The Little Mermaid 4k Blu-Ray Review

February 26, 2019 at 4:40pm
By Jason Stettner

When you look at the top tier classic Disney animated films, The Little Mermaid will always be one of them. It's a tale that always returns, and with the 4k release it has been given a seriously amazing update. The improvements to the color, the contrast, and generally the quality, it looks stunning. This is a beautiful enhancement upon the original release and it's a shocking change in quality over even the Blu-Ray release, which is included in this pack.

The narrative follows Ariel (Jodi Benson), a mermaid that dreams of the world above. She collects various treasures that sink below and after saving a charming man, she gets a chance to live among those very people she fantasized about. There is however a cautionary tale here as a deal is made, with certain consequences that follow. Still, a generally charming time and while the story somewhat goes along I do feel that this is an excellent representation of animated history while being a great musically infused experience. Perfect for the youngest audience, yet enjoyable for all.

The Little Mermaid 4k Special Features

The Little Mermaid 4k Blu-Ray comes with a number of special features. These are available to view on the traditional Blu-Ray disc as opposed to the 4k one. They include the following selections that can be viewed as a bundle or individually. "Alan Menken & The Leading Ladies"; "Sing-Along Mode", "What I want From You.... YOUR VOICE", "Stories from Walt's Office: Gadgets & Gizmos" along with other bonuses such as removed content.

I found some of the historic aspects to be interesting, some of it seemed general however. You got group sessions with a couple different folks that weren't exactly a part of this and the whole Walt Disney office segment was odd. The office could have been more focused on The Little Mermaid as it went wildly off topic at times. The look at the deleted content was fascinating however, the story board segments with some context were appreciated.

The Conclusion

The Little Mermaid 4k Blu-Ray package brings a decent selection of extra special features and one iconic animated film that looks better than ever. I was really blown away by the visual quality of this release and while I was worried about certain additions, they really did make it look amazing. The sound quality was excellent, the musical segments hold strong and it still has that charming story.

The animation work comes across as timeless, with only a bit of exaggeration which I actually thought made it come across as more artistic and unique in comparison to what we have now. This was one remarkable film, that has been improved with modern techniques and it's just a beautifully flawless presentation of the movie. It was beyond expectations quite honestly. I do however feel that extra content could have included more of the history.

The Little Mermaid 4k Blu-Ray Review
Provided by Disney

Rating Overall: 9.0