The Little Mermaid

The little mermaid, one of the daughters of the sea king, seeing the prince on the deck of a luxurious ship, falls in love with him. But during a storm, the ship crashes against a rock. The little mermaid saves her lover from death. The little mermaid rescues a prince from drowning and falls in love with him. To be with him, she makes a deal with the evil sorceress: her beautiful voice against a life on land. It seems to work at first, the prince is enchanted with her lovely appearance. But the memory of a foreign princess still haunts him: The one who found him on the beach where the mermaid had left him, and whom he (of course) believes to be his saviour. To resolve this mistake is too much for the mute little mermaid, and not even her father, king of all seas, can help her in the impending catastrophe. —Wilhelm Noeker <wnoeker@t-online.de> Deep down at the bottom of the sea, the Sea King lives with his daughters. His youngest is fascinated by the human world. She loves to listen to her grandmother's stories about life on land and curiously explores sunken earthly goods. On her birthday, the little mermaid unwittingly attracts a prince on his ship with her beguiling song. The king of the sea wants to give her the proud ship as a present, unleashes a storm and capsizes it. At the last moment, the mermaid saves the prince's life and brings him ashore. Back in the sea kingdom, her longing to live on earth grows. The little mermaid has fallen hopelessly in love with the earthly prince. And so she makes a momentous decision: she seeks out the sea witch so that she can be with her beloved - whatever the cost. —ARD