The Little Mermaid
A joyful, hand-drawn Disney musical full of catchy songs and lovable characters that launched a golden era for the studio. It does have a genuinely scary villain and a few intense action sequences that can catch younger or more sensitive children off guard.
Most children enjoy this comfortably from around age 5, though very sensitive or younger children may need a lap to sit on during the Ursula scenes.
If you’d rather skip
Ariel and Flounder explore a sunken shipwreck and are chased by a large, snapping great white shark through tight corridors.
Ursula's cave is dark and writhing with shrunken merpeople she has imprisoned; the atmosphere is deliberately unsettling.
Ghostly hands reach into Ariel's mouth to steal her voice, then her tail is split into legs in a rapidly cut sequence that some children find disturbing.