One of the things that we do here at Your Own Soulmate is look at pop culture and how it impacts people’s views of life, love, and romance. Recently, Deidre and I took a deep dive into The Little Mermaid as written by Hans Christian Andersen and represented in animated form via Disney. We have yet to see the live action film and, as of this writing, the film has just debuted.

No, it’s not a coincidence that we timed this conversation with the release of The Little Mermaid’s live action film. We have heard mixed reviews of it but hope that some of the inequities are addressed in this version. We doubt it, but we can still hope.  

Hans Christian Andersen’s version of The Little Mermaid was taken from an earlier French tale known only as “Undine”. HCA’s Little Mermaid is a bit more horrifying than the Disney animated version. It’s gorier and doesn’t really have a happy ending. The Disney version, of course, is much more light-hearted and ends on an up note.

Naturally.

Deidre, who was not a fan of the HCA book, has never seen the 1989 Disney animated version of the film. I, for my part, had never read the Hans Christian Andersen tale. We bring our experiences and ‘expertise’ such as it is to this topic in an engaging, four-part series. We encourage you to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Part 1

You can expect an introduction to the topic and a teaser about what is to come. We want to ‘wet’ your appetite for the subject matter and introduce you to our wacky but hopefully engaging style.

Part 2

Deidre discusses the Hans Christian Andersen version, and I am a bit horrified and shocked because I didn’t know how sad and gory it was. To be honest, I’m not super surprised because most fairy tales were not exactly all sweetness and light.  By the end of the video, I can understand why Deidre is not a big fan of this fishy tale.

Part 3

Now, it’s my turn to discuss the 1989 Disney animated version of The Little Mermaid. Deidre is amazed at how Disney cleaned it up from the original. There are a lot of spoiler alerts so if you haven’t watched the original yet and still want to, we suggest that you skip this part.

Part 4

We wrap up our discussion of the Little Mermaid with an in-depth analysis of the different topics addressed in the works of art. We dive deep into the unfortunate messages of sacrifice, silence, and suffering (among others) that these works give us, especially as women. We invite you to work with us to rewrite your next chapter and give you the opportunity to reach out to us.

If you want to work with either Deidre or myself, we offer hour-long sessions for an affordable price or you can join our six-week class on the Your Own Soulmate protocol. Whatever you choose. Classes for the fall are filling up now. Please reach out to us at becomingyourownsoulmate@gmail.com to learn more. You may also use our business number at (737) 242-0678.