Little Mermaid, The (DVD)

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"The Little Mermaid" is sprightly, starry-eyed, lush, and luxuriant. Yes, Disney may have been inspired to seek out the Hans Christian Andersen tale in response to the success of their Touchstone live-action mermaid story "Splash," but the two stories nicely complement each other, and both of them have their special appeals.

Video:
The Disney video engineers restored the picture to its original pristine beauty, presenting its picture on disc in a 1.78:1 ratio, high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer. The opening scenes take place at sea in a storm and then underwater, so, appropriately, the colors are not too bright or glossy. Out in the open, under a clear sky, the picture is stunning, with hues deep and brilliant. There is, however, the merest touch of very fine grain throughout the film, which one might notice at the beginning, and there are a couple of brief scenes where the picture looks the tiniest bit blurry; nothing really.

Audio:
The Disney audio people remastered the English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in one of their home-theater mixes, which I usually find puts too much information into the rear channels. But what the heck; it's a children's cartoon, and it's meant to be fun. So, expect lots of rushing water, crashing waves, surging winds, and musical ambience enhancement in the surrounds. There is also a wide front-channel stereo spread, a strong bass, and good transient impact.

Extras:
As this is one of Disney's Platinum Edition two-disc sets, it involves a ton of bonus items. Not all of them may interest you, but there is enough stuff here that by picking and choosing you are bound to find something of interest. Disc one contains the feature film, plus a generous twenty-seven scene selections; a chapter insert and navigational guide; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, you'll find an audio commentary by co-writers/directors Ron Clements and John Musker and composer Alan Menken; a music video, "Kiss the Girl," performed by Ashley Tisdale; a Disney Song Selection with lyrics printed at the bottom of the screen (an option for the movie, too); a sneak preview of "The Little Mermaid III"; and Sneak Peeks at ten other Disney titles. For convenience, the disc also includes an index of bonus items and a look at what's on the second DVD.

Disc two starts out with the forty-five-minute documentary "Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid," divided into six chapters that you can play separately or all at once. Needless to say, it is fairly comprehensive. Next is an eight-minute featurette, "Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit," followed by the eleven-minute featurette "The Story Behind the Story," explaining the origins of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale. After that is my favorite of all the extras, a seven-minute animated short film, "The Little Match Girl," also based on a Hans Christian Andersen short story and set to the music of Alexander Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. The tale is quite touching. After that are six "Little Mermaid" art galleries, an early presentation reel, and an original theatrical trailer.

Under "Deleted Scenes" you'll find twenty-six minutes of excised material with filmmaker introductions, the art work done in rough preliminary drawings, plus the audio-only song "Silence Is Golden." Then, there is a DisneyPedia segment, "Life Under the Sea"; and, finally, Disney's "Under the Sea Adventure," a virtual ride inspired by Walt Disney Imagineering, complete with an audio commentary for the ride and a "Behind the Ride That Almost Was" featurette, with different views, storyboards, scale models, etc.

Parting Thoughts:
"The Little Mermaid" is cute, romantic, well-animated, well paced, and filled with more good music than Disney had produced in quite some time. The Platinum Edition set does it justice with its all-new picture and sound restoration and its plethora of additional goodies.

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