Plot
On their way in a stagecoach, a man tells a girl the fairy tale of the little mermaid. The story is set in the 13th century. The little mermaid sees a prince on a ship from a distance and falls in love with him. Other mermaids mesmerize the sailors into crashing their ship on to the rocks. The mermaid saves the prince from drowning and brings him to shore. A local princess notices the unconscious prince and rescues him. The mermaid wants to marry the prince and swims towards palace where the princess lives. One of the fishermen spots her and they all throw rocks at her. She hides for safety in the canal within the palace. A traveling handyman befriends her. He enlists the help of a local witch who demands her hair and sweet voice for transforming her tail into legs. The witch takes the mermaid's hair but does not take her voice. The traveling handyman contacts the prince who is recovering at the palace and tells him about the mermaid. By then, the mermaid is about to be burned at the stake by the people who had caught her. The prince saves the mermaid and the princess takes the mermaid in her care.
The prince fights off a local challenger in a joust to marry the princess. However, the challenger stabs the prince in the back when he was not looking; only to have his victory (as well as his marriage proposal) rejected by the princess before the furious crowd chase him out. Everyone abandons the prince now that he is dead. The mermaid begs the witch to revive the prince. The witch does so, but warns her that if the prince does not marry the mermaid, she will die. The prince comes back alive but does not marry the mermaid. He marries the princess and the mermaid is destined to die on the same day, but she is uncaring; feeling satisfied that her actions have ensured peace for the people. In gratitude for her actions, the princess arranges for the mermaid to have new clothes made for her and the promise of marriage to a knight. The traveling handyman challenges the prince to a fight and is killed. His sacrifice spares the mermaid from death and her soul becomes eternal.
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
"The Little Mermaid", sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story follows the journey of a young mermaid princess who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a human soul.
The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that has multiple versions with various origins. It is classified as type 402, the animal bride, in the Aarne–Thompson index. Another tale of this type is the Norwegian Doll i' the Grass. Eastern European variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog and also Vasilisa the Wise ; Alexander Afanasyev collected variants in his Narodnye russkie skazki, a collection which included folk tales from Ukraine and Belarus alongside Russian tales.
Thumbelina is a literary fairy tale written by the famous Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in the second installment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size.
"The Goose Girl" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1815. It is of Aarne-Thompson type 533.
Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid is an animated series produced by Fuji Television and Saban International Paris and animated by Telescreen in the early 1990s, based on the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Little Mermaid".
Ariel is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film The Little Mermaid (1989). Ariel is voiced by Jodi Benson in all official animated appearances. Ariel is the youngest daughter of King Triton and Queen Athena of an underwater kingdom called Atlantica. She is often rebellious, and in the first film, she longs to be a part of the human world. She marries Prince Eric, whom she rescued from a shipwreck, and together they have a daughter, Melody. She is the fourth Disney Princess and also the first Disney Princess to be developed during the Disney Renaissance.
The false hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is usually of the same sex as the hero or heroine. The false hero presents some claim to the position. By testing, it is revealed that the claims are false, and the hero's true. The false hero is usually punished, and the true hero takes their place.
The Sea-Maiden is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs included it in Celtic Fairy Tales.
Prince Hat under the Ground is the Swedish version of an old Scandinavian fairy tale. The Norwegian version is called East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid is a Japanese anime film based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale, released in 1975 by Toei Animation. Unlike the Disney adaptation released 14 years later, this film is closer to Andersen's story, notably in its preservation of the original and tragic ending. The two main protagonists are the youngest daughter of the royal family, Marina, and her best friend Fritz, an Atlantic dolphin calf. In Japan, this film was shown in the Toei Manga Matsuri in 1975.
The Little Mermaid is a 1976 Czechoslovak fantasy film directed by Karel Kachyňa based on the 1837 fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film won the Main Prize at 1977 Gijón International Film Festival. The plot faithfully follows Andersen's story, with the main difference that mermaids are portrayed as water nymphs with legs instead of fish tails.
The Little Mermaid is a 1968 Soviet animated film based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale "The Little Mermaid". The film was adapted in English by Films by Jove for the series Fairy Tales from Far Off Lands, second season of Stories from My Childhood.
Fantasia 3 is a 1966 Spanish fantasy film directed by Eloy de la Iglesia. It is based on three fairy tales: Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Little Mermaid"; the 1900 children's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" by the Brothers Grimm. Fantasia 3 was de la iglesia's first feature-length film
Fairy Tale Police Department is a German Australian animated series, produced by the company Yoram Gross-EM.TV in co-production with EM.TV & Merchandising AG, Victory Media Group, and Talit Communications. It aired on Seven Network at various times. It offers a new perspective on classic fairy tales through the central characters Johnny Legend and Christine Anderson. They are magic police officers who restore balance to society.
An Old, Old Tale is a 1968 Soviet children's fantasy film directed by Nadezhda Kosheverova. It is based on four fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen: "The Tinderbox", "The Travelling Companion", "The Swineherd" and "Blockhead Hans".
Thumbelina is a 1978 Japanese anime fantasy film produced by Toei Animation and Tezuka Productions based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was first shown in Japan on 18 March 1978 in the Toei Manga Matsuri. The film sees "Father of Manga" Ozamu Tezuka as character designer and former Mushi Production's animator Kazuko Nakamura as assistant animation director upon Tezuka's recommendation.
Trandafiru is a Romanian fairy tale collected by Arthur Carl Victor Schott and Albert Schott in the mid-19th century and sourced from Banat.
