The Little Mermaid story
A young and beautiful mermaid named Pearl falls in love with a human being who is a human prince named Andrew and sacrifices everything to be with him. Starring Pam Dawber as Pearl, Treat Williams as Prince Andrew, Helen Mirren as Princess Emilia, Karen Black as the Sea Witch, Brian Dennehy as King Neptune, and Laraine Newman and Donna McKechnie as Pearl's sisters. Written by Anne Beatts. Directed by Robert Iscove.
25 total · 3 choice · 10 major · 12 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| impossible love | choice | The story is a classical story of an impossible love as it showed that an ocean dwelling immortal mermaid couldn't possibly make it with a land dwelling mortal human. |
| merpeople | choice | The story follows the journey of the young mermaid Pearl as she leaves the comfortable confines of her underwater kingdom to experience life on the surface with human beings. |
| people should stick to their own kind | choice | A point of the story was somehow that there was no room for merpeople to mingle with humans. |
| choosing between love and family | major | Pearl faced the stark decision of whether to gain legs and peruse her land-lubbing lover but thus leave her sea bound kin behind forever. Also she left mute for her trouble. |
| curiosity killed the cat | major | Things ended tragically for the mermaid Pearl when she followed through on her desire to explore the human world on the surface. |
| engaged couple | major | Prince Andrew and Princess Emilia were becoming acquainted with one another in the lead up to their arranged marriage. |
| father and daughter | major | King Neptune warned his naive daughter Pearl about the dangers of falling in love with human males, but she didn't heed his advice. The story was narrated Pearl's her father. |
| killing to survive | major | In the end, Pearl pointedly refrained from running Prince Andrew through with a dagger while he slept. In choosing not to do so, she knowingly consigned herself to an imminent death. |
| love triangle | major | Pearl and Emilia were both in love with Prince Andrew. |
| romantic jealousy | major | Pearl and Emilia were both envious at each other over Prince Andrew. Pearl was visibly devastated at the sight of Emilia with Pearl's own love interest, Andrew, toward the end of the tale. |