Little Mermaid, Original Story:
The Little Mermaid lives in an underwater kingdom with her father, the sea king; her grandmother and her five elder sisters, each born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above, and as the sisters become old enough, one of them visits the surface every year. As each of them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their various descriptions of the surface and of human beings.
When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from nearly drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolks' 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). The Sea Witch warns, however, that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords hard enough to make her bleed. In addition, she will only get a soul if she finds true love's kiss and if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her dance and she dances for him despite her suffering excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced.
The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she will live out her full life.
However the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and as dawn breaks she throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds for 300 years; for each good child she finds, one year would be taken from her sentence while for each bad child, she would cry and each tear would mean one day more and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God.
When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from nearly drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolks' 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). The Sea Witch warns, however, that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords hard enough to make her bleed. In addition, she will only get a soul if she finds true love's kiss and if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her dance and she dances for him despite her suffering excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced.
The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she will live out her full life.
However the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and as dawn breaks she throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds for 300 years; for each good child she finds, one year would be taken from her sentence while for each bad child, she would cry and each tear would mean one day more and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God.
The Little Mermaid Idea Generation:
Here is my three idea generations for The Little Mermaid
1. My first story board for my final outcome would be something that is already animated because then I know what it looks like and how it is meant to look. I was thinking of recreating a scene from The Little Mermaid. I chose this because The Little Mermaid is a lovely story and I really like the illustrations in this film. I was thinking of choosing the scene where Ariel has just become a mermaid and is going onto a rock, and the water splashes her and it looks really scenic. Ariel is singing "Part of Your World Reprise" as well, so I would have to make it look like she's singing it and have it playing in the background. I think it was be an excellent animation if it was pulled off correctly and well.
I also like the feel of this because it did originally, not have a happy ending.
This scene is "Part Of Your World Reprise" where Ariel is singing to the Prince, Eric. The part which I would recreate starts at 1:20 and finishes at 1:53.
I also like the feel of this because it did originally, not have a happy ending.
This scene is "Part Of Your World Reprise" where Ariel is singing to the Prince, Eric. The part which I would recreate starts at 1:20 and finishes at 1:53.
2. My other story board I was thinking of doing for The Little Mermaid is when Ariel is singing the first part of "Part of your World", where she looks quite innocent and is swimming up to the top of her treasure trove with Flounder. The part which I would like to recreate is in this video below only lasts for four seconds but you get a good understanding of the animation, and if pulled off well it could look effortless. Ariel is also singing whilst in this scene so I will have the music in the background and make it look like she's signing in the animation too.
The Scene is at 1:30 to finishes at 1:34.
The Scene is at 1:30 to finishes at 1:34.
3. I also thought about when Ariel's voice is taken by Ursala (The Sea Witch) to make her sound like Ariel with a new name Vanessa, this is so that she will marry Prince Eric instead of Ariel.
This scene is quite long and I would cut it a bit because I don't really like the idea of Ursala laughing for most of it. I would start the animation at the correct time of 0:01 where Ursala is creating a spell to take Ariel's beautiful, and enchanting voice away for herself, to 0:34 here Ursala has captured Ariel's voice in a golden shell and later she wears it around her neck. Then I would cut out the part where Ursala is doing her evil laugh, and then carry on playing again from 0:42, here she has been given human legs by Ursala, and is now stuggling to breathe underwater. I would finish my animation here at 1:00, Ariel has now come up for air thanks to Flounder and Sabastian.
I think this animation would be a lot better as there's more content in this particular scene and we have the good and bad in this scene too which will be more interesting. Overall, I would choose this scene out of the two above.
This scene is quite long and I would cut it a bit because I don't really like the idea of Ursala laughing for most of it. I would start the animation at the correct time of 0:01 where Ursala is creating a spell to take Ariel's beautiful, and enchanting voice away for herself, to 0:34 here Ursala has captured Ariel's voice in a golden shell and later she wears it around her neck. Then I would cut out the part where Ursala is doing her evil laugh, and then carry on playing again from 0:42, here she has been given human legs by Ursala, and is now stuggling to breathe underwater. I would finish my animation here at 1:00, Ariel has now come up for air thanks to Flounder and Sabastian.
I think this animation would be a lot better as there's more content in this particular scene and we have the good and bad in this scene too which will be more interesting. Overall, I would choose this scene out of the two above.