How ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Elemental’ Are Surprisingly Similar

(The post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for both films)

There’s been a lot of discussion the last couple of years of how many Disney films feel the same. While it’s easy it’s easy to say it’s because they’re from the the company, for most films it’s probably just a coincidence. I believe this is the case for the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid and Pixar’s Elemental, films made by two separate divisions of the same large company that are also two of my favorite films of this summer. While they are two completely different movies, they share some notable similarities. And while The Little Mermaid is a remake, many of these comparisons are specific to this version.

Water obviously plays a big role in both as one of the characters in each couple is either strongly associated with or is literally composed of water. Water is also prominently featured in the narrative, with the storm that causes the wrecking of Eric’s ship and the flood in Firetown. Storms also play a big role, since a sudden tempest brings Eric and Ariel together for the first time and a dust storm is what brings Bernie and Cinder, Ember’s parents, to Element City.

These are both romantic movies about the forbidden love between two people who theoretically shouldn’t be together - fire and water, and a human and a mermaid. In both cases, the male romantic interest is capable of killing the woman, as water could kill fire and a human killed Ariel’s mother. Both men show the women something they had been denied, with Eric teaching Ariel about the human world and showing her his kingdom while Wade shows the Vivisteria flowers she was denied from viewing as a child. Both couples have an unlikely ally, as Grimsby kicks away the engagement ring and keeps Queen Selina from stopping Eric from going after Ariel after she is revealed to be a mermaid, and Cinder defends Ember’s relationship with Wade as true love once she realizes the truth. The mothers acknowledge that their children’s love is real, when Queen Selina admits she was wrong and Cinder’s love testing shows the truth. Both films have moments where the couples dance, with Eric and Ariel in town and Ember and Wade after they touch for the first time. Intimacy is central to both stories, as a kiss from Eric will make Ariel permanently human while Ember and Wade wonder if they can even can even risk touching each other without killing them both. Both couples also don’t get a chance to kiss until after the stories’ climax.

Both films feature a romantic moment set-up that’s immediately thwarted. For The Little Mermaid, this is where Ariel and Eric almost kiss, only for their ship to be overturned by Ursula’s eels. For Elemental, it’s Ember remembering her responsibility to her family that thwarts any progression in her relationship with Wade. Both movies also include a breakup, with the moment just mentioned followed by Ember claiming she doesn’t love Wade at the party, and Ursula disguising herself as Vanessa to bewitch Eric and keep him from Ariel. Both also feature the crashing of a party, with Wade disrupting the celebration where Ember was to take over her father’s store, and Ariel and Scuttle interrupting Eric’s engagement party to Vanessa. During the climax, both men run into danger to help the protagonists, only for it to seem that each couple won’t be able to be together, with Ariel a mermaid again and Wade supposedly dead when he evaporates.

While both projects play with the theme of daughters wanting a different life from what is planned for them, they each play out very differently. Ariel wants to learn more about humans from the very beginning of the story, but Ember doesn’t start to question what she wants out of her life until after she meets Wade. Ariel also tries to communicate with her father, but he won’t listen, whereas when Ember realizes she doesn’t want to run her father’s store, she feels she can’t tell him the truth and doesn’t until the end. Both fathers notice a change in them as the women start to fall in love, but in both cases, they don’t know why, though Triton accurately suspects that it’s love. Ironically, while both women still have their fathers and their relationships with them are central to their stories, both of the male love interests no longer have their fathers and had some sort of unspecified tense relationship with them while they were alive, which Wade describes and is implied with Eric, as he doesn’t want to be the same type of ruler as him. Both films also include a moment of the woman showing her dedication to her family by pursuing an important family object, then presenting it to their father, as Ember tries to save the Blue Flame while Ariel goes after the trident once she knows Eric won’t drown.

Perhaps the strongest similarity between these two films is in their endings. In both, the couple’s union leads to further change among their communities, as more couplings from different elements occur and humans and mermaids now co-exist. The last moments also show the daughters and fathers reconciling right before the new couple leaves on a boat, off to start a new life and adventure that is different than what was expected of them initially. While embracing similar themes, they are distinct, each successful in their own right.