Little+Mermaid

The text that I chose to use for my second novel study assignment is Disney’s movie // Little Mermaid //. This movie is about a young mermaid named Ariel, youngest daughter of the sea King Triton, who is dissatisfied with her mediocre life under the sea with her sea creature friends. Despite her father’s rules, Ariel goes onto the sea surface and falls instantly in love with Prince Eric, a human. King Triton is furious about this fact and banishes Ariel from any contact with humans. Ariel then is manipulated by the evil sea witch Ursula to make a deal, to become human and have legs. Ariel must get the Prince to fall in love with her within three days and kiss her before the third day sunset; otherwise she will be a mermaid forever and under the command of Ursula. As a payment, Ursula asks for Ariel’s voice. Ariel agrees and sets off onto land to meet Prince Eric. This movie is a classic Disney film that most young children have seen or heard of. The movie also includes various songs to entertain the audience. As a child the hidden message that the movie portrays was indistinguishable; however seeing it through a more experienced, critical lens Disney has conveniently portrayed a message to young children about the undermined concepts of gender and racism. This movie would be taught as part of a grade 9 or 10 English course; preferably ENG1P or ENG2P. This movie can also be used in a media course and a social sciences course in the junior grades. As mentioned above and will be further considered, // The Little Mermaid // has hidden meaning behind the usual ‘fall in love at first sight’ theme and as a teacher I believe by using this movie, I can enable students to critically think about what is being shown to children and to view the large corporations’ objectives in the media through a critical lens. Instead of using the conventional textbooks to portray the media’s influence in children, showing a movie like // The Little Mermaid // creates a stronger impact as many students are familiar with the plot. I personally was stunned at the song lyrics that are in this movie; I never realized what was being said to Ariel and what messages were being portrayed through these songs. In addition to the lyrics, I would get my students to critically examine the colour schemes of the movie and the various accents used. This movie shows a lot about the historical social norms that were dominant and how discrimination may not have completely disappeared even though it has been implemented in society. This movie contains many issues that can be used to teach students about critical thinking. The subject of gender roles and stereotypes as well as racial profiling is evident in many of the characters and visual representations in the film. This text relates to what contemporary society considers the roles of women. Through the use of song, // The Little Mermaid // illustrates that women merely use their appearance and sexuality to gain their desires, which is ultimately a strong, heroic man. The song “Kiss the Girl” sung by Sebastian the crab to Ariel to help her kiss Eric states “you’ve got to look your best…bat your eyes…pucker your lips…” these lyrics are clearly asserting that Ariel must use her sexuality and be flirtatious to gain a kiss from the prince, because of course her voice is gone. Ariel’s verbal communication is removed so she left to use her physical presence to woo Eric, supporting the ideology that women are objects. The sea-witch also states to Ariel to never underestimate the importance of body language and that men do not like women who talk too much and gossip. In addition, by looking carefully at the visuals in this movie the audience may note that the sea-witch Ursula represents who is considered evil is not only an overweight half-woman half-octopus, but also a darker grayish colour which can be viewed as representing her as a character with ‘black face’. The racial connotation that is shown in this movie is hidden but with a critical mind one can point them out by closely looking at the visual features. Although this movie is made for younger children, showing this movie in an English course will illustrate to the students that thinking critically about what the media shows us no matter how ‘innocent’ it may seem, provides us with a better prospective of our society and how much of an influence media can be. It is important to remember that high school must not only be student development, meaning strictly academia (tests scores, points etc.) but teachers should implement tactics to educate students about human development; teaching social and social justice skills. Teaching the // Little Mermaid // can create some minor issues/challenges. Many students in the junior grade might have an instant negative reaction towards learning about Disney films. A lot of the students may have been introduced to many Disney films in throughout their childhood; therefore some students may be offended at the critical analysis of the films whereas others might be surprised at the discoveries uncovered in class. In terms of ESL/ELL or newly immigrated students, many of them may not be familiar with Disney movies and the original viewpoint of them by society; thus it may be important to speak about the movies beforehand so they get an idea of what the previous opinions were of them and why it is important to critically analyze them. One possible activity that I would use in the beginning of the unit to teach this text would be to enlighten students about the obvious influence the media does have on society. I would use the website “The Onion” as a tool to pick out a newspaper article to read aloud to the class. ‘The Onion’ is a website that has absurd articles that look like they came from actual newspapers/news reports; an example of one is ‘The Ugly Girl Killed Article’. I would read the article aloud or have the students read it to themselves quietly, and then ask them to write down their initial reaction to the article without discussing it with a peer. Some students will then be asked to share their reactions and hopefully most/some of them will find the article to be true. After discussing the article, the teacher will then inform the class that this article is in fact fake and discuss the issues behind believing anything that is in the media. This strategy is to be used as an initial hook for the lessons to come about // The Little Mermaid //. The overall expectation that this lesson connects to is ** Understanding Media Texts ** under the Media Studies strand which states to: // demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts //. The specific expectation under this strand is ** 1.5 Critical Literacy **which states to: // identify the perspectives and/or biases evident in a few simple media texts and teacher-selected complex media texts and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values and identity. //    Navjeet Rai