Two good reasons to get The Little Mermaid DVD

[flippyshark]

I didn't buy The Little Mermaid, but my roommate did, so I put it on. I only watched the first ten minutes or so of the movie, and discovered that this is one film I don't need to see again, just yet. (I burned out on it back when it was new.) In spite of that, there are two intriguing extras that cause me to recommend a rental or possible purchase for all you Disnerds.

1- "The Little Match Girl" There is an animated short included on the second disc with little fanfare, but it's quite beautiful. I have no idea when this was made, but it feels like it belongs in a Fantasia sequel. The Hans Christian Anderson story is told without dialogue, set to music by Charles Borodin. It's in gorgeous hand-drawn animation. I was most impressed by the fact that it retained the original ending, something that The Little Mermaid couldn't have gotten away with. Anyhow, this short is well worth having.

2 - Little Mermaid attraction ride-through - There were once plans for an elaborate Mermaid dark ride, which never came to fruition, though it looks like it reached a pretty advanced stage of design. This disc presents a virtual ride-through, complete with load and unload spiels. (It's a suspended vehicle system, like Peter Pan. Would've been pretty cool.) There is also a short documentary with Tony Baxter and other Imagineers talking about the project, and viewers may also ride through with Imagineer commentary, and may simultaneously view design sketches, or get a look at the ride with the "work lights" turned on.

This is a really great way to present rides that never happened, and it would also be a viable format for releasing virtual versions of rides that are no more. I'd love to see a series of Yesterland releases done the in this manner.

Anyhow, I was in geek heaven with both these features.