Thread:Hey1234/@comment-1672596-20160212003505/@comment-1672596-20160212010633

Hey1234 wrote: So I just watched it, and there is absolutely nothing that suggests that wave splashed because Ariel had control over water. You equated such an ability to be similar to that of Elsa's ice powers, but if that were the case, don't you think such an ability would have been used in various situations instead of during song numbers as a spectacle effect?

I'm sorry, but no. There's noting substantial that suggests Ariel has any control over water. The other abilities mentioned have some substance to them, but the examples used for this one were from musical numbers and occurred solely for the use of spectacle during said numbers. Except the problem is, there was nothing spectacly about Part of Your World or its reprise in this film (heck, even Here on the Land and the Sea in the sequel). See, with stuff like Belle/Little Town, Be Our Guest or I Just Can't Wait to Be King, there actually WAS spectacle, since it was mostly an acid sequence with erratic elements laced throughout (like the randomly behaving characters and warping objects in the former two [heck, the first one even had everyone resuming business the split second Belle did a double take as if nothing happened], and the erratically shifting scenes, surreal background, and randomly colored and designed animals, heck, the fact that after the song ended we only see a black rhinoceros and antelope in a realistic landscape compared to the surreal elements in the song even), with the former doing reality warping elements at times and the latter is even strongly implied, at least in the original film, to all be in Simba's head. Nothing in The Little Mermaid, though. In fact, if anything, most if not all of the musical numbers in that film was reasonably calm and realistic, so there would have been zero point for spectacle in that case. If anything, the closest we've got to actual spectacle in ANY of the musical numbers in terms of utter randomness was with Under the Sea, and even THAT really wasn't totally random anyways since even at the very end with the start of actual speaking segments severed from the singing elements entirely, it still had the same exact environment as before.

Besides, we've got plenty of instances of Ursula demonstrating her powers in Poor Unfortunate Souls, even in the reprise (the one with Vanessa, not the second half of the first song during the deal), and I really doubt you would dismiss her stuff as spectacle. I'd understand and even agree with you if I were trying to, say, claim Gaston or Lumiere all of a sudden had teleportation powers thanks to Gaston or Be Our Guest, or if Timon were able to somehow do the Hula/Charleston in a split second, since let's face it, that actually WAS just pure spectacle (indicated by the utter chaos and randomness of the songs and especially the scenes and characters actions), and in the case of the last one wasn't even scripted, but The Little Mermaid? They really didn't have much spectacle in those musical numbers (certainly not within Part of Your World, either the first rendition or the reprise), and if anything, this was one of the few Disney Renaissance films that had its soundtrack actually BE in continuity with the film WITHOUT being random at all. I'd know spectacle, because I often ended up getting a bit irritated at the seeming randomness by several of the musical numbers and at times even stating things they really shouldn't for no particular reason, often breaking into song and dance for no real reason at all, all for the sake of spectacle, and The Little Mermaid DEFINITELY wasn't spectacle at all (probably the closest it actually got to spectacle was Under the Sea as aforementioned).

I also was going to cite the ending of Evil Manta in the TV series, where Ariel's singing voice actually managed to cause a maelstrom that banished Evil Manta away from Atlantica. And since that was obviously underwater, you can't dismiss that either.