While we're on the subject of animated movies, can I just take a moment to declare that Ariel, youngest daughter of Triton, might be the worst sentient creature in the entire universe? Seriously, she doesn't appear to have a single decent characteristic about her.
She is, quite simply, a horrible creature.
She combines every negative stereotype about teenagers imaginable: she whines, she complains, she argues, she pouts. She is a pampered princess, daughter of the undisputed sovereign of Earth's entire ocean system (making him ruler of a territory that is many times more vast than the largest kingdoms in human history), and yet she still finds things to complain about. And whereas most teenagers issue complaints about problems that can, in theory, be solved rather easily (i.e., I never get to use the car, I never get to go to the mall, I never get to bring guns to school), Ariel decides that her big obstacle in life is that she's the wrong species.
Seriously, that's like your normal human teenager watching Curious George reruns and bitching that he's not going to be happy until he becomes a chimpanzee. It's ridiculous on every conceivable level.
But these aren't the worst aspects of her character. After making her deal with Ursula, Ariel heads off to the topside in order to woo Prince Eric, a moronic playboy sleaze who actually falls in love with a woman who can't speak and combs her hair at the dinner table with a fork.
Ariel's best friend is Flounder, a tropical fish. They talk together, swim together, plan together, cry together, share their dreams and hopes with one another - they are best friends. Flounder, like all fish in this universe, is a sentient being, an animal with thoughts and feelings, desires and dreams. He has emotions. He feels pain.
And yet Ariel does nothing to dissuade Eric from murdering and eating these beautiful creatures once she is focused on conning him into kissing her before her three days is up. The fact that Sebastian barely escapes with his life after being chased by a knife-wielding caricature of a French chef (good God, why is it okay to mock French people like this? No wonder they hate Americans...) apparently means nothing to her. At no point does she make any effort to explain to him that fish are... well, that fish are people, too. They are more than just food, they are rational animals, just like humans are.
Is it me, or is this something that she really needs to answer for?
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