The Little Mermaid - work in progress?

[Disney 181]

Random question but was there ever a "work-in-progress" version of The Little Mermaid? Similar to that of Beauty and the Beast? I remember coming across a blog that had mentioned one circulating online but can't seem to find any more information about it. I thought I'd ask the experts!

[Kyle]

I thought beauty and the beast was the only one publically released. If there is one for mermaid it was probably screened at the el capitan theater something as a very limited thing.

But I could be wrong.

[Disney 181]

Found it! It's called a "workprint". There's a 38-minute version that you can find if you do some searching online. It includes a few segments of the film (Part of Your World, The Storm, Under the Sea, Poor Unfortunate Souls x2, Les Poissons, Kiss the Girl, Eric to the Rescue) in their early form of pencil tests and story boards. There's an excerpt of it here:

There are also 'workprints' floating around for Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas and possibly others. Sometimes the bonus features of special edition DVD's use excerpts of the workprints.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50DqEOCU0Vw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86qKwCP54PI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIP5rNUlz4g[/youtube]

[D82]

Great find, rb_canadian181! Thanks for sharing!