With the exception of Snow White, no film changed the fortunes of the Walt Disney Company as dramatically as The Little Mermaid. It arrived at the end of over two decades in the wilderness following the death of Walt Disney: a period marked by financial doldrums, mediocre movies and the very real possibility that they would get out of the cinematic game altogether and become a theme park company. The arrival of CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg helped change all that, greenlighting an update of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that reestablished the company's status as king of the animation cage. The film's arrival on Blu-ray gives us another chance to evaluate its strengths, its weaknesses, and the legacy that continues to reverberate almost 25 years later. Hit the jump for the full review. The Andersen fairy tale is actually a bit of an odd fit for Disney: a sad and melancholy meditation on the pain of love that had more in common with Madame Butterfly than the House of Mouse. Disney's reputation meant that it needed a new happily-ever-after ending, which robs the love story of its poignancy and left the creators scrambling for proper closure. That may explain its rather arbitrary vanquishing of chief villainess Ursula (voiced by Pat Carroll), after scoring a hard-earned victory for Team Evil that needed more than some convenient hand-waving to properly undo. Similar bits of storytelling wonkiness crop up throughout The Little Mermaid, contrasting with the polish of later Disney films and reminding us that ...
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