The Little Mermaid

Year: 1976

Runtime: 84 mins

Language: Czech

Director: Karel Kachyňa

FantasyRomance

A mermaid saves a drowning prince and falls for him. Desperate to live on land, she trades her enchanting voice to an evil sorceress for human legs. The prince, bewitched by her beauty, still believes a mysterious princess rescued him on the beach, sparking a tragic misunderstanding that even the sea‑king cannot avert.

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The Little Mermaid (1976) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of The Little Mermaid (1976), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

On her birthday, the little mermaid, Miroslava Šafránková, daughter of the King of the Seas, longs to glimpse the world above the waves. Her grandmother, Marie Rosůlková, tells her stories of the surface and warns her never to kiss a human.

During the celebration, she sees a prince, Jan J. Vágner, aboard a ship that sinks in a violent storm. She dives to his aid, saving him and carrying him to the shore, where the prince is discovered by a young princess, Libuše Šafránková who believes she was the one who saved him.

A year passes. The little mermaid is willing to forsake her life under the sea and trades her voice for legs with the help of a sea witch, Milena Dvorská. The witch cautions that if the prince were to love another, the mermaid would become sea foam. The transformation is painful, and though the prince accepts her as a friend, his heart remains with the maiden he first met on the shore.

Meanwhile, the King of the Seas, Radovan Lukavský, curses the prince’s kingdom in response to the mermaid’s actions; yet the mermaid’s presence — and her role as a healer and helper to the prince — becomes a bridge between sea and land, and she helps persuade the king to lift the curse, allowing the realm to prosper once more. The prince and the mermaid grow closer in quiet companionship, even as the prince keeps thinking of the maiden from the shore.

Eventually, the court encourages the prince to meet a suitable princess from another realm. He travels with an entourage, the mermaid by his side, and discovers that the princess is the very maiden he saw on the shore. The two fall in love and marry, while the king grants a final test: the mermaid is given a dagger with which she could kill the prince and return to her mermaid form.

Choosing a different path, the mermaid refuses to harm him and, in a selfless act of love, casts herself into the sea. Her family — including her grandmother — and the other mermaids watch in sorrow as dawn breaks, and the next morning the surface glimmers with countless flowers drifting across the waves, a sign of hope for the new life awaiting the prince and his bride.

Last Updated: December 04, 2025 at 15:33

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Tragic Fairytale Romances like The Little Mermaid

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These narratives typically follow a linear path: an encounter sparks an all-consuming, impossible love; the protagonist makes a great sacrifice (often involving their identity or voice) to be with their beloved; a tragic misunderstanding or the weight of their choice leads to a sorrowful, often self-sacrificial, resolution. The journey is more about emotional suffering than external conflict.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern revolves around a transformative choice: to become someone new for a chance at happiness. This transformation is physically or emotionally painful and creates a fundamental barrier to communication (like losing one's voice). The story then explores the quiet agony of being present yet unknown, loved for a facade but not for one's true self, culminating in an ending defined by the consequences of that initial sacrifice.

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