The Little Mermaid is one of the most popular Disney animated movies of all time. This movie talks about a young princess mermaid who is eager to attain human soul and give up her identity as a mermaid after falling in love with a human prince. Ariel is that young mermaid who falls in love with a prince. Though the young princess Ariel is a mermaid, she finds a way to attain legs. However, in return she has to pay a hefty price, which was to give up her voice. Of the Disney movies I have seen, The Little Mermaid is the worst influential movie for teenagers because it portrays a scenario where a person can disobey her father and yet have everything worked out well towards the end. I specifically disagree with the fact that Ariel’s father in the end realizes Ariel’s true love for the prince is a good deed.
Ariel disobeys her father word and makes childish decisions on her own. Eventually she faces lots of trouble in her life, but somehow manages to end up doing fine towards the end. Due to this very reason many teenagers these days think that it is good to disobey their parents when they are immature, and still have a good life in the end. This is completely wrong, because parents have far more experience than their children and always look out good for their kids. It should be fine to take decisions on their own once the child matures. However, in the movie The Little Mermaid, Ariel clearly was not mature enough and made bad choices. None of this would have happened if she obeyed her father when she was young. This way the theme of the movie would have actually influence teenagers to obey their parents and not make senseless decisions in life.
Hist 389 
I agree a great part of the movie the Little Mermaid, is the bad relations between the father and youngest teenager Ariel. As the youngest she is used to getting things her way and she is also one of the most protected. There is a problem with seeing this as the only view on relationships in the movie. With concentration on the negative view on the family you’d miss the view of prejudice for something foreign or misunderstood. The small relations King Triton has had with the upward world of humans have been bad and he judges the entire group of humans based off of these interactions. He takes his blooming prejudice and turns them over to his children wanting to protect them. While his intentions may be good it would be unfair to judge the human species off of these bad encounters just like how it would be bad to judge the mer-people species off of an encounter with Ursula. This prejudice is a message for an age group where their mind is just beginning to form as their own not as a reflection of their parents’ views. While the movie may teach some teens to be disobedient it may teach others to see the flaws that their parents have as all humans do.
[…] Disney Princess Ariel […]
This opinion regarding Ariel is very interesting, since Ariel is never under as much scrutiny for her choices in comparison to other Disney princesses. I really admired Ariel as a child, she was my favorite princess in her independence and dedication to doing what she thought was right. And of course, she fell in love and I wanted her and Price Eric to live happily ever after. Looking at this film from a more adult perspective, I do agree with your points regarding her relationship with her father and the rebellious choices she made as a result. The film, in my opinion, does not make enough effort to explain King Triton’s explanation behind his reluctance to meet humans and completely sides with Ariel’s whirlwind romance.As a father and authority figure, King Triton was simply trying to keep his family and subjects safe from the hazards of the outside world, but comes to understand that this was misguided and realized that he had to stop making hasty generalizations about humans. Ariel helped him see that, though she could have gone about it in a more mature, less dangerous way. The film’s bias in siding with Ariel makes a potential lesson in listening to your parents almost impossible, but I do agree that Ariel should not always be celebrated for the destructive choices she made.
[…] Disney Princess Ariel […]