The Little Mermaid (2023)
Watch and you'll see, some day I'll be, part of your world!
The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. With mermaids forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.
In The Little Mermaid, consciousness is carried by monsters and creatures — a plane of “underwater kingdom”. The story fights on E8/E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing prejudice, identity, love, authority.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Also hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Splash (1984)consciousness in monsters · mermaid city
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)consciousness in monsters · immortal love triangle
Monsters vs Aliens (2009)consciousness in monsters · monster containment world
The Boxtrolls (2014)consciousness in monsters · box‑troll undercity
Nimona (2023)consciousness in monsters · shapeshifter kingdom
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)consciousness in monsters · mermaid kingdomSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
The Little Mermaid (1989)consciousness in animals · authority, identity
Shrek Forever After (2010)consciousness in animals · authority, identity
Young Frankenstein (1974)consciousness in the dead · identity, love
Elemental (2023)consciousness carried elsewhere · identity, love
Secret of the Wings (2012)consciousness carried elsewhere · identity, love
Lilo & Stitch (2025)consciousness in aliens · authority, identity
