20. The Little Mermaid- 1989

Rating: 🏆 most excellent

Princess Ariel doesn’t fit in with the rest of her family. She is obsessed with humans and their random treasures that sink to the ocean floor. When she spots the handsome Prince Eric, she makes a deal with the evil Ursula; Ariel’s voice in an exchange for a human body. In order to get her voice back, she must get Prince Eric to kiss her, otherwise Ursula will keep her voice forever.

I can’t even begin to express how excited I was to FINALLY get to the Disney Renaissance. The Little Mermaid kicks off the style of movie that I think of when I think of Disney. With a catchy soundtrack, it was a delight to get back to the Disney Princess movies. Ariel is an icon for a reason, and it’s so strange to think that her and I are the same age! 2020 has been a heck of a year to have a 30-year-old life crisis. Hopefully Princess Ariel is weathering the storm and isn’t regretting giving up her life under the sea. 

The Little Mermaid is credited as the movie that saved Disney. It came at a time when the studio was failing financially. The Little Mermaid was a smash hit and grossed over $100,000,000 in the US alone. But commercial success was not the only win for The Little Mermaid, it was also critically acclaimed and won two Academy Awards. It’s a progressive movie with many subversive themes, and it revolutionized Disney’s style and structure. Arguably the biggest legacy of The Little Mermaid is Broadway style in which the musical numbers are written into the script to push the plot forward, rather than being a musical interlude like most of the songs from previous Disney movies. This style works well and has been used by Disney ever since.