Mermaids before disney!

[Traveling Merman]

watch this! look how people forget about what mermaids were like before we romanticised them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR7v7Bw0MEI

[Mermaid Celissa]

Awesome Travelling! Thanks for sharing.

[Traveling Merman]

No worries, have you seen it before?

[Mermaid Celissa]

I hadn't seen it until you posted it. It was great!

[Traveling Merman]

Spread the word if you like it! Xx

[Mermaid Wesley]

Woah Badass movie!

[Nate Walis]

Shame they chose to make the "real mermaid" something else entirely.

[Traveling Merman]

Real mermaid?

[SeaGlass Siren]

Hey enough about Disney! They are practically known for delivering happy feel-good endings, who doesn't want that?... :|

And there's been a bunch of people who romanticized them before Disney. Hans Christian Andersen for example? The folklore about the selkie and her stolen seal suit/ mermaid with the stolen green cap? They make mermaids fall in love with humans, and wives instead of making them killers.. did anyone forget about those?? Why the hatred?

[Traveling Merman]

I work for Disney! I just generalised to Disney as they are the 'most' happy ending style stories, which isn't essentially bad.

Hans Christian Anderson ended his version by her dying and getting turned into sea foam, and the seal skin mermaids' husbands used to kill themselves from despair leaving the kids orphans,(or they might kill their kids) what's so romantic/ nice about that? Lol

What I'm getting at is people who want cute mermaids who ride unicorns and have rainbow hair; often are the ones who forget about where the mythical merfolk come from (as a metaphor to teach sailors about the dangers of the sea)

And it's nice to remind people that sailors were terrified of mermaids, as they were the ultimate symbol of female sexuality.

Also Disney has provided the most accurate "historical" mermaids with their release of potc ost... So I will give them thier dues! Lol

[SeaGlass Siren]

just a few things

1) i'm extremely jealous. you work for disney??
2) title was misleading. but nate did it in for me and i just jumped on him. my bad!
3) this was a version i read as a kid. i was not aware the husband committed suicide. ;__; WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT... *sob* i thought he just lived as a single father and raised his children and kept the memory of his wife in his mind.
4) some prefer the cutesy mermaids over most. we don't forget... we just prefer the happy rainbow riding one over the murderous one.
5) HCA's mermaid died for love. :| It's a tragic love story.

[Mermaid Saphira]

Hey enough about Disney! They are practically known for delivering happy feel-good endings, who doesn't want that?... :|

And there's been a bunch of people who romanticized them before Disney. Hans Christian Andersen for example? The folklore about the selkie and her stolen seal suit/ mermaid with the stolen green cap? They make mermaids fall in love with humans, and wives instead of making them killers.. did anyone forget about those?? Why the hatred?

Just like the music, Disney movies were created during the great depression era to give people an escape from reality, to make them feel hope.

Who doesn't like a bit of magic and beauty in their life? Just sayin...

[Alveric]

Mermaids are symbolic of women and women are both cute and terrifying.

OMG! They create living people then push them out of their bodies!--(Og the cave man to his buddies)

[Nate Walis]

Real mermaid?

I saw this film a decade ago, isn't the "mermaid" a siren rather than an actual tail-sporting mermaid?

[SeaGlass Siren]

And we also magically bleed for days.. WITHOUT dying.

[Mermaid_Aryana]

No worries, have you seen it before?
I think most of us here have seen this MANY times

[Mermaid_Aryana]

I think there is even a thread about it

[Mermaid_Aryana]

I saw this film a decade ago, isn't the "mermaid" a siren rather than an actual tail-sporting mermaid?
She has a tail. And a pretty cool one at that

[Aquatarian]

Yeah this movie is called "She Creature" in English. Watched it a few years ago. I personally don't like the tail too much but I love the concept they were going for. It just kind of looks like her legs fused and got all "flippery" haha. Like had evolved that way, I really like it when people take the more realistic route when it involves mermaids.

[ButterflyVision]

Well that was... Good. Terrifying, shocking but still good. Makes me rethink if I want to actually meet a mermaid though.

[Nate Walis]

She has a tail. And a pretty cool one at that

See Aquatarian's comment on this matter.

[Traveling Merman]

Oh well it's good that its having another airing I suppose! And newer mers can see it! :/

[Mermaid Danielle]

Interesting! Thanks for posting!

[Mermaid Melanie]

loved this movie when I saw it first time and again now ! When I think of a mermaid theres different things that come to mind - siren of the sea tempting sailors to a water grave, then you have splash and the little mermaid and H2O ...all of them are great just as in life you get goodies and baddies :P

[Nyx]

Christ, that was awesome. Thank you for sharing!

[Mermaid Bella]

When I was a little girl I read the little mermaid, after seeing the movie ( i also I had the sing along cassette and book, couldnt sleep without it) anyway, I knew about the mermaids fate from a young age, and I feel like that end was a little touchy feely too, she is told to choose between herself and the man she loves, who doesn't love her back. And she chooses to let him live.

Who hasn't been faced with rejection and thought the worst thoughts about that person?

Who wouldn't think about making a knee jerk reaction to save yourself in that situation. Not only that but the whole trip was supposed to earn her a place in heaven.

So here's a girl, faced wih mortality for the first time ( the book depicted mermaids as immortal) with no place reserved in heaven for her- and she took the high road. Not for sorrow from rejection; but true an honest love for others, this earning her a place as a wind spirit. A second chance at heaven.

I think mermaids have been gushy for a long long time.


Also, did anyone ever see Santa before coca cola got their hands on him?

[Ariel-Starfish]

Omg I LOVE thi post! thanks for sharing!

[drucilla]

I haven't seen this movie since I was alittle girl it was always my favorite! I personally LOVE sirens the seductive but deadly thing has always been appealing to me. Thank you for the post I can now watch it anytime I want. lol

[Traveling Merman]

I haven't seen this movie since I was alittle girl it was always my favorite! I personally LOVE sirens the seductive but deadly thing has always been appealing to me. Thank you for the post I can now watch it anytime I want. lol

Since you were a little girl!!! That's ludicrous! Lol weren't you scared??

[drucilla]

No, I loved her I could relate to how she must've felt, it made me very happy when she killed the evil men (from my point of view back then, but I didn't quite understand fully what was going on, I also thought the siren was a lesbian lol)

[EnidDarkWater]

watch this! look how people forget about what mermaids were like before we romanticised them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR7v7Bw0MEI

I own this movie and really love where they went with it especially her split tail. I actually had a woman get very upset with me at a festival because she happened to walk bywith her child when I was discussing the "true" (and by true I mean not sweet and sugar coated) stories of mermaids with a pirate friend of mine. Glad to see other people aknowlege the not so pretty side.

[Traveling Merman]

I own this movie and really love where they went with it especially her split tail. I actually had a woman get very upset with me at a festival because she happened to walk bywith her child when I was discussing the "true" (and by true I mean not sweet and sugar coated) stories of mermaids with a pirate friend of mine. Glad to see other people aknowlege the not so pretty side.

Yeah I don't get it sometimes, I've had people ask me how Disney came up with the story of beauty and the beast (I work for them), the first time someone asked me I was like er..... It's an old European fairy tail! And the woman who asked told me I was wrong!!!!! Lol

[SeaGlass Siren]

i think the way the little mermaid got started was this: i think they just mashed up myths and stories into one movie..

- Ariel's name: sky spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest... in the "updated story of the little mermaid" she becomes a sky spirit, no? Ariel (in shakespeare) is a "feisty character and often asks Prospero to grant him his freedom"... sound familiar?

- Siren's singing attract/hypnotize sailors: when ursula becomes human she uses ariel's singing voice to hypnotize the prince. DOOM DOOM DOOOOOOM!!

- The princess in the story that the prince falls in love with: well why have an extra new character? it's unnecessary. just combine the sea witch and princess and make her ebil so that the sea witch has a bigger role. also seems really fishy to me to introduce a female character near the end of the story AND have the prince fall in love with her for no reason and without any background info on this chick. :\

- Kraken: ....giant octopus. sea witch. enough said. it was necessary.

- King Triton... say isnt Triton a name of a mythological greek god? the messenger of the sea?