May 21, 2025 • 56 mins
A Disney Renaissance ClassicJoin hosts Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell with special guest Mandy Kaplan as they dive under the sea to explore Disney's animation breakthrough The Little Mermaid. This 1989 film marked the beginning of the Disney Renaissance and set the template for modern Disney princess stories with its memorable songs and colorful characters.The trio discusses how this film revolutionized Disney animation, introducing the now-standard "I Want" song with "Part of Your World" (which executives initially wanted to cut!). They explore how Ariel represented a new kind of Disney princess: rebellious, independent, and actively pursuing her dreams, even if those dreams involved marrying a handsome prince at sixteen.From Ursula's divine inspiration (literally—she was modeled after drag queen Divine) to the spectacular voice talents of Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, and Buddy Hackett, the podcast examines what made this film so magical. They also hilariously point out the movie's scientific inaccuracies and questionable life lessons while acknowledging its undeniable charm and cultural impact.Key topics covered:
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- How The Little Mermaid launched the Disney Renaissance
- The groundbreaking songwriting and animation techniques
- Scientific inaccuracies that plague the underwater world
- Ariel's questionable decision-making as a lovestruck teenager
- Perfect villain creation with Ursula the sea witch
- The hidden Disney princess dress references in Ariel's pink gown
- Voice actor highlights, including Mandy's date with the voice of Prince Eric!
- The film's enduring legacy and influence on subsequent Disney films
- Deep cut recommendations including Robin Hood, Enchanted, and the Descendants franchise
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most
Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast. Want to skip those ads and
get early access, become a member at true story dot fm,
slash join and discover all the other great parks that
come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's a podcast where a filmmaker, a comedian and their
fabulous podcasting guests splash and seeing their way through the
eighties movies we think we love or might have missed
with these our modern eyes. And today we're talking about
The Little Mermaid, a movie selection from nineteen eighty nine,
(00:51):
about which Google says. In Disney's beguiling animated romp, a
rebellious sixteen year old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life
on land. On one of her visits to the surface,
which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she
falls for a human prince, and here comes the trailer.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
For over fifty years, Walt Disney has turned classic stories
into classic animated motion pictures. Now the tradition continues as
one of the world's greatest stories becomes the newest Disney
motion picture classic, The Little Mermaid. I Want to be
where the people are.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I want to see I want to see him.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Dancing, where they walk, where they run up, where they stay.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
It's the story of Ariel, a beautiful young mermaid who
wants to become human.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
He's very handsome, isn't he. Oh that's kind of harry
and slobbery to me.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Not that one, the other one.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And she'll strike a bargain with a powerful sea witch.
Have we got a deal to make her dream come true?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What I WoT from you is your voice?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
You've got it?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sweetcase?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Human?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Have you lost your sense? Is completely the human world?
It's a miss.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Now the little mermaid is exploring the mysteries of her
strange new world.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
What's your name?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
What's wrong? You can't speak? But to regain her voice?
The sea Witch? You spell must be broken moment.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
We got an emergency.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Broken by the kiss of true love.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yes it's Walt Disney Picture is twenty eighth full length
animated motion picture featuring dozens of delightful New Disney characters
and seven magical new songs.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
Stop this holiday season, Share the Wonder and Magic, a
very special entertainment event.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
A fantastic adventure above the waves and under the scene.
I'm dond Walt Disney Pictures The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
There are songs in The Little Mermaid. Hello, I'm Chrissy Lynz,
one of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in
downtown Mesa, Arizona. And with me as ever is award
winning filmmaker.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Nathan Blackwell. Hello, independent filmmaker. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You're so you're so welcome, it's like you're a guest.
And today we have a returning guest, one of my favorites,
the the mainstream mind behind the Make Me a Nerd podcast.
We've got Mandy Kaplin.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Uh and you are a prominent voiceover artist yourself, so
you will have some wonderful insights on voicing things over
for me. Sure, sure, of course. It's I feel a
little bit awkward and weird doing a Disney animated feature.
(04:32):
It's our first time doing a Disney animated feature, and
it feels, yeah, a little bit weird to be reviewing Disney.
I mean, and not that we've never right, we just Didron,
we just did Tron, But I mean, we're talking a
Little Mermaid here. This is one of this is a
heavy hitter. This is one of the main friends.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Right and yeah, yeah, you have to be a little careful.
We I mean, sometimes we rewatch movies that we know
a lot of people love and maybe we don't respond
to it or not. But this is this is like,
this is delicate.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, there are a lot.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
There are herds of Disney adults with their pitchforks and
lanterns outside waiting to take you down if you offend.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Okay, yeah, So having established that this was this for
me was right in my wheelhouse. I was eight years
old when this came out. So Ariel was always one
of my favorite princesses and remains one of my favorite princesses.
(05:39):
I love Ariel and I love The Little Mermaid, and
so it was a real joy and a delight to
rewatch it again as a grown up. I've seen it,
of course a bunch, because Ariel was one of my
daughter Zoe's favorite princesses as well. So I'm very familiar
with this movie. But Nathan, what's my.
Speaker 6 (05:59):
What's my Disney princess experiences? Yes, exactly, so I so yeah,
so so the this The Little Mermaid, and then Beauty
and the Beast and Laddin and Lion King. They weren't
my Disney movies. Like for me growing up, it was
(06:21):
always like the more the ones that had a little
more adventure in it. I was gonna say, I was
trying to not say violence, but a little more adventure
in it. So like like Tron and and and honestly
some of the weirder ones that preceded this, you know,
(06:42):
like like.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The Sword and the Stone that sort of thing, uh huh, yeah,
and and but I mean really it was.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
But at the same time, like you know, like I
remember the significance of The Little Mermaid when it came
out and and enjoying it, but it was never my
jam you know. But yeah, the Little Mermaid. You know,
I'm sure we're going to talk about it a ton,
but this really was like a big turning point. They
(07:14):
call it like the Disney Renaissance. Yeah, because it's really
like you know, it's like, you know, with the trailer,
it's like this is where it's like, oh, they really
wanted you to know. It's a musical. But like the
Big Disney before, this was like The Great Mouse Detective,
you know, right, this was like.
Speaker 8 (07:32):
A return to snow white and Cinderella and taking a
fairy tale and disneifying it, right, yeah, yeah, the beauty,
then the beasts and the all around.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Yeah well yeah, and then even then, like I you know,
there were songs, but I wouldn't necessarily say like beauty,
like like like Sleeping Beauty and snow White were necessarily
musicals like these in a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Of ways are yes, and so as a lover of
musicals and all things voiceover, Mandy, how did this hit
for you when you were a kid?
Speaker 8 (08:13):
Guilty as charged on both counts. And I know, Nathan
not a lover of musicals, but that's why I'm here
to convert. I remember liking this. I was not as
much of a kid. I'm older than you, so I
was a teenager and I remember thinking, oh, that was cute.
(08:33):
But I've never been a Disney obsessed person. Or I
was a little too old for this to make me
love princesses. M you know, I still just wanted to
be Olivia Newton John.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Oh, I see, stuck in that kind of princess. Yes,
so I'm the princess lover here in the group. Then
I'm the one who dressed up like like a princess
and were the swoopy gowns and all that rathmataz.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I was swinging a lightsaber around
and hitting and breaking things at this time. Yeah, I would,
I think so. When The Little Mermaid came out, I
was thirteen, And as you get older, it's even less
fashionable to like princesses as I'm mad. So yeah, but
(09:31):
I definitely see this in my my niece. She's almost six.
She is just totally obsessed with princesses, and so, well, that's.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
The dream and they and they always.
Speaker 8 (09:45):
Had princesses from this point on who were a bit
more badass than a classic helpless damsel in distress, right,
even though they get in trouble and they need saving
at times. I thought Disney did a nice job of
making them good role models for girls.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Look at Ariel and say, well, she made her own
choices and she wanted something and she went for it
and got it.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And I know they're not perfect.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
But this is really where that started.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Though.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
You know, I feel like a lot of the old
fairy tales and the old Disney movies were like they
they had violated a social norm, rather than like these
new ones that they want something that goes against the grain,
you know. Yeah, this is really where the princesses become
(10:40):
more independent, more rebellious.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Something married at sixteen.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Yes, and getting married at sixteen. Well, we can't change
everything every night.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
No we can't, No, we can't. So we start this
movie with seagulls and dolphins and a ship where all
the they're not soldiers, one are they sailors. The sailors
are singing, they're semen, yes, And Eric and his dog
are singing. King Triton must be in a friendly type mood.
(11:16):
King Triton, who's that? Why he's the king of the Murrh.
People thought every good sailor knew about him. And a
little fish escapes and we follow it down to the
ocean where Murrh families flock to the castle for a concert.
King Triton rides in and Sebastian rides in, and he says,
this is going to be the finest concert ever, and
(11:39):
we get our first song. These are the daughters of
triton great father, who loves us and named us well.
And then all of a sudden, Ariel's not there, and
it's like no one checked her seashell.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Wasn't there a tech rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, well, Sebastian does say that she missed all the rehearsals.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Oh that's true.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Didn't they use find my phone?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, where the hell is Ariel? But everyone they
just closed up her seashell and they were like, I'm
sure it'll be fine.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
It wasn't. It felt like the fashion of the nineteen
eighties Mermaids almost looked kind of like aquatic, like Flintstones,
like it wasn't quite I see that. Yeah, there was
especially and then also like on the ship, it felt
(12:38):
like very old school animation, like they hadn't quite I mean,
obviously we're in the precipice, but in terms of fashion
and animation style, it definitely felt a lot more like
the sixties and seventies animation styles, you know.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
And are we just going to skip over once Prince
Eric appears in the beginning, the fact that I fell
in love with a cartoon character, like I have sexual
feelings character about young Prince Eric.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
We need that skip over.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Hall past? Yeah, I love it. I always had the
hots for the Fox and Robin Hood.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Mmmm.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I don't know that I saw Robin Hood.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Oh, with the with the Little Foxes, the main variant. Oh,
I was very sexy, and that was animated cross species.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Right, it was a complicated childhood. Yeah, not to I
guess give away my deep cut recommendation, but it's going
to be Robin Hood Disney's.
Speaker 8 (13:41):
Robin Oh, all right, Koren hot Foxes, right right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Hot Foxes.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But yeah, Prince Eric is hot stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Dreamy, absolutely dreamy.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
Now, might I interject for a moment with a personal
introject Harry.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
C. D.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Barnes, who voiced Prince Eric.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
When I very first moved to Los Angeles, he hit
on me and asked me out. And you better believe
I went on a date with Greg Brady slash Prince Eric,
and I was eating sushi and like, I cannot believe,
I'm close to achieving my goal of nailing Prince Eric. Yeah,
(14:29):
it did not turn out that way. And then I
ended up writing a song about him called Creepy Deep Guy.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
And that's where we can add the story and I
won't go into too many details.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That was the perfect story, Mandy. That's that's why you're
the pro.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I love that you went to sushi with Prince Eric
and so, speaking of eating fish, King Triton repeatedly refers
to humans as fish eaters. But what the hell do
the mermaids eat eat fish?
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Clankton strictly vegetarian plankton.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They're just ripping up seaweed and having a salad.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I mean they are always.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Been confused by this.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Yes, a lot of fish are carnivores, like just normal fish,
you know, well them, right, But I mean even just
like normal fish eat fish or little things.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So we can let that go. But I I've always
no judgment.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
In the musical, they made a Broadway musical of Little Mermaid. Sorry, Nathan,
you can tune out, But in musical they do a
song called She's in Love about Aerial and little Flounder
gets his whole verse and he says she treats he
likes sashimi left over from last week, so they are
(16:05):
aware of sushi and have some sushi in their world.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
There could be multiple like there could be multiple Myrrh cultures.
You know, I think that's very plausible that this is
not one hundred percent of all mermen and mermaids.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Sure, yeah, okay, they're regional.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
We needed more world building, that's the note.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's true it's true. There's just one castle. We don't
get to see where anyone else lives. Right, So Flounder
and Ariel are exploring a shipwreck. She finds a fork.
What is it? It's the most amazing thing I've ever
seen in my whole life. She finds a pipe, and
a shark chases them. They go see Scuttle. Buddy Hacket
(16:56):
the seagull, and he's like, this is a dingle hopper
and you use it to brush your hair, and this
is a snurf flat and you use it to make music,
and there are aerols just like sounds.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Great, But what a scene stealer. Buddy Hackett was. Of course,
I love him in this movie. I think he's pitch perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Not totally agree.
Speaker 8 (17:19):
I'm not quite old enough to no body Hackett's work,
but I can remember how hard we all laughed at Scuttle.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, Scuttle was the king of this movie. Yeah, and
he saves the day. So no shade on Scuttle.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Ursula sees through Flotsam and Jetsam's eyes that Ariel is
a troublesome, headstrong girl, and Ursula's like, in my day,
we had fantastic feasts at the Palace. But now I'm
banished and exiled. And we do get to find out
(17:56):
in The Little Mermaid two, which I did watch with
my daughter, that uh uh the reasons why she got banished,
but uh in this one, we don't know. We just
think it's because she's a different species. And I did
I did find a note about what her species is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Let me find.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Yes, I didn't. I think I didn't know there was
a Little Mermaid too.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, there's a two and a three. Two is about
Ariel and Eric's daughter who wants to return to the sea,
and Ariel's the one saying you can't go to the
sea and you can't know about mr people.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
This is what happens when we become parents.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yep. Uh. Many murf folks appear in the film, but
ursula is a lesser known type of mytholic mythological creature
known as a cecilia, a human upper body in octopus
lower body. So there we go. Facts. This has been
facts with the most excellent eighties movie podcast. So at
(19:04):
the Castle, Daddy's really mad, Sebastian's really mad, Flounder explains,
and when he drops that they went to see the
seagull He's like, you went to the surface. You can
never go to the surface. Her humans are dangerous barbarians.
And she says, I'm sixteen, daddy, and it's always stuck
(19:25):
after you when she was sixteen, Because when I was
an eight year old, of course, I was like, yeah,
she's sixteen. That's the ultimate age. That's the age where
you get to like do everything and the whole world
comes into focus for you. And I'm like, with chill out,
you're sixteen, right.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well this movie.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
As a parent, my perspective is totally different. I wrote,
Ariel scares me. She doesn't listen to her father, and
she goes to see the one person she's been warned about,
Oive Yah. And then I have later observations about Ariel.
But as the mom of a teen, it's like, no
(20:07):
matter what we tell them, they're going to make these
bad decisions.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
That's their jobs as teens.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yep, that's their teenage prerogative. But it's but let's hope
they don't all run off and get married.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You know.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
This, But this scene like always gets me where the
This is the scene where the dad destroys this stuff, right,
not yet, not yet? Okay, when we get to that,
I'll bring it up.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay. So yeah, she does go to her grotto and
she takes her fork in her snarf flat Sebastian has
been assigned to watch her and sort of babysit her.
And one thing I do appreciate as a as a
parental watch of this movie is that King Triton is
always like he gets a burst of anger and he
makes these big pronouncements and then he immediately feels bad.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
I can really it's right. Oh do you need to
lay down and talk about it? I do, yes, Yeah,
we could definitely tangent onto our flaws as parents. I
think King Triton has a very rich, powerful voice. So
of course I looked it up, like, oh, what character
actor is this? And his name is Kenneth Mars. I
(21:23):
am not familiar with him other than he is Leapkinned
in the Producers The Naz wacky funny Nazi in the
original Producers. So Kenneth Mars got range because this was
such a booming, rich, deep intimidating performance.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, so it was. I thought that was a very
cool fun fact. That's a perfect fun fact. Well done,
killing it again. So she goes to the surface for fireworks,
and she watches all the dancing on the ship. She
sees Eric and like immediately falls in love. And Eric,
(22:06):
who we assume is also like probably about sixteen, right,
maybe eighteen, gets the statue for his birthday and his
like associate it's not his dad. He doesn't have parents.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Right, it's like his Leander Grimsby. Yeah. His Alfred is.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Like, I need you to get married, Prince Eric, and
he's like, I haven't found the right girl. But she's
out there somewhere. So we fall in love with Eric
all over again. But there's a storm and a shipwreck
and Eric goes down and Ariels saves him. So how
(22:52):
does she breathe above and below the one? This is
my other like mermaid question. It's like she doesn't have
gills or anything, so how does she breathe well, both
above and below the water?
Speaker 8 (23:08):
I asked the same question of Flounder, and then I
wrote is this movie not scientifically accurate?
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Is it not?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Did they not have the science behind these namer people?
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Apparently they took some liberties.
Speaker 8 (23:25):
I mean, my scientific knowledge of Mermaids comes from Splash?
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Is that a movie? You guys have covered?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Same same yes, we have right.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
So she was able to breathe for a certain amount
of time out of the water.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, she was fine. So we'll just assume that the
splash logic applies.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Splash logic applies.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, are you very good? So now we get the
song of this movie, Part of Your World, one of
my favorites. It's a they wanted to cut this song.
What yes? They They fought really hard to get this
song out of the movie.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
And I would argue it's maybe the most important like
Disney song they've ever had.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It's because I want, we need.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
It's the first I want song.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
You know.
Speaker 8 (24:22):
It is, Oh I don't wait in the movie, in
this movie because snow White saying my principal come.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Right. Yeah, But it's this is the one that set
the precedent for all the modern Disney, the eighties and
nineties Disney, well the nineties Disney. But Jeffrey Katzenberg felt
that it was boring and wanted it out of the movie,
and then they talked him into letting it stay, and
(24:52):
and we got and we got this very important song,
which is one of my favorites, one of my favorite
Disney songs ever.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
And without it we would never have had let it go.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
It's true terrible place.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It would be as.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
As sad as things are, it would be so much
sadder like.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It's just true. As a Disney adult, I can say this,
this song has brought me much joy. So Eric wakes
up and he's like a specifically a girl who sings
saved me. So I have to find this girl who sings,
and that's who's going to be who I marry. So boom,
(25:36):
he's put a pin in that, and that's he's committed.
Flatsam and Jetsam see the whole thing, and Ursula makes
a plan in her garden of weeds, which we learn
later are all disgruntled mermaids, dehydrated mermaids.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
Right their souls essentially right sea monkeys.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Ariel and her sister are like, she's in love and
she wants to make a plan to go see Eric.
We get the song under the Sea, which won the
Academy Award, which is my favorite part of the ride
in Disneyland under the Sea. Under the Sea, Have you
guys ever been on that ride?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I have, but not as recently as you.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That's a safe that's safe.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, I don't know if I have been.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Oh it's been a.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
While with your niece. Yeah, you ride a little shell
and you go down under the ocean and you get
to sing under the sea, and then it's it's it's
just like snow White Scary Adventures because you see all
the fun stuff you see under you see under the sea,
you see kiss the girl, and then Ursula is dead
(26:50):
and the day is saved. Yes, go right to that.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Uh so, uh, aerial escapes. Uh. She just swims away
from Sebastian while he's distracted by his singing, and King
Triton summons Sebastian to find out what merman Ariel's in
love with, and it turns out Sebastian spills the beans
(27:16):
about the humans.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Yeah, the dad has kind of jazzed a bit. Yeah,
that she's into a dude.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Well to marry her off, so she's someone else's problem.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Uh huh. But that, yeah, that she's kind of like
transitioning to more responsibility to adulthood, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Uh so this is the King Tryton's gonna blow up
her grotto scene. We see that Flounder has brought her
the statue, and how the hell did Flounder move.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
This fight you again? Not scientifically accurate?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, unless he is mighty, a tiny mighty. So he
brought the statue, and Ariols is like swooning over the statue.
And King Triton appears and he's like, Ariel, humans are
fish eating barbarians. And she says, but Daddy, I love him.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
Are we gonna acknowledge how similar Ariel is to Kathy
Bates and misery at any point?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
She's a psycho.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Guys, she sees a guy, she decides she's in love
with him, and she saves him.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
They don't exchange a word. They have nothing in common.
I mean, this is shallow psychological ideation.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I think, yeah, yeah, it's teenage love. It's teenage love.
It's young love.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Don't you defend her.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
She's crazy, she's banana pants. She is a little nuts.
But to be fair, she's lived under the sea her
whole life. She's never seen the legs. So and he
plays the flute, a woodwind instrument, which they can't have
under the sea, although I'm pretty sure they do have
(29:14):
under the sea. I'm pretty sure they play flutes and
whistles and woodwind instruments under the sea.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
In that song, specifically in Under the Sea.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, oh, I know they play a saxophone.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
That's right, we're adding that to the scientifically inaccurate.
Speaker 8 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So, what did you want to say, Nathan about the
smashy upy scene.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Well, just just that was always the heartbreaking moment. You know,
both when I was younger from Ariel like all of
her stuff, all of her dreams, and then as I
got older, doing that as an adult to your kid
is also heartbreaking. Yeah, just see the regret afterwards.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, he immediately is like oops, yeah, but I'm not
gonna do anything to fix it. I'm just gonna run away.
Speaker 6 (30:16):
They just can't talk to each other, that's the problem.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, they need to communicate. They gotta go to the therapy.
They need to find it under the Sea therapist. So
Flatsam and Jetsam of course have witnessed this whole thing,
and a lure area Aeriel to go see the Sea Witch,
and at first she's like the Sea Witch, No, I've
(30:39):
only been told bad things about her. But then she's like,
all right, I'm doing this, And Sebastian and Flounder follow
Ursula like it is like fabulous and resplendent in all
of her Octopussy glory, and she's like, the only way
(31:00):
to love a human is to become a human yourself.
I can do that for you. Ursula sings her her
wonderful song, Poor Unfortunate Souls, which is always one.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
Of my favorites, and she's voiced by this very specific character,
actress Pat Carroll with and her voice is just so
deep and it's almost it almost sounds like Harvey Firestein
and I.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Love it so much.
Speaker 8 (31:31):
It works beautifully for the animation and for the character.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah, I love her perfection.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Isn't she based off of Divine?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I believe that's true.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Yeah, you said it, and it made perfect sense.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Yeah, the drag queen that John Waters would use in
his films.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And Ariel is based on Alyssa Milano.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Oh I haven't love before?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Uh so.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Ursula slaps down the deal. You get three days to
make him fall in love with you and give you
true love's kiss, and it will cost you your voice,
and she has a wonderful moment where she's like, look,
the truth is that men on the service don't want
you to talk anyway, and like, oh boy, Ursula, did
(32:28):
you hit a nerve it's the truth.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
She really is a delicious villain, you know.
Speaker 8 (32:36):
And that turns out to be true that Eric falls
in love with this silent dode you know, sexy girl.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yep, it is a fact. So she signs the contract.
And here's here's the big meme that everyone is like
all a flutter about, which is like, if she can write,
why didn't she write a note to Prince Eric and
say it's me, I lost my voice. I've got laryngitis.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Hmmm, it's probably a different language. It's a different language.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Get and her.
Speaker 8 (33:13):
Signature not like anything I do. Mine is just like,
you know, unreadable scribble, and hers is this perfectly almost
like calligraphy.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yes, so obviously Sebastian is teaching them penmanship, yes, in
between concerts. So a flaw another flaw in this movie
that we've detected. She can write, all right, So she
becomes a human like really deep under the sea, and
(33:50):
like no one ever acknowledges that Ursula was like, well,
if she drowns, she drowns. That's an easy win for me,
you know. Uh and uh Ashian and Flounder have to
drag her up to the surface. At the castle, Eric
is searching for the girl with the voice. Scuttle hangs
(34:11):
out with Ariel and Sebastian and Flounder. She's nude. They
also didn't send her up with any clothes, so Scuttle
is gonna dress her up in a shipwreck curtain like
the sail. She's dressed up in the sail and Eric
(34:33):
finds Ariel and he's like, you're the one. You're the
girl who saved me. Oh, you can't talk. Never mind,
you're not the one.
Speaker 8 (34:41):
Look, I don't want to bang Eric for his brains
of let's speak here.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
He's not the brightest bulb.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
No, No, it is a physical want. But once I
get my wish, I want I want him out and
I want to talk to somebody with intellect. It is
very frustrating watching him not recognize that this is the girl.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah, this girl who appears from the sea right, yeah,
just a.
Speaker 8 (35:11):
Few days after she left, such an indelible impression on
him that he thinks he's in love with her mm hmm,
but doesn't recognize her with her bright red.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Hair and her gigantic eye. So come on, Eric, get
with the program. Yeah. So Ariel gets in the tub,
Sebastian gets washed up Eric and Grimsby. I'm gonna find
that girl and I'm gonna marry her. Ariel comes in
for their dinner, and I did read that her dress
(35:42):
when they have dinner is a mishmash of all of
the princesses that have come before her. The puffy sleeves
with diamond designs are similar to snow white. The light
pink color comes from Cinderella's mother's dress that the stepsister's apart,
the full skirt and draping from Cinderella's famous ball gown,
and finally, the off the shoulder neckline and long pointed
(36:04):
sleeves were inspired by Princess Arroyo's Aurora's royal ball gown.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Wow, pretty cool. Huh go Disney. Uh So they have
a nice dinner. She brushes her hair with the fork,
she blows pipe pipe ash and Grimsby's face with the
snarf flat.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I need to interject here.
Speaker 8 (36:28):
I'm so please please, because as as you guys can see,
the listeners won't see. But I have very very long
hair like Ariel, and I need to use not just conditioner,
but leave in conditioner after that to get a very
aggressive brush through it, not possible.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
That she puts a fork through that mane and it
glides through again. With the scientific inaccuracies.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Going on the list.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (37:00):
Okay, I watched that and I thought I would scream
in pain trying to put a fork through my hair.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
And she her hair is probably like without a leaven conditioner,
as you said, like grody as hell after being used
to seawater all the time.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Yep, just not possible.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Just not possible. Another one of the things in this
movie that are not accurate or believable. We are taking
you to task Disney's The Little Mermaid. Uh so we
get the one of my favorite and I'm saying they're
all my favorite. But I do love the songs in
this movie. The Lei songs are good. Yea, how I
(37:45):
love to chop little Fish. I sing that song to
myself pretty frequently.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Who is a legend.
Speaker 8 (37:59):
I did have the joy of meeting him a few
times that the voice over world.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
He is as kind and delightful as they come.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Oh I love that. What a beautiful fun fact. He
is the comedic what's the term, the comedic relief, the
comic relief that we need to chase little Sebastian and
want to crush him up. They don't. They don't really
(38:30):
uh show the horror as much as they should that
Eric is going to clearly eat a crab right in
front of Aeriel.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Well, he doesn't know, he doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
You don't know any better? He finds them. The crabs
are delicious. So and under the sea, Ariel is missing,
and King Triton is immediately like what have I done?
Up above? Eric is giving Ariel a tour of the kingdom.
In the boat, we get the song kiss the girl,
they're about to smooch. It's gonna happen, and then Flatsam
(39:08):
and jetsam sink the boat. That's unfair.
Speaker 8 (39:11):
Why hasn't he kissed her before? Get what gives Eric?
They didn't finish this girl right like.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
One whole day. If that's not enough for God's sake.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Kiss her?
Speaker 8 (39:28):
Oh I again inaccurate. I've been around men. They would
not wait that long.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
They would not and they wouldn't do this this slow
sinking La la la kiss the girl. And they're slowly, slowly,
slowly they're making it too easy for Ursula. Ursula, who
decides this is too close. Uh, what does she call
her the little tramp.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
They'll be kissing my sunset for sure, So she hatches
a plan to go up to the sea or to
the surface with Ariel's voice and enchant Eric, which she does.
The next day, the kingdom is a buzz that the
prince is getting married, and Ariel is like, yay, it
(40:16):
must be me. So she runs down and sees Eric
and Ursula.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I don't recall being proposed to or having any moment. Okay,
it must be me. Yeah again, Psycho, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Very Psycho. The wedding ship departs, Scuttle goes and sees
that the girl Vanessa is actually Ursula and actually manages
to alert Ariel and Sebastian and Flounder in time for
them to enact a plan. They swim for the boat.
Sebastian's gonna go get Titan Triton, and Scuttle's gonna stall
(40:55):
the wedding. I love when all the sea creatures attack Vanessa.
It's hilarious. In a very short order, Ariel's voice gets
back to her, but the sun is set and she
becomes a mermaid. Ursula bursts out into the ocean, and
Triton appears and trades himself for Ariel. Oh so sweet,
(41:22):
Eric rose out. Triton becomes a weed. Your soula, Rsula?
Where did that come from? Ursula? Why can't I say
it right? Ursula?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Hersula.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Ursula takes the crown and the trident. Flatsam and Jetsam
are gonna drown Eric, but Ursula shoots and kills them. Furious,
she ambigates herself to a gigantic size. She makes a
whirlpool that sucks up shipwrecks. Ariel is trapped and getting
shot at, but Eric stabs her with the shipwreck and
(41:57):
everyone's restored.
Speaker 6 (42:00):
She's impaled. She's impaled by a ship.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, well she doesn't see coming, even though it's a
giant ship in the ocean heading straight for her belly. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
All of the week again.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yep. Trenton gives aerial legs and a gown. He doesn't
send her up nude like Ursula did, and smooth smooch,
it's a wedding to sixteen year olds get married and
the kingdom rejoices.
Speaker 8 (42:32):
Now did he see that Eric is the prince of
Arkansas and that's why that's allowed?
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Like what's.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
It's supposed to be? Like Danish or Dutch, right, because
that's what the original like, Hans Christian Anderson, right, right,
So they marry him young out there and that's the
Little Mermaid. It was such an easy watch. It was
such a fun watch. I really enjoyed it. Of course,
who was fourteen declined to watch it.
Speaker 6 (43:02):
With me, but he had seen it before.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Oh, of course he loved it when he was a kid,
and like he never.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Was not fourteen, that's too grown up.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, it's too close to Ariel's age himself. It hits
too close to home.
Speaker 8 (43:19):
Yeah, no, it is a great one. And I again
I am not a Disney file. This was colorful, funny, emotional,
the you know, the songs are all they all work.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
This was a huge triumph for them.
Speaker 8 (43:36):
And had this not worked, there would be no Beauty
in the Beast and Lion King and all the others.
So this was a big swing and a huge success
for Disney. And who doesn't love it? As you know,
we're being playfully critical, but it's so lovable it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Is, and I love that you could be playfully critical,
like it makes it more fun that you can watch
it and be like, how does she breathe? What did
they eat?
Speaker 6 (44:02):
Like just the problem of being in like sixteen year
olds being in love, seeing each other, not talking, and
then getting married a few days later. It was a
different time.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
It was a different thing.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
Yeah, well, Nathan, not unlike your favorite movie Grease Too,
where Stephanie Zanoni just sees a guy on a motorcycle
and falls in love.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
Go uh huh, it's true, it's true.
Speaker 8 (44:32):
How many times have you watched it since we last spoke, Nathan.
Speaker 6 (44:36):
Oh, so many times. I can't even describe.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
And he would never he would never describe. M I
think he had that like eternal sunshine from his mind.
Speaker 8 (44:51):
And I do think you when I made a joke
about her being psycho, you said, well, they're.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Just teenagers, and that's how teenagers fall in love. And
I do agree. Otherwise we wouldn't have Romeo and Juliet.
You know there's something to that.
Speaker 6 (45:05):
Yeah, The the intensity of like the first legs she's
ever seen, you know, the first dancing.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah, I love it. So on a scale of one
plus on to ten La Poissons, how many plassons do
you give the Little Mermaid? Uh? Nathan, Oh, I am
I always first?
Speaker 6 (45:35):
Okay, So I'm I'm going to rate this more. I'm
just my enjoyment factor, which is so I'm giving it
a seven point five. Like in the canon of the
Disney movies, it's it's probably higher, but just just for
whatever reason, like my personal enjoyment, you know, is I've yeah,
(46:00):
I don't know, I just go from the gut for
these numbers. I'm just making things up, Okay, But yeah,
seven point five is it's kind of where I kind
of felt like it. It is really, it is solid
and it is enjoyable. Uh, it's maybe unfair to compare
it to a lot of the modern Disney movies, but
(46:23):
in a lot of ways it's it's superior in terms
of its storytelling. But yeah, that's where I ended up.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Okay, I love it. I think that's fair, Uh, fair
and accurate. What what do you think? Me? Andy? How
many poissons?
Speaker 4 (46:40):
I love this movie?
Speaker 8 (46:41):
And I did see the live action remake, which I
did not love. Right, we should talk about how charming
and simple and beautiful this movie really is. And I
love a movie with a runtime under ninety minutes.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
So I'm giving Missed a ten out.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Of time excellent, excellent. I love it. Well, I'm gonna
I'm gonna jump right in the middle of you two
and I'm gonna give it nine plus songs, nine plus
songs NF one soons.
Speaker 8 (47:15):
So he.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Because I did love it, and uh, it's so fun,
and I didn't I if I could get sick of
Disney movies. I gets sick of Disney movies because I
watched them all through my childhood and I watched them
all through my children's childhood, and like even the you know,
(47:40):
more current ones like Frozen, I don't get sick of
these movies. Whatever the magic is, Uh, they've they've got it.
So I don't get sick of Little Mermaid. But I
had a hard time coming up with a deep cut recommendation. Nathan,
we know yours, so why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 6 (47:58):
And yeah, so I I tipped mine off beforehand. Like
the Disney movies I grew up on. I think it
had more to do with the soundtracks because we didn't
have like a VHS player until I was like eleven,
(48:18):
you know, and so we were kind of victims of
whatever was on TV. But we had the soundtracks of
Robin Hood and then also Fox and the Hound, and
I think maybe Bambi as well. But those were the
ones that I just ended up listening to over and
(48:39):
over again. And I don't know, there's just something about
the robin Hood one that I really liked, the the
anthropomorphos size, like everyone is a different type of animal.
Let's not explain like how it all works. You know,
sure someone could be a hippo and someone's an alligator
and then we're foxes and just go with it, you know.
(49:02):
And there is there is kind of a fun adventure
to it as well, like they take it seriously. But
rewatching it, it was interesting. I had forgotten just how
darn folksye it is, like it is just like folk music,
and like everyone has kind of a slight Southern accent
and and so yeah, it was an interesting one to revisit.
(49:27):
But that's yeah, I guess. I guess it's it's not
so much of a recommendation of if you love The
Little Mermaid, you should definitely check out Robinhood. It's more
kind of like I guess, making a tether to my
my Disney connections.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
You know, I love Disney's robin Hood. As I said,
it's it's very cute, and that's a good recommendation. I
love it. What about you Mandy, what is your deep
cut recommendation?
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Okay, I have.
Speaker 8 (50:00):
Too many, but I will limit myself. But so, the
first thing I thought of is not a deep cut.
It's a very popular movie. But Jody Benson, who voiced
Little Mermaid, appears on screen in Enchanted as Africami's secretary
frazzled secretary. So and I found Enchanted when it came out.
(50:25):
I saw it in the movie theater. I love Amy Adams.
I found it to be wholly inspiring.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
I loved it.
Speaker 8 (50:32):
She walked through the world with a positivity and an
acceptance and an open mindedness that really influenced me and
I try to be more like Giselle. I liked the
way she viewed the world. So, yeah, I know it's
not a deep cut, but I love that movie and
it is very connected to me because they put Jody
Benson in it. But maybe a deeper cut not for
(50:58):
a mom, but those Disney Descendants movies. Oh ye, remise
of the villains kids moving to a private school that's
only for the you know, the heroine's kids, and it
was they are fantastic, choreographed by Kenny Ortega. They are
(51:24):
the day casey said Mom, I don't think I like
those movies anymore. We don't have to watch one again.
I was like, oh no, the fourth one's coming, Like,
I was so crush. I love, love, love love the
Descendants and they do one with in the second one,
what's my name?
Speaker 4 (51:43):
What's my name?
Speaker 8 (51:44):
And that's Ursula's daughter and woe Goldberg voices Ursula out
in the sea and oh my god, so good.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Okay, so the Descendants movies, Nathan.
Speaker 6 (51:56):
I'm writing it down. I was so, I've always been
fascinated by the posters. It's like, I have no idea
what the fthesst is, but it's like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
They look they look fun.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
And the costuming is great too. The costumes are amazing.
Speaker 8 (52:12):
Hum Shenna with isn't as the Evils to. I mean,
just you don't get better.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
It's great. I love it. Those are perfect recommendations. I
really struggled. So I'm going to recommend the Metropolitan Museum
of Modern Art because you can go see statues and
fall in love with one good and because they're full
of human artifacts, much like Ariel's Grotto.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
Okay, very deep, very.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Deep cut recommendation. Classy, yes, So of all the museums
that I've been to that one had the most statues
worthy of falling in love with. Really any museum will
you as a storage place of starch?
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Wonderful? So uh, Mandy, tell us where we can find
you and listen to you and support you.
Speaker 8 (53:17):
Oh, bless your heart. I am the host of my
own podcast called Make Me a Nerd, the premise of
which is that I am a mainstream mom and I
love all things Taylor Swift and housewives and fantasy football
my whole life. I've been scared of sci fi, fantasy,
(53:37):
video games, dungeons and dragons, all of it. I've just thought, Eh,
that's not my thing because I don't maybe I'm not
so smart enough for it. And this past year I
have taken a very deep dive. I went I did
not go soft. I really dove in, and my guests
come on and they indoctrinate me into the world of
(53:59):
Star Trek and Lord of the Rings and all of it.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
So wow.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
I've been lucky enough to have Christy Lenz three times
introduced me.
Speaker 6 (54:10):
Yeah, what'd you guys cover?
Speaker 9 (54:12):
We started with Supernatural, of course, which famously infamously on
the podcast were I was fifteen or twenty minutes into
Small into Supernatural when I thought where is Superman?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Because I thought it was small?
Speaker 2 (54:30):
Yes, no Superman, lots of Dean with Chester. We did
Doctor Who ooh, and then we did The Labyrinth.
Speaker 6 (54:39):
Yes coming soon, nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yes, very good. And so you can find that on
wherever the finest podcasts are stored. And it's a true
Story FM product. Yes awesome, Nathan. Where can we support
your filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 6 (54:59):
Well, I guess the one stop shop is Squishy Studios
dot com. But my movie, The Last Movie Ever Made
is on Amazon and Apple for rent or two B
if you enjoy watching ads so and who doesn't and
who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (55:20):
But rent That Bad Boy. Seriously, if you're here with
us at the end of the podcast and you have
not yet watched The Last Movie Ever Made, Rent That
Bad Boy on Amazon. You will not regret it. I
promise you. It's chock full of once and future most
excellent eighties movies guests, and you will love it. Okay,
(55:43):
you can find me and support me at the actual
Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Mesa, Arizona, or on my
other po podcast, my other podcast, Gank That Drank a
supernatural drinking game podcast. Oh No, She's Gone Full British,
(56:03):
which is also on True Story FM. And Hey, if
you're here with us at the end and you want
a little bit more, please become a member. You can
become a member at True Story FM and we do
all sorts of fun fonus contents. Today we're going to
talk to Mandy about what she has become a nerd about.
I'm fascinated. I can't wait. I've listened to a bunch
(56:26):
of episodes and I really love them. So we're going
to talk about what has hit the hardest, what has
maybe missed the hardest, and all that fun stuff. Yeah,
and thank you for listening. While you're out there in
the world. Please keep the most excellent Eighties Movies podcast
motto in mind. Be excellent to each other and party partia.
Speaker 6 (56:50):
Dudes,
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most
Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast. Want to skip those ads and
get early access, become a member at true story dot fm,
slash join and discover all the other great parks that
come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's a podcast where a filmmaker, a comedian and their
fabulous podcasting guests splash and seeing their way through the
eighties movies we think we love or might have missed
with these our modern eyes. And today we're talking about
The Little Mermaid, a movie selection from nineteen eighty nine,
(00:51):
about which Google says. In Disney's beguiling animated romp, a
rebellious sixteen year old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life
on land. On one of her visits to the surface,
which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she
falls for a human prince, and here comes the trailer.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
For over fifty years, Walt Disney has turned classic stories
into classic animated motion pictures. Now the tradition continues as
one of the world's greatest stories becomes the newest Disney
motion picture classic, The Little Mermaid. I Want to be
where the people are.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I want to see I want to see him.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Dancing, where they walk, where they run up, where they stay.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
It's the story of Ariel, a beautiful young mermaid who
wants to become human.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
He's very handsome, isn't he. Oh that's kind of harry
and slobbery to me.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Not that one, the other one.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And she'll strike a bargain with a powerful sea witch.
Have we got a deal to make her dream come true?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What I WoT from you is your voice?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
You've got it?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sweetcase?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Human?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Have you lost your sense? Is completely the human world?
It's a miss.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Now the little mermaid is exploring the mysteries of her
strange new world.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
What's your name?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
What's wrong? You can't speak? But to regain her voice?
The sea Witch? You spell must be broken moment.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
We got an emergency.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Broken by the kiss of true love.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yes it's Walt Disney Picture is twenty eighth full length
animated motion picture featuring dozens of delightful New Disney characters
and seven magical new songs.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
Stop this holiday season, Share the Wonder and Magic, a
very special entertainment event.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
A fantastic adventure above the waves and under the scene.
I'm dond Walt Disney Pictures The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
There are songs in The Little Mermaid. Hello, I'm Chrissy Lynz,
one of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in
downtown Mesa, Arizona. And with me as ever is award
winning filmmaker.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Nathan Blackwell. Hello, independent filmmaker. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You're so you're so welcome, it's like you're a guest.
And today we have a returning guest, one of my favorites,
the the mainstream mind behind the Make Me a Nerd podcast.
We've got Mandy Kaplin.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Uh and you are a prominent voiceover artist yourself, so
you will have some wonderful insights on voicing things over
for me. Sure, sure, of course. It's I feel a
little bit awkward and weird doing a Disney animated feature.
(04:32):
It's our first time doing a Disney animated feature, and
it feels, yeah, a little bit weird to be reviewing Disney.
I mean, and not that we've never right, we just Didron,
we just did Tron, But I mean, we're talking a
Little Mermaid here. This is one of this is a
heavy hitter. This is one of the main friends.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Right and yeah, yeah, you have to be a little careful.
We I mean, sometimes we rewatch movies that we know
a lot of people love and maybe we don't respond
to it or not. But this is this is like,
this is delicate.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yes, there are a lot.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
There are herds of Disney adults with their pitchforks and
lanterns outside waiting to take you down if you offend.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Okay, yeah, So having established that this was this for
me was right in my wheelhouse. I was eight years
old when this came out. So Ariel was always one
of my favorite princesses and remains one of my favorite princesses.
(05:39):
I love Ariel and I love The Little Mermaid, and
so it was a real joy and a delight to
rewatch it again as a grown up. I've seen it,
of course a bunch, because Ariel was one of my
daughter Zoe's favorite princesses as well. So I'm very familiar
with this movie. But Nathan, what's my.
Speaker 6 (05:59):
What's my Disney princess experiences? Yes, exactly, so I so yeah,
so so the this The Little Mermaid, and then Beauty
and the Beast and Laddin and Lion King. They weren't
my Disney movies. Like for me growing up, it was
(06:21):
always like the more the ones that had a little
more adventure in it. I was gonna say, I was
trying to not say violence, but a little more adventure
in it. So like like Tron and and and honestly
some of the weirder ones that preceded this, you know,
(06:42):
like like.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The Sword and the Stone that sort of thing, uh huh, yeah,
and and but I mean really it was.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
But at the same time, like you know, like I
remember the significance of The Little Mermaid when it came
out and and enjoying it, but it was never my
jam you know. But yeah, the Little Mermaid. You know,
I'm sure we're going to talk about it a ton,
but this really was like a big turning point. They
(07:14):
call it like the Disney Renaissance. Yeah, because it's really
like you know, it's like, you know, with the trailer,
it's like this is where it's like, oh, they really
wanted you to know. It's a musical. But like the
Big Disney before, this was like The Great Mouse Detective,
you know, right, this was like.
Speaker 8 (07:32):
A return to snow white and Cinderella and taking a
fairy tale and disneifying it, right, yeah, yeah, the beauty,
then the beasts and the all around.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Yeah well yeah, and then even then, like I you know,
there were songs, but I wouldn't necessarily say like beauty,
like like like Sleeping Beauty and snow White were necessarily
musicals like these in a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Of ways are yes, and so as a lover of
musicals and all things voiceover, Mandy, how did this hit
for you when you were a kid?
Speaker 8 (08:13):
Guilty as charged on both counts. And I know, Nathan
not a lover of musicals, but that's why I'm here
to convert. I remember liking this. I was not as
much of a kid. I'm older than you, so I
was a teenager and I remember thinking, oh, that was cute.
(08:33):
But I've never been a Disney obsessed person. Or I
was a little too old for this to make me
love princesses. M you know, I still just wanted to
be Olivia Newton John.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Oh, I see, stuck in that kind of princess. Yes,
so I'm the princess lover here in the group. Then
I'm the one who dressed up like like a princess
and were the swoopy gowns and all that rathmataz.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I was swinging a lightsaber around
and hitting and breaking things at this time. Yeah, I would,
I think so. When The Little Mermaid came out, I
was thirteen, And as you get older, it's even less
fashionable to like princesses as I'm mad. So yeah, but
(09:31):
I definitely see this in my my niece. She's almost six.
She is just totally obsessed with princesses, and so, well, that's.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
The dream and they and they always.
Speaker 8 (09:45):
Had princesses from this point on who were a bit
more badass than a classic helpless damsel in distress, right,
even though they get in trouble and they need saving
at times. I thought Disney did a nice job of
making them good role models for girls.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Look at Ariel and say, well, she made her own
choices and she wanted something and she went for it
and got it.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And I know they're not perfect.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
But this is really where that started.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Though.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
You know, I feel like a lot of the old
fairy tales and the old Disney movies were like they
they had violated a social norm, rather than like these
new ones that they want something that goes against the grain,
you know. Yeah, this is really where the princesses become
(10:40):
more independent, more rebellious.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Something married at sixteen.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Yes, and getting married at sixteen. Well, we can't change
everything every night.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
No we can't, No, we can't. So we start this
movie with seagulls and dolphins and a ship where all
the they're not soldiers, one are they sailors. The sailors
are singing, they're semen, yes, And Eric and his dog
are singing. King Triton must be in a friendly type mood.
(11:16):
King Triton, who's that? Why he's the king of the Murrh.
People thought every good sailor knew about him. And a
little fish escapes and we follow it down to the
ocean where Murrh families flock to the castle for a concert.
King Triton rides in and Sebastian rides in, and he says,
this is going to be the finest concert ever, and
(11:39):
we get our first song. These are the daughters of
triton great father, who loves us and named us well.
And then all of a sudden, Ariel's not there, and
it's like no one checked her seashell.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Wasn't there a tech rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, well, Sebastian does say that she missed all the rehearsals.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Oh that's true.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Didn't they use find my phone?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, where the hell is Ariel? But everyone they
just closed up her seashell and they were like, I'm
sure it'll be fine.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
It wasn't. It felt like the fashion of the nineteen
eighties Mermaids almost looked kind of like aquatic, like Flintstones,
like it wasn't quite I see that. Yeah, there was
especially and then also like on the ship, it felt
(12:38):
like very old school animation, like they hadn't quite I mean,
obviously we're in the precipice, but in terms of fashion
and animation style, it definitely felt a lot more like
the sixties and seventies animation styles, you know.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
And are we just going to skip over once Prince
Eric appears in the beginning, the fact that I fell
in love with a cartoon character, like I have sexual
feelings character about young Prince Eric.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
We need that skip over.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Hall past? Yeah, I love it. I always had the
hots for the Fox and Robin Hood.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Mmmm.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I don't know that I saw Robin Hood.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Oh, with the with the Little Foxes, the main variant. Oh,
I was very sexy, and that was animated cross species.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Right, it was a complicated childhood. Yeah, not to I
guess give away my deep cut recommendation, but it's going
to be Robin Hood Disney's.
Speaker 8 (13:41):
Robin Oh, all right, Koren hot Foxes, right right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Hot Foxes.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But yeah, Prince Eric is hot stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Dreamy, absolutely dreamy.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
Now, might I interject for a moment with a personal
introject Harry.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
C. D.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Barnes, who voiced Prince Eric.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
When I very first moved to Los Angeles, he hit
on me and asked me out. And you better believe
I went on a date with Greg Brady slash Prince Eric,
and I was eating sushi and like, I cannot believe,
I'm close to achieving my goal of nailing Prince Eric. Yeah,
(14:29):
it did not turn out that way. And then I
ended up writing a song about him called Creepy Deep Guy.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
And that's where we can add the story and I
won't go into too many details.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That was the perfect story, Mandy. That's that's why you're
the pro.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I love that you went to sushi with Prince Eric
and so, speaking of eating fish, King Triton repeatedly refers
to humans as fish eaters. But what the hell do
the mermaids eat eat fish?
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Clankton strictly vegetarian plankton.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They're just ripping up seaweed and having a salad.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I mean they are always.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Been confused by this.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Yes, a lot of fish are carnivores, like just normal fish,
you know, well them, right, But I mean even just
like normal fish eat fish or little things.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So we can let that go. But I I've always
no judgment.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
In the musical, they made a Broadway musical of Little Mermaid. Sorry, Nathan,
you can tune out, But in musical they do a
song called She's in Love about Aerial and little Flounder
gets his whole verse and he says she treats he
likes sashimi left over from last week, so they are
(16:05):
aware of sushi and have some sushi in their world.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
There could be multiple like there could be multiple Myrrh cultures.
You know, I think that's very plausible that this is
not one hundred percent of all mermen and mermaids.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Sure, yeah, okay, they're regional.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
We needed more world building, that's the note.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's true it's true. There's just one castle. We don't
get to see where anyone else lives. Right, So Flounder
and Ariel are exploring a shipwreck. She finds a fork.
What is it? It's the most amazing thing I've ever
seen in my whole life. She finds a pipe, and
a shark chases them. They go see Scuttle. Buddy Hacket
(16:56):
the seagull, and he's like, this is a dingle hopper
and you use it to brush your hair, and this
is a snurf flat and you use it to make music,
and there are aerols just like sounds.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Great, But what a scene stealer. Buddy Hackett was. Of course,
I love him in this movie. I think he's pitch perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Not totally agree.
Speaker 8 (17:19):
I'm not quite old enough to no body Hackett's work,
but I can remember how hard we all laughed at Scuttle.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, Scuttle was the king of this movie. Yeah, and
he saves the day. So no shade on Scuttle.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Ursula sees through Flotsam and Jetsam's eyes that Ariel is
a troublesome, headstrong girl, and Ursula's like, in my day,
we had fantastic feasts at the Palace. But now I'm
banished and exiled. And we do get to find out
(17:56):
in The Little Mermaid two, which I did watch with
my daughter, that uh uh the reasons why she got banished,
but uh in this one, we don't know. We just
think it's because she's a different species. And I did
I did find a note about what her species is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Let me find.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Yes, I didn't. I think I didn't know there was
a Little Mermaid too.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, there's a two and a three. Two is about
Ariel and Eric's daughter who wants to return to the sea,
and Ariel's the one saying you can't go to the
sea and you can't know about mr people.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
This is what happens when we become parents.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yep. Uh. Many murf folks appear in the film, but
ursula is a lesser known type of mytholic mythological creature
known as a cecilia, a human upper body in octopus
lower body. So there we go. Facts. This has been
facts with the most excellent eighties movie podcast. So at
(19:04):
the Castle, Daddy's really mad, Sebastian's really mad, Flounder explains,
and when he drops that they went to see the
seagull He's like, you went to the surface. You can
never go to the surface. Her humans are dangerous barbarians.
And she says, I'm sixteen, daddy, and it's always stuck
(19:25):
after you when she was sixteen, Because when I was
an eight year old, of course, I was like, yeah,
she's sixteen. That's the ultimate age. That's the age where
you get to like do everything and the whole world
comes into focus for you. And I'm like, with chill out,
you're sixteen, right.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well this movie.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
As a parent, my perspective is totally different. I wrote,
Ariel scares me. She doesn't listen to her father, and
she goes to see the one person she's been warned about,
Oive Yah. And then I have later observations about Ariel.
But as the mom of a teen, it's like, no
(20:07):
matter what we tell them, they're going to make these
bad decisions.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
That's their jobs as teens.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yep, that's their teenage prerogative. But it's but let's hope
they don't all run off and get married.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You know.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
This, But this scene like always gets me where the
This is the scene where the dad destroys this stuff, right,
not yet, not yet? Okay, when we get to that,
I'll bring it up.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay. So yeah, she does go to her grotto and
she takes her fork in her snarf flat Sebastian has
been assigned to watch her and sort of babysit her.
And one thing I do appreciate as a as a
parental watch of this movie is that King Triton is
always like he gets a burst of anger and he
makes these big pronouncements and then he immediately feels bad.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
I can really it's right. Oh do you need to
lay down and talk about it? I do, yes, Yeah,
we could definitely tangent onto our flaws as parents. I
think King Triton has a very rich, powerful voice. So
of course I looked it up, like, oh, what character
actor is this? And his name is Kenneth Mars. I
(21:23):
am not familiar with him other than he is Leapkinned
in the Producers The Naz wacky funny Nazi in the
original Producers. So Kenneth Mars got range because this was
such a booming, rich, deep intimidating performance.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, so it was. I thought that was a very
cool fun fact. That's a perfect fun fact. Well done,
killing it again. So she goes to the surface for fireworks,
and she watches all the dancing on the ship. She
sees Eric and like immediately falls in love. And Eric,
(22:06):
who we assume is also like probably about sixteen, right,
maybe eighteen, gets the statue for his birthday and his
like associate it's not his dad. He doesn't have parents.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Right, it's like his Leander Grimsby. Yeah. His Alfred is.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Like, I need you to get married, Prince Eric, and
he's like, I haven't found the right girl. But she's
out there somewhere. So we fall in love with Eric
all over again. But there's a storm and a shipwreck
and Eric goes down and Ariels saves him. So how
(22:52):
does she breathe above and below the one? This is
my other like mermaid question. It's like she doesn't have
gills or anything, so how does she breathe well, both
above and below the water?
Speaker 8 (23:08):
I asked the same question of Flounder, and then I
wrote is this movie not scientifically accurate?
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Is it not?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Did they not have the science behind these namer people?
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Apparently they took some liberties.
Speaker 8 (23:25):
I mean, my scientific knowledge of Mermaids comes from Splash?
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Is that a movie? You guys have covered?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Same same yes, we have right.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
So she was able to breathe for a certain amount
of time out of the water.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, she was fine. So we'll just assume that the
splash logic applies.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Splash logic applies.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, are you very good? So now we get the
song of this movie, Part of Your World, one of
my favorites. It's a they wanted to cut this song.
What yes? They They fought really hard to get this
song out of the movie.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
And I would argue it's maybe the most important like
Disney song they've ever had.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It's because I want, we need.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
It's the first I want song.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
You know.
Speaker 8 (24:22):
It is, Oh I don't wait in the movie, in
this movie because snow White saying my principal come.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Right. Yeah, But it's this is the one that set
the precedent for all the modern Disney, the eighties and
nineties Disney, well the nineties Disney. But Jeffrey Katzenberg felt
that it was boring and wanted it out of the movie,
and then they talked him into letting it stay, and
(24:52):
and we got and we got this very important song,
which is one of my favorites, one of my favorite
Disney songs ever.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
And without it we would never have had let it go.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
It's true terrible place.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It would be as.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
As sad as things are, it would be so much
sadder like.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It's just true. As a Disney adult, I can say this,
this song has brought me much joy. So Eric wakes
up and he's like a specifically a girl who sings
saved me. So I have to find this girl who sings,
and that's who's going to be who I marry. So boom,
(25:36):
he's put a pin in that, and that's he's committed.
Flatsam and Jetsam see the whole thing, and Ursula makes
a plan in her garden of weeds, which we learn
later are all disgruntled mermaids, dehydrated mermaids.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
Right their souls essentially right sea monkeys.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Ariel and her sister are like, she's in love and
she wants to make a plan to go see Eric.
We get the song under the Sea, which won the
Academy Award, which is my favorite part of the ride
in Disneyland under the Sea. Under the Sea, Have you
guys ever been on that ride?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I have, but not as recently as you.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That's a safe that's safe.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, I don't know if I have been.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Oh it's been a.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
While with your niece. Yeah, you ride a little shell
and you go down under the ocean and you get
to sing under the sea, and then it's it's it's
just like snow White Scary Adventures because you see all
the fun stuff you see under you see under the sea,
you see kiss the girl, and then Ursula is dead
(26:50):
and the day is saved. Yes, go right to that.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Uh so, uh, aerial escapes. Uh. She just swims away
from Sebastian while he's distracted by his singing, and King
Triton summons Sebastian to find out what merman Ariel's in
love with, and it turns out Sebastian spills the beans
(27:16):
about the humans.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Yeah, the dad has kind of jazzed a bit. Yeah,
that she's into a dude.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Well to marry her off, so she's someone else's problem.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Uh huh. But that, yeah, that she's kind of like
transitioning to more responsibility to adulthood, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Uh so this is the King Tryton's gonna blow up
her grotto scene. We see that Flounder has brought her
the statue, and how the hell did Flounder move.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
This fight you again? Not scientifically accurate?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, unless he is mighty, a tiny mighty. So he
brought the statue, and Ariols is like swooning over the statue.
And King Triton appears and he's like, Ariel, humans are
fish eating barbarians. And she says, but Daddy, I love him.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
Are we gonna acknowledge how similar Ariel is to Kathy
Bates and misery at any point?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
She's a psycho.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Guys, she sees a guy, she decides she's in love
with him, and she saves him.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
They don't exchange a word. They have nothing in common.
I mean, this is shallow psychological ideation.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I think, yeah, yeah, it's teenage love. It's teenage love.
It's young love.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Don't you defend her.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
She's crazy, she's banana pants. She is a little nuts.
But to be fair, she's lived under the sea her
whole life. She's never seen the legs. So and he
plays the flute, a woodwind instrument, which they can't have
under the sea, although I'm pretty sure they do have
(29:14):
under the sea. I'm pretty sure they play flutes and
whistles and woodwind instruments under the sea.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
In that song, specifically in Under the Sea.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, oh, I know they play a saxophone.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
That's right, we're adding that to the scientifically inaccurate.
Speaker 8 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So, what did you want to say, Nathan about the
smashy upy scene.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Well, just just that was always the heartbreaking moment. You know,
both when I was younger from Ariel like all of
her stuff, all of her dreams, and then as I
got older, doing that as an adult to your kid
is also heartbreaking. Yeah, just see the regret afterwards.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, he immediately is like oops, yeah, but I'm not
gonna do anything to fix it. I'm just gonna run away.
Speaker 6 (30:16):
They just can't talk to each other, that's the problem.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, they need to communicate. They gotta go to the therapy.
They need to find it under the Sea therapist. So
Flatsam and Jetsam of course have witnessed this whole thing,
and a lure area Aeriel to go see the Sea Witch,
and at first she's like the Sea Witch, No, I've
(30:39):
only been told bad things about her. But then she's like,
all right, I'm doing this, And Sebastian and Flounder follow
Ursula like it is like fabulous and resplendent in all
of her Octopussy glory, and she's like, the only way
(31:00):
to love a human is to become a human yourself.
I can do that for you. Ursula sings her her
wonderful song, Poor Unfortunate Souls, which is always one.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
Of my favorites, and she's voiced by this very specific character,
actress Pat Carroll with and her voice is just so
deep and it's almost it almost sounds like Harvey Firestein
and I.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Love it so much.
Speaker 8 (31:31):
It works beautifully for the animation and for the character.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah, I love her perfection.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Isn't she based off of Divine?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I believe that's true.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Yeah, you said it, and it made perfect sense.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Yeah, the drag queen that John Waters would use in
his films.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And Ariel is based on Alyssa Milano.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Oh I haven't love before?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Uh so.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Ursula slaps down the deal. You get three days to
make him fall in love with you and give you
true love's kiss, and it will cost you your voice,
and she has a wonderful moment where she's like, look,
the truth is that men on the service don't want
you to talk anyway, and like, oh boy, Ursula, did
(32:28):
you hit a nerve it's the truth.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
She really is a delicious villain, you know.
Speaker 8 (32:36):
And that turns out to be true that Eric falls
in love with this silent dode you know, sexy girl.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yep, it is a fact. So she signs the contract.
And here's here's the big meme that everyone is like
all a flutter about, which is like, if she can write,
why didn't she write a note to Prince Eric and
say it's me, I lost my voice. I've got laryngitis.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Hmmm, it's probably a different language. It's a different language.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Get and her.
Speaker 8 (33:13):
Signature not like anything I do. Mine is just like,
you know, unreadable scribble, and hers is this perfectly almost
like calligraphy.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yes, so obviously Sebastian is teaching them penmanship, yes, in
between concerts. So a flaw another flaw in this movie
that we've detected. She can write, all right, So she
becomes a human like really deep under the sea, and
(33:50):
like no one ever acknowledges that Ursula was like, well,
if she drowns, she drowns. That's an easy win for me,
you know. Uh and uh Ashian and Flounder have to
drag her up to the surface. At the castle, Eric
is searching for the girl with the voice. Scuttle hangs
(34:11):
out with Ariel and Sebastian and Flounder. She's nude. They
also didn't send her up with any clothes, so Scuttle
is gonna dress her up in a shipwreck curtain like
the sail. She's dressed up in the sail and Eric
(34:33):
finds Ariel and he's like, you're the one. You're the
girl who saved me. Oh, you can't talk. Never mind,
you're not the one.
Speaker 8 (34:41):
Look, I don't want to bang Eric for his brains
of let's speak here.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
He's not the brightest bulb.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
No, No, it is a physical want. But once I
get my wish, I want I want him out and
I want to talk to somebody with intellect. It is
very frustrating watching him not recognize that this is the girl.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah, this girl who appears from the sea right, yeah,
just a.
Speaker 8 (35:11):
Few days after she left, such an indelible impression on
him that he thinks he's in love with her mm hmm,
but doesn't recognize her with her bright red.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Hair and her gigantic eye. So come on, Eric, get
with the program. Yeah. So Ariel gets in the tub,
Sebastian gets washed up Eric and Grimsby. I'm gonna find
that girl and I'm gonna marry her. Ariel comes in
for their dinner, and I did read that her dress
(35:42):
when they have dinner is a mishmash of all of
the princesses that have come before her. The puffy sleeves
with diamond designs are similar to snow white. The light
pink color comes from Cinderella's mother's dress that the stepsister's apart,
the full skirt and draping from Cinderella's famous ball gown,
and finally, the off the shoulder neckline and long pointed
(36:04):
sleeves were inspired by Princess Arroyo's Aurora's royal ball gown.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Wow, pretty cool. Huh go Disney. Uh So they have
a nice dinner. She brushes her hair with the fork,
she blows pipe pipe ash and Grimsby's face with the
snarf flat.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I need to interject here.
Speaker 8 (36:28):
I'm so please please, because as as you guys can see,
the listeners won't see. But I have very very long
hair like Ariel, and I need to use not just conditioner,
but leave in conditioner after that to get a very
aggressive brush through it, not possible.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
That she puts a fork through that mane and it
glides through again. With the scientific inaccuracies.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Going on the list.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (37:00):
Okay, I watched that and I thought I would scream
in pain trying to put a fork through my hair.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
And she her hair is probably like without a leaven conditioner,
as you said, like grody as hell after being used
to seawater all the time.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Yep, just not possible.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Just not possible. Another one of the things in this
movie that are not accurate or believable. We are taking
you to task Disney's The Little Mermaid. Uh so we
get the one of my favorite and I'm saying they're
all my favorite. But I do love the songs in
this movie. The Lei songs are good. Yea, how I
(37:45):
love to chop little Fish. I sing that song to
myself pretty frequently.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Who is a legend.
Speaker 8 (37:59):
I did have the joy of meeting him a few
times that the voice over world.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
He is as kind and delightful as they come.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Oh I love that. What a beautiful fun fact. He
is the comedic what's the term, the comedic relief, the
comic relief that we need to chase little Sebastian and
want to crush him up. They don't. They don't really
(38:30):
uh show the horror as much as they should that
Eric is going to clearly eat a crab right in
front of Aeriel.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Well, he doesn't know, he doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
You don't know any better? He finds them. The crabs
are delicious. So and under the sea, Ariel is missing,
and King Triton is immediately like what have I done?
Up above? Eric is giving Ariel a tour of the kingdom.
In the boat, we get the song kiss the girl,
they're about to smooch. It's gonna happen, and then Flatsam
(39:08):
and jetsam sink the boat. That's unfair.
Speaker 8 (39:11):
Why hasn't he kissed her before? Get what gives Eric?
They didn't finish this girl right like.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
One whole day. If that's not enough for God's sake.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Kiss her?
Speaker 8 (39:28):
Oh I again inaccurate. I've been around men. They would
not wait that long.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
They would not and they wouldn't do this this slow
sinking La la la kiss the girl. And they're slowly, slowly,
slowly they're making it too easy for Ursula. Ursula, who
decides this is too close. Uh, what does she call
her the little tramp.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
They'll be kissing my sunset for sure, So she hatches
a plan to go up to the sea or to
the surface with Ariel's voice and enchant Eric, which she does.
The next day, the kingdom is a buzz that the
prince is getting married, and Ariel is like, yay, it
(40:16):
must be me. So she runs down and sees Eric
and Ursula.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I don't recall being proposed to or having any moment. Okay,
it must be me. Yeah again, Psycho, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Very Psycho. The wedding ship departs, Scuttle goes and sees
that the girl Vanessa is actually Ursula and actually manages
to alert Ariel and Sebastian and Flounder in time for
them to enact a plan. They swim for the boat.
Sebastian's gonna go get Titan Triton, and Scuttle's gonna stall
(40:55):
the wedding. I love when all the sea creatures attack Vanessa.
It's hilarious. In a very short order, Ariel's voice gets
back to her, but the sun is set and she
becomes a mermaid. Ursula bursts out into the ocean, and
Triton appears and trades himself for Ariel. Oh so sweet,
(41:22):
Eric rose out. Triton becomes a weed. Your soula, Rsula?
Where did that come from? Ursula? Why can't I say
it right? Ursula?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Hersula.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Ursula takes the crown and the trident. Flatsam and Jetsam
are gonna drown Eric, but Ursula shoots and kills them. Furious,
she ambigates herself to a gigantic size. She makes a
whirlpool that sucks up shipwrecks. Ariel is trapped and getting
shot at, but Eric stabs her with the shipwreck and
(41:57):
everyone's restored.
Speaker 6 (42:00):
She's impaled. She's impaled by a ship.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, well she doesn't see coming, even though it's a
giant ship in the ocean heading straight for her belly. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
All of the week again.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yep. Trenton gives aerial legs and a gown. He doesn't
send her up nude like Ursula did, and smooth smooch,
it's a wedding to sixteen year olds get married and
the kingdom rejoices.
Speaker 8 (42:32):
Now did he see that Eric is the prince of
Arkansas and that's why that's allowed?
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Like what's.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
It's supposed to be? Like Danish or Dutch, right, because
that's what the original like, Hans Christian Anderson, right, right,
So they marry him young out there and that's the
Little Mermaid. It was such an easy watch. It was
such a fun watch. I really enjoyed it. Of course,
who was fourteen declined to watch it.
Speaker 6 (43:02):
With me, but he had seen it before.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Oh, of course he loved it when he was a kid,
and like he never.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Was not fourteen, that's too grown up.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, it's too close to Ariel's age himself. It hits
too close to home.
Speaker 8 (43:19):
Yeah, no, it is a great one. And I again
I am not a Disney file. This was colorful, funny, emotional,
the you know, the songs are all they all work.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
This was a huge triumph for them.
Speaker 8 (43:36):
And had this not worked, there would be no Beauty
in the Beast and Lion King and all the others.
So this was a big swing and a huge success
for Disney. And who doesn't love it? As you know,
we're being playfully critical, but it's so lovable it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Is, and I love that you could be playfully critical,
like it makes it more fun that you can watch
it and be like, how does she breathe? What did
they eat?
Speaker 6 (44:02):
Like just the problem of being in like sixteen year
olds being in love, seeing each other, not talking, and
then getting married a few days later. It was a
different time.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
It was a different thing.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
Yeah, well, Nathan, not unlike your favorite movie Grease Too,
where Stephanie Zanoni just sees a guy on a motorcycle
and falls in love.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
Go uh huh, it's true, it's true.
Speaker 8 (44:32):
How many times have you watched it since we last spoke, Nathan.
Speaker 6 (44:36):
Oh, so many times. I can't even describe.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
And he would never he would never describe. M I
think he had that like eternal sunshine from his mind.
Speaker 8 (44:51):
And I do think you when I made a joke
about her being psycho, you said, well, they're.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Just teenagers, and that's how teenagers fall in love. And
I do agree. Otherwise we wouldn't have Romeo and Juliet.
You know there's something to that.
Speaker 6 (45:05):
Yeah, The the intensity of like the first legs she's
ever seen, you know, the first dancing.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah, I love it. So on a scale of one
plus on to ten La Poissons, how many plassons do
you give the Little Mermaid? Uh? Nathan, Oh, I am
I always first?
Speaker 6 (45:35):
Okay, So I'm I'm going to rate this more. I'm
just my enjoyment factor, which is so I'm giving it
a seven point five. Like in the canon of the
Disney movies, it's it's probably higher, but just just for
whatever reason, like my personal enjoyment, you know, is I've yeah,
(46:00):
I don't know, I just go from the gut for
these numbers. I'm just making things up, Okay, But yeah,
seven point five is it's kind of where I kind
of felt like it. It is really, it is solid
and it is enjoyable. Uh, it's maybe unfair to compare
it to a lot of the modern Disney movies, but
(46:23):
in a lot of ways it's it's superior in terms
of its storytelling. But yeah, that's where I ended up.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Okay, I love it. I think that's fair, Uh, fair
and accurate. What what do you think? Me? Andy? How
many poissons?
Speaker 4 (46:40):
I love this movie?
Speaker 8 (46:41):
And I did see the live action remake, which I
did not love. Right, we should talk about how charming
and simple and beautiful this movie really is. And I
love a movie with a runtime under ninety minutes.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
So I'm giving Missed a ten out.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Of time excellent, excellent. I love it. Well, I'm gonna
I'm gonna jump right in the middle of you two
and I'm gonna give it nine plus songs, nine plus
songs NF one soons.
Speaker 8 (47:15):
So he.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Because I did love it, and uh, it's so fun,
and I didn't I if I could get sick of
Disney movies. I gets sick of Disney movies because I
watched them all through my childhood and I watched them
all through my children's childhood, and like even the you know,
(47:40):
more current ones like Frozen, I don't get sick of
these movies. Whatever the magic is, Uh, they've they've got it.
So I don't get sick of Little Mermaid. But I
had a hard time coming up with a deep cut recommendation. Nathan,
we know yours, so why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 6 (47:58):
And yeah, so I I tipped mine off beforehand. Like
the Disney movies I grew up on. I think it
had more to do with the soundtracks because we didn't
have like a VHS player until I was like eleven,
(48:18):
you know, and so we were kind of victims of
whatever was on TV. But we had the soundtracks of
Robin Hood and then also Fox and the Hound, and
I think maybe Bambi as well. But those were the
ones that I just ended up listening to over and
(48:39):
over again. And I don't know, there's just something about
the robin Hood one that I really liked, the the
anthropomorphos size, like everyone is a different type of animal.
Let's not explain like how it all works. You know,
sure someone could be a hippo and someone's an alligator
and then we're foxes and just go with it, you know.
(49:02):
And there is there is kind of a fun adventure
to it as well, like they take it seriously. But
rewatching it, it was interesting. I had forgotten just how
darn folksye it is, like it is just like folk music,
and like everyone has kind of a slight Southern accent
and and so yeah, it was an interesting one to revisit.
(49:27):
But that's yeah, I guess. I guess it's it's not
so much of a recommendation of if you love The
Little Mermaid, you should definitely check out Robinhood. It's more
kind of like I guess, making a tether to my
my Disney connections.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
You know, I love Disney's robin Hood. As I said,
it's it's very cute, and that's a good recommendation. I
love it. What about you Mandy, what is your deep
cut recommendation?
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Okay, I have.
Speaker 8 (50:00):
Too many, but I will limit myself. But so, the
first thing I thought of is not a deep cut.
It's a very popular movie. But Jody Benson, who voiced
Little Mermaid, appears on screen in Enchanted as Africami's secretary
frazzled secretary. So and I found Enchanted when it came out.
(50:25):
I saw it in the movie theater. I love Amy Adams.
I found it to be wholly inspiring.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
I loved it.
Speaker 8 (50:32):
She walked through the world with a positivity and an
acceptance and an open mindedness that really influenced me and
I try to be more like Giselle. I liked the
way she viewed the world. So, yeah, I know it's
not a deep cut, but I love that movie and
it is very connected to me because they put Jody
Benson in it. But maybe a deeper cut not for
(50:58):
a mom, but those Disney Descendants movies. Oh ye, remise
of the villains kids moving to a private school that's
only for the you know, the heroine's kids, and it
was they are fantastic, choreographed by Kenny Ortega. They are
(51:24):
the day casey said Mom, I don't think I like
those movies anymore. We don't have to watch one again.
I was like, oh no, the fourth one's coming, Like,
I was so crush. I love, love, love love the
Descendants and they do one with in the second one,
what's my name?
Speaker 4 (51:43):
What's my name?
Speaker 8 (51:44):
And that's Ursula's daughter and woe Goldberg voices Ursula out
in the sea and oh my god, so good.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Okay, so the Descendants movies, Nathan.
Speaker 6 (51:56):
I'm writing it down. I was so, I've always been
fascinated by the posters. It's like, I have no idea
what the fthesst is, but it's like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
They look they look fun.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
And the costuming is great too. The costumes are amazing.
Speaker 8 (52:12):
Hum Shenna with isn't as the Evils to. I mean,
just you don't get better.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
It's great. I love it. Those are perfect recommendations. I
really struggled. So I'm going to recommend the Metropolitan Museum
of Modern Art because you can go see statues and
fall in love with one good and because they're full
of human artifacts, much like Ariel's Grotto.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
Okay, very deep, very.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Deep cut recommendation. Classy, yes, So of all the museums
that I've been to that one had the most statues
worthy of falling in love with. Really any museum will
you as a storage place of starch?
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Wonderful? So uh, Mandy, tell us where we can find
you and listen to you and support you.
Speaker 8 (53:17):
Oh, bless your heart. I am the host of my
own podcast called Make Me a Nerd, the premise of
which is that I am a mainstream mom and I
love all things Taylor Swift and housewives and fantasy football
my whole life. I've been scared of sci fi, fantasy,
(53:37):
video games, dungeons and dragons, all of it. I've just thought, Eh,
that's not my thing because I don't maybe I'm not
so smart enough for it. And this past year I
have taken a very deep dive. I went I did
not go soft. I really dove in, and my guests
come on and they indoctrinate me into the world of
(53:59):
Star Trek and Lord of the Rings and all of it.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
So wow.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
I've been lucky enough to have Christy Lenz three times
introduced me.
Speaker 6 (54:10):
Yeah, what'd you guys cover?
Speaker 9 (54:12):
We started with Supernatural, of course, which famously infamously on
the podcast were I was fifteen or twenty minutes into
Small into Supernatural when I thought where is Superman?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Because I thought it was small?
Speaker 2 (54:30):
Yes, no Superman, lots of Dean with Chester. We did
Doctor Who ooh, and then we did The Labyrinth.
Speaker 6 (54:39):
Yes coming soon, nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yes, very good. And so you can find that on
wherever the finest podcasts are stored. And it's a true
Story FM product. Yes awesome, Nathan. Where can we support
your filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 6 (54:59):
Well, I guess the one stop shop is Squishy Studios
dot com. But my movie, The Last Movie Ever Made
is on Amazon and Apple for rent or two B
if you enjoy watching ads so and who doesn't and
who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (55:20):
But rent That Bad Boy. Seriously, if you're here with
us at the end of the podcast and you have
not yet watched The Last Movie Ever Made, Rent That
Bad Boy on Amazon. You will not regret it. I
promise you. It's chock full of once and future most
excellent eighties movies guests, and you will love it. Okay,
(55:43):
you can find me and support me at the actual
Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Mesa, Arizona, or on my
other po podcast, my other podcast, Gank That Drank a
supernatural drinking game podcast. Oh No, She's Gone Full British,
(56:03):
which is also on True Story FM. And Hey, if
you're here with us at the end and you want
a little bit more, please become a member. You can
become a member at True Story FM and we do
all sorts of fun fonus contents. Today we're going to
talk to Mandy about what she has become a nerd about.
I'm fascinated. I can't wait. I've listened to a bunch
(56:26):
of episodes and I really love them. So we're going
to talk about what has hit the hardest, what has
maybe missed the hardest, and all that fun stuff. Yeah,
and thank you for listening. While you're out there in
the world. Please keep the most excellent Eighties Movies podcast
motto in mind. Be excellent to each other and party partia.
Speaker 6 (56:50):
Dudes,
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