The Little Mermaid (1937)
The Little Mermaid (1937)
Taken from "The Production of the Little Mermaid: Disney's First Success", produced 1990
Leonard Maltin: Walt had an extremely hard time choosing material for his first film. Walt has considered doing that novel "Bambi", then there was Peter Pan, the story about the boy who never grew up. Out of these two, Walt only produced Peter Pan. Some said that the reason Walt ultimately went with the Little Mermaid was due to his love for classic Andersen tales, which we can see reflected in the final film.
Fred Moore (1): When Walt announced production on the Little Mermaid, we were all like "Oh this'll never work, Walt's finally gone off his rocker!". Some people called it Disney's Folly when it was still it production and expected the film to flop. Of course, that didn't happen and the Little Mermaid would be the start of what they call the Golden Age.
Ward Kimball: We had a lot of story meetings on how to handle the ending of the film. One of our original drafts was more akin to Andersen's original tale, but Walt came in one night and said "Nah that's too dark it'll give kids nightmares!". So we scrapped that idea pretty quickly and had the Little Mermaid be revived in the end instead.
Ward Kimball: I remember seeing Clark Gable cry that night, it was crazy! The biggest Hollywood celebrities crying of a cartoon, how was that even possible?
Leonard Maltin: I think a big part of the Little Mermaid's success was the romance and the story itself as well as the side characters. We got Ariel the Little Mermaid herself who's resilient to her father's dissapproval, then there's Floppy Fish who's Ariel's best friend, and of course Sebastian the Crab himself, King Triton's majordormo. And who could forget Grimhelde the Sea Witch, such a memorable Disney villain, probably my personal favourite too.
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The name "Walt Disney Productions" had became a phenomenon by the mid-1930s thanks of the long-running Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony short series. Walt released "Steamboat Willie" which revolutionised sound cartoons in 1928 and also marked the debut of Mickey Mouse, introduced 3-strip color film with 1932's "Flowers and Trees" and truly struck gold with the 1933 short "Three Little Pigs". By 1934, Walt was looking for further, more darring endeavours. After looking for suitable material and adaptations, Walt settled on Hans Christen Andersen's "The Little Mermaid".
Despite being the first film produced and subsequently released, Walt had actually greenlit a live-action aniamtion hybird of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" starring Mary Pickford. However the difficulty of combining live-action and aqnimation, as well as the unability of crafting a coherent story led Walt to shelve Alice indefinitely. Then there were the stories of Peter Pan and Bambi, both stories never came to fruition due to difficulties in purchasing film rights (or in the case of the latter, snatch rights away from MGM). Alice and Bambi never came to reality until the 21st Century, and Peter Pan wasn't made until a period known as "The Silver Age". Walt soon announced his plans to produce a feature-length animated film in an October 1934 story meeting.
This became quite the ridicule when the announcement became public. The film was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" and many believed it would doom the Disney Studio. Walt's brother Roy and his wife Lillian tried to talk him out of it, but Walt wouldn't budge. Ultimately by 1937 and only a few months before the film's intended release date, Walt had to take a loan from the Bank of America, he only did so after showing a rough cut of the near-finished product.
The mermaid Ariel is obsessed with human life, this obsession is fueled even further when Ariel saves a young Prince named Hans. Ariel's father King Triton discovers Ariel's obsession and destroys her collection of human artifacts. Ariel then turns to Grimhelde the sea witch, who plans to use Ariel to take over Triton's kingdom. Grimhelde sets a spell that gives Ariel human legs, she must get Prince Hans to kiss her or else she will turn into sea foam and die. While Ariel reunites with prince Hans, Grimhelde poses as Princess Arianna to fool Hans into marrying her. Now Ariel and her sea friends must warn Prince Hans and save the kingdom before it's too late.
"The Little Mermaid" would become the first entry in the Disney Animated Canon and also Disney's first big success, paving the way for future Disney films and the Disney Company as a whole.
Release Date: December 21st 1937
Cast:
Adriana Caselotti (Ariel, Grimhelde as Princess Arianna)
Stuart Buchanan (King Triton)
Mel Blanc (Floppy the Fish)
Roy Atwell (Sebastian the Crab)
Harry Stockwell (Prince Hans)
Pinto Colvig (Grimsby, Hans's majordormo)
Lucille La Verne (Grimhelde)
Notable Songs:
Someday My Prince Will Come (sung by Ariel after she first meets Hans)
Music in Your Soup (sung by Grimsby during the dinner with Hans and Ariel)
(1) See the 1961 film
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