H2O: Just Add Water (2006-2010) An Australian tv show following several mermaids through their teen years. It has friendship, romance and danger and the girls have to use their powers to solve problems and situations at arise. The show is engaging and has a decent mermaid culture and canon and even when the main cast is mixed up a little after a couple of series, it remains pretty delightful.
The Little Mermaid (1989) Probably the most well known mermaid movie, this Disney classic has been a favourite of mine since childhood. Ariel was the girl who inspired my love of red hair, as well as mermaids. While she spends a lot of the film with legs rather than a tail and no voice, she is still a passionate young girl who loved human culture and tried all she could to hook the man of her dreams. You'll still catch me singing Part of Your World when no one's home. While there is not a huge amount of mermaid culture in the movie, the tv show was much more informative (as far as I remember. I really ought to rewatch it).
Miranda (1948) The oldest film in this complication and the only one in black and white, but this has no effect on the quality. It has a beautiful soundtrack, as one would expect from that era. Miranda the mermaid steals away a man and convinces him to take her on land. She is selfish and beautiful and uses people for her own devices and I love it. An adequate amount of mermaid culture is shown - Miranda talks about her grandmother a little and is show to adore men and seduces several of them. When asked if there are not men underwater she says not particularly and that is what is causing mermaids to nearly go extinct.
Mad About Men (1954) A chance find on Netflix when I just searched for mermaids. I ended up thoroughly enjoying this movie, even though I had not seen Miranda at the time, as this is the sequel. A human women switches place with her mermaid relative (as they are practically twins) and the mermaid kisses lots of men under the guise of a human. I found it very entertaining.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) While this is not a film solely about mermaids and many call it the weakest of the PotC franchise, I do really like the mermaids in this film. We tend to only see the softer side of mermaids in most 'family friendly' movies (see all above) and to be honest, I really loved seeing vicious mermaids with fangs who killed men because they threatened them. I also appreciated the b plot of the mermaid and the missionary's love story.
Splash (1984) The second most well known movie, I remember watching it as a kid and crying when the mermaid is captured and put in a tank and cheering when she was freed. While I like love stories a little less as an adult, it was still a decent movie and very interesting mermaid culture, as Madison does not speak English when she transforms into a human and has her own language.
The main problem with mainstream mermaid culture in all of these films and shows is how white, middle class, blonde and hetrosexual mermaids and their love interests are. H2O has some social economic diversity as one of the main characters is from a very poor background and her friends and love interest are a lot richer. However, these pieces of media seem to want to dictate that mermaids are white, blonde and very conventionally attractive, not to mention exclusively, insufferably heterosexual.
As much as I love mermaids, I care a lot about diversity in media. I can forgive the pre-90s films as I have a fairly decent understanding of Hollywood and just how stubborn it's always been towards poc, lgbt+ and other marginalised groups being represented on screen. This has inspired me to not only take into account mermaid culture from years past and reinvent some of the rules in my radio drama, but to really reel out the diversity. Not to sound pretentious, but someone needs to. There's already been a mermaid art revolution on tumblr with wonderful amounts of poc, lgbt+ and unconventionally attractive mermaids being produced. I want to bring that to radio.
Here's my to watch list:
- Mr Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)
- Mermaids (2003)
- Aquamarine (2006)
- Mako: Island of Secrets (2013-)
I don't think any of them will challenge the criticisms I have for the films I've already seen but I'm a mermaid-aholic. I'll take what I'm given and do my best to impact the future.
Updated 7th August 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment