Hallmark released a fictionalised made-for-tv movie about the life of author Hans Christian Andersen, who found his own life akin to the many fairytales that he wrote. During the course of the three-hour movie there are brief snippets of a few of the more famous of Mr. Andersen’s stories, and The Little Mermaid is one of them.
I consider the snippet a highly abridged version of The Little Mermaid for it lasts only a little over ten minutes. The fairytale is used to parallel the love and devotion of Jette, was of the women in Hans’ life, so in this version some plot points of the story were emphasised while many were cut out. The actress who plays the little mermaid is the same actress who plays Jette, while the actor who plays the Prince is the same one who plays Hans Christian Andersen himself.
The little mermaid (who remains nameless) is a curious young thing who finds the world of "humans" very fascinating. Like the original tale, there is much emphasis on the fact that merpeople get to live for hundreds of years but do not have an immortal soul like the humans do. They did, however, make one surprisingly major change from the mythology of the story, for the little mermaid's grandmother tells her that she can only gain a soul if a human falls in love with her, and that in itself is something near impossible to achieve.
As the little mermaid has come of age, she swims up to the surface, where she sees the Prince on a ship. It is love at first sight. Of note, the make-up in this little section makes the little mermaid appear super pale, for they slathered on gobs of glitter on her. I also quite liked the usage of CGI technology to create the underwater realm of the merpeople really caught my attention. While Hallmark tends to use surreal-looking special effects in their movies, the usage of computer graphics really shows the potential of current technology to make a modern realistic-looking Little Mermaid movie. Now that would be so cool. So where was I?
Oh yes, the little mermaid saves the prince from drowning. The little mermaid is desperately in love with the Prince, and it shows. This is one of the few depictions where the little mermaid's love borders on dangerous obsession, making you believe that a creature could sacrifice everything - her family, her home, her very life - for a man that she hardly knows.
This rendition of The Little Mermaid gets a thumbs-up from me for this scene alone. They remained true to original story in that the sea witch cuts off the little mermaid's tongue as payment. I know I haven't seen all the versions there are out there, but so far this is the first contemporary American/English version I've seen that they cut off the mermaid's tongue. (I am prepared to be enlightened with any info concerning other versions of The Little Mermaid. Please email me if you know any.) With the knife that close to the tongue, the CG blood and that panicked sound the mermaid makes, I cannot help but feel the pain of her sacrifice.
"Are you willing?" the sea witch asked.
"I am willing," the little mermaid answered.
The little mermaid goes to the prince's palace, drinks the sea witch's potion and wakes up a human. Another important aspect of the story that has been sugar-coated in most other versions is that the little mermaid suffers with every step she makes, but this little detail is given much attention here. "Each step will feel as though your feet are cut by a knife!" Her feet literally bleed, and you cannot help but wince in sympathy in the scene where the little mermaid has to dismount from her horse, barely concealing her pain.
The prince tells the little mermaid that he's fallen in love with the girl who saved his life, and the poor little mermaid cannot tell him that it was she who saved his life. Things take a turn for the worse when the prince the princess he's been betrothed to, for he, mesmerized by her beauty, suddenly believes that this princess is that very woman who saved his life. The heartache of this adaptation is all on the little mermaid's shoulders, showing her helplessness in the face of the prince's utter inability to see how much she loves him.
Poor little mermaid. Compact as this snippet is, the acting is top-notch. The little mermaid is desperate, the prince is completely blind and the other princess is smug and self-satisfied. I'm also particularly impressed that Flora Hamilton (who plays the little mermaid) made sure to keep her mouth closed at all times when she was a human, because remember, she doesn't have a tongue anymore.
While resting her bleeding feet in seawater, the little mermaid is visited by her three sisters who present her with a knife that they obtained from the sea witch. Either the little mermaid or her prince must die, that's the choice the little mermaid has to make.
The little mermaid goes to the prince's bedchambers, knife ready in hand. But alas, she loves her prince and would rather die than kill him. To make this version more melancholy (in conjunction with Jette's own tragic story), they do not include the epilogue that explains how the little mermaid gets promoted to a spirit of the air because of her self-sacrifice. It's a short adaptation, but very mature.