Having loved Thumbelina from the same company, I re-visited this version of The Little Mermaid after many years, and found myself entranced. I do love the Disney film and the anime version too, but this one should and deserves to stand on its own. The animation quality is a little rough in places, but there are still several colourful and fluid moments. The music is wonderful, The World Above I found very touching and I loved the use of classical music pieces such as Promenade-Gnomus from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Di Provenza from Verdi's La Traviata, Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner's Die Walkure and short excerpt of Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde and Night on Bare Mountain. The story is told in such a heart-warming way and manages to capture the essence of the fairytale. The script is well balanced, with some poignant parts that are genuinely so and humour that is funny and not out of place. The characters are as memorable as I remembered them, Lena is very endearing and you identify with her all the way, Bink the dolphin is an example of a comic relief character that is important to the storytelling and adds much to it, Stefan is a suitably dashing prince figure and Cassandra is an effective villainess. The voice acting is solid, Lena's voice actress is never too passive I love the dark quality of Cassandra's voice also. Overall, a truly lovely film, if every golden film animation was as good as those two or as good as I remember them, then I am in for a treat as I continue through my phase of underrated animated childhood gems. 10/10 Bethany Cox
