40s version of The Little Mermaid

[polish_princess]

I watched this concerning what TLM might have been like if made in the 40s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPA08THAtKc
I'm just curious, does it say anywhere why Disney wanted to make TLM such a sad story? Even the ending would have been much sadder, with the part about her gaining a soul being cut out.
Just curious...

[Super Aurora]

I watched this concerning what TLM might have been like if made in the 40s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPA08THAtKc
I'm just curious, does it say anywhere why Disney wanted to make TLM such a sad story? Even the ending would have been much sadder, with the part about her gaining a soul being cut out.
Just curious...

Because he was feeling emo.

[Duckburger]

Because the original literary work of The Little Mermaid is deeply depressing and sad, and he wanted to closely adapt a fairytale.

I mean, obviously they couldn't keep the original ending and some elements of the fairytale in the '90s film, because of the growing concerns from parents about subject matters in animated films. In the '40s, however, I take it that animation wasn't so much seen as kids-format, back then a studio didn't have to rely mostly on kids to see their animated films, now however that seems to be the target demographic. So, there wasn't much of a constraint on what you could(n't) put in your films back then, which was probably the reason Walt Disney wanted to adapt it as faithful to the original story as possible. Just my guess though.

[ajmrowland]

goes how some views can devolve rather than evolve, am i right?

[PatrickvD]

The Little Mermaid back then was being adapted as a featurette. I don't think they were going for full blown feature animated film here. I think they were intending this to be more or less in line with Fantasia-like animation. Hence the reason why it could be sadder and more dramatic than the average Disney feature back then.

Although, even Disney's full length features of that time were pretty dark in places. It wasn't until Cinderella that Disney started to focus on mainly kid-friendly features. Not counting the package films of course.

[Disney Duster]

A lot of you are missing that Walt Disney could still have had the mermaid float up to heaven. It happened all the time in other cartoons he made. But some scholars think that Han Christian Anderson originally wrote that the mermaid would die, and then either he or someone else tacked on the happy heavenly ending later. Hans was at a battle over his religious beliefs, you see. Perhaps Walt was too, or he just could feel the ending that fit with the rest of the tone, or he wanted to make something very, very sad because he could in a little short.

Although, even Disney's full length features of that time were pretty dark in places. It wasn't until Cinderella that Disney started to focus on mainly kid-friendly features. Not counting the package films of course.

This statement is untrue. Please tell me, what in the original tale that was dark was cut from Cinderella? What, the cutting of the stepsisters' feet, the birds pecking out their eyes? Ha! That was only in the Grimm's version, not the Perrault version Disney's Cinderella is based on.

Though it did also borrow some elements from the Grimm's version, including making the stepmother more evil and prominent than the Perrault version. But it also added drama, horror and darkness, such as the cat almost killing the mice, Cinderella getting ripped apart, the stepmother locking her in her room, unable to get out of the high tower, Bruno trying to bite and kill Lucifer and his falling from the tower.

And I guess him originally wanting the dog in Lady and the Tramp to die didn't count (he only changed it because someone suggested he live and he didn't want audiences to hate the movie), or Peter Pan's sword, hook, skull and crocodile stuff, or Sleeping Beauty's all around darkness, cursing a baby to death, a dramatic black dragon. No, his later films were dark, too.

[PatrickvD]

And I guess him originally wanting the dog in Lady and the Tramp to die didn't count (he only changed it because someone suggested he live and he didn't want audiences to hate the movie), or Peter Pan's sword, hook, skull and crocodile stuff, or Sleeping Beauty's all around darkness, cursing a baby to death, a dramatic black dragon. No, his later films were dark, too.

Not really.

I don't see how the films from the 50s aren't more family-friendly. So we'll agree to disagree here.