The 10 best mermaid movies ever, ranked

One other summer season, one other Disney launch. And this time it’s a reimagining of the film that kicked off the Disney Renaissance, The Little Mermaid.

However the ensuing mermaid craze clearly didn’t come out of a vacuum; legends have been circulating for hundreds of years about merpeople in a single type or one other, whether or not as sexually enchanting sirens luring sailors to their deaths or benevolent beings so fascinated by people they turn out to be the best lovers. They’re very like vampires in the best way that they supply infinite potential to discover the nice line between the human and the alien, they usually may even take it additional by appearing as metaphors for the huge, nonetheless unexplored areas of the ocean and nature itself.

With that in thoughts, here’s a listing of 10 mermaid motion pictures that ought to go down swimmingly.

10. The Little Mermaid (2023)

Picture: Disney

Style: Fantasy household journey
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Rob Marshall
Solid: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina

Give Disney some credit score; it is aware of how you can hold this story enchanting. It could possibly’t cowl for the truth that the brand new Little Mermaid is way too spinoff of an iconic story that’s already been informed, however Halle Bailey is a marvel as Ariel, whose fascination with people leads her to surrender her voice so she will acquire legs and be along with her prince.

The remake additionally provides some new twists by altering up the setting, along with her love curiosity Prince Eric’s (performed by Jonah Hauer-King in full dreamboat mode) kingdom changing into a tropical island paradise relatively than a generic European locale, and Ariel getting to point out off her undersea data. There’s additionally the supporting solid, with Javier Bardem as Triton, Awkwafina because the seagull Scuttle, Daveed Diggs because the crab Sebastian, Melissa McCarthy introducing an entire new era to the tentacled villain Ursula, and a fully scene-stealing Jessica Alexander vamping it up as her human guise Vanessa.

The Little Mermaid is now enjoying in theaters.

9. Aquamarine

Picture: twentieth Century Fox

Style: Fantasy household comedy
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
Solid: JoJo, Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton

Thirsty teen women! The seashore! Greatest good friend oaths! Calling your crush and hanging up! iPod references! There’s a motive this 2006 teen film has turn out to be a cult traditional that has continued to construct a following with Gen Z.

13-year-old besties Hailey (JoJo) and Claire (Emma Roberts) are spending their last summer season collectively on the hormonal smorgasbord that’s the seashore scene of their small Florida city earlier than Hailey is compelled to depart for Australia. They occur upon the titular teenage mermaid Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) by likelihood, shortly studying she’s fled her father’s underwater kingdom, and now has three days to show love exists with a purpose to keep away from the wedding he’s organized for her. As soon as Aquamarine falls for the city heartthrob, good-looking lifeguard Raymond (Jake McDorman), the sport is on.

The feminine gaze is powerful with this one, as director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum lingers over a shirtless Raymond and unabashedly embraces lady tradition in a time that was notoriously disdainful of minor women, particularly in the event that they tended to point out want. However Aquamarine has a surprisingly empowering message, because it encourages its characters to be uniquely themselves and emphasizes the highly effective bond between the trio over conventional romantic love.

Aquamarine is streaming on Disney Plus, and can also be accessible for digital rental or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

8. Mad About Males

Picture: Everett Assortment

Style: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Ralph Thomas
Solid: Glynis Johns, Margaret Rutherford, Donald Sinden

Lengthy earlier than Glynis Johns delighted because the suffragette matriarch in Mary Poppins, she turned beloved because the mischievous mermaid Miranda. Reprising her function from the eponymous 1948 movie (scroll down additional), she returns to land, this time in Cornwall, to swap locations along with her distant, buttoned-up cousin Caroline (additionally performed by Johns) for just a few weeks.

Miranda is as much as lots of the identical tips, hiding her tail through the use of a wheelchair, shamelessly flirting with the assorted males she encounters, and enlisting the enthusiastic assist of eccentric Nurse Carey (a pre-Jane Marple Margaret Rutherford) for the comedic hijinks. This time her schemes have extra of a goal: to improve her cousin’s life by shortly ridding Caroline of her stuffy fiance and catching the attention of the good-looking rich bachelor Jeff (Donald Sinden). And this time, Miranda might even get to sing a musical quantity.

Mad About Males may be discovered on YouTube.

7. The Mermaid

Picture: Sony Photos

Style: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Stephen Chow
Solid: Chao Deng, Yun Lin, Kitty Zhang

Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow provides us a rom-com that’s as offbeat as we’d count on, and in a style that straddles genres. Directly a fluffy rom-com, environmental rallying cry, and motion fantasy, The Mermaid was a smash hit in China, shortly changing into one of many highest-grossing movies of all time within the nation.

After playboy billionaire Liu Xuan (Chao Deng) acquires a coastal wildlife reserve often called the Inexperienced Gulf and makes use of photo voltaic know-how to drive away the marine life with a purpose to reclaim the land for enterprise functions, he unknowingly causes widespread illness and loss of life among the many native merpeople inhabitants. Fed up with the surplus of people, they ship the younger mermaid Shan (Yun Lin) to seduce Liu Xuan, then assassinate him. Problems come up, after all, with the 2 falling for one another and discovering themselves within the crosshairs of much more harmful forces.

Shan has some actually ingenious strategies to move for a human on land, none of which contain wheelchairs, and there are some sidesplitting sequences the place she first makes an attempt to kill Liu Xuan solely to finish up with one thing far weirder than egg on her face. Amusing riot that’s additionally a plea for the wealthy to think about what they’ll be left with if their rampant consumerism is left unchecked, The Mermaid is above all an ode to like and the way it can conquer every kind of odds.

The Mermaid is on the market to look at on Starz and Viki, or accessible for digital rental or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

6. Blue My Thoughts

Picture: Uncork’d Leisure

Style: Fantasy horror
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Lisa Brühlmann
Solid: Luna Wedler, Zoë Pastelle Holthuizen, Regula Grauwiller

Puberty arrives with a roar within the Swiss movie Blue My Thoughts, because the teenage Mia (Luna Wedler) discovers zits is the least of her issues shortly after getting her first interval. Immediately, becoming in with the cool children takes brief shrift to her cravings for saltwater and fish, her toes rising collectively, her stomach button disappearing, and unusual bruising on her legs that finally transforms them right into a tail.

Greater than a metaphor for adolescence, the film additionally touches on the pressures trendy teen women face, with Mia making use of partying, medication, intercourse, and even reducing to deal with her bodily adjustments. Within the absence of any solutions from her mother and father, her saving grace turns into Gianna (Zoë Pastelle Holthuizen), who turns into her good friend, crush, and staunch ally. Good factor, as a result of when a woman grows a tail, she’s gonna want all of the discovered household she will get.

Blue My Thoughts is on the market to stream totally free with a library card on Kanopy, totally free with adverts on Tubi, Vudu, and Freevee, or for digital rental or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

5. A Mermaid in Paris

Picture: Movie Possibility Worldwide

Style: Fantasy romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Mathias Malzieu
Solid: Nicolas Duvauchelle, Marilyn Lima

Any listing of mermaid movies is certain to have at the least one for all of the hopeless romantics on the market, and the French film A Mermaid in Paris greater than matches the invoice, as two leads who’ve closed their hearts off to like discover themselves opening up to one another.

Gaspard (Nicolas Duvauchelle) is mourning the lack of his romantic relationship and his household enterprise closing. Lula (Marilyn Lima) calls herself the final mermaid, and since her mom was killed by people, she’s spent many an evening utilizing her voice to lure males to their deaths. When Gaspard takes Lula again to his condo after he discovers her unconscious and injured, she’s shocked to find he’s resistant to her music, at the least at first. However as the 2 start to fall for one another, it begins to take a bodily toll on Gaspard, with the 2 additionally having to cope with a vengeful hunter whose fiance fell sufferer to Lula.

However the coronary heart of the movie lies in its emphasis on the historical past of creative resistance to fascism, and the redemptive energy of not solely love however creativeness within the face of an isolating trendy world. And apparently Parisians rival New Yorkers of their skill to utterly disregard a mermaid tail once they see it.

A Mermaid in Paris is on the market for digital rental and buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

4. Miranda

Picture: Everett Assortment

Style: Fantasy romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 20m
Director: Ken Annakin
Solid: Glynis Johns, Griffith Jones

Glynis Johns originated the function of the titular Miranda on this 1948 comedic charmer the place the mermaid captures and captivates. Married doctor Dr. Paul Martin (Griffith Jones) finds himself imprisoned by Miranda on a solo fishing journey, however she agrees to launch him if he takes her on a tour of London. Disguising her mermaid tail by passing as a wheelchair consumer and abetted by Nurse Carey, she shortly and thoughtlessly charms the lads she meets, inspiring damaged engagements and delightful work alike.

A lot of the comedy outcomes from the antics of these louses who return to their spouses, with Nurse Carey assuring one of many youthful ladies that desirous to kill your husband is a wonderfully regular a part of marriage. Because it’s all in good farce, the madcap entanglements finish fortunately, and Miranda is all the higher for refusing to study a factor or be humbled typically.

Miranda may be discovered on YouTube.

3. The Lure

Picture: The Criterion Assortment

Style: Fantasy horror
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
Solid: Michalina Olszanska, Marta Mazurek

The mermaid is each a lover and a monster on this Polish movie, which comfortably embraces musical, horror, and fantasy genres in equal measure. When mermaid sisters Golden (Michalina Olszanska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) come to land to carry out in a Warsaw nightclub within the ‘80s, the result’s without delay a contemporary spin on the sweetness and physique horrors of womanhood, the immigrant expertise, and a darkish fairy story that faucets into the tragic coronary heart of the Hans Christian Andersen supply materials.

Whereas Golden largely views people as a supply of meals and enjoyable, Silver is the tragic romantic who falls in love with a human, surgically changing her tail with legs and shedding her voice because of this. A deeply feminist gothic story that additionally finds grim humor in objectification, director Agnieszka Smoczynska makes having — and doing — all of it look straightforward… on-screen, at the least.

The Lure is on the market to stream on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel, or accessible for digital rental and buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu

2. Splash

Picture: Buena Vista Photos/Everett Assortment

Style: Fantasy romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: Ron Howard
Solid: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Sweet

There’s a motive that is the traditional fish-out-of-water story. It’s a uncommon actor who can match nationwide treasure Tom Hanks for attraction, however Daryl Hannah makes it look easy, taking to the function so nicely she made the security crew eat her bubbles as she outswam them.

As Hanks’ workaholic, closed-off Allen and Hannah’s free-spirited mermaid, who takes the title Madison, tour ’80s-era New York Metropolis, their ensuing journey is considered one of director Ron Howard’s sweetest comedic love tales. Nevermind that Hannah’s mermaid can solely be human on land for a mere seven days; Allen and Madison’s connection feels written within the stars and the waves. Plus, there’s supporting gamers John Sweet and Eugene Levy, who give their all.

Splash is streaming on Disney Plus, or accessible for digital rental and buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu

1. The Little Mermaid (1989)

Picture: Walt Disney Animation Studios

Style: Fantasy household journey
Run time: 1h 23m
Administrators: John Musker, Ron Clements
Solid: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Pat Carroll

Ron Howard gave us a beautiful instance of the style, however as soon as Disney launched The Little Mermaid in 1989 and kicked off its renaissance, it gave us what has turn out to be essentially the most iconic and memorable mermaid movie of all time. The response was (and is) so enthusiastic that it’s tough to recall that not everybody was a fan, with critic Pauline Kael calling it “a bland transforming of outdated Disney fairy tales,” questioning whether or not the Home of Mouse was “attempting to place children into some kind of moral-aesthetic protected home.”

Nonetheless, it’s ironic that this considerably problematic, admittedly sanitized fairy story would be the most in contact with the story’s queer roots, with some even likening it to a trans allegory. For this on-screen introduction to the Andersen fairy story of a mermaid giving up her voice for her prince, there was some heavy queer involvement behind the scenes in Princess Ariel (Jodi Benson) and Prince Eric’s (Christopher Daniel Barnes) love story. The film’s villain, Ursula, was famously impressed by drag queen Divine, and there’s additionally the truth that Ariel should cover her pursuits in a form of closet from her illiberal father, Triton (Kenneth Mars).

Radical is probably going the very last thing that involves thoughts for Disney’s interpretation of the traditional fairy story, however all of the deal with how Ariel provides up her voice for a person doesn’t change that Eric was the mere catalyst for Ariel’s resolve to take step one to vary her physique to match who she is aware of she is on the within. And naturally, by the tip, Ariel will get to have her kelp and eat it too.

The Little Mermaid is streaming on Disney Plus, or accessible for digital rental and buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.