Disclosure: Disney paid for my flights, lodging, and expenses for this trip and I received a copy of the movie mentioned below but all opinions are 100% my own.
The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 1st but I had the opportunity to preview a copy already to do a review. Most people have know all about The Little Mermaid and have seen it at least once, or if you are like me, MANY times. The Little Mermaid gave a whole generation a voice and taught them to stand up for their dreams and what they really want. So I am not going to tell you about The Little Mermaid movie/story itself. Instead I am going to tell you what is new for the Diamond Edition.
A friend of mine asked me what is different from this version and the original DVD she has so I thought I’d start off by telling you that this new version is the same story/movie as the original but it has now been state-of-the-art digitally restored. This is also the first time that The Little Mermaid is on Blu-Ray disc. When you purchase the Blu-Ray+DVD+Digital Copy Diamond edition of The Little Mermaid you can watch it on smartphones, tablets, tvs, and computers in addition to your Blu-ray/DVD players. This is great so you can really take it wherever you go. As a mom of 2 girls, I love that I can pull out my cellphone or tablet in a doctor’s office waiting room and they can watch one of their favorite movies.
The Diamond Edition of The Little Mermaid has over 3 hours of bonus features including the “Part of Your World” music video starring Carly Rae Jepson, Crab-E-Oke (karaoke) Sing-Along, and lots more! What makes Diamond editions of Disney movies so special is that they take you deeper inside the world of Disney. You get to see behind the scenes and hear stories about how the movie was made by the people who worked on it. As a true Disney fan, I love watching all of these bonus features to learn all about the behind the scenes stories.
I’ll be honest. I was excited to watch the behind the scenes bonus features on The Little Mermaid but I wasn’t sure if my girls were going to be as interested as I was. I thought that they might get bored but they both LOVED watching the bonus features. They loved watching the included clip of never-before-seen deleted character, Harold the Merman. When you watch a movie you don’t really think about all that goes into making the movie, the characters, the story, etc. Learning that stories change, characters get deleted, etc. was very interesting for my girls. I think their other favorite bonus feature was watching the live action videos. In the bonus features they got to see how actors were brought in to act out parts of the movie so the animators would know how to draw those scenes properly. We all thought it was so cool to see the Ariel live action actress act out a scene while watching the actual animated scene that the animators created. The actress even had to get into the water so the animators could see how her hair would flow underwater. It is fascinating that they had many meetings just on how to make Ariel’s hair move while watching the actress inside a tank of water to see how her hair would go. These are things that my girls never thought about before but they realized just how much goes into making the movies they love.
Another one of my favorite bonus features of the diamond edition were the Inside the Animation Studio interviews. It was so fascinating to hear the animators, directors, producers, etc. tell how they got started with Disney and all about how they create amazing Disney movies that we all love. I’ve been blessed to have been on 2 Disney press trips to L.A. now and I’ve had the opportunity to meet several animators, directors, producers, and other important people who take part in creating Disney movies. Watching the Inside the Animation Studio interviews and recognizing people I have met is just an amazing experience. Most of them watched Disney movies as children and dreamed of one day being a Disney animator. Hearing them talk about their childhood dreams really showed my girls that anything is possible.
Of course having recently met and interviewed Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel), I also loved watching the footage of her and her family in the new Fantasyland. We haven’t been to the new Fantasyland yet so my girls were very excited to see what it looks like. Hearing “Ariel” describing the Little Mermaid ride was so cool. I think I see a trip to Disney World in our near future! I laughed when Jodi Benson was in Ariel’s Grotto with her kids taking pics with the girl playing Ariel in the Grotto and she said it was an out of body experience- “Ariel” taking a picture with Ariel.
If you are a Disney fan, you will love these and all the other bonus features on The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition.
The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 1st.
FREE printable Little Mermaid activities:
While you are waiting to get your own copy of the diamond edition of The Little Mermaid, here are some fun clips of the movie and bonus clips for you to watch:
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