Your first indication that this version of The Little Mermaid might be different from the one you’re used to comes when it opens with several minutes of live action tourism footage of Denmark. Come on kids, time to watch men in sweaters purchase cheese! From there, you’ll meet a young mermaid princess named Marina, with a clingy dolphin friend named Fritz. There’s no fun singing crab, but there are crab policemen ready to enforce martial law. Yippee!
It’s oddly serious and sad. Marina falls in love with a statue of a prince, and even more in love with the actual prince depicted in the statue. Despite the endless tears and protestations of Fritz the emotionally erratic dolphin, Marina goes to a sea witch (no, not THAT sea witch) and makes a bargain to get a pair of feet. Even the sea witch tries to tell her it’s a bad idea, but Marina won’t hear it.
