Let's start this with a short introduction to one of the greatest authors whose work has shaped children's lives (directly or otherwise) and his legacy has a major influence on literature and the film industry... basically Disney ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Without further ado:
Hans Christian Anderson:
Mr Anderson (born April 2, 1805, Odense, near Copenhagen, Denmark—died August 4, 1875, Copenhagen) is a legend of literary fairytales that have been, to this day, memorable and influential (The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, etc).
Anderson's writing was first acknowledged in 1829 under the title of "A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager". Following this short publication, he followed it up with a play, a poetry book and a travelogue. Upon the success of our bright young author, Anderson received a grant from the king, which allowed him to travel around Europe.
In ‘Andersen as a Novelist’, Kierkegaard (a Danish philosopher, poet and social critic. Author of Sickness Unto Death) points out that Andersen is characterized as, “...a possibility of a personality, wrapped up in such a web of arbitrary moods and moving through an elegiac duo-decimal scale of almost echoless, dying tones just as easily roused as subdued, who, in order to become a personality, needs a strong life-development.”
Between 1835 and 1837, Anderson produced his first series of fairytales composed of three instalments. The third booklet (April 7, 1837) contained two stories: The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Mermaid. The latter being our main focus of discussion here.
This volume of MinaLima of The Little Mermaid & Other Fairy Tales includes 12 short stories in total:
The Little Mermaid
The Nightingale
The Ugly Duckling
The Swineherd
The Tinder Box
The Princess and The Pea
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Red Shoes
Thumbelina
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Little Match Girl
The Snow Queen
I will limit my review here to the first tale on the list, The Little Mermaid (TLM for short here). I will mention a lot of details but I will not ruin it all for the rest of you, but bewars, there are some... well... a lot of spoilers here ^^"
The tale starts with the kingdom under the sea, ruled by a widowed king, with his mother, who was responsible for the young princesses. The youngest one of them was most fascinated by her grandmother's stories about the world of the mortal, their ways of living... and she wanted to meet them once she turns fifteen, when she would be allowed to get to the surface of the ocean. Her sisters before her went up to the surface and came back to their father's castle, under the water, when they've had enough.
When it was time for our little mermaid to surface the water, she encountered a ship, saw people dancing, music playing, fireworks were colouring the night sky. She then noticed the prince, who was being celebrated by the crew on his 16th birthday. Long story short, an unexpected storm hits the ship and all was in ruin. Our protagonist finds the prince between the floating shipwreck and places him on the shore of a small island.
The child falls in love with the prince, and decided to sign a deal with the evil witch so she can have legs and go ashore to tell him that she was the one who saved him. But all comes with a price. She had to give up her voice, and walking on her newly acquired feet with feel like walking on sharp knives. In order for her keep those legs and live a long life as a mortal, she had three days to make the prince fall in love with her, otherwise, she would turn to foam on the sunrise of the third day.
Anderson had a ground-breaking take on storytelling, combining idioms and constructions of spoken language to deliver a magnificent set of tales, breaking the literary tradition. While some of his stories have a happy ending, he was not afraid with ending others on a more pessimistic note. I'm not sure where to place TLM though...
So she has to kill the prince, because he's not in love with her... Because she did not fulfill her end of the bargin, she evaporated into foam. But in evaporated form, she was told by one of the spirits that she still has a job to do during her three hundred years of probation instead of those she could have lived in the sea: everytime she encounters and smiles at a good child who "gives pleasure to its parents and deserves their love", the probation period of 300 years shortens by one year. On the other hand, if she comes across a child who is naughty or badly disposed, she would not be able to stop her tears of sorrow and every tear adds a day to her time of probation until she moves to Paradise
Yeah ok, this is a very sad ending. Perhaps this tale was told to children to scare them of disobeying their parents....
There is a total of 10 interactive "elements" or popups in this volume, three of which are dedicated for or story here. The illustrations are breath-taking! The infusion of the simplistic drawings, the basic block colours and the 3-d effect of paper bring out the most of this beautiful MinaLima book. From characters, maps and scenery, we have the final output of a stunning pop-up book... for all ages, if you ask me! It's quite fun fiddling around with them XD
Short Analysis:
Book cover: (5 stars)
Absolutely stunning! Breathtaking! Beautiful! Yes, I know it's cramped up and there's so much of everything but... it's all blue and beautiful, harmonising with one another
Plot: (4 stars)
The original story that inspired Disney's Little Mermaid is bound to have the same plat: The young mermaid wants to have legs and live in the mortal world to meet her prince charming and live happily ever after
Story structure and content: (4.5 stars)
Though the plot is not foreign to me, it is everything around it that is new and outlandish!
Firstly, the characters have no name... none of them! The king, the grandmother, the little princess, the prince, etc
The story itself is easy to follow, yet the horrid details are definitely not to be shared with a child of any age!
We are here introduced to new characters (more like ones Disney chose to omit from their infamous retelling). I love that the grandmother has a major presence in the story. She was the one who was caring for the girls, she was the one overseeing their needs and whatnot
The sisters here have an important role in the little sister's life (and death). I love how, in the end, they gave away their hair to the evil witch to ensure their little sister had more of a chance to complete her task before sunrise
Writing style: (5 stars)
Majority of the tale was in prose, but it was a very easy read!
I believe it was mainly the effect of the spoken English, as compared with the fairytales presented by Barnes & Noble. I would not feel an inkling of lacking intelligence for my preferences in story telling. I want it clear and simple. That is where I found it most disheartening when reading The Arabian Nights
Anderson sure had his ways in storytelling powerful and compelling, yet very sweet and short one would ask for more
The Popups: (5 stars)
Are so much fun!
This volume contains a total of 10 interactive elements. Three of them are part of TLM (I've included two of them above)
Ending: (5 stars)
It was just... beautiful! I keep comparing the original story with Disney's... I mean, I've been watching the movies for how many years now... Disney believes in happy endings... And these fairytales are far more realistic and cruel
Nevertheless, TLM had more to do after she vanished to foam and evaporated in the air! Now she has to compensate for her 300 years she had to live...
Moral of the story, listen to your elders and just do as they say! Lol... what happened to "thinking outside the box"?! I'm sure this tale was told to kids who disobeyed their parents... and you know what they say, be careful what you wish for!
Final rating: 4.75 stars /5
I definitely enjoyed this short tale! And I still love Disney's modified story :) Each tells something different... though I still don't agree with marriage at such a young age (you're at fault as well Disney), irrational behaviour (like our protagonist's) and the reasons the prince decided to marry (be the mortal girl in Anderson's tale or Arial in Disney's)... he fell for "her voice" *smh*
I am beside myself with a strong belief that this fairytale of TLM is for a more mature audience. I know for sure that a child would have nightmares and develop some PTSD after listening to the horrific details of Anderson's TLM . However, I'm at an age when I understand the consequences of such rash actions.
Moreover, I'm not sure I'd want a child fiddling around with the pop-ups! They're bound to destroy this beautiful work TTTATTT
Thank you for reading!
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