Little Mermaid
by Francesca Rossi, Hans Andersen · first published 1998
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Tangential to the article, I urge the reader to read Andersen's original Little Mermaid, and not settle for Disney's beautifully animated, but watered-down (heh), bowdlerized version. And I don't mean the remake. The same could be said for most of their works.
on “The Unmagicking of Disney” ↗Finished reading Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid to my daughter just last night. That ending was brutal. Not at all what my daughter or I were expecting having seen the Disney film.
on “Fairytales much older than previously thought, say researchers” ↗My daughter wanted me to read The Little Mermaid to her, so we read from HC Andersen's book. That story was brutal. I don't think either my daughter or I were expecting that bleak lesson in life.
on “What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2017” ↗…have not been adapted by huge media companies. For example, if I search "Beowulf" in Amazon, the first link is for 2007 movie, the second for the book, and the third for a TV show. If I search for "The Little Mermaid", the whole page is dominated by the Disney franchise or some off-brand adaptations. Hans Christian Andersen's book is nowhere to be seen.
on “All sound recordings prior to 1923 will enter the US public domain in 2022” ↗It's interesting that the article mentions Hans Christian Andersen's “The Little Mermaid” as an example of a story that was “sanitized” by removing the part where Ariel is forced to choose between killing her prince or turning into foam on the waves. But Andersen's story was itself a sanitized…
on “The case for not sanitising fairy tales” ↗