The Little Mermaid Essay.

HOW DOES THE CHOSEN CLIP HOOK THE AUDIENCE?

 The clip that was chosen comes from the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid is a Disney production based on a mermaid, Ariel, who dreams of becoming human. It was released in 1989 by Walt Disney Pictures. The primary audience for The Little Mermaid, would most likely be young children. The reason for this would be that animated movies tend to appeal more to younger children. As the movie is based on a mermaid, the imagination of the child would not be restricted, so they would want to watch it as it's about a mythical creature. However, adults and teenagers are able to watch it, due to the storyline. So, there will be some aspects of the movie that will be fitted for them. The main genre is adventure and mythical; which will appeal to the children. Also, the genre of love, trust and authority will appeal more to the older audience because they will understand and in some ways relate to the story.

This particular clip hooked the audience due to the Mise en Scene. In this scene, there are the props of which are present within this clip. King Triton is holding his Triton, which connotes to power and authority. Additionally, his beard could connote to wisdom and obviously old age. The camera angles within this clip shows who beholds the most power. His white beard retracts him from everyone else and makes it obvious to the audience that King Triton is different and powerful. Also, the lighting is dull and gloomy which juxtaposes the atmosphere. Throughout the clip, the lighting has brightened alongside with the atmosphere. As when Sebastian (The Crab/ Lobster) has a high angle shot; this shows that the King sees him as an inferior meaning that the audience should too. When Sebastian is speaking to the King, the audience sees him looking up to him by using a high angle shot. This shows that Sebastian sees him as a powerful being and accepts that he is of a lower ranking than he is. The colours within this clip are important as at the beginning the water is brown and dull whereas towards the end the water is a fresh, blue colour. This may be because at the beginning of the clip, there was tension between Ariel and King Triton, so the murkiness of the water could connote to the murkiness of the atmosphere. As Sebastian is encouraging King Triton to let Ariel become human and he accepts; the water is a fresh blue. The freshness of the water could connote to a new start in both of their lives. Furthermore, the freshness of the water also could be seen as a liberation for Ariel because she is allowed to become human.

Afterwards, Ariel emerges from the water and a magical light surrounds her as she is transformed from a mermaid to a human. Along with the magical light, there is also a twinkling sound. The sound would be Diegetic as when the King holds his Triton up and transforms her into a human, it would be more dramatic and effective if there was that sound it would be more realistic. This creates a magical aura and sense of proudness for Ariel as she is turned to a human, by her Father (who was against the idea that she should be human). There are more ways in which sound has influenced this clip. The sound of the waves along the shore, is an Ambient Sound, which shows that this could be a realistic movie because this clip is based in a normal, everyday setting. Also, the characters Dialogue has been edited with because King Triton's voice is a more deep and powerful whereas Sebastian's is high pitched and more playful. This could show the status of each character. Ariel's voice is more softer, to show that she is the antagonist of the story. Ariel is sitting on a rock, which is the only piece of land in this clip. It is evident that Ariel was going to be different from the rest of them. Her fiery red hair could connote to passion, love and danger (that has occurred to her throughout the duration of the movie). This is revealed in the clip, as she is set aside from Sebastian and the King. The fiery red hair foreshadows the wedding that happens later on in the clip between Ariel and Prince Eric. There was Editing in Post Production of the Little Mermaid. Mainly Continuity Editing. However, as this is an animation there was more work in cooperated within this movie; meaning that every little detail had to be refined and edited to the point where it was able to flow better.


The Little Mermaid can fit into Propp 's theory of fairy tales. He believes that there is a Hero, Villain, Dispatcher, Donor, False Hero, Princess, King and Prince. In this case, his theory matches the movie. The Hero is King Triton, the Villain is Ursula, the Dispatcher and Donor is Sebastian, the False Hero would be Ursula, Princess Ariel, King Triton and Prince Eric. This theorist matches with this movie as fairy tales are stereotypically known to have all of these major components within the story.
Another theorist that we could apply to the Little Mermaid would be Levi Strauss. His theory was the binary oppositions. The main obvious one would be Land v Sea, which would lead onto to Human v Merpeople (which we could see a conflict between Prince Eric and King Triton), Good v Bad (King Triton and Ursula). Barthe's Theory of the 5 Codes, fits with the story line. the Action Code is when the Chef chases Sebastian as it includes the knife being thrown at him and lands in the ground. The Enigma Code would be when Ariel is going to go or not, to the other side. Semic and Symbollic would both fit as there are lots of Denotations and Connotations within this clip. The Cultural Code would the whole thing about the Myths of Mermaids. Finally, this movie would also fit to Todorovs theory about the Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - New Equilibrium. This would hook the audience has it would appeal to everyone, more or less, as it consists of a little bit of all the theorists; a range of people would be hooked due to different events that are occurring within this clip.

Overall, this particular clip hooks the audience as various theorists techniques are used which engages the audiences attention. The blend of the Micro - Aspects create a sense of drama, realism and emotion which are the three things that will get the audience to watch the movie.