The Little Mermaid, 1989

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Movie Poster for The Little Mermaid

Based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Little Mermaid created a whole new generation of Disney animated film enthusiasts. The songs were composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman. Ashman contributed several changes to the original concept by changing Clarence, the English-butler crab character, to a Jamaican Rastafarian crab, Sebastian. The musical score was also revised to reflect this character change. The Little Mermaid won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. One of the original inspirations for the distinctive design was a series of pastels created by Kay Nielson for the “Night On Bald Mountain” animation sequence in Fantasia, found in the Disney archives.

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