subject: How A Mermaid Saved Disney [print this page] It may not be common knowledge to those who grew up watching Disney films, but the studio was very close to creative (if not financial) bankruptcy in the 1980s. Walt Disney's death in 1966 had cost the animation giant more than just a founder: they were lost and aimless without him. Their animated features went from sure-fire hits to middling misfires. It wasn't just a matter of a few bad films, either. The legendary Nine Old Men group of animators had retired, leaving huge shoes to fill, and corporate raids and hostile takeovers had dwindled both fortunes and reputations all around. But the studio rocketed back into success in the 1990s, largely thanks to one film: The Little Mermaid.
In this toxic environment, it was tough to see a way out. In 1988, Disney had shown that they could be a collaborative force, after the success of the multi-studio work Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and this gave the studio a bit of bargaining power. With that small jump, they set out to prove they still had what it took. The adaptation of the Little Mermaid was proposed by Ron Clements and John Musker in 1985; it was greenlit for production, but put aside in favor of focusing energy on the in-progress Oliver and Company.
A more specific script was written by Musker and Clements, and at this point the lyricist Howard Ashman (who wrote songs for Oliver and Co.) heard about the project. He read the original script, which contained a stuffy English butler crab named Clarence; Ashman proposed changing him to a Jamaican character, so that the music could involve more calypso influences throughout the film. This was a major step in making The Little Mermaid a success though no one could have recognized it at the time. A new rendition of The Little Mermaid was created with the launch of a Broadway musical, that adapted the structure of the story to the theater format. Ashman teamed up with composer Alan Menken to write the score, and they were involved in the writing process from that point onward.
With a superb script , the animation team was clearly just as inspired. The Little Mermaid used more resources and money than had been seen in decades, including the opening of a satellite animation facility in Orlando, Florida to help with the paint and ink. The underwater scenes required more than a million drawn bubbles, never mind backlighting and airbrushing effects. The Little Mermaid was also the guinea pig for a brand new system called CAPS, which used computers to aid in animation. A few shots, like a staircase in Eric's castle and a few wrecked ships, were made using early computer-generated imagery software.
The resulting film, released in 1989, was nothing less than a lightning strike. The Broadway musical structure was the perfect format for Disney's first animated fairy tale in forty years, and it enjoyed worldwide success, Academy Awards, and accolades from every corner. The significance of the film is deeper than merely the attention it held by a spellbound public: It is a movie that is testament to the fact that Disney could still produce awe-inspiring animation, and The Little Mermaid also established animation as a medium that could still be profitable. The next several years were known as the Disney Renaissance, marked by big-budget musical films and huge box office takes--and much of it due to the little mermaid and her beautiful voice.
