on fairytales

As I was home sick with a cold today, I was flipping through the channels and came upon a 1976 version of The Little Mermaid – a beautiful film based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale. The story talks about the little mermaid who saves the prince from drowning and, enamored with him, asks the sea witch to grant her a pair of human feet. The witch agrees to give her feet in exchange for her musical voice. Mute, the mermaid would walk in pain as if a thousand knives were piercing her feet. If the prince falls in love and marries her, she would get a human soul since a part of prince’s soul would flow into hers. If, however, the prince marries another woman, the mermaid’s heart would break and she would disintegrate into sea foam.  In this gloomy version of the famous Little Mermaid, the prince is made to believe that it was the temple princess who saved him from drowning and not the mermaid and she, being mute, is unable to deny it. The prince marries the princess and the mermaid gets ready to die at dawn. As the last ray of hope, her mermaid sisters are persuading her to kill the prince and, by that action, grant herself the return to the sea. However, the mermaid chooses to die instead and let the prince live in happiness.

Does not sound like your Disney ending, right? And that’s exactly why Disney is awful and should be banned. It teaches the fairy tale where this version is life – raw, often unfair but highly realistic. I think that children should know the truth. That, at the end,  love is not necessarily about getting a prince. I think this version of the fairytale teaches us more about LOVE than any Disney's Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty ever could – it teaches sacrifice, putting others ahead of yourself and pity.

…and on the day after St. Valentine’s, I’ll raise my glass to that!