Wednesday, October 11, 2006

LITTLE MERMAID DVD SALES

Last week The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD was released from the Disney vaults. It has sold over four million units in one week! It is the highest selling animated October DVD debut and the best selling of the Disney Platinum Series!

I was quite surprised to see that this film surpassed the sales of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

The DVD is worth picking up. The restored picture is beautiful and the sound is great. I am a big fan of this movie especially since this was the first Disney movie I saw in theatres. It was a thrilling experience that I will never forget. The story and animation are just as strong by today's standards. The only part of the film I felt was a little dated were the special effects from King Triton's trident when he is destroying Ariel's grotto. Straight outta the eighties.


There are some interesting special features. The standard behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes and silly games make their appearance but one of the best things on the second disc is the new animated short by Disney Feature Animation, Little Match Girl. The Hans Christian Anderson story is very touching and director Roger Allers made sure the tragic ending was kept intact.

The Little Match Girl was originally suppose to be part of Fantasia 2006 but when that project was shelved the Little Match Girl was produced to be its own film.

The animation is okay but it mixes 3D props and background characters in a way that doesn't seem natural. I found that one thing distracting but otherwise the film is good.


Click the picture above and below for a larger version

7 comments:

Adam said...

I agree that this is an awesome movie. The soundtrack is great, the story is awesome, and the characters are some of the most memorable Disney characters ever (in my opinion). I recently purchased the 2-disc DVD for Liz and we watched it for the first time in 8+ years. (She had seen it many more times than I) It was one of those movies that I would watch not realizing how much I had missed it until seeing it again.

But, not just the effects like you pointed out, there are other little subtleties that scream 80's. And the funny thing is, I'm not sure what they were. The entire movie seemed to have that feel: teenage love-except with mermaids, witches, and talking crabs.
Anywho, good blog and good movie.

J said...

Does the match girl actually die in this...because isn't that like a major point of that folk-tale's social commentary?

Kurtis Findlay said...

Well, I didn't want to give away the ending in my post but I guess I'll do it here.

Yes, the girl does die in the end. I was sort of surprised because I know Disney usually changes ending so characters don't die (ie. Mermaid, Pocahontas, Hunchback). But then, there wouldn't really be a story if she didn't die would there?

coolshades said...

Dang...I may have to pick up this DVD just to see Little Match Girl. I still have The Little Mermaid on video...the original release with the "unusual" cover. lol

The soundtrack is my favorite part of this movie...I read once that "Under the Sea" was voted the best Disney song ever.

Now I'm trying to think of how many times characters have died in Disney cartoons. Mufasa is the only one I can think of at the moment...

Kurtis Findlay said...

The obvious one that springs to mind is Bambi's mom. Mostly, parents or guardians of the main character die to give the character motive and usually it happens in the past. Have you ever notice that most Disney heroes/heroins are orphans?

Most villains die at the end of the movies. Ursula, Gaston, Frollo, Clayton, Malificent to name a few.

Adam said...

Gaston wasn't a villian. He was just misunderstood.

coolshades said...

Yeah it's always interesting to see what new and interesting ideas they come up with for how to kill off the villain. They particularly enjoy having the villain take a huge plunge off a building...or a cliff...or some other high object. LOL