Some years before Disney made his glorious movie about the little mermaid, a movie appeared with the same title as Disney´s: "The little mermaid". Of course, Disney´s is better than this one, for few reasons:
Special effects: they´re very lame. When you see Pearl the mermaid swimming under the sea you can imagine perfectly the cord that is holding her in the air as she goes through the "sea". I don´t know, it´s not really believable...
The script: the script is pretty lame, too. There´s little time fr character development and one doesn´t feel anything for them, really.
The actors: Pam Dawber is a pathetic actress, I can´t stand her bashful smiles. I haven´t seen her in any movie but this one, and she really demonstrate she is an awful performer. Helen Mirren does not appear too much, but she is OK (who would say that such a brilliant actress would be in this movie???). Treat Williams is correct.
The settings: they´re very unimaginative and vulgar. You can notice they´re not real.
As a conclusion: a pretty bad movie that, anyway, can be kind of entertaining.
RATING: *