The Little Mermaid - a look into off-model Ariel

[Ernest Rister]

Disney animation in the 80's languished in a rebuilding period as the Nine Old Men retired to be replaced by the new crew brought up in the 70's. Considering that Eisner almost pulled the plug on feature animation at Disney, it should be no surprise that Mouse Detective, Oliver and Co., and Mermaid are very rough around the edges in almost every conceivable way. Mermaid is so bare-bones and rough and tumble in its animation due to the limited budget, faulting the lack of consistency seems unfair. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many scenes in Mermaid were "straight-ahead" animation - meaning, the animators started with a frame and plowed straight through the scene, with minimal corrections or re-takes. In that light, faulting The Little Mermaid for the very loosey-goosey animation seems unfair, like criticizing a saturday morning cartoon for the same thing.

You're right to notice it and learn from it, though. Disney demonstrated with Roger Rabbit (1988) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) that they were certainly capable of better than what we saw in Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and even Aladdin. They rushed those films to mee the release date. In fact, Disney animation didn't return to a uniform level of quality until The Lion King and Pocahontas. As weak as some of the later features were in terms of narrative, they were all gorgeous. Treasure Planet and Brother Bear in particular has backgrounds that rivaled the best of the 1st Golden Age features.