Reevaluating The Little Mermaid before Disney horks up another live action remake

can we do a david lynch video though for real

Fonzie Blair

Also “Hot Jafar who FUCKS” is my new favorite person

Robert

I love your work, Lindsay & team. Please keep doing what y’all do ❤️

Robert

You really have a gift for making educational content that is funny and enjoyable. I cant tell you how much I love this new video, its in the same category as your Hunchback and Pocahontas videos. I could literally watch these and relax and laugh, its such a great feeling! ❤️❤️ I hope we get more videos featuring your funyun fund and more running gags about losing to birds, its just fabulous, ive showed 8 people already 😂

This is the video that brought me to your page (recommended by other friends). You are freaking fantastic, and your video about what happened to you on Twitter made it clear that you should be supported. Excellent work!

If the Disney content shall be continued, would a re-visiting of Hercules be in store? I honestly just want to talk about Megara more...

Loved this! Me and a friend have had long-standing discussions on how the Menken/Ashman Trifecta (Mermaid, BATB, Aladdin) are rife with queer themes and subtext beyond superficial coding. You focused mainly on Ariel and Ursula (as well you should.) but I do feel like we get some of that with the male characters in Mermaid as well. Eric is one of my favorite male love interest/prince/what-have-you characters ever because he's not written as a stereotypical cis/het male in ways IMO even later Disney dudes sometimes are. And there's not a single LOLWhat a wuss or No!Homo joke to be found about any of it. I have a looooot of mixed feelings on the stage show book, and Eric's character in particular in that, but they do ramp up the queer themes on his side even more there. (Sadly the show also submits to the bad pop feminism literalism a bit, "A woman doesn't know how precious her voice is until she's been silenced." UGH.)

J*

I think that's my brother's drawing of the hero's journey. I know that's not what we're doing here, but I'm still gonna say it.

You posted again. Whew! I thought maybe you'd never come back, that you gave up posting before I ever get to see your comments about Mulholland Drive & David Lynch. What you never promised that? Just call me misinformed. It is good to have you back, Lindsay.

I should preface this by saying I earned an undergrad degree in literature once upon a time. Something I've thought about for a while is that political readings, most academic readings in general mostly aren't about the politics and often not even about the film. It's primarily about trying to generate returns on one's knowledge of a particular subject matter. This 100% is not limited to pop feminism, but it's the topic of the video so I'll go with it. If you spent hours upon hours reading (feminist) theory, maybe even spent thousands of dollars and a few years of your life becoming an expert you need something to show for it. Every film suddenly becomes a way to flaunt this knowledge, and these criticisms are vulgarized by people far less familiar with the theories themselves trying to get their cut from their investment in the same criticism. The TLDR version is all this criticism is just a long way of screaming "I went to college" or "I read a lot of ______ political theory." At some point the tail just starts wagging the dog. People stop caring about the material they are critiquing except as a vehicle for this. Lazy, bad faith readings abound along with empty, performative outrage. This applies to our entire political moment, most of which isn't even actually political in any meaningful way. It's bleak.

Jed Hovey

After watching the video a few more times, I noticed that Disney's portrayal of LM actually parallel's Tennyson's classic poem "The Lady of Shalott". Like Ariel, the Lady is also confined to merely viewing the wonders of the outside world from her own cloistered perspective. Hers is a life of isolation unless she gives in to the temptation to look out her window and experience the world first hand, to see none other than Sir Lancelot himself and pursue his world, not unlike how Ariel disobeys her father to pursue her own passions, to pursue Eric's world. Triton serves initially as the source of Ariel's annihilation just as the curse is to the Lady, who dared to dream of a life based on her own desire. The poem was essentially Tennyson's criticism of the Victorian attitude towards the role of women, who were expected to...not do that. What's ironic to me is that Pop-feminism/corporate feminism can't seem to recognize the real thing. But if it sells $$$

I got one for you.... trans reading of the Last Unicorn

Lauren 'Inka' Seward-Munday

God, that Buzzfeed Disney Princess thing just looks and sounds so miserable. And not in the "this is the point we're making" kind of way but "this is legit badly produced and written" way.

Matthew Dunne

Lindsay, I really love this video for so many reasons!! Thanks so much for dreaming, designing, creating, and sharing this video with us! It means a lot, more than you’ll probably ever know. Ooooh, also, thanks so much for your honesty and for sharing some of your emotional and mental health struggles, because so many people, including myself, are struggling with their mental health, emotional wellness, and physical well-being, and your sharing gives others more permission, confidence, and understanding to listen more to, share more with, and care more about others and their own mental health struggles. Also, I really appreciate what you said about supporting authors by preordering their books! Thanks for that too, and I can’t wait to preorder your next installment to Axiom’s End!!

Thheilieohwauh

The Little Mermaid was the first movie I ever loved. Lindsay Ellis is my favorite film essayist. I cannot contain my squee and I will not apologize. SQUEEEEEE!!!

honestly i never thought much of this movie (even considering the great ashman lyrics) so thanks for this, will have to reevaluate/watch again now. also, loved the nyu violets shout-out at the end and matching lipstick after talking about 'becoming ursula'

Eli Bildirici

Stanning you, Ursula, and Howard Ashman harder than ever now. You and your team have done great work once agian.

some kind of gay cryptid

#prouddolphin

https://insidethemagic.net/2021/06/peta-plea-the-little-mermaid-th1/

Hmm, I suppose I can see how you might think that but honestly don't you think that's stretching the material a bit? If that was the intent then it was sub-sub-sub-text. It would be so sub it would make even Christian Grey uncomfortable.

Been meaning to subscribe for a while, just never got around to it, but hearing your delivery in this video today, and going through a really rough patch of depression myself, I knew I needed to stop tidying my room (moving things off my bed so I can curl up in it and try to stop existing for a bit) and come subscribe. Thank you for not performing wellness. Thank you for being "genuine" insofar as that is possible on YouTube. Thank you for making me feel less alone and stupid. Keep rocking that plum lipstick. I've been calling it depression purple but I think it really works.

OMG thank you. This is a much more coherent take about some of the bad-pop feminism of the early 2000's and what my kids grew up thinking was "good feminism"! Appreciate all the work.

Nixon665

If we manage to get a liveaction remake of The Great Mouse Detective going, will you make a video/podcast/anything about the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation ever? Yes the price is great but I think it would be worth it.

LL

The trans reading of The Little Mermaid never occurred to me, but now it seems so incredibly obvious. Good stuff.

Liz Jackson

The "unclean" cut away from willy wonka after saying that you don't wanna put in much effort genuinly made my night. I could talk at length about how I think it works on many layers, but I'm just going to leave it at - amazing! and thank you!

ChalkyChalkson

I just pre-ordered on audible. Axiom's End was just my kind of weird, im hyped!

Iochannon

Great video! Interesting, thought provoking and fun. As a Welshman I’m always disappointed the black caldron wasn’t better, there’s some great Celtic myths that could be made into media. But do love the great mouse detective. Will pre-order now, really enjoyed axioms end. Excited to see what happens next. Cheers

Thanks for articulating why Ariel isn't this tired "Princesses are bad" trope in the best way possible! And I loved the Ursula segment because I have also felt differently about this movie as I've aged with it and Ursula truly is the best part of the film. Reexamining her show-stopping piece while contextualizing Howard Ashman and Menken's influences is definitely what I wanted to see/hear this month :)

You are absolutely right about the Disney films themselves aging better than the hot takes. Which, speaking of hot takes: I actually think Anna's whole "im gonna marry a man i just met" fits perfectly fine into her character? Like sure, marrying the first guy you meet is an extreme reaction to being locked up for your childhood, but i think Jennifer Lee's goal there was more: "people who have been hurt in the past will be more desperate for human contact, and leave them more vulnerable to manipulative people." and i think that extreme works in terms of fairy-tale logic just fine. Anyways, sorry for yet another Frozen rebuttal 😅hope you're doing well, loved the defense of Howard Ashman and the drag queenification of Ursula

Holy shit, I've been waiting for you to come around on the mermaid movie for ... let's not do the math, but to pair it with a takedown of the Jezebel era princess discourse is a gift I did not expect. We're just now coming out of a couple weeks of ugly crying in this house and this was a genuine bright spot in spite of everything. Fuck this empathy-free era of mob bullshit, fuck the unproblematic/problematic fav binary. You know what's been *actually* rewarding over the past however many years? Acknowledging disagreements with a content creator I enjoy, but respecting the clear intelligence in her work and then watching the reflections of growth and change in that work. Let people live, internet.

Adelaide Ivy

This was a good video :) Thank you for continuing to make things for us to watch despite (vague hand motions.) Love your content and glad to be a supporter <3

Dyce

Love your videos! Hope youre doing okay and not taking twitter to heart....fuck those guys!! Youre witty and smart and pretty. You really know how to put your words together in a way thats hilarious. Thanks for doing what you do!!! Love to see new videos!!! <3<3<3

Kitty Kat

Thank you so much. I LOVE Disney's The Little Mermaid and I LOVED this! Also gonna buy your first book today and preorder your second! 😀

Carmine Red

Hey I see that you used the footage form the soviet adaptation of the little mermaid what did you think of it

100 points for using the evil space poodles from classic Trek!

I have liked a good bit of Barbara Ehrenreich and now I am worried to go back and read it again.

Andreas Stahl

The line... being three years away from becoming Ursula yourself... that's, that's a mood.

Lauren 'Inka' Seward-Munday

As a child, I was never told about homosexuality or trans people, any of that stuff. I watched The Little Mermaid over and over again. I was transfixed by Ariel defying her daddy to go marry the person she loved, even though that was unacceptable in her society. HMMMMMMMMMMM.

Maiden of Stories

It's weird to look back on the pop-feminism-clickbait like this. I distinctly remember the grown-up discourse (I was not a grown up) in the early renaissance being that Ariel and Belle were -good- feminist role models. Because they did things besides look pretty in a coma like Aurora and Snow White I guess.

Natalie Arnold

Psyched to watch!! Still waiting to watch ITH before listening to this week's episode of Mysicalsplaining.

I may be over-interpreting the text, but it honestly felt like at the end the video turned into a book commercial. (I also felt much kinship at your confession of watching and re-watching Moana.)

Rachel Anne

I really enjoyed your comments about the bad faith clickbait "feminist" takes, however, I have to say that I do love Enchanted and Frozen (two properties that could be seen, as you pointed out, as a response to that). When they are working to take on board valid criticism and work to show other facets of relationships more authentically as a part of the script it works far better than in throwaway "girl power" moments (like the remakes, which...ugh).

Chelsea Watson

SEE HOW I GLITTER

Ryan Storey

Loved it! Though if that's not 100% performative glooming, please take care of yourself. (Possible typo unless I missed the joke - Joan Collins / Joan Crawford?)

Pete Ashton

I'm cringing at how into that weak-sauce feminism I was in my late teens... but I think now there are still feminism critiques to be made of both old and new Disney movies, and you kind of bring it up here: how even stories featuring female characters aren't really about them. Aladdin and Hercules are both the POV and drivers of their stories, but Ariel doesn't get that in hers. The same could be said of Beauty and the Beast - Belle is the POV, yes, but the growth and character arc are all the Beast's. Same for Rapunzel and Flynn.

All-Natural Fig Jam

Totally unrelated, but that lipstick is amazing.

I love you! I know it can be hard to come back from a disappointment, but I joined your Patreon because I love what you do and want you to continue. We all love you. Don't feel sad.

"I'm loosing to a bird" makes me laugh every time. Thanks for the video!

who is counting

Great to see you back again, Lindsay! And your analysis of Disney's cultural juggernaut power is hitting a lot of buttons for me with similar issues, too!

Alex W.

I actually think that's the worst thing about preorders. It stresses me out to have money floating out in the ether that's technically spent but also not spent. I'll still buy the book, I'm just saying.

Heather Cotter

I appreciate your love for The Great Mouse Detective. It was a big favorite of mine as a kid. I even read all the Basil of Baker Street books, which the movie was based on.

Anirien

Oh my God. The palpable exhaustion. The Discourse(TM) fatigue. I have never related to anything so hard.

Sapphire Purcell

Such a great video! You really articulated so many of my frustrations with these bad faith ~girlboss~ interpretations of these movies, especially when Disney themselves perpetuate it in their new stuff for the lulz - way to shit on the memory of people like Howard Ashman who poured his heart and soul into these films. Anyway, it's not as if they owe any of their current success to those golden age/renaissance films or anything... Also if any of you haven't seen it, I very much recommend the documentary 'Howard' which is on Disney+ - a really beautiful film and tribute to Howard Ashman. It's so evident how loved and admired he was by the people who made it. I think in particular seeing the care and thought he put into the stories and songs in these movies is what makes me so angry when I see those shallow 2010 Buzzfeed style critiques of them. So thank you, Lindsay, for addressing this! It was very satisfying to have it put into words.

“You see, Mermaids, like the Danish, don’t have souls.” This fucking broke me (in a good way), thank you - A guy who has been consistently working nights and weekends for the past four months because some Danes didn’t get their shit together when they were supposed to and I have to clean up their mess

Reid Palmer + Shawna Wells

1. I have always stanned the Ursula. 2. I have wondered for decades now why people never point out that the bulk of these tales were not invented by Disney? They were invented by medieval Germans. (More than Germans but I wanted a punchy line. Basically my point is they are worldwide FOLKTALES, and for a very large span of human history the majority of women had to get married in order to survive.) 3. I have serious, SERIOUS problems with Hans Christian Andersen. "If you don't requite someone who loves you you deserve to be PUNISHED" is a disturbingly running theme with him. 4. People who insist Belle had "Stockholm Syndrome" (which turns out to not actually be a real syndrome, who'd'a thunk) are people I tend to avoid after I find this out about them. (If they think this about the Once Upon A Time version of Belle, I will give that to them.) 5. THANK YOU for referencing Ashman. 6. I can't not love Frozen. It has Idina Menzel in it. Also Elsa very weirdly reflects, to me, how much of my life I spend trying to appear much less huge and tall and black and scary to the world at large, when inside my head I feel I'm quite demure. And also that I am not obligated to date anybody by the end of the tale. ;) (Even if the tale is a glorious mess of a tale with a glorious mess of plot elements changed at the last minute beacuse Elsa was simply not shaping up to be as villainous as originally intended, and it blatantly shows.) 7. THANK YOU FOR EVERY WORD OF THIS VIDEO. 8. (And for loving Moana as she deserves. <3 <3 <3 )

Camille R

Growing up I only ever watched Disney for the villains and princesses. (Which in hindsight should have really tipped some people off.) The editing at the end with the stepmother will play on loop in my head for years. The editing in general had the tone of a Disney villain. Very good editing. Aspirational shade of lipstick. My original problem with princess movies was the reoccurring theme of virginal princess + fuck boi who gets domesticated somehow. Maybe the very old ones *didn't have* (edited) that problem? (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty) But those were very classical. Of all the pre-'woke' princes, I think Eric might be the most unique. He puts a lot of time and effort into getting to know Ariel and making her feel comfortable. Meanwhile, she's enjoying her anthropology study abroad program with little to no self-awareness on her part. Ariel might be the fuck boi in this movie.

Duck

Ready to order some “the real Green Place was the friends we made along the way” merch

This is my petition to join the 'slowly morphing into Ursula' club.

Showgirls is so versatile as a bad example. It's THE bad example. Thanks for making this.

Peter

1. I just spent the last 30 minutes in a euphoric high as you expressed all my frustration about how people talk about Disney princesses my god such a weight has been lifted from my shoulders 2. I love your videos so much and you make the world a better place and I expect that the majority of the depression/apathy in this video was at least kind of a joke, but also I just want to say that you don't have to make videos if you don't want to, I'll miss you if you leave but don't hurt yourself over this your health and wellbeing is the most important 3. your makeup looks bomb at the end

Rachel

I always love hearing your interpretation. You and Angela are the best. I love the little text easter eggs like the forest animals unionizing comment lol.

bewitchedfencer

I've never seen that buzzfeed video and I've never been so relieved. What an obnoxious smug piece of nonsense. It is pretty bizarre to consider how much of Disney's riffing on itself is actually Disney riffing on weird and untrue criticisms about itself, like the "they got married in three days" thing, which I've becomed convinced is because of that one BATB article saying the whole movie happens in a week because the timeline is fuzzy and sometimes contradictory, as sometimes happens in fairytales. In fact part of the problem of the literalism is how it dismisses that magical parts of these stories, and therefore metaphorical readings, are intrinsic to them. Like, you can say "she mutilates her body for a man!" the whole day long, but in the universe this sort of transformation is perhaps not normal, but is completely within the normal limits of the universe. Also really liked the gay stuff, particularly the talk about Ashman, an amazing talent and a really hard loss. I don't know that you could say Disney has ever been the same without him, even for the movies have better soundtracks like Moana. Also, damn but Poor Unfortunate Souls still deeply slaps. Ursula deserves her place as one of the most beloved Disney villains, just for how hard that slaps.

Stormbourne

my aromantic ass perked up there for a nanosecond

After a long string of bad days, this was something I definitely needed to cheer me up on in multiple fronts. Not only because of humor, but also more great lessons and issues which need to be addressed in the modern days which seemed brushed over in the past decades. Aside from this review, I greatly wish you luck on your personal life after what you had to deal with for some time now.

Jebest4781

I got about 5 minutes in and this is a really good premise for a video -- you touched on it in your BATB video(s) but the pop feminism of "did it ever occur to you that disney princesses might be ...... BAAAAAAAAAD????" was really frustrating and its aftermath has been even worse. Really good topic to mine, IMO -- stoked to see the rest.

Stormbourne

I've always had issues with Disney's The Little Mermaid, but not for feminist reasons. I honestly don't know how to critique centuries-old fiction (or in this case, a story based on centuries-old fiction) with an eye toward feminism because it just doesn't seem fair somehow. I have almost 200 years of progress to inform me, so it's like complaining that Neanderthals didn't do enough to prevent global warming. My issues, instead, have always been with the happy ending to what amounts to a story of obsession. She's obsessed with a man she's never met, only seen, who initially comes off as very uninterested, and it all ends okay for her (in Disney's version). While I'm not crazy about Andersen's ending of "Go forth unto God to save your soul" - his base story of unrequited love seems more honest, at least, even if it also makes me uncomfortable because it is also a story of obsession from the viewpoint of the obsessive (the author in this case) who is in control of the thoughts and viewpoints of the fictional stand-in of the person they are obsessed with. The man Andersen was in love with never responded. Then he wrote a story ostensibly about this unrequited love where his only option was to die to be rid of the pain. It's hard for me to think about it without feeling icky. Disney's version is also pretty uncomfortable to me, because it says, "Doesn't really matter if he's not that into you. Try hard enough, and eventually he'll discover the true you and fall in love!" It's very uncomfortable for me because I've been on the other end of that where someone thinks I'll realize I really am into them, I just haven't seen the true them yet. It is not a fun situation, not for me, and certainly not for the obsessed. I don't know - perhaps this is also an unfair reading. But that happy ending always bugs the crap outta me. I really don't have any issues with the whole "love at first sight" thing - but The Little Mermaid is one of those that leans more toward the whole one-sided love thing than any of the others (aside from Hunchback, and the unrequited doesn't get the girl there anyway). I know they've toyed with the story some to show affection on Eric's side to Ariel as a hot singer, so maybe this is me just having lived with the source material for so much longer. Right turn time: Ursula is a goddess and I love her. She's a brilliant character. Also the music still is some of the best in a Disney movie.

Megan Johnson

Thanks for letting me know about this!

Lindsay Ellis

That one's Fenty

Lindsay Ellis

It's all the same no matter where you buy it, so really it's which retailer you want to support

Lindsay Ellis

We stan Faye Dunaway as Joan Collins/Crawford haha

Gian Balangue

Loved this video and am excitedly preordering your book. Does it matter from which retailer, or it’s all the same across the board?? Like, does one retailer provide more percentage of profits to you??

Ahh, it's good to have you back, with great lipstick too. I was hoping you would do a re-examination of this film one day, and you didn't disappoint. I never heard about Hans Christians Andersen's... interests, but it definitely adds a new layer to the story.

Thank you so much for talking about the original story and Hans Christen Andersen's unrequited love for a man. That queer reading gets left out in so much "discourse," and I want more people to know about it. (Edit: I loved HC Andersen fairy tales as an adolescent b/c I related to them. He comes across as an autistic biromantic to me, and his little mermaid story spoke to me far more than the Disney version ever did.)

Additionally, I think you would be an amazing host for a drag show and I would pay money for that.

Kait Hatch

"(This is how I assume she talks.)" Actual Laughing-Out-Loud moment #1, and we're only 4 minutes in. I'm gonna enjoy this!

Also, goddamn what lipstick is that? Cause I would totally trick you into signing a magical contract to steal your lips and then use them to to prevent you from getting married so I can trick your dad into giving me the powers of a god (or something like that). But mostly just for the lips.

Honestly, the only animated movie that had the main characters get married after only three days of knowing each other is... Shrek. A DreamWorks movie that was made specifically to make fun of Disney. The irony.

Ryan Storey

FINALLY Someone is talking about gay shit 💕

JuicyGarland

", like the Danish themselves,"

I was just reading about the Sad Puppies thing in science fiction, and I think it would be great if you made a video about that!

AndreGG

You're turning into Ursula? Brag much? It's not like that's been my dream since I was a kid or anything.

Love hearing folks in our community honoring queer icons that have made an impact in our lives. Thank you and Happy Pride!

We love Disney villains the same way we love the Emperor in Star Wars. He’s just pure evil, looks like he’s having a great time, and he’s a fully realized character

Len Flakisinski

At last, someone willing to speak out against Big Dane!

Ctolm

MacKayleigh is back and with a vengence it seems

Bryan Whiteman

"Typically, they spend much of their in captivity or in a coma" Girl, same.

Jasmijn Wellner

Oddly, I learned about him around a week ago. I had just watched Newsies for the first time, and went poking around to figure out why Alan Menken's songs in it didn't seem up to the standards of their contemporaries.

That push in on Frollo should be a criminal offense lol. Glad to see you're back in action, this was great analysis as always!

"Mermaids, like the Danish themselves, don't have souls." Goddammit Lindsay, stop making me fall in love with you every time you put out another video. My heart can't take it.

Hey Lindsey, I'm super glad you're feeling up to making videos again. I've been worried about you since the last one which you didn't deserve. I apologize for asking for a favor, but if you're posting about the Little Mermaid, maybe you could help one of the voice actor's families. Sam Wright, the voice of Sebastien, died 3 weeks ago. He was a mentor of mine in high school at his community acting center, the Hudson Valley Conservatory. It has been hit hard by his and death and the pandemic and they are attempting to raise money to keep the school running. You can find them on Instagram, it's in their link tree: @hvcfa If you're able to share it in your video, or even just retweet it, it would help so much. Thank you for considering. ❤

Oh, I just remembered years ago I worked on a community play of Cinderella. Except they changed her to wanting to go to like a job fair, leaves behind her cellphone, and CEO Charming hires her as like a partner CEO.

Tony M Parker

But also *Joan Crawford (not Collins) 💜

I couldn’t click on this fast enough! So great to have you back.

Thank you, this was a pleasant watch. TLM will always be among my fave Disney films, while the remakes are forever tainted. The Mulan remake freaking perfectly sums up how black hearted the remakes are.

Chris

Love the video!! What brand of lipstick are you wearing?!

Thought provoking as always, love it!

"John Hurt sucks in Black Cauldron." (casually sitting back as shots are fired) But yeah, not Hurt's finest hour. It's kinda hard when even an actor of his caliber is handed ... by all accounts, ESPECIALLY from the film's animators ... a very confused script by confused directors.

Welcome back Lindsay. You keep speaking your truth. We are all here to see it shine. Happy pride!

"mermaids, like the Danish themselves..." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BURN! Also, I so appreciate that you point out that the OG story was um...super gay, and that the queer "coding" of Ursula in Disney was like, not coded. Unless you are cishet oblivious. Ursula - unapologetically representing the Best of Diva culture.

Kait Hatch

oh man i loved this, how do you always manage to encapsulate my feelings about pop feminism through disney THIS is what i love

your MIND

Lindsay got cancelled? no f*cks given, you're better than that I'm here for the metatextual analysis, adaptive honesty and self-correction, Sharp wit, and of course, that gay sh*t.

Curt Clark

That's great, cause you die in it!

Lindsay Ellis

Great video!! I love the queer reading of the original story, I hadn't heard it before. Happy Pride! Also, just pre-ordered the book :)

Vladimir Barash

Do you enjoy doing this? Do you enjoy making a short hairy Mexican man squeal in excitedly high frequencies every time you upload a new video? Because you do it every time, and my week gets immensely better when you do.

this was immediately one my favourite all time lindsay vids!!

a warm, awful feeling

Some 'fun' real life 90s "feminist" takes on Disney Princesses - my dad drilled into my head growing up that Ariel is the worst princess because she's a bad daughter who doesn't listen to her father, but Belle is the best because she saves her father (Mulan was a close second). So of course, those two were my favorites and we didn't really watch TLM very much. Bad takes galore!

Cara Ferraro

Welcome back, Ms Lindsay. Glad to see you. Indeed.

Carl Sage

Your point about how TLM is actually King Triton's character development story made a light bulb go off! I'm thinking now about whether there are trends in current YA fic - especially the ones told from first-person - where there is not a lot of internal growth of the POV protagonist, and instead the world changes around them. Has there been a shift in popular literature, or is there less representation of POV characters who really change/grow internally (especially from a flawed/limited character into someone more open or mature)? I think of A Wizard of Earthsea, which portrays this very strongly, for example. Of course, it doesn't mean that lit where the POV character doesn't change is bad, but it does definitely tell a different type of story and engage viewers/readers differently. Also, I was livid when Disney's Little Mermaid came out b/c I remembered the original. I appreciate the contextualization, and the different angles you look at it from. You're awesome for getting back on the sea lion!

Zalyn Schwartz

I should probably watch The Little Mermaid at some point. I don't think I've actually seen it?

enchantedsleeper

That was awesome! I think it’s important to re-evaluate our ideas from the past. This video was great.

T. Delligatti

We. Love. To. See. It. 🌈

GracethofMoon

I was afraid to watch this one when I got the email because I remembered in the past Lindsay really not liking The Little Mermaid & it’s my favorite one & I’m so happy that it’s not all negative. The literal way people read this movie has always killed me because it’s like no one has comprehension skills.

Arrogant cum trucks

Ursula was inspired by Divine... Lindsay's new book is called Truth of the Divine.......... i'm standing here at my pepe silvia board like YES YES I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING

Shiny Skunk

I love that you're still telling people not to @ you over The Great Mouse Detective. Is it necessary? No. Stanning Ratigan is as much part of your brand as loving Starscream, Kurt Wagner, or Tom Hardy. But does it still entertain me? Yes. Yes, it does.

DAvid MmKay

I got so tired of those, "Disney princesses reimagined as," or, "historically accurate Disney princesses," or whatever. Fairy tales for children are not the reason 28-year-old women want to have their weddings at Disney World.

Eileen Nguyen

Oh my god exhausted Lindsay is funny

Stephen Higham

These are tiring times.

Love the Bolsonara reference at the end

Those credits clips were a trip!

John D Ruddy

it is indeed vv fun to stan a villain

Katharine Rumble

Huh, TIL about Howard Ashman.

Exhausted Lindsay is a mood. I feel it, girl.

run_away

Good takes. Can't wait for the book! Hope there’s plenty of Persians in action. Maybe the next book needs more Brazil?

Tony M Parker

Hey Lindsay, thank you for giving me an excuse to skip lecture.

Celty Tompkins

EEEEEEEEEE

Jackson Bockus

I couldn't help but hear your voice get more and more... enthusiastic?...interested?...as the video went on. Not sure if you intended it that way, but it was an unexpectedly-uplifting element of the video I wasn't expecting. I'm glad to know your voice wasn't silenced by the toxicity of the platforms you're stuck on.

Juan Borla

I can’t wait to watch!!

We’ve missed you!

Fred Robel

My queen has blessed us with new content. Lots of love and well wishes to you, Lindsay, hope everything’s going alright with you and can’t wait to read Truth of the Divine!

Am I allowed to swear on Patreon? Cause fuck yeah!

Thanks for using the word “hork.” Also super stoked for a new video from you 🙃

Katarina Silvestri

So happy you are back!

Jacinda

Damnit, Lindsay, I’m at work now. Jk jk, I’m happy there’s a new video!!!

You mean a live action backstory of how Ursula is actually sympathetic and you're all so mean to her...right? Also wow didn't realize The Little Mermaid was made in 1989...

Joshua Mannix

We are glad to see you back, and I hope things go better for you

Scott Harkless

I almost sobbed when the notification came on my phone

Gabriel Taylor