A Desire to Be Human
A popular trope in fairy tales is the desire to be something or someone else. In fairy tales, characters often display a strong will to achieve their goals. Disney’s, The Little Mermaid explores the life of a mermaid, Princess Ariel, and her attempt to become human and find love. The film is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale, “The Little Mermaid,” and was released in 1989. Andersen’s piece explores the life of the youngest of six mermaids living at the bottom of the ocean. The Little Mermaid is especially intrigued by the happenings above sea level, much more than her sisters. She is promised that at the age of fifteen, she can explore the world above the surface. During her excursion above sea level, the Little Mermaid falls in love with a prince on a passing ship. Soon, she realizes the ship is sinking and sees the prince falling into the water. The Little Mermaid saves the prince by bringing him to shore. At this moment, the Little Mermaid realizes that she too wants to be human and have a soul. She soon visits the sea witch. To become human, the Little Mermaid and the sea witch strike a deal with very high stakes. Ultimately, the Little Mermaid did not capture the prince’s heart, causing her to lose her true love, family, voice, and life. The Little Mermaid’s desire to find love and become human is intertwined throughout Andersen’s piece. This desire ultimately consumes the mermaid and takes her life. The Little Mermaid proves she would go to great lengths to achieve her dreams.
In Disney’s portrayal of The Little Mermaid, Ariel is extremely outgoing and adventurous. Against her father’s wishes, Ariel travels to the surface and falls in love with a human, Prince Eric. She yearns to become human and create a life with Prince Eric. To do so, Ariel enters into an agreement with Ursula, an evil sea witch, to become human. Ariel must gain Prince Eric’s love in three days or lose her soul to Ursula. After Ariel and Prince Eric fail to seal their fate with a kiss by mere seconds, Ariel’s father gives up his life to make Ariel’s dreams come true. After a battle with Ursula, Ariel’s father comes back to life. Ultimately, Ariel’s father sees this desire and grants her wish to become human. Similar to Andersen’s piece, Ariel’s desire makes her do anything to live a life on land. However, in this film, Ariel’s dreams come true, and she achieves that happily ever after. Although Disney creates a happier ending for the mermaid, at their core, both have the same mermaid yearning to become human and live above water.
Another example of the desire to change is illustrated in Disney’s new film, Luca. In the movie, a community of harmless sea monsters lives in the ocean off the coast of Italy. A young sea monster, Luca, wonders how humans live above the surface. One day, Luca is brought to the surface and discovers he can magically turn human. But, with a splash of water, he is reverted into his scaly self. After exploring a piece of land with another sea monster Alberto, Luca falls more in love with the human world. The desire to learn, explore, and ride a Vespa make Luca give in to the temptation of the human world. Luca ultimately has the summer of his dreams, making human friends, eating pasta, and competing in a race to buy his dream toy: a Vespa. These three stories all have different plots and different endings, but in each, the main character has a desire to explore a new world. All three characters achieve this in different ways, and some fall short, but each character has the guts to go after what they want while not letting much get in their way.
