I Saw The Little Mermaid So You Don't Have To

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I saw my future-self once.

At the time, I was living in Mountain View where I would spend almost every Sunday night at the Century Cinema watching whatever was new that week. One Sunday I ended up going to the 9:00 pm screening of The Conjuring and that’s when I saw her. An 80 year old woman wearing sunglasses and wrapped in a blanket she brought with her sipping on a 44oz soda. I saw her and in that moment I saw myself 60 years from then - hunkering down in comfort ready to happily scare myself.

What I’m trying to say is, I saw the future me, because that woman is my people - people who would go see The Conjuring on a Sunday night and watch a family get possessed for 90 minutes straight.

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All movies have their people.

Part of the fun of being in the theatre is to find the demographic screening and see the movie for the true fans. I’ve had the luxury of being with a movies true audience a handful of times:

Twilight (2008); Friday night 7:00 pm screening

The audience: Mainly preteen girls who either A) identify a little too closely to the Bella Swan character of misunderstood girl who is secretly incredible, B) horny of vampires, C) both

It was peak early aughts fandom to hear the collective scream from a hundred teen girls when Robert Pattinson exits his Volvo, arm around Kristen Stewart.

Black Panther (2009): First Thursday night showing at the Oakland Bay Street Theatre

The audience: Possibly every black person within a 5 mile radius of Emeryville

In the first five minutes when the screen goes black with “Oakland 1990” for the backstore section of the movie, I have never heard a louder applause. Bay Area pride in full force from minute one through Sza’s credit song.

Baraka (1992): 70mm on a Saturday at 4:00 pm in 2012

The audience: Movie nerds in different buckets of: over 60, in film school, or 70mm purists

Less of a movie experience and more like a collective meditation - the entire theatres’ breaths synching to the Balinese Kecak chants

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And now I’m continuing the list by seeing the first screening of The Little Mermaid at 6:00pm at Alamo Drafthouse. While Drafthouse is notorious for not allowing talking/disruptions of any kind, for kids movies they have a caveat at checkout that highlights there may be disruptions because well… kids are kids. And what a caveat it was for the live action remake of everyone’s favorite red-headed mermaid.

The make-up of the theatre was probably 50% children under 6, 25% their parents, 24% Disney adults, 1% me and other randos. I ended up sitting next to a 5 year old (3? 10? Idk I’m terrible at kid ages) and her mom and grandma. Immediately this girl had some THOUGHTS. And you know what? She was right about all of them. Below are the commentaries of the true Little Mermaid audience:

Her thoughts: For the first twenty minutes she kept asking when the hair flip was going to happen.

My thoughts: I agree - we all are waiting for the money shot - we don’t need new exposition

Her: The first time flounder came on screen she cried.

Me: Same girl. What in the Disney live action is wrong with his face?

Her: Any time Prince Eric was on screen she would scream “I want the mermaid!”

Me: 100% aligned. Mermaid > Men

Her: Loved Ursula

Me: Everyone in the theatre loved Melissa McCarthy’s take - a true delight

Her: Took a potty break during the last 30 minutes

Me: I would recommend taking a break during the castle scenes instead, but girl is right - the last half was dragggging

I wouldn’t consider myself a Little Mermaid fan. Or even a Disney fan. But there is certain joy in a collective experience with people who really care.

There were likely competing aspect of the movie that rang true for each viewer in the theatre. The opportunity to see a live-action black Disney princess. The joy of reliving nostalgic songs. Seeing Javier Bardem as a mermaid for all of the Bardemheads in the audience. Regardless of motive, it created a collective experience of becoming the audience for this movie.

I ended up leaving the theatre behind the girl and she morphed into the sea of other costumed little mermaids singing ‘Part of Your World.’ Even if that little girl doesn’t know it yet, she found her people.

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