The Little Mermaid Live

If you remember from two years ago, there was a special tape that I put Michael Jackson’s Halloween on to watch later and do a random blog post for this blog. Well, I used it again to record the last TV musical that aired live and will now blog about it on Friday like I normally post this blog at.

We begin with Jodi Benson introducing the special or whatever this is. We plan to dive into this magical adventure. The animated part begins. It is brief as we get to people singing the first song on the stage. I do not even know the name of this song. We see people dancing on the stage as Prince Eric says that he will be crowned some day. He hears Ariel singing at some point. I love how they could get a dog that looks like the one in the film. They are singing about the mysterious land below.

We switch back to the animated film, but we get some new credits with it as well. Sebastian and King Triton talk about an upcoming performance that is going to happen. We switch back to the people who perform this live. The daughters of Triton perform. They are multi-racial this time. How many women did this king get with, if you know what I mean? Ariel isn’t at the performance.

We find out why as she is with Flounder at a shipwreck. At the shipwreck, Ariel finds a fork. A shark shows up and is able to easily burst through the wood of the ship. But they are able to escape the fish in question. She is able to find a seagull above the water where he says the fork is actually a dinglehopper used to straighten hair. He also thinks that the pipe is actually a snarfblast used to make music. As she swims away, realizing that she missed the concert, two eels look at her as a woman who we know later is Ursula is snooping through them. Ursula wants to dethrone Triton using his daughter and her interest in the world above the water.

Talking to her father, Flounder accidentally lets it slip that they saw a seagull. Her father then forbids her from going to the service again, leading her to angrily swim away. Sebastian says that he wants to keep an eye on Ariel so he is sent by Triton to look at her. While at her secret hiding place with stuff from the human world, she sings about wanting to be part of our world.

Later, at nighttime, she goes to the surface again and sees a boat with fireworks going off of it, even though that seems like a very dangerous and bad idea. She sees the prince greeted with a big statue, a birthday present for him. He talks about having not found a woman yet. A storm suddenly approaches the ship. Lightning strikes the mast and it instantly bursts the ship on fire. Eric goes back to save his dog for some odd reason. On a lifeboat, the others watch in horror as Eric falls into the sea. But Ariel rescues him and takes him safely to the shore. He is breathing, alive after his ordeal. She sings again on a rock about wanting to be part of his world.

Ursula looks at this from her special viewing ways, realizing that Ariel is in love with a human. Ursula wants to add Ariel to a garden of her people who made bad deals with her. We see Ariel and her all white sisters singing to herself. What is with the sudden racial changes? They realize that she is in love. Sebastian thinks that this world is her home. He sings about the world under the sea. Ariel doesn’t want to be under the sea.

Sebastian shows up to where Triton is. Triton thinks that Ariel is in love with a merman. But Sebastian lets it slip that she is in love with a human and not a merman. Ariel is taken by Flounder to where the statue of Prince Eric fell. But Triton shows up and says that contact between the human world and their world is forbidden. He then destroys all of her stuff from the human world.

She cries there as her friend leave her alone by her wishes. This is when Flotsom and Jetsom, the eels from earlier, show up. They then explain that Ursula has powers that could help Ariel. She is reluctant at first, but then decides to go with them to where Ursula is.

Ursula wants Ariel to become a human herself in order to go after her love. This then leads to the best Disney villain song. Ursula can turn Ariel into a human. I like the singing instead of the traditional break for dialogue. I know that a live, stage musical version of this show exists so I don’t know how it would be different in that as I haven’t seen it nor would I know where to go to see it. Ariel makes the deal, giving up her voice to become human and get her man.

Prince Eric can’t get Ariel’s voice out of his head. He sings a song about it. Is this original for this version of the show or is it from the play? He sings about the voice and how it has affected him thus far. He is a good singer. Were it not for Graham Phillips, I probably wouldn’t have watched this.

Ariel arrives at the beach with her legs. She is still able to hear the animals. She has only three days to get a kiss of true love. Sebastian does some rambling, trying to fix the situation, before he realizes that she would be miserable with her old life. Max, the dog, goes to where Ariel is. But Eric only knows her voice and she doesn’t have that right now. He talks to Ariel once he finds her, realizing that she has been through something of some sort.

A woman talks about Ariel’s situation. Sebastian notices that food is around everywhere. I like free food. And you look like seafood. Ariel is taken into where the others are. She mistakes the fork for a comb based on what the seagull, Scuttle, had said. The chef has been cooking his specialty, stuffed crab. He likes fishes and sings about them as he prepares them. A lot of crabs show up. Is he going to put them in his mouth, travelling around the marketplace saying, “I’ve got a mouth of crabs”? He wishes that he had played the prince instead.

Eric’s father wants him to take Ariel on a tour through the kingdom. Sebastian offers advice about how to make the kiss happen. Meanwhile, a seahorse reports to Triton that both Ariel and Eric are missing. Ariel’s friends are anticipating the kiss, but none has happened yet. Ariel and Eric then go out on a boat ride. Scuttle sings quite terribly, much to the ire of Eric and Sebastian. Sebastian thinks that he can do a better job of creating the mood. He wants Eric to kiss the girl. Sadly, Flotsom and Jetsom interfere with the potential kiss, preventing it from happening.

Ursula thinks that Ariel is too close to getting what she wants. Ursula seeks to prevent this so she can get her own way. Eric plays on a flute. Ariel sings in her mind, hoping that Eric can understand. Eric also sings, trying to understand her. He is still only seeking her voice and not the person behind it.

While looking out at night, Eric hears Ariel’s voice and is magically affected. Scuttle goes to Ariel’s room and says that Eric is getting married. Ariel thinks that she is the lucky woman. But Ariel finds out that he is with another woman. He wants to be married this afternoon on a wedding ship. Ariel is rejected and cries to herself. This woman, Ursula in disguise, sings in front of a mirror, revealing her true form. We then get a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls, something meant for the original film, but cut in favor of a brief song meant to keep the plot moving at a quicker pace since they are son near the end.

With Scuttle noticing this, he tells Ariel and her fish friends about this. Ariel seeks to change her fate. Flounder helps take Ariel to where the boat is. Sebastian seeks to find Triton. At the boat, a bunch of sea creatures attack Vanessa, the fake appearance that Ursula appears in. During the scuffle, the shell that held Ariel’s voice breaks free, taking it from Ursula and returning it to Ariel. This also releases Eric from his spell that Ursula put him under. Ariel, able to talk, reveals that she is the voice he is looking for. But the sun has set and Ursula’s dark powers come to a head.

Ariel is now a mermaid again and is taken to where Triton shows up. He tries to break the contract and Ursula wants to change the contract. He puts his name out there instead of her. Eric seeks to find Ariel and goes underwater, seeking to help the situation. Ursula now has Triton’s powers and uses them. But Ariel is able to redirect an attack which results in the destruction of Flotsom and Jetsom. Ursula still seeks to be more powerful, controlling the sea to her whim. Eric takes her out, which leads to her evil magic being undone with Triton’s trident being returned to him.

Triton decides to use his powers to turn Ariel into a human. She then kisses Eric and they wind up married. The merfolk gather for the wedding. This leads to the last live performance during the credits. They sing Under the Sea as they gather for their curtain call.

What are my final thoughts then on this performance? Well, there’s not much to say. It seems like the only live parts were the musical numbers. They could have done more with it in a live show. I mean, it has been on Broadway so they could have done more with it then they did. But I can understand also wanting to do something more simple as well.

That’s about it for this post. I plan to watch The Little Mermaid sometime again next year so I plan to write a post about it here in this blog. If my video store has the sequel and prequel, I can go random posts on them as well. Plus, I might have to see Ponyo since that was inspired by this movie as well. I just hope that I can easily rent them all.

I was hoping that I could get the Disney+ dream job, but am unsure if I will yet. Besides, I haven’t done a YouTube channel review of any Disney movies yet. All I can hope for is enough free time to do what I want to without abandoning more important things in life. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.