La petite sirène

I'm not being corny--this is an actual line from the film, straight from the Sea Witch (her sister Sand Witch was on vacation) to goofball princess Marina.

There should be a special section in video stores for Brutal Truth Fairy Tales. As opposed to the dark Disney overlords, the producers of this piece stuck to the original story with a few turns of creative license here and there. That is, Marina, our little mermaid, dies at the end. But hey, it's not so bad--after all, she stays true to her love (however misguided). It also appears that she picked up an immortal soul, or at least the promise of one, somewhere along the way.

The Little Mermaid for Mature Audiences? Well, I can't help thinking that kids expecting Disney magic would be a little horrified by this version. The happy ending--I guess--might be a little too philosophical for kids expecting dancing crabs and evil doers who are more goofy than terrifying. But if you're an anime fan and you'd like to see the mermaid thing a little more like it was originally written, you probably would enjoy wasting 1.5 hours with this.

If you grew up on bouncy, sanitized Disney videos and slick animation and not written fairy tales, this film may not be your cup of tea. Unlike Disney's happily-ever-after version, this one fairly faithfully recreates the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson. Yes, inevitably, a little of the 70s creep into the artwork but that's not necessarily a bad thing since it gives this film a unique look and feel (which wasn't meant to be anime as we know it now). Like most fairy tales, it can be dark and sad and violent. It's the nature of the genre. But we still read them to our children and our children are still thrilled by them, as we were and as our parents were.

This adaptation is starkly beautiful and tragic. In the early to mid 70s, it aired on TV every Christmas along with other animated shorts like The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince (two more tearjerkers). Even now, 30 years after I first saw it, it can reduce me to tears...but that doesn't stop me watching it.

In short, if you adore Disney's take on this story, then you'll probably be disappointed by this one. On the other hand, if you loved the fairy tale (or if you enjoyed The Selfish Giant or The Happy Prince animated shorts) then give this a try.

Loved this movie as a kid and I still love it as an adult. Beautiful music too. Not too many goofy annoying characters. More mature and enjoyable. Looking for more movies similar to this one.

This is my favorite movie out of all of the Little Mermaid's I have seen because it is the closest to the real story. I have been searching and searching for days to try and find this particular version of the Little Mermaid to buy. The only version I've been able to find narrated by Richard Chamberlain says that it was released in like 1987 or something like that and said it was put out by Reader's Digest. That was about the time that I saw this particular version, so I was just wondering if it was re-released or something like that. When I looked at the case I wasn't too sure if it was it or not and I don't want to waste the money on it if it's not the version I want. I'm looking for the Japanamation one with Marina and the dolphin Fritz. If anyone can help me out I'd really appreciate it. And if you haven't seen this movie yet please do, because it is absolutely amazing!

This is a very sad and beautiful tale, the way Hans Christian Andersen has intended it to be. Even more sad than this though is that mass audience now knows only the dumbed down Disney version, which actually is a clear case of plagiarism. What else is it if it takes the original story and changes the ending??? Of course the rights to do that were properly purchased, at least I think so. But now we do not even have a chance to see true version ever released on DVD, as it justly deserves.