There's been this whole history of condemning disney fairy tales because they're not realistic. But it turned out it really wasn't any of those things that was going on. Kids prefer fairy tale twists to poetic justice. They prefer adamandtina to cinderella. Now why does this matter to our discussion of the little mermaid film? Because the little mermaid is poetic justice on steroids. Good things happen not just to good people, but to rich and powerful and beautiful people. And badThings happen not just to bad people, but ugly bad people.