Part of Your World

Part of Your World
lyrics by Howard Ashman
music by Alan Menken

Wandering free
Wish I could be
Part of that world
- Ariel, in The Little Mermaid

The year 1989 was an annus mirabilis for many reasons. First, the Berlin Wall came down. But even more relevant to today’s post (if you’ll pardon the comparison), the movie musical, about to go the way of the buggy whip and the LP record, was saved. Beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989, the Disney people began to produce one hit musical after another. They were brimming with technical, musical, and literary excellence – and these were animated features. As these movies began to pave the way for new, critically acclaimed live-action musicals (Chicago, Moulin Rouge!), so Disney took their animated features and turned them into hit Broadway productions which, one could argue, helped to save the Broadway musical, as well. And, sure enough, The Little Mermaid – the first of the new era of Disney animated musicals, the one that brought the genre back to life – is now the latest to be brought to the stage; following in the hugely popular footsteps of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mary Poppins. I can’t wait to see how they have staged the underwater scenes: will they fly, will they dance, will they swim?

Our song today comes from The Little Mermaid, from which today’s composer and lyricist took home Academy Awards for Best Score and for Best Song (for another hit, Under the Sea). Ariel, our heroine, is King Triton’s daughter, a mermaid who dreams of more. When ships wreck, or items are lost overboard, they drift down “fathoms below” and she collects them. Ariel is fascinated by this “world up above” and has amassed quite a storehouse in an underwater cavern – lampstands, books, trinkets of all kinds. She reads the books but doesn’t understand many of the foreign terms (like “street” and “burn”). She even swims to the surface occasionally and chats with her friend Scuttle, a seagull, who, even when he doesn’t know the use for a particular object, makes up something anyway, often to comic effect. It made me think of all the times blessings have drifted down to us on Earth, whether in the form of inventions or in relationships or in words of Scripture, and we are “seeing through a glass darkly,” unable to quite grasp the whole picture.

Look at this stuff
Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you think I'm the girl
The girl who has everything?
Look at this trove
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Looking around here you'd think
Sure, she's got everything

I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty
I've got whozits and whatzits galore
(You want thingamabobs?
I got twenty)
But who cares?
No big deal
I want more

When The Little Mermaid was released to universal acclaim, people thought it was a revolutionary way to do an animated feature. In reality, it was a hearkening back to the old-fashioned musicals (with real and animated characters) that have always been so successful: from Gilbert & Sullivan, to Snow White to Oklahoma! to Ashman and Menken’s previous collaboration, Little Shop of Horrors. I saw an interview with composer Alan Menken where he explained how they came up with Ariel’s first number. He said that every musical needs a song, pretty much right after the big, splashy (no pun intended) opening number where the protagonist comes out by themselves and tells the audience what’s on their heart. And from that moment on, the audience is rooting for them. So, Ariel takes center stage and captures our hearts:

I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see
Wanna see 'em dancin'
Walkin' around on those
(Whad'ya call 'em?) oh – “feet”
Flippin' your fins you don't get too far
Legs are required for jumping, dancing
Strolling along down a
(What's that word again?) “street”

Up where they walk
Up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wandering free
Wish I could be
Part of that world

I remember thinking, when The Little Mermaid came out and the inevitable raising of Ariel into the Disney character pantheon occurred (with all the autograph signings and character breakfasts that would follow at the theme parks): wouldn’t it be nice if Ariel could be played by a young woman who couldn’t use her legs? She could be all decked out, fins and all, and seated on a motorized coral or rocky throne and could be an inspiration for kids like her. Maybe that happened. I think I need to go back to Disney World and check it out – strictly for research purposes, you understand!

Anyway, back to the story. One day, Ariel rescues a young man from drowning. She instantly falls in love, but knows that they are worlds (or rather, oceans) apart. As she deposits him safely on shore, she sings to him. What she doesn’t know is that she has rescued the crown Prince Erik and that, as he is coming to and hearing Ariel’s singing, he has fallen in love with her, too.

What would I give
If I could live
Out of these waters?
What would I pay
To spend a day
Warm on the sand?
Betcha on land
They understand
Bet they don't reprimand their daughters
Bright young women
Sick of swimmin'
Ready to stand

Well, Ariel makes a deal with Ursula, the Sea Witch (Note to self: never a good idea – all these Faustian bargains always end badly). Ariel will have three days on land, as a human. If she can get Prince Erik to fall in love with her (as evidenced by a kiss) before sundown on the third day, Ariel can remain forever human. If not, she will be the Sea Witch’s property forever. There’s also one small hitch: Ursula is holding Ariel’s voice as collateral, so she will not be able to sing her beautiful songs to the Prince. Of course, like Peter after his brave declaration to Jesus that “everyone else may abandon you, but I never will”, poor Ariel has no idea what she is up against. The Sea Witch doesn’t play fair (imagine that) and it takes Ariel’s father, King Triton, agreeing to take Ariel’s place in a selfless act of propitiation (this, also, should sound familiar – from Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which, in turn, comes right out of the Gospels) to win Ariel’s freedom.

And ready to know what the people know
Ask 'em my questions
And get some answers
What's a fire and why does it
(What's the word?) “burn?”

Of course, the Sea Witch is eventually killed and all the “poor, unfortunate souls” who have been held captive in Ursula’s underwater lair are released and restored to their former selves. Triton, retaking his rightful place as King of the Sea, consents to a Royal Wedding for Ariel and Erik, and merfolk and humans live happily ever after.

When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love
Love to explore that shore above?
Out of the sea
Wish I could be
Part of that world.

It got me thinking, that in our world, the travel between worlds was first the other way. Jesus, “for us and for our salvation, came down from Heaven”, as we say in the Creeds: He came to be part of our world. There’s that beautiful poem in Philippians 2:5-11:

In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

One more thing, if you’ll permit me: the Disney animators get buoyancy and gravity better than anybody. There’s a discussion in one scene in The Matrix (not a Disney movie) where Morpheus is explaining to Neo the various rules written into the programs of the Construct. He tells him that there are physical laws that must be obeyed, but that they can be bent a little. Well, that’s a page straight out of the Disney playbook. Watch Peter Pan sometime and see how perfectly Peter, Wendy and the others fly: it is totally believable because it is the perfect intersection of physical laws and imagination. Similarly, the buoyancy of all the characters under the sea is just right in The Little Mermaid. Of course, that’s nothing compared to what we are about to celebrate in the Christian calendar. In Lent, we are preparing for that glorious Resurrection Day of Easter. And (not that He needs me to tell Him this, but) I think the Lord got gravity – and buoyancy – just right.