Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid is a jolly and inventive animated fantasy - a movie that's so creative and so much fun it deserves comparison with the best Disney work of the past.
For 82 minutes, The Little Mermaid reclaims the movie house as a dream palace and the big screen as a window into enchantment. Live-action filmmakers, see this and try to top it. Go on and try.
Romantic, suspenseful and at times extremely funny.
88
Chicago TribuneDave Kehr
Chicago TribuneDave Kehr
It may not be a transcendent masterpiece of the Disney canon, but The Little Mermaid is still very heartening: It suggests the Disney magic isn't lost after all.
88
Orlando SentinelJay Boyar
Orlando SentinelJay Boyar
Fun-and-fin-filled feature-length Disney cartoon that revitalized the studio's animation department.
What the film does expertly is to weave together music, likable protagonists, thoroughly nasty villains, and a fun plot into a cohesive whole, with a result that is nothing short of magical.