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Author
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Comment
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tinab64
Registered User
(7/1/04 7:10 am)
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disney and The Little Mermaid
I am writing a paper on Disney and HCA's 'The LIttle Mermaid', but it has not been able to find out what version disney used as a source for their adaption, can anyone help me?
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Helen
J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(7/1/04 8:54 am)
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HCA's
Dear Tina:
Insofar as I'm aware, Disney used the original version (by Hans Christian Andersen), but chose to change several key elements for their own purposes - this decision was not based upon some other accepted variant of the story.
Best,
Helen
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JennySchillig
Registered User
(7/1/04 9:54 am)
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The reasons for changing the story
I enjoy the original story for its own beauty, and the Disney version for its fine animation, great music, and overall high spirit.
What you might want to mention is the reasons for the original story's sad ending, and the Disney version's happy one. I theorize that this is down to the cultural differences between Andersen's world and ours. Back in Andersen's day, cross-race and cross-class marriages weren't just frowned upon, they were utterly taboo...unheard of. Thus, there was no way the story could end but unhappily. (Or bittersweetly, if you count the idea that the mermaid does have a chance to earn a soul.) Add to that, Andersen's own issues with rejection in love.
Such taboos simply aren't part of the psychological makeup of a family (mainly American) audience in the twentieth/twenty-first centuries. To have it end as in the original would have seemed cruel for no reason.
So, enjoy both for what they are is my philosophy.
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(7/1/04 3:43 pm)
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Re: The reasons for changing the story
I disagree with you, Jenny, on both points. Plenty of families in American today continue to abhor cross-race and cross-class marriage, and such relationships were not unheard of in HCA's time, just more scandalous to most people. Lots of HCA's tales end unhappily, especially if one is not a Christian, and so does not buy the "it looks like she froze to death but really she ascended into heaven with her grandma" or "but she can get a soul if children obey their parents" endings.
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