By Erkeda Derouen, Image: screenshot from article, KevinMD.com, June 25, 2023
The Little Mermaid remake was recently released, and I was excited to experience the film for a few reasons. First, it was my favorite animated Disney film of all time. It came out when I was three years old, and I watched the VHS tape until it didn’t work anymore. Yes, I’m dating myself. Second, there were updated lyrics and a Black Ariel. Although it was strangely controversial that Ariel would now be Black, I mean, do mythical creatures’ races really matter? I was probably a little more excited than I should have been about seeing this adaptation because representation matters. I went in ready to strongly criticize the film as much as the Iron Chef would critique a bland lobster dish, but left without anything but praise. It was breathtakingly well done!
Little did I know that this experience would ignite a deep dive into the history of the film, leading me to learn more about the film’s lyricist, Howard Ashman. Ashman was one of the main figures responsible for the Disney Renaissance that pulled the company up from a slew of theatrical failures into the musical hit-making machine of the late ’80s and early ’90s. He was the one who, per Disney, “gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul.” However, what most people didn’t know was that he was fighting a battle he would not win, having been diagnosed with HIV during the early phase of the AIDS epidemic.
Watching his documentary, I discovered that Ashman expressed his fear of getting tested after noticing symptoms, fearing the loss of his insurance and the stigma in the community. At that time, there wasn’t sufficient treatment or education available for the disease, making it essentially a death sentence. Despite this, he poured all of his energy into leaving a legacy through the music he created for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. He even wrote Prince Ali from his hospital bed, where he would eventually pass away from complications of AIDS.
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