Disney Origins

|| Disney Origins | The Little Mermaid ||

The Little Mermaid, 1837



So, it’s been a little while since I ruined your favourite Disney movies so here I am again! Today I’m ruining one of my favourites!
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin….




Hans Christian Anderson published The Little Mermaid in 1837.
They start off the same, she wants to become human for the prince she has fallen in love with from afar. So she seeks out the sea witch to make her human.


Now, this is where they start to differ and it starts to get real dark…

The sea witch not only takes her voice but her tongue aswell!
Even though she is still given legs, she has to deal with the pain of being stabbed by sharp knives with every step she takes. (No pain no gain, right?)

Now, little backstory, mermaids don’t actually have souls, they live to be 300 and then they die and that is it, the end. Anderson writes that humans get immortal souls that live forever, so obvs they’re superior.
In order for The Little Mermaid to get a soul now she is human she must win the heart of the prince and marry him or else she will die of a broken heart & dissolve into sea foam!

What Disney doesn’t show is that the prince is actually a condescending arsehole!
He let’s her sleep at the foot of his bed, yes really. He calls her his little foundling and he loves her “as he would a little child” you creeped out yet?
He even tells his dumb little foundling all about the wonders beneath the sea because he knows so much about them…

Now after all that she has sacrificed, surely things will start going her way right?
Oh hell no, life is so cruel to our little mermaid.
She cannot win the love of her prince and he marries another! If that wasn’t bad enough, she has to dance at his wedding!!
Her heart is about to break when her five sisters appear with a knife that they traded the sea witch for their long beautiful hair.
All she has to do to save herself is stab and kill the prince with the knife and put a drop of blood on her feet to become a mermaid again.

Of course she cannot bring herself to stab him and instead jumps into the sea and dissolves into foam.
However, she doesn’t disappear forever but becomes an ethereal spirit. She is a daughter of the air and is given the chance to gain a soul by doing good deeds to mankind for the next 300 years…

No happy ever after here…
Happy Saturday Guys haha!

Thanks to Melissa | MelissasFandomWorld for suggesting The Little Mermaid, it was definitely an eye-opener!
Any other suggestions?

See you in the next one…

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14 thoughts on “|| Disney Origins | The Little Mermaid ||”

      1. John Smith did exist, and she did save his life. She married a tobacconist, moved to England and died at the age of 20 or 21. But she had a son, who had a daughter, who had something like 7 kids, so I’m sure there are descendants out there today.

        Liked by 1 person

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