Mermaids in popular culture

Mermaids are regularly depicted in literature, film and music, like many creatures of mythology and folklore.

Literature

Perhaps one of the best known works featuring mermaids is Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale The Little Mermaid (1836), which has been translated into many languages. Andersen's portrayal, immortalized with a famous bronze sculpture in Copenhagen harbour, has arguably become the standard and has influenced most modern Western depictions of mermaids since it was published. The story has been retold in other films and television programs, and regularly features in collections of fairytales. It has been adapted into various media, the most famous of which is the 1989 Disney movie of the same name.

• The Sea Fairies - L. Frank Baum (creator of Oz) wrote a novel about merfolk, The Sea Fairies (1911). Later, in The Scarecrow of Oz (1915), the same characters are rescued from danger by the mermaids.
• Wet Magic - In E. Nesbit's Wet Magic (1913), four children hear that a mermaid has been captured by a circus, and rescue her. Their reward is to visit the hidden kingdom of the mermaids.
• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T. S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), uses the metaphor of mermaids to emphasis Prufock's plight: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me.
• The Goblin Tower - One of the stories embedded in L. Sprague de Camp's The Goblin Tower (1968), as being told by the book's story-telling protagonist Jorian, is about a human king who fell in love with a mermaid. The story tells with hilarious detail of the couple's difficult efforts to physically consummate their love, which nearly ends in disaster (he nearly drowns in trying to have sex underwater, and she is nearly killed by his bodyguards in revenge). In the end, the king marries a human woman, though keeping a platonic friendship with the mermaid.
• The Merman's Children - Mermaids appear in Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children (1979).
• Harry Potter - In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001), J. K. Rowling writes of magical creatures in the Harry Potter world, including mermaids. They are described as in three different species: sirens, selkies and merrows. Similar to other humanoid magical creatures in this universe, they do not wield or understand magic themselves.
• Aquamarine - Aquamarine (2001), a novel by Alice Hoffman, is about two 13 year old girls who discover a sassy teenage mermaid. The novel was popular among teen and preteen girls. The novel was made into a film released in 2006 by Twentieth Century Fox and starred Sara Paxton, Emma Roberts and JoJo.
• Sereia de Curitiba - Rhys Hughes, in the connected stories that form A Sereia de Curitiba (2007), relates the adventures of a mermaid in a variety of locations, including Brazil, Madeira, Wales; and also on the moon, where she meets a species of mermaid with the heads of fish and lower bodies of humans who surf the dry lunar seas on motorised skateboards.

Stage

• Peter Pan - Mermaids appear in the Peter Pan play (1904), in which they try to drown Wendy, and in adaptations of it (such as the film Hook).
• The Little Mermaid - The Broadway adaptation of the Disney film.

Comic books

• Superman - The comic book superhero Superman had a romantic love interest with a mermaid named Lori Lemaris. Her first appearance was in 1959. The name Lori Lemaris was probably drawn from Lorelei rock in the Rhine added to maris, from the Latin mare, meaning ocean. One may also note that she has the initials L.L., the same as several of Superman's other love interests including Lois Lane and Lana Lang.
• Arabelle the last mermaid by Jean Ache appeared as a comic strip in the daily French newspaper France-Soir between 1950 and 1962. The character returned in various magazines until 1972. Arabelle is discovered by an American plastic surgeon on a Mediterranean island. The surgeon gives her human legs, but she retains her ability to breathe underwater. With her companion, a reformed burglar, Arabelle becomes involved in a series of light, romantic adventures. [1]
• One Piece - In the manga and cartoon series, "One Piece", there are many mermaids. The most notable two, as of current, are Kokoro and Keimi.
• Mermaid Saga - a manga series by Rumiko Takahashi, which tells that when a person eats the flesh of a mermaid, they can gain immortality, but chances are that the mermaid's flesh will either kill them or transform them into horrible creatures called Lost Souls. There are two types of mermaids shown in the manga. The first may gain human appearance when they eat the flesh of an immortal girl, the second have two legs which need to feed on the flesh of mermaids who live in water, specifically when they are about to give birth. Besides the flesh, a mermaid's blood, ashes, and liver have shown having different effects on humans. Mermaid's blood can stop a person's youth, but it can't stop their insides form aging. Ashes can give flowers immortality, but can only temporarily revive dead humans. A mermaid's liver was used to revive a dead girl, but gave her a need to feed on the livers of living things.

Video games

In the Densetsu no Stafy game series by Nintendo, a character ironically named Mermaid is used to save the game. Whenever Stafy bumps the shell she lives in, the game will auto-save.

Film

• Neptune's Daughter - This 1914 film, starring Annette Kellerman, was the first feature film about mermaids. Kellerman played mermaids in several films of the silent era including "Siren of the Sea" (1911), A Daughter of the Gods (1916) and "Queen of the Sea" (1918). The 1952 film "Million Dollar Mermaid" is based on the life of Kellerman.
• Miranda - Starred Glynis Johns
• Mad About Men - 1954 sequel to Miranda
• Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid - 1948 film starring Ann Blyth
• The Mermaids of Tiburon - 1962 film starring Diane Webber, George Rowe, and Timothy Carey.
• Beach Blanket Bingo - This 1965 film is a beach movie starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and includes a sub-plot of the character Bonehead (Jody McCrea), falling for a mermaid portrayed by Lost in Space's Marta Kristen.
• Head - A 1968 film starring The Monkees briefly featured two mermaids in the opening "Porpoise Song" sequence, surrounded by psychedelic effects.
• Local Hero - A 1984 film; marine researcher Marina (Jenny Seagrove) is suspected by her love interest of being a mermaid.
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - In the 2005 adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, mermaids appear briefly at the end of the story.
• Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä - On Finnish Pekka Puupää comedy film Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä (Pekka and Pätkä as Frogmen, 1954) the heroes rescue a foundered mermaid and carry her to Pekka's apartment. They set her on the bathtub. Pekka's wife Justiina initially sees only her fish-tail and is initially surprised of "a big fish the menfolks have caught" and gets a knife to prepare her as a dinner, but she faints as she sees her upper body.
• Splash - In this 1984 film, starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, Hannah played a mermaid who fell in love with a man. She could walk on dry land as a human female, but whenever water touched her legs they changed into a fish-tail. Much of the movie revolves around her humorous attempts to conceal her true identity from her lover. A made-for-television sequel, Splash, Too followed in 1988. It starred Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring.
• The Little Mermaid - A movie produced by Walt Disney Studios, portrays a variant of the story by Hans Christian Andersen about the mermaid that wished for legs. This film was followed by a prequel TV series, a direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea featuring the title character's daughter and a DTV prequel movie in 2007.
• Magic Island - This 1995 film featured a character named Lily, a young mermaid who befriends a group of buccaneers (and Zachary Ty Bryan) and joins them on their quest for Blackbeard's treasure.
• She Creature - A 2001 film that featured a villainous mermaid who seemed to have a taste for human flesh and lesbian tendencies.
• Talk Dirty To Me - The third and fourth films in this adult film series featured a mermaid who came ashore to find a man. Just like in the movie Splash, the mermaid could walk on dry land, and her legs would become a fishtail in water. In Talk Dirty To Me Part III, the mermaid was played by the 16-year-old (and therefore underage under US law) Traci Lords. This version of the film was pulled from shelves once Lords' true age became public and replaced with an edited version, which subbed in scenes reshot with Lisa DeLeeuw in the mermaid role. The edited version is called The New Talk Dirty To Me Part III and is the only version of the movie currently available. In the fourth film, Taija Rae played a mermaid in a costume that was far inferior to those of the previous film. In TDTM III, the mermaid costumes were fair representations of mermaid's tails; they were skintight and reached as high as the actresses' waists. Rae's mermaid costume in TDTM IV was quite bulky, covered her breasts, and appeared to be fashioned from leaves, plastic daisies, and foam rubber scales.
• Mermaids - Erika Heynatz, Nikita Ager and Sarah Laine are a trio of mermaids who solve their father's murder.
• Mermaid in the Manhole a tokyo based shocked film centered around a decaying mermaid found living in the tokyo sewer system. This is a very gruesome film in that it focuses on the mermaids decay and subsequent death from exposure to toxic enviroment of the sewer
• the Barbie doll franchise has a direct-to-video movie in its Fairytopia series called "Mermaidia," about a fairy that is briefly a mermaid.

Music

Mermaids have long been associated with music, and much like that of Orpheus, the power of their singing voices is said to have had the ability to enthrall. Along with their legendary vanity, the hair-combing and mirrors, the association of mermaids with music is coupled with another association of a vocal nature: they are said to be able to confer verbal eloquence, much like the Muses of the ancient Greek myths.

• In the 18th century sea shanty, "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light", the singer's father is a lighthouse keeper and his mother is a mermaid.
• Alexander von Zemlinsky's symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), first performed in 1905 but then forgotten until its second performance in 1984, is based on Andersen's detailed fairy story. Zemlinsky briefly explained its plan to Arnold Schoenberg; a more detailed matching of story and music is provided by its second conductor, Peter Gülke.
• Finnish musician J. Karjalainen has made a song Merenneito ja minä (Mermaid and Me), where he describes a wonderful tour in the underwater kingdom with a mermaid with whom he had fallen in love. In the song he was able to breathe under water due the magic medicine the mermaid gave him.
• Another Finnish song, Koskenlaskijan morsiamet (Brides of Log Driver) is about a mermaid, who falls in love with a skillful log driver. Unfortunately, he has already been engaged to a human woman. When the mermaid sees her love riding the rapids with his human bride, she in a burst of jealousy raises a rock off the river bed, drowning them both. Seeing them drown and die, she immediately regrets her deed, and in the end of the song she is left weeping alone on the rock.
• Joanna Newsom's song Colleen tells the story of a girl from the sea who adapts to life on the land, but is plagued by dreams and memories of her past. The song is told from the perspective of the girl, and it is left open to interpretation whether or not she eventually returns.
• The Death Metal Virtual Band Dethklok have a song called Murmaider, which is about mermaid murder. In the second episode of the animated series Metalocalypse the band stated that fish had "no good metals to listens to" so they recorded an album called The DethWater Album. Murmaider appeared as the first track of the band's real life album The Dethalbum.

Television

• The Australian television series, H2O: Just Add Water (2006), involves three teenage girls who, after encountering a mysterious island grotto, transform into mermaids whenever water touches any part of their bodies.
• In the television series Baywatch (1989-2001), Marliece Andrada played a mermaid in the episode Rendezvous .
• In the Japanese tokusatsu television sub-genre Super Sentai (and its Americanized counterpart Power Rangers), there are a few mermaid based elements:
  • Dengeki Sentai Changeman (1985)- the design theme for the heroes of which was mythological creatures- Sayaka Nagisa (actress Hiroko Nishimoto) transformed into a white-colored ranger called Change Mermaid. Some of her attacks were based on underwater movement.
  • A mermaid appears in the short Hikari Sentai Maskman movie (1987).
  • Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue (2000)- Blue Ranger Chad Lee befriends and falls in love with a mermaid named Marina (actress Kamera Walton). She appears in only two episodes, Ocean Blue and Neptune's Daughter; the second time forced to lure the Lightspeed Rangers into a trap. (No mermaid appeared in the previous original 1999 Japanese series, Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V.)
  • Mahou Sentai MagiRanger (2005)- Urara Ozu (actress Asami Kai) harnessed the power of the water Heavenly Saint Splagel, who is a mermaid; thus, Urara's MagiMajin form is MagiMermaid (whose legs can merge together to allow her to swim underwater). However, when she upgrades half way through the series into her Legend form, her body joins with her two older brothers and younger sister's to form the Legendary Majuu MagiLion. Then in Power Rangers: Mystic Force which aired the following year, Madison Rocca (actress Melanie Vallejo) is the Blue Mystic Force Ranger. She draws her powers from an ancient titan who was shaped as a mermaid. Since the giant monster battle footage from PRMystic Force is taken directly from MagiRanger, Madison's giant Mystic Mermaid form mirrors that of Urara's MagiMermaid.
    • Madison's name is no doubt an intentional pun and tip of the hat since that was the name of the popular and famous mermaid character played by Daryl Hannah in the 1984 film Splash.
• In an episode of Charmed (1998-2006), a mermaid enlists the help of main character Phoebe Halliwell (actress Alyssa Milano) against a sea witch and in wooing the mermaid's true love. Phoebe turns into a mermaid later and is only turned back into a human after Cole convinced her humanity is better. In this version, mermaids were immortal, had a physical need to be by water, and most did not love.