125 – The Little Mermaid

After a longer break than anticipated, Disniversity is back with the Renaissance era – bigger, better, and in this episode, wetter. Film journalist Ben Travis and animation academic Sam Summers are here to take you under the sea in 1989’s The Little Mermaid. In a bumper-sized episode, we explain where we’ve been for the last few months, before getting stuck into a Walt Disney Animation Studios classic that takes Hans Christian Andersen’s weirdly foam-centric fairytale and stuffs it with calypso bops. We dispute the studio’s worries about the film being ‘just for girls’, explore its queer themes and legacy, and the impact of legendary songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken – plus, we pick our favourite fishes from the hot crustacean band, fight it out over the best song in the movie, get into a disturbing discussion of all the undersea creatures Sam would happily eat, and break down perhaps the greatest song lyric of all time: “Les poissons, les poissons / Hee-hee-hee, hon-hon-hon.” Boy, is it good to be back. Next up: The Rescuers Down Under Disniversity is brought to you by Ben Travis (@benstravis) and Sam Summers (@samsummers0), with art by Olly Gibbs and music by Nafets. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @disniversity. This podcast is not affiliated with Disney. — Welcome to Disniversity, the podcast crash course through the history of Disney’s animated classics, with film journalist Ben Travis and animation academic Dr. Sam Summers. Each week, we’ll be moving forward in time through the legendary Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue, watching every feature film in chronological order – from Snow White to Encanto. Watch along with us, and listen as we explore each film’s historical context, advances in animation and lasting legacy, and talk about how they stand up today.