Splash

Call Of The Sea 

Seas the day. - Unknown

You may remember The Little Mermaid, a fairy tale written by Christian Andersen in 1836.

It is about a youthful mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the ocean and her status to acquire a human heart and win the love of a human prince.

A fantasy narrative at its finest. The one that started it all. You know, all the naiad and water nymph stories.

And just when you thought all possible plot lines had been explored... 

... Hollywood comes up in 1984 with the movie Splash in a modern retelling.

Except only better.

The movie is a hoot. Rambunctious and funny. A fishy tall tale that has sex and some cursing.

Check out this early scenario. A girl shows up naked at the Statue of Liberty. 

She can, it appears, metamorphose from a mermaid into a human. She has a tail when she's wet, but it turns into legs when she's dry. 

For Allen Bauer, it is love at first sight. 

Now, everyone is chasing her, trying to prove she's a mermaid. 

The film is a perfectly light, warmly hilarious romantic comedy. I was hooked from the first laugh. Imagine Madison (that's what she says her name is), totally ignorant about all the ways of civilization and eating lobsters, shell and all.

You'd have to watch the movie for the ending (or watch it again, if you had forgotten). 

I promise, it will be an aquacade of myth and chuckles, glimmering like moonlit tide.  

Sometimes, life can be overwhale-ming.

Why not make a splash and catch the movie, perhaps at the dive-in?