroine, Ariel, rejecting her father’s authority and disobeying him in order to pursue a life of her own choosing, and as a sexist movie due to Ariel giving up her voice as a prerequisite for the chance to meet a man whom she has fallen in love with from afar. Such views are, in my opinion, equally valid and equally infantile. As this review will attempt to show, such interpretations neglect the wealth of storytelling elements – however unconscious – which point to a message rich in struggle, applicability, and hope for our people.
