Ani-MAY-tion Month: The Little Mermaid (1989)

For anyone who doesn't know, The Little Mermaid is all about Ariel (Jodi Benson), a mermaid daughter of Triton (Kenneth Mars). Ariel may live under the sea, but she spends most of her time scavenging for items that have been lost to the deep waters by the humans above. When she sees, and falls in love with, a handsome man named Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes) she wants to be able to go on land and spend some time with him. The tricky Ursula (Pat Carroll) can make that happen. She transforms Ariel's tail into legs in exchange for one thing - her voice. Ariel then has three days to get Eric to kiss her, or she'll be stuck in a very bad situation indeed.

A fantastic outing from Disney, based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid is the studio doing what it does best. The animation is delightful, the characters are pretty great (with a crab named Sebastian - voiced by Samuel E. Wright - stealing a couple of scenes), the songs are all quite enjoyable, and it teaches younger viewers not to . . . . . . give up their own voices for the sake of love, or something like that. I may be joking, or I may not.

The voice cast all do well, with other noteworthy performances coming from Buddy Hackett and Jason Marin as, respectively, a seagull named Scuttle and a little fish named Flounder, and it helps that Ariel is one of the best female Disney leads in decades, although older viewers may be a bit miffed by just how quickly she falls head over heels in love and is willing to do whatever it takes to be with the dashing Eric.

Ron Clements and John Musker are the men who get to take most of the credit, as the directors and main writers of the thing, but this is really a team effort. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman handle the music and lyrics, a veritable smorgasbord of animators handle the visuals, and there's every other department to consider. That is, of course, the case with every movie, but The Little Mermaid gets so much right in every way that it's really worth trying to give everyone equal praise.

Despite my love for the movie, it's not perfect. There's at least one song that I thought fell a bit flat, and the final act is strangely anticlimactic. In fact, it all feels quite rushed and ill-conceived, which is a great shame. Its not enough to drag the movie down too far, but it is enough to stop it from being in the very top tier of Disney movies. It does, however, still come close.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Mermaid-Diamond-Jodi-Benson/dp/B00C7607FS/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1399734188&sr=1-3&keywords=the+little+mermaid

Jack Frost (1979)

There have been many, many movies over the years given the title of Jack Frost so let me quickly inform you now that this particular review concerns the lovely stop-motion film from Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. The two men are adored by a generation of Americans who grew up with their stop-motion creations playing on the TV, mostly at Christmas time. In fact, I hope that they're adored by more than one generation as their better known titles were released throughout a period of two decades.

Here in the UK we didn't really get the Rankin/Bass creations, which is a great shame. Oh, they may have been shown occasionally but they weren't the essential part of the holidays that they became in the USA. I only discovered them after a lot of online conversation with my many American friends led me to Mad Monster Party, which you should seek out immediately, and then I was lucky enough to find that LoveFilm had Jack Frost among their Instant selection (it's also on YouTube here for anyone eager to revisit it). Result.

What's the story? It's simple, Jack Frost (voiced by Robert Morse) falls for a lovely young lady (voiced by Debra Clinger) and asks to become human. He is allowed to become human but to stop himself reverting back to his frosty state he must acquire a horse, a house, a bag of gold and a wife by the first sign of Spring. It sounds difficult but Jack is up to the task, he hopes.

At approximately 48 minutes in length and interspersed by moments in which the viewers is told parts of the story by a groundhog names Pardon-Me-Pete (voiced by Buddy Hackett), Jack Frost never outstays its welcome. Romero Muller wrote the story and mixes the predictable with the pleasantly surprising. A few supporting characters, mainly a man who makes Snowflakes (named Snip), keep things entertaining and there's a classic baddie in the shape of Kubla Kraus (voiced by Paul Frees).

But the writing and characters and pacing are all secondary to the main draw here, the absolutely wonderful stop-motion animation on display. Despite my praise for this piece of Wintery entertainment, it's not perfect but the character design and animation makes up for that. I think that there's just something inherently rewarding about watching something that took such skill and patience to create and if ever a stop-motion work doesn't make me feel that way then, well, I'll be sure to comment loudly and vehemently on it (oh yes, check me and my bad self).

Jack Frost isn't up there with the very best of the Rankin/Bass films (TV specials, to be exact) but it's certainly worth watching if you know their style and enjoy stop-motion animation, as I do. And it's most certainly worth giving some of your time to during the Christmas holidays.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Frost-Video-DVD-conversion/dp/B001EINWJS/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1355442675&sr=8-11