It has been 25 years since Disney’s The Little Mermaid made its way to the big screen. In celebration of this milestone anniversary, members of the D23 community met at The Walt Disney Studios in California, not only to hear the directors Ron Clements and John Musker discuss the film’s background, but also to once again see the movie in a theater setting.
Ron Clements and John Musker’s Q and A session opened with the MC asking the pair what they were working on prior to The Little Mermaid. At that time, the two men had recently finished the animated feature film The Great Mouse Detective, originally titled Basil of Baker Street. Later on Michael Eisner gathered a group of animation heads together and gave them two weeks to come with ideas for a brand new movie. During that period, Ron Clements came upon Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid in a fairy tale book. Ron enjoyed the story all the way up until the end. He felt it was too sad and wrote an ending for it that he would have to wanted to read. When it came time to submit movie pitches, The Little Mermaid, with the new ending, was selected.
This also brought up the animator, Kay Nielsen. While he is best known for his work in Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence,” Kay had also made concept art for what would have been a Little Mermaid animated short, intended to be included with other Andersen tales. His drafts were later used as inspiration for the 1989 film. Certain scenes, like the boat in the hurricane portion near the beginning, were greatly influenced by Kay’s art.
Ron and John then discussed their favorite memories related to the movie. Ron’s was related to working with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the lyricist and composer, for The Little Mermaid as well as many other Disney features. He reminisced about the first time he had heard “Part of Your World.” Howard and Allan performed it for the two directors in New York during the early development stage of the film. John animatedly told of a Walt Disney World parade themed to the movie. He saw a young woman dancing along to the music only to realize it was Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel herself, who was in the park for a press event.
This lead to talk of later press events, like the Cannes Film Festival. In honor of The Little Mermaid, there was a giant inflatable mermaid stationed in the harbor. Unfortunately, over the course of the festival, it somehow sprung an air leak and deflated into a much less flattering form. There was also a special dinner for the event in honor of the film, in which crab was served, much to the shock of the Disney staff. “You just served our leading man,” John had told them.
When the team visited Denmark, the home country of Hans Christian Andersen, they did not receive a warm welcome from the public. Many were upset at the changing of the original ending. “It was as if Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler had stayed together at the end of Gone with the Wind,” they were told. The two directors apologized to many people for any offense they may have caused. When they went to speak to the Queen of Denmark later that night, they offered apologies to her as well. Her reply was “[Hans Christian Andersen] never knew how to end his stories anyway.”
Ron Clements and Jon Musker are currently working on the new animated film, Moana, coming to theaters in 2016.