When it comes to films I’m personally super against the concept of letting the material be an example. When worrying about what a child watches and what can influence him or her that’s when it becomes the responsibility of a parent to step in and say “It’s just a movie.”
In other words I personally am not judging TLM or any of these films with the expectation that it is going to teach my child. It’s intention is to entertain. Disney is not here to raise our children.
That is just me, and where I stand, and I’m not preaching that anyone else should feel this way just so we’re clear
Yeah, Disney isn’t there to raise kids…but does that justify Ariel’s bad example? No, it doesn’t. I’m not a prude, or a PC Brigade marcher for media that can be seen by kids, but you get my point.
Her wrong actions aren’t meant to be justified and seen as right and good, thus why I’m okay with watching it in a film. It’s already that that’s not reason enough for you. And I definitely admit Ariel is annoying. Though it’s never annoyed me just how much she argues with her father, which has been expressed on this thread by more than one person I thiiiink maybe, but was at least mentioned once. Or I might be thinking Leon’s video review. Anyway, Jasmine runs away too, though her build up to it is much more subtle than Ariel’s. Neither plot has ever annoyed me. Jasmine’s situation is temporary and Ariel is away from home the whole movie so it’s two very different stories but still the whole rebelling teen thing has never struck a cord with me before. It’s interesting to see how other people think about these points.
The difference with Jasmine though, is that she was being forced into a marriage with some man (the man could vary) that she didn’t know just because he was a prince, she had a reason to want to get out of the life she was living, as I said in my video review (which you made a nod to, thus I assume you’ve watched it) to me Ariel came off as just yearning for what she never had because the land looked cool.
Still the thing that bothered me the most about was her relationship with Eric but to quote myself from earlier, I have elaborated on this in previous posts and don’t want to beat a dead horse.
There are several differences, that is one, I mentioned others in my post above yours. They are still two girls that ran away from home, and the word sin was mentioned in this thread before, and I think they both committed the same crime and neither is justified if you want to talk about loving fathers and running away from home underage.
I asked this earlier and haven’t gotten an answer yet but I’ll ask you too! What is it about her attraction to Eric that bothers you more than any other Disney character that had a love at first site encounter that fueled the plot with their love interests?
Hmm…that’s a good point about Jasmine; I never thought of it before.
Leon: I just disagree with the overall drift of Ariel and her terrible behaviors because of my beliefs, which relates to my political views.
Leirin: Yay!!
EJE: I’m glad that even though we have different views, we can still enjoy talking about these movies. Most people would have outwardly argued with me, and I appreciate your mellowness.
Gazelle: I just hate real girls like Ariel, and I feel as though Disney is telling them they’ll get a happy ending. However, I guess I just didn’t get that negative vibe with Jasmine. I love her!!
Everyone deserves their happy ending! Even if they were little rebellious brats who disobeyed their parents. But again that’s where real life parents can step in and say I’m glad you like this movie children of mine but now I’m going to teach you to enjoy it and not follow it’s influences.
Right right, and it annoys you. And I definitely can agree that I don’t like girls like that in real life either. Just not as strongly to dislike the film, but it isn’t one of my favorites. But that’s probably more because I like so many other films more. There are definitely better Disney female protagonists. Like Jasmine!
I like less than 5 Disney classics(no sequels), so it means a lot when I do. And yes, I love Jasmine!! I almost want a little kiddie doll of her. I used to have one…my favorite is her and Belle tied!!
Other users have pointed out specific examples to me (a lot of them were on page 2 if memory serves) I think I explained them in my responses to said post.
Personally I agree that there are certainly worse movies ‘morally’ speaking than TLM. In fact is in this area I think the original fairy tale is worse- because it implies that if you are a certain ‘standing’ you should not do anything to change that. In that way the Disney version is improvement of the very original form. (Though I think the ones where she dies but is rewarded with a soul because she refused to kill someone she loved is better- those were the earlier more kid friendly versions tried to do).
Personally I guess the thing is, it’s perhaps not the most satisfying story or character arc for many people compared to a variety of other movies even if did perhaps kick start the Disney reclaiming its crown (before then… they were kind of doing badly). Jasmine being made to marry someone she perhaps didn’t love was a real thing to get away from really in the end. You feel a sense of purpose for this character and her actions more. And she’s not even the main character. Plus it was the actions of Aladdin and his lies which were the major issue in the end. They were pointed out though and shown to be a bad thing.
Heck they even made an issue of it in the sequel, a minor one perhaps but still. It kind of bit him in the butt.
Plus the thing is, Ariel did behave selfishly… but was this ever acknowledged in the movie itself or by the other characters or become a real issue? Not really.
It’s fine to have a selfish character, heck, we don’t want Mary Sues do we, but it’s kind of nice to have it acknowledged in the movie itself and have it resolved or at least pointed out by characters in the movie in some way, but I’m not sure it ever really was.
I think that was my personal problem with the movie really. I wouldn’t really call disobeying a father something like an outright ‘sin’. I don’t use that terminology. It depends on a variety of circumstances and things are rarely black and white.
But somehow I feel a little disastisifed with this main character.
But heck she’s still better than say Aurora, Snow white or the Cinderella of the first two movies. At least she HAD a disstinguishable personality. Unlike them.
(Though as said Cinderella was better in the 3rd movie).
Yuuuuup I definitely like Ariel over Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White on personality alone…
As for Ariel’s initial attraction to Eric; Did Aladdin not behave the same way? And he even gets to have some good conversations with her and yet he can only complement her on her beauty, eyes, hair and smile. We get to see more development with them than Ariel and Eric, it only seems that way because Ariel and Eric couldn’t hold a literal conversation. What does everyone think of this?
The big difference comes from what said initial attraction ultimatley leads to. Those two came to relate to each other because they were on opposite ends of the social spectrum but could still relate to the feeling of being trapped in their lives, Ariel and Eric are just in total obsession of one another, particularly Ariel towards Eric. It goes beyond initial reaction.
That’s basically the reason I gave in my above post; The different stories allow for different development.
In Ariel’s defense I don’t feel that she looked around and said oh hey, hot guy, I love him. He was the first human she ever saw, and I feel like when she calls him beautiful she’s not even really talking about how hunky Eric was drawn but it’s being a human that makes him beautiful. The same way I would call a horse or a the Grand Canyon beautiful.
Off from our general discussion,
The whole obsessed with each other concept reminds me of another Jodi Benson singing animated young girl who becomes obsessed with her love interest who she talks to for five seconds, share a song together, and then gets married… And as annoying, unbelievable, and flawed as that sounds I’ve never had a problem with Thumbelina and Cornelius as a couple. Nor Eric and Ariel, though I’m not at all a fan of Eric…
Thumbelina is a Brothers Grimm fairytale and a 1994 movie by Don Bluth where the main character, a tiny girl, is also voiced by Jodi Benson (Ariel’s actress).
Poor Ariel she can’t get a break here -3-
She really was first of obsessed with the world above and the reason her father was so against it was because of the death of her mother. They are also so a like that their characters clash with one another. They are both so stubborn that they wont listen to one another. It wasn’t really that Ariel was obsessed with Eric but it was just that she was obsessed with all that was connected with him. I mean she saw things like fireworks and such when she first saw him on the boat she was already in awe and the fact that he was playing an instrument sparked her initial interest in him love wise; just because she had found an object that was supposedly similar. Then of course she saved his life and in that she had to have had an understanding of how much she actually did for him. He gets to live the life shes always dreamed of and whats more admirable than that? He’s also handsome and all that jazz, heh. She is also a teen and we’ve all had obsessive crushes I’m sure, and since she was already a daydreamer type she had to been thinking about tons of things to do with him and her affections grew. Then with her father getting so overprotective and crazy it sets her off and then she decides to go up there. They then spend time together and she realizes how much she actually does like him. Because you can see when they are in town how much she is in love with everything Else and not him. When she takes over the horse and grabbing at the little puppets… Whew i think I’m done here.
Ariel isn’t my favorite but she is my maybe second or third favorite ^^’ I’m very obsessive about Disney period and i happen to love Everything about it, and it breaks my heart to know someone dislikes her or anyone else -3- To me there’s such beauty and wonder in all of the movies, and i definitely want everyone to see each of the movies as i do. Even if they don’t i still enjoy them no matter what, and i don’t want anyone to get discouraged about their favorite movie.
I used to have one…my favorite is her and Belle tied!! 
Boring.