Plot: What’s it about?
This is a classic story of a teen age mermaid that is curious about how humans live on Earth. Ariel falls in love with a human Prince named Eric and her friends Flounder and Sebastian do everything they can to keep Ariel from getting into trouble with her father King Triton. The Merman laws forbid any contact with humans. Ariel has collected artifacts that she has found under the sea left behind by humans. She collects them and puts them in a hide out where she goes now and then.
One day King Triton finds her singing and dancing and daydreaming about the human that she has fallen in love with. The King is just a little mad and destroys pretty much all of her collection of human gadgets and what not. Ariel is upset and out of anger turns to a wicked witch or octopus, whatever you want to call it, Ursala. Ursala has magical powers and can grant Ariel’s wish of becoming a human so she can fall in love with Eric and live happily ever after. But what Ariel doesn’t know is that it is going to be impossible to have Eric fall in love with her without her voice. The same voice that Eric fell in love with when Ariel saved him from drowning. Ariel and her cast of friends have three days for Eric to kiss her and break the spell of Ursala. Ursala is not a good loser so she pulls out all of the stops to keep Ariel from succeeding.
I saw this movie when it came out on video when my little sister was just a couple of years old. I enjoyed it then and really enjoyed it this time around. This is a very good version of the movie on DVD. The video is good and the audio is excellent. I actually liked the catchy music in this movie. It is hard for the kids not to sing along with the lyrics in this enjoyable classic. This is a must have for any family even though it is a bit pricey at a MSRP of $40. You should be able to pick it up for about $20 to $27 over the internet. I even saw this at a brick and mortar store for $25. I highly recommend this DVD and since it is a Limited release you may not want to hesitate.
Video: How does it look?
This is a letterboxed only version of the movie and it has a smaller ratio of 1.66:1. (Which means the black bars are minimal) The video transfer was clear and free of any grain or blemishes. A very good remastered version of classic animation. A job well done by the folks at Disney.
Audio: How does it sound?
I was glad that I was sitting down when I watched this movie, not that I watch movies standing up, but the 5.1 soundtrack of this movie was overwhelming. I didn’t expect much from a 10 year old animated movie from Disney. The Little Mermaid was remastered in 5.1 sound last year for a re-release in March of ’98. I’m assuming they used the same audio transfer for this DVD. The bass in this movie was surprisingly low and the surround sound speakers get a fair amount of attention as well. An excellent 5.1 sountrack. I can’t say enough good things about this soundtrack. It is not the same caliber of some ot the action movies, but I guarantee you 5.1 fans will not be disapoointed.
Supplements: What are the extras?
“Nothing, Nathan, Nada.” It would have been nice to have at least a theatrical trailer or two. I’m sure they could have thrown in something. But oh well it is still a first rate movie only disc.
