German film version of "The Little Mermaid"

[Melosyne]

This movie was aired on Christmas 2013. It is in German, but I think you know the story. ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDX7aEI6v1o


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwn4db5sxCk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhSjm6a6gzc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9C93AMtyAk

Here are my thoughts about it.

It's low budget, and the acting and dialoges are sometimes quite wooden and forced, but in the end I even liked the movie.
It is quite close to the fairy tale.The mermaid is striving, curious, ambitious. She tries to be a girly girl for the prince, but it is not her true personality, and the attemps fail nonetheless.
The sea with is not evil, she is a true neutral. She even seems to care about the mermaid.
And the prince is not deceived, he simply does not love her the way she loves him. This stuff happens a lot in the real world but is rarely seen in films.
The ending is a bit different, though. But I prefer it to the air spirit thing that never really worked for me. In this version, she stays human and is free to explore the world.

Two pieces of dialogue that I really like:

"Never stop asking questions."
"A soul has who truly loves."

The tails are also quite interesting and nicely done. They seem to be fabric with stitched on scales.

[Echidna]

Thank you for posting this!

I really liked it, especially since it's the only adaptation of the story that has real tails in it
(the Russian version does too, but it's a single short swimming scene and you never see the tails up close).

Further more, all the characters were likeable, much in contrast to other versions where I practically can sympathize with no one
(the prince tends to be a dumb douche, the mermaid delusional, and the princess bitchy).

For those who don't understand German, it's probably not as enjoyable, but basically, the prince treats the mermaid as his little sister but loves the princess.
The episode with the dagger is just a test; killing the prince wouldn't have saved the mermaid
(and really, killing someone you love because they don't love you back rarely does :p).

All in all, a nice find.
Just the singing was less than impressive, but the tails are pretty ;)

[jukumerboii]

I've actually been wanting to see this version for a while ever since I saw it on Amazon! Even though I don't know any German, I still liked it. I actually liked it better than the Russian version and the other version where the mermaids wore dresses and had that crazy hair! Though I must say THAT version was more true to the H.C tale. But this one was good enough for me just because of the fact that they used actual underwater scene multiple times and had TAILS! The only thing I would have liked to see was more mersisters. But other than that I liked it!

[Echidna]

the other version where the mermaids wore dresses and had that crazy hair!

That would be the amazing Czech production from 1976, with the two Savrankova sisters as the mermaid and the princess :)
It's probably the best-liked version, but it has 2 drawbacks:
1 no tails- the tails were in the orignal story, they are important, please don't change
2 the ending is so sad it's unbearable.
It's even sadder and more depressing than the original story, and managing to make a story sadder and more depressing than Mr Andersen himself is quite a feat xD
However, the singing was superb, and that's also an important part of the original story.

So I guess, another version of the story has yet to be made-
with the depth and quality and singing of the Czech production, and the tails and underwater scenes similar to the new German version. :p

[Mermaid Jaffa]

I've watched one recently, it wasn't in German, was another language. It was a little mergirl that fell in love with a prince (an older man) but he turned out to be a nasty prince and locker her in his moat. It wasn't the Little Mermaid I think it was called something else. Or maybe it was but another version of it.