You know, the whole world loves
Hans Christian Andersen,
but the people of
the city of Copenhagen
always loved him best of all.
And their favorite story
was the one about the Little Mermaid.
They loved her so much
that they made a statue of her
that sits in the harbor of their
city right to this day.
When people all over the world think
of Copenhagen,
they think of the Little Mermaid.
Hold on, hold on here.
What is a mermaid?
Something awful, I hope.
Oh, definitely not. Oh.
A mermaid is a beautiful girl.
Well, actually,
she's half a girl and half a fish.
Luckily, her bottom half is the fish part.
The Little Mermaid
lived at the bottom of the sea,
where all mermaids live,
except she was a princess.
More than anything else,
she wanted to see
what the world was like above the sea,
where the strange people
with legs lived.
At last, on her fifteenth birthday,
she got her wish.
She was allowed to swim up,
up to the world of sunlight.
When she reached the top, though,
what should she find but an awful storm,
and a sinking ship,
and a handsome prince
about to drown.
Of course, she saved the prince
swimming to shore with him.
Now it was dark and stormy,
and the prince never
saw what she looked like.
But she saw the prince all right,
and she fell in love with him.
After leaving him safely on the land,
And she swam back down to her sisters,
but she couldn't forget the
handsome prince.
So the little mermaid went to the terrible,
powerful sea witch.
She was very frightened,
but she asked her question.
Can you help me go back up
and win my prince?
The sea witch replied in a fearsome voice,
I will help you,
but it's going to cost you a lot.
But if you drink this magic potion,
your fishtail will disappear
and you will have pretty little human legs.
It will hurt a lot.
But if the prince marries you,
you will become a human being.
If he marries someone else,
you'll die the next day.
And in return for the magic potion,
you must give me your voice."
The mermaid was scared,
but she agreed.
She drank the potion,
swam up to the surface,
and her tail turned into a pair
of beautiful legs.
When the prince found her,
he fell in love with her immediately.
But he didn't know it was she
who saved his life,
and she couldn't tell him.
One day he met a princess
from a neighboring kingdom.
Now this princess had found him
after the mermaid had left him on the shore,
and the prince, when he had awakened,
had thought she had saved his life.
He was so happy to find her again,
he decided to marry her right away.
The world came crashing down
on the little mermaid.
Instead of waiting for the next day,
she threw herself into the ocean.
But when she opened her eyes,
she was high in the sky,
surrounded by beautiful
floating spirits.
They told her they were called the
Daughters of the Air.
The mermaid could see
right through them.
Come with us,
they said in the sweetest voices.
You'll float with us around the world,
doing good deeds,
blowing sweet winds
to make sick people well again.
An d we're always on the lookout
for good children
who make their parents happy.
And you know what, Oscar?
I'll bet the Little Mermaid
is probably floating right around
here, right now.
Well she isn't going to find any good
children
in this trash can.
Uh -oh, it's getting
to be time to say goodbye
to The Little Mermaid,
Hans Christian Andersen,
and Copenhagen.
Weren't those stories wonderful,
Oscar?
Yeah, well,
I did like the part about the mole.
Now scram!