The Little Mermaid

This is the original movie poster - see if you can spot anything unusual about the castle!

The Little Mermaid by Walt Disney Pictures is my first recommendation for Movie To Watch. If you haven't already, this movie is my number one recommendation to see. It's a classic! Not only that but it's animated beautifully, and it's Disney (which unfortunately aren't always synonymous with each other these days!) but it has a wonderful moral and is delightfully charming. Okay, so I am probably way bias due to the fact that it is my all time favorite film since I could ever even remember. The film came out when I was born in 1989, and as far back as I have memories, I remember loving this movie!

This is my most memorable moments of the film.

If you've never seen this movie, here's an overview: (spoiler alert!) It's based of the short story by Hans Christian Andersen (but is quite different from the original) and it follows a young mermaid named Ariel who dreams of having legs and going to the surface. One night she sees a grand ship with festivities and when she gets closer sees it belongs to a prince and his crew. Of course it is love at first sight. However, things go horribly wrong when lightning hits the ship and causes a fiery explosion, causing the prince and all his men to be shipwrecked. Seeing this, she leaps to the prince's rescue. After dragging him safely to shore, she sings about how they will one day be together, all the while the prince is still unconscious. He only barely gets a glimpse of her before she flees out of sight. She vows to herself she will be with her prince again, and when her father upsets her she is tempted to see the evil sea witch Ursula who makes a strikes a bargain of her voice for her legs. The catch is she has to have the prince kiss her within three days or Ariel belongs to her!

The classic Disney musical, complete with singing animals!

I don't want to give away too much more but I will say that it is a musical and has some of Disney's finest lyrical work; I learned most of my higher vocabulary from watching this and other Disney movies! But this movie is for people of all ages to enjoy, it is definitely not just for kids. In fact, there are a lot of adult themes and real world angst that is addressed in the film I didn't understand until I was much older. And I'm always picking up on something else I didn't see before whenever I watch it again. That is why I think everybody should see this movie, and it is my absolute favorite and therefore first pick for Movie To Watch.