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Princess Kae-Leah
08-01-2011, 02:37 PM
This is a thread where we can recommend mermaid movies and books that suit each other's individual taste. I'm personally always on the lookout for good mer-movies and books, preferably with no sex and where the mers don't eat fish or other sea creatures.

Taylor is a Mermaid
08-01-2011, 02:49 PM
Andersen Dowa/The Little Mermaid anime - This is the first mermaid movie I ever saw and is still my favorite. It's old (from the 70s), but I still really love it and would recommend it to anyone. It has no sexual content and the mers don't eat fish, but you already know that Kae-leah
Ondine - I saw this movie a few months ago and loved it. It's not really a mermaid movie, but it is about the Selkie legend and I thought it was a really great movie; not cheesy or overly sappy and, in my opinion, well-acted. It does have some sexual content.
Fish Tales - This one is available on Netflix, and I thought I'd mention it here because the mermaid is beautiful and has a great tail. However, I didn't like this movie at all. The acting is really awful, they majorly messed up their Greek mythology, and it's a poorly written tween movie. There's a reason it's not that well-known. I can't remember if there's sexual content or not (probably not considering the target audience), but I think the mermaid doesn't eat fish.
Carolyn Turgeon's Mermaid - I really liked this book although a few spots seemed sort of cliche. It's still beautifully written and I couldn't put it down. It does have sexual content and fish-eating mermaids.

Princess Kae-Leah
08-01-2011, 05:41 PM
@Taylor-thanks for the rec about the HSA TLM anime(wow, two acronyms in a row hehe!)! Such a beautiful, bittersweet film! I couldn't resist getting a little misty-eyed at the end, even though of course I already knew how it end. ;) It really sucks that it's not available on DVD or Blu-Ray, as it just may be the most faithful adaptation of HSA's story out there. I checked and it doesn't seem that Fish Tales is on YouTube(from your description of the quality, I probably shouldn't waste my money by getting it on NetFlix, just in case I really hate it, and there's so many other flicks I need to see!).

Here's my list of mer-movies, books, and TV series I've seen and read, and my thoughts on 'em:
Movies:
Disney's The Little Mermaid(Love it! If there happens to be anyone here who hasn't seen it, well, whatcha waiting for? ;)
Anime The Little Mermaid(Loved it! I encourage you all to check it out on YouTube!)
Magic Island(Not an Oscar-worthy film by a long shot, but I loved it just the same 'cause of the mermaid character! Used to be on YouTube, but I can't seem to find it on there any more...)
The Thirteenth Year(Enjoyed it, didn't think it was too bad for a Disney Channel Original Movie)
Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides(Loved the Philip/Syrena pairing so much, and the evil mers were pretty cool too!)
Disney's Peter Pan(Has a short-but-good mermaid scene)
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire(Has an interesting "dangerous mermaid" sequence)
Splash(VERY popular mer-movie, not a fan myself because of my personal hangups about sexuality and seafood, but definitely worth watching to make up your own mind, as I'm very much in the minority for not liking it much. As a positive note, some very lovely underwater photography, and I do like Daryl Hannah fine as an actress.)
PAX Mermaids(Not a bad movie for a TV-movie...)
The Little Mermaid 2(Hated it, one of the worst Disney DTV "cheapquels")

TV Series:
Disney's The Little Mermaid(love it! Introduces new characters that weren't in the film, and gives a little more insight into the movie characters)
H2O: Just Add Water(Love it too, even though, yes, the girls do eat fish sometimes)
She-Ra, Princess of Power(Entertaining '80s superhero cartoon has a lovely mermaid character with an interesting character design named Mermista who is in a few eps, I'm pretty sure it's on YT)
Charmed(Has a pretty good mermaid episode)

Books:
The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum(Extremely underrated classic by a legendary author and my favorite mer-book of all time, there is really no excuse not to read this book as its fairly short, and in the public domain so you can read it online or download it to your e-reader for free 100% legally)
Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman(Interesting YA mer-book, although it loses points with me for having Aqua eat fish)
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson(More of a story than a book so it feels a little weird to categorize it as such, but a classic must-read just the same)
The Disney Fairies series has mers in some of the books, most notably "Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon" and "Fairy Haven and the Quest For The Wand"(short, easy reads that are worth checking out)

AniaR
08-01-2011, 07:17 PM
I have a movie thread all ready with trailers, on mer yuku I did a big thread about books too!

Princess Kae-Leah
08-01-2011, 07:41 PM
@Raina, sorry if this thread is redundant!

AniaR
08-01-2011, 07:44 PM
it's ok, I just think you should move it though to that section ;) I think a mod has to tho

APhishOutofWater
08-01-2011, 08:08 PM
Indigo by Alice Hoffman. It's my favorite book. It's pretty short and does mention how the boys prefer fish over any other food, but it's still amazing.

Princess Kae-Leah
08-02-2011, 12:30 AM
Oh, how could I forget Mermaid Melody Pichi Pitch manga and anime? I liked it, I'm a big fan of Sailor Moon-type magical girl manga/anime. They might've ate shrimp once or twice, but it wasn't a big part of the story.

Little_Orca
08-19-2011, 05:19 PM
I have a section on my blog that talks about mermaid books I recommend. I have a few more I need to write about, including May and Hannah and Goddess of the Sea, but you are welcome to read over what I have thus far there, KL! :)

Garrett
10-03-2011, 07:21 PM
Okay, here's a really looooong list of mermaid books that have recently been released or will be soon. Most are YA, and the content is generally at that level, nothing too explicit.
~~~
Forgive My Fins + Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs
The Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
Daughters of the Sea by Kathryn Lasky (3 books: Hannah, May, Lucy)
The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
The Siren Trilogy by Tricia Rayburn (Siren, Undercurrent, Pulse)
Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
The Water Trilogy by Kara Dalkey (Ascension, Reunion, Transformation)
The Lost Voices Trilogy by Sarah Porter (Lost Voices, Waking Storms, The Twice Lost)
Tempest Rising + Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs
The Mermaid Summer by Mollie Hunter
Wrecked by Anna Davies
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce
Aquamarine + Indigo by Alice Hoffman
Teenage Mermaid by Ellen Schreiber
Everblue by Brenda Pandos
The Fins Trilogy by Ashley L. Knight (Fins, Fathom, Forever)
Ripple by Mandy Hubbard
Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (also being called The Brides of Rollrock Island, and it's about selkies, but a lot of mermaid fans like selkies, also, so I included it.)
Siren's Storm by Lisa Papademetriou

These are adult books, and they have a bit more explicit scenes and/or language, so they should be for more mature readers.
The Dark Tides Trilogy by Devyn Quinn (Siren's Call, Siren's Surrender, and Siren's Desire)
The Fred the Mermaid Trilogy by MaryJanice Davidson (Sleeping With the Fishes, Swimming Without a Net, Fish Out of Water)
Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon
Siren by John Everson (a mermaid horror book...yes, really.)

And these are middle-grade books, for more younger readers, though older readers might enjoy them, too.
Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings + Real Mermaids Shouldn't Hold Their Breath by Helene Boudreau
The Emily Windsnap Series by Liz Kessler (The Tail of Emily Windsnap, Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep, Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mists, Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret)

Hope you guys have a really long mermaid-themed to-read list!

Mermaid Lorelei
10-03-2011, 09:27 PM
I haven't seen anyone mention one of my favorites. It's called Ingo and it's absolutely wonderful.

Garrett
10-05-2011, 01:49 PM
Oh yeah - I forgot about that one! I have it, and I really need to finish it. There's four more books after Ingo: The Tide Knot, The Deep, The Crossing of Ingo, and Stormswept (that last one comes out next year).

Anita Mermaid
10-10-2011, 10:57 PM
Has anyone made an Amazon Wishlist for all these yet? No? Okay I'll do it later.

Neria
10-11-2011, 11:08 AM
Oh! I have another one! It is called The Undrowned Child. The mermaids do not eat any fish and it actualy makes a point a point of them being vegetarian. It is set in Venice which I especially liked because I had just left Venice when I read it.

ScheherazOdd
10-17-2011, 12:54 PM
Dag, all the books I was going to mention have already been listed...

Oh, but there's <i>Necklace of Kisses</i> by Francesca Lia Block. It's not about mermaids per se, but there is a subplot about a mermaid who gained legs through plastic surgery and needs rescue from her scummy movie producer boyfriend.

Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!
12-05-2011, 01:08 PM
I highly recommend "Mermaid Tales From Around The World" retold by Mary Pope Osborne.

I read a lot of ebooks, and I was really optimistic when I started Liquid Crystal (which bills itself as a bisexual menage a trois M/M/F erotic romance, and ends up being a girl whose boyfriend is an insane anti-merfolk bigot, so she breaks up a gay mer-couple to get a new merman lover while his ex just wanders off morosely), only to be disappointed (not only does the promised tri-lovers relationship die, but the evil ex boyfriend gets away in a very unsatisfying conclusion, while the human heroine repeatedly puts herself in harm's way without thinking). Crystal Tides, the sequel to the previous book, does succeed in finding a menage a trois relationship for the lonely merman who wandered off in Liquid Crystal, as well as turning another mer-loving lady into a true mermaid, but it's a bit forced.

I did, however, enjoy The Ta'e'sha Chronicles (The Daughters of Terra and The Shards of the Mind), if only for the interesting concepts and relationship. In this series, all the gods and goddesses of the world existed, and in the distant past, the gods and goddesses of the merpeople pleaded with the supreme God above all other gods to save their mortal children from increasing pollution and hunting/rape by humans. The Supreme God lovingly agreed, and somehow transported all the merfolk off planet, re-naming the the Ta'e'sha. The Ta'e'sha are polytheistic, polyamorous, can shift from humanoid (albeit with brightly-colored skin and hair) to mer-forms, have prehensile hair, and form a vast spacefaring empire... an empire which has recently been ravaged by a plague that has left the female survivors largely infertile. Because of this, missions are sent to Earth in vast space ships to abduct human "brides"... a plan which is eventually met with opposition by the gods of both the Ta'e'sha and of Earth. It is sometimes hokey and has some silly moments, and some very emotional moments, but I enjoyed it over all. There are two books in a related series that I haven't yet read.

The Merman by Dick King-Smith is a fun Children's/YA book
I absolutely loved Hansy's Mermaid by Trinka Hakes Noble, about expectations of others and not fitting in, and having people make assumptions about what's best for you.