Ep. 28 - The Little Mermaid: How a Grim Danish Tale Became a Disney Classic

In this episode of Magic and Myth, host Jennifer is joined by special guest Dee Dee to dive into the 1989 classic that kicked off the Disney Renaissance, The Little Mermaid.Before Ariel ever sang a note, there were sirens on the rocks. Jennifer traces the myth beneath the movie, from the German legend of the Lorelei, the heartbroken woman whose song lured sailors to their doom, to Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale, a far darker story of a mermaid whose every step feels like knives, a prince who marries someone else, and an ending that comes, as T.S. Eliot put it, not with a bang but a whimper.From there they surface for the fun stuff: the wild casting saga behind Ursula, the real-life inspirations that shaped Ariel, why "Under the Sea" earned its Academy Award, and the changes in the 2023 live-action remake that left them scratching their heads.Whether The Little Mermaid was your first movie in the theater or you are just here for the dark side and the whimsy, this is a deep, funny, and surprisingly grim dive beneath the waves.