8/10
Modern Take on an Old Classic
19 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is not for your children! I have read many different versions of the old classic. Most people think the original telling was the rewrite by Hans Christian Andersen, where in the end she dies and becomes a "daughter of the air". However in his original telling was a much darker end than life after death, as she was denied an immortal soul and became seafoam after refusing to kill her prince when he chooses to marry another. He later rewrote the ending.

Though this movie was far from the Disney classic, the plot had much more in common with the rewrite by Hans Christian Andersen himself than the cute Disney movie. Yes, it's modern, yes the witch caused her man to go blind-which never happened in the fairy tale...yet, it has happened in many other fairy tales, like Rapunzel. And though she was stripping, the mermaid actually did dance for the prince in the old story...despite every step feeling as though she was walking on broken glass.

The ending is tragic and yet beautiful, as are traditional fairy tales, which were meant to teach life lessons to young children, rather than send children into a cruel world expecting "happily ever afters".

It wasn't a horrible movie, but the ending had me bawling like a baby, as I had expected a happy ending rather than a traditional one. Any critics saying this movie was awful have probably grown up on Disney movies and never read a real fairy tale in their life.
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