@@nikk-named Well, yes, but not immediately, just as soon as you have the energy. Battling homophobia can be super exhausting. Love the idea other than that, though.(=w=)🏳️🌈
@@Silver_Sonic_23 considering (from personal experience) most people in film school are failed filmmakers no, they know nothing about film nor school. You know the saying "those who can't do, teach"
I haven't seen the movie, but when you put it like that it's kinda hard to not get lesbian/aro vibes from it. Their relationship can very well be interpreted as QPR
@@galaxychill9578 I’ve heard the term “queer platonic” before. One of my favorite writers even wrote her main characters in a QPR. But I feel so dumb because I still don’t really understand what it is. 😅 Like how is it different from a really deep friendship? Why is it queer? /gen
@@the_blind_chick first off I'd like to clerify that I am not aromantic, I know some stuff about the community because I used to identify as aro! Secondly, the way I understood it is that it's like a relationship that bends the rules of what is platonic and what is romantic, it's the grey area that doesn't fit in the social expectations of either forms of relationships. The queer part is that it's not conforming and the quasi part is because it's partially platonic. Again, this is from my understanding and interpretation of it, I'm just an alloromantic bish
In the same way you can put any lyrics to a backwards song and hear the devil in it if you want lmao. You can make anything seem like something if you try hard enough. This video doesnt need to exsist.
excuse me sorry if this sounds offensive but I want to understand what does "Aromantic" mean? I have never heard that term before I would just like to understand since everyone here is using the word
As an aro who grew up with this movie and enjoyed watching it everytime, I always knew there was something about it that felt like me. That was in the character of Aquamarine, and the theme of close friendship/platonic love. I didn't exactly know what it was that made me love this movie cause I was only 8 when I watched this. . but dang when I tell you I related with the performative romance aspects of her character, it all makes sense now. I did that same thing in elementary, I tried to date a kid that my friends deemed attractive, like the besties in this film, and I just went with it in a clumsy way. I remember crying at the ending too when I watched it later as an older teen, very emotional. Oh and the starfish earrings? Those we all wish we had, huh? This video was well constructed, brought me back memories. . great analysis!
as another arospec (didn't see the movie tho lmao) it's very interesting to see another aro-coded character that treats love as a more performative thing, wanting to feel it but not being able to
I THOUGHT- I thought only I remembered that movie! It definitely fed my hunger for mermaid content as a kid 😂 Aquamarine is definitely aro/ace (at least how I see it) and ended up being supee good friends with Raymond after the movie and may make a journey each year to see Haley in Australia Lovely video!
I remember just thinking "Wow! Aquamarine is just like me, she tries to feel love for the first guy she sees, and is forced with her." When i first watched it, i thought it meant friendship. But watching it now, it seems to show Aquamarine there are other types of love. You don't need to fall in love with the first person you see. You can take your time to find out how you love. It's really a wonderful movie I feel like everyone should watch at some point.
i never thought about it before, but the way they crush on raymond is exactly how i felt about boys when i was in school. i didnt actually want to have a relationship with a boy, i just liked the idea of it because so much of teen media is centered around (straight) relationships and how wonderful and magical that type of love feels, so i would have that fantasy of having a boyfriend even though i was never actually into boys
I loved everything mermaids when i was a kid, and honestly, this movie definitely gave me the vibes. The failed straight plot, the love and protection her new friends give her, it just always felt ... accepting :)
that one scene where Hayley is trying to convince Aqua to not go into the ocean was so emotional and very gay. when rewatching the movie I always saw something more between them going on
So because of this video, I rewatched Aquamarine today for the first time in 8 years, and I was surprised to find out that the end credit song is "Connected". The song in Barbie and the Diamond castle. 🏳️🌈 Connected is the queer girls' national anthem 🥺
Your description of Aqua's "crush" on Raymond reminds me of the romance subplot in Futari Wa Pretty Cure. Nagisa has a crush on the most popular guy in school and... that's it. Nothing comes of it. Meanwhile she declares Honoka (the deuteragonist) her most important person in the world, promises to be with her forever "even though [she's] not good at cooking or very reliable when it comes to chores", and straight-up has a breakdown when she believes she'll move to another town. Like... girl.
Pretty Cure franchise itself has so many sapphic vibes to be honest. there are literally 2 seasons where 2 of the leads, after being separeted, tearfully meet each other after they grow older, and girl... theres no way you could read those scenes in any other way other then girls in love with each other
I think your theory may explain why I adored this movie as a teenager. I’m just gonna add this to my list of clues to my sexuality that went ignored by my oblivious younger self.
I love that Heily decides not to wish to stay and not ruined her moms dream ! It's such a...not teen movie thing to do ! (Ok..as a child I hated it but yeah...)
Aww, I watched this film back in my mermaid phase -- along with the Tail of Emily Windsnap and H2O. This vid is nice nostalgia and I'm really digging the aro merpeople theory :)
As someone who's aromantic, when you talked about Aquamarine's experience with love and her "kind of" crush on Raymond, i just immediately started to relate, my aromantic raydar was blazing. x) I didn't know about this movie so it's very interesting to watch this video, i really like that interpretation ! ^^
i love this reading of the movie 😭 i was always happy with the focus on platonic love, but i never expected and super love the vibe of Aqua as aro and Claire as gay it makes so much sense and is cute as hell, but my favorite part of this film was and will always be Raymond telling Aqua three days wasnt enough to know he loves her romantically-bc it was just such a healthy message to send young girls who were told romance was all their life should be about, to know not to rush into stuff like that, that its okay to take time with relationships and let things happen naturally. The girls and Raymond were just healthy good well written characters for us to see as kids idk this movie is genuinely amazing i will watch it till the day i die (i recently even had like a really bad mental health day and this movie was put up for free on yt the same day and watching it healed my actual soul)
I discovered this movie randomly. It was airing on TV, I was a bored... kid (I genuinely have no idea how old I was, less than 12 most likely) and I thought "Eh, I might as well watch it" For most of the movie, I didn't care much, I thought it was fun, but it seemed like a fairly generic teen romcom. But the ending changed it. The fact that Raymond more or less rejected Aquamarine but wasn't potrayed as some sort of shallow asshole or a bad guy for it. The fact that it was friendship between girls that counted as the real proof of love... I have never seen this movie since, but it lives rent free in my head just for that. Heck, the whole fact that these girls have a crush on this dude and yet decide to help Aquamarine win his heart just so they can I stay together... now that I know that I am LGBT+ myself, I am honestly glad I saw it, even if it was only once, on a whim and I didn't think much of it at the time.
As a now-mid-twenties aro bi, my love of this movie suddenly makes so much sense. It was subtly validating my own struggles in a kind, gentle, and well-written way.
This movie was one of my childhood favourites and I just adore the overall message of love, it also kept me longing for a lovable friendship but nowadays I think I just wanted a girlfriend but didn't know it was possible haha 🌼
comitting the sin of commenting before finishing to say this was one of my fav movies as a kid and still is a huge fav. theyre lgbt. what, all at once? *yes*. i love how they can fit so many categories, like tbh i like the idea of the three girls being in a qpr so so much. like sure they could just be noobs to romance as teens but hmhmhmhm thinking emoji also this movie handles trauma surprisingly well? also how she didnt swim safely with the dolphins but jumped in the storm to save aqua with hailey like,,waaaaa. "i dont think they'd want you to scared of life; i think they'd want you to be friends with it" WAAAA--
This makes me feel so vindicated about my bby closeted-ace self glopping onto this film in 2006 and making it my entire personality during the 7th and 8th grades.
I honestly got a sisterly vibe from the three girls, not saying neither could be queer I just see Hailey and Clarie being more like "Sisters from another mister" and Aquamarine being the cool honorary big sister I'm not trying to put a "heteronormative" license on it, that's just how I see the three girls relationship that their love for each other is meant to be platonic
I love this interpretation. It’s actually kinda awe inspiring that such small representation existed in my most fav movie ever. I can definitely see Claire as a sapphic or lesbian who is on the brink of discovering her sexuality but is holding back due to the time period, and fear of losing her only best friend as well as just not being popular among other teens. Aqua definitely doesn’t have a clear definition for what love is until her two only human friends literally almost drown in a storm for her. To make sure that she was safe and sound and wasn’t hurt physically or emotionally. She felt platonic love for the two of them and cherished her time together with them as they taught her to not only figure out what love is but how to love herself and accept that she can be independent without a partner and still be in love. Hailey needed to understand that not everything is going to be about boys and that she needs to look inside herself for whatever answers she needs instead of reading from a magazine. And also Hailey had a non typical feminine style that many girls didn’t have at the time, choosing her own bodily comfort over being overtly feminine and being semi sexual. Discovering that she didn’t need to be feminine to get a boyfriend. Or be popular. Or that her body needed to look a certain way to get what she wants in life. Same with Claire. Aquamarine eventually gets to kiss raymond at the end of the movie and with the hopes of visiting Claire and Hailey at both sides of planet to make sure they stay connected. And potentially visiting raymond in college and helping him with his class work by using her traveling and migrating experiences to help him pass his classes and maybe learn a thing or two about why humans work so hard to be together.
Wait I thought this was a fever dream of mine. whenever I thought of mermaid or merman movies that I used to watch as a kid I remembered bits of this movie but couldn’t recall the name. I absolutely loved this movie and watched it all the time when it was playing on TV. I remember thinking how sweet and refreshing it was at the ending that there is different forms of love.
I always thought that at the end of the movie they could just wish that they could all turn back and forth from mermaid to human as much as they want to so they can visit each other as much as they want even though they live across the world now ☺️
My name is Claire, my birthstone is aquamarine and I am very gay and love my friends with all my heart. Could my viewing of this movie back on its tv premier have influenced my very being? Probably lol
SPOILER ALERT For those you haven’t read the book by Alice Hoffman: It is imply towards the end that Raymond ends up with Aquamarine. In the book Claire is the one who moved away with her family, while she was at the beach she met up with Raymond who was surfing. She saw him what look like he was swimming with another person until Claire saw a glimpse of Aquamarine’s silver-bluish tail. Raymond was on his surfboard paddling towards Aquamarine’s direction as if she was waiting for him to join her for a swim. So in the book it is left both Claire and the reader’s imagination that Ray & Aqua continued dating. I’m glad that the movie adaptation somewhat kept the scene of both of them kissing on Raymond’s surfboard, it’s the closest thing we have to what happened in the book. I did loved the change in the movie adaptation how it was never a romantic love that Aqua had to prove to her father, but that there exists more than one kind of love that can even be stronger than a romantic one. I never had a problem with the movie adaptation of the book. I love the film adaptation for its cute, humorous, and entertaining moments. I definitely prefer it more than the disappointing film adaptations of Twilight, Inkheart, Golden Compass, and Percy Jackson. The book version will always hold a special place in my heart for being more laidback, magical, and how beautiful Alice Hoffman’s descriptive imaginary. I highly recommend giving the book a read, it’s just as heartwarming and enchanting as it’s film counterpart. ^_^
This was one of my favorite movies when I was hitting double digits. Looking back I see it's impact on me and understand why I loved it so much. The theme in the end scene of ' love isnt forced, it comes naturally and has many forms ' is so touching. Of course everyone will interpret the movie in their own way, but for me it helped me accept myself. I didn't see it as clearly as I do now, but this movie played a big role in starting my realization I was bi and accepting that. thank you for the wonderful analysis
Goddamit my little aro self always loved the typical friendship movies over the romance ones (not that they aren’t good as well) and still do, this movie is a treasured gem
This movie is definitely one of my favorite movies ever, if not THE favorite. Every character is interesting, every conversation, - everything. You covering this movie made me really happy. I definitely see Emily Robert's character as queercoded, but Imma ignore it because it pains my heart knowing that the love for her best friend is unrequited. Thank you for a great video once again!
Oooh yeah you're the first comment I've seen that reads Emma Roberts character as queer but also her feelings being unrequited romantically by her best friend. I super agree with this but also its probabaly important cause how many young queer girls had feelings for their straight friend that would never be able to like them in that way back. 😥
One of my favorite "family friendly girl time fun" movies is one I can't remember the title, it's about 2 girl friends with opposing personalities, I think one of them recently moved, and they live in this seaside town and the climax is about one of them getting stuck in a cave and the other has to seek help before the high tide comes.
Pretty sure you’re talking about “ Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain” with Christina Ricci (Casper, The Addams Famiky, Now & Then) & Anna Chlumsky (My Girl, Veep). Hope this helps you find it
I love this movie so much, i watched it as a kid in theaters and my sisters and i still watch it together. Its such a great sleepover type of movie and im a grown ass adult lol
holyshit you dug up an oldie goldie !!! i love this so much i didnt pay attention to why i loved it but the scene where they saved aquamarine was my favorite, i wont lie i kinda liked the way she clumsily tried to flirt with raymond it was funny and amusing to watch and i agree it doesnt seem like she actually loves him but i love that, i love that! kinda love to see more of the main "couple" realizing they're better off as friends or maybe hints that they could be really good friends if they break up ya know no hard feelings just wholesomeness, i can't emphasize how much i love platonic relationship in movies/books etc. wish there was more attention to it rather than it being a side thing. romantic love is not the "next" step for platonic love. more importantly THOSE STARFISH EARRINGS !!!
I love this movie from childhood and I love seeing it through these new lenses now. I think it’s really important for all young girls to have something like Aquamarine directly contradict the media narrative of what romantic love and crushes should be and the idea that they’re the center of a girl’s life. I love the emphasis on the power of friendship between girls in the movie, but you are so right that it also has such sapphic and aromantic vibes. I’m happy to see reading the comments that people find comfort in those readings! I want to rewatch through those lenses now! I love mermaids and I loved girly kids media as a child and I’m queer af, so maybe I should watch Diamond Castle since it came out after I’d aged out of Barbie and I missed it. I’m curious! I am also an atheist for real though, we’re not all argumentative or closed minded, FYI! :)
I forgot about this movie omg. I love listening to you talk about movies like this. Do you think you'll talk about the Monsters Inc tv series; Monsters At Work? Episode 3 is basically Mike and Sulley acting like gay dads and it is hilarious
Oh the irony of me and my friends watching this over discord once cause we thought it was gonna be meh, we also read those Gaydar signs from a while away, we genuinely enjoyed the movie. We were expecting the usual cliche mermaid movie but it ended up so good at the end.
Is it weird that the medication I've been taking for a few years for anxiety makes me feel asexual/aromantic and I now have a new appreciation of stories like these where it's all about cute platonic love 💕
It absolutely isnt, some medication can actually mess with your sex drive but no one really talks much about it. But where I live there have been some documtentaries about this. I think it's very important to not only acknowledge that but also that there is more love of this planet than just romantic or sexual.
I didn't know I needed this vídeo until now. I was in my mermaid phase when this came out so I obviously LOVED Aquamarine, and you just kind of unlocked a lot of cute summer tween memories 🥺 I didn't really had in mind that girls could like girls that way back then, and Claire's charachter still managed to strike me out as queer. Like, I couldn't have say it with that word, but I totally got the vibe, since it stood out to me how very little she seemed to care for anything besides Hayley. No wonder she was the charachter I identified the most with, lol. I think even without the romantic connotation, I still liked watching a girl putting her friendships well above her romantic interests, to a point where It wasn't even comparable. That's always refreshing to see in a world that revolves so much around, well, men. Something I didn't remember Is how awesome Raymond actually Is. I never was into the popular guy type, and it's a shame because this one could've given my younger self way better standards than the type of guys I ended up falling for at first, lol.
As someone that never got to fully explore a girly childhood (closest I ever got was tokyo mew mew, and... I think it shows #formativememories), watching your video essays on your childhood movies is a warm experience. Please never stop
@@DrawciaGleam02 I'm transgender, and cultural osmosis told me stuff for girls was dumbed down and supposedly uninteresting for a 'boy' like me. So girly shows weren't for me... Unless I managed to sneak a glance at them while everyone was out of the house, heh.
I don't really get gay vibes, but I get the aro kind to some extent event (I should point out that I'm not gay or aro). Actually, I think the best thing about this movie is how important friendships are and valuable platonic love is. It's even more important than the romantic kind in my opinion because every one needs it. Us straight girls (het ace in my case) ought to love and value our friends of any gender just as much as we do our boyfriends or husbands, something I wish more movies pointed out.
this hit me right into my early teen hood, i only saw this movie twice on nickelodeon movie sundays in the netherlands and they left a strong impression on me
Its probably cause we are the biggest island country that has a largish media output. North America, Bollywood and Europe are all landlocked on at least one side. So I guess more ocean access more mermaid media? 😂
I think it's more that Australia's population density is almost all in its coastal cities. The seas capture your imaginations simply because it's that or the Outback.
this is such a beautiful and nostalgic video for me, i was 6 when it came out but i was so obsessed with it and now im 20 and queer and this interpretation is so good and its true raymond is so wholesome and sweet, set the bar way too high for me as a kid 😭😭😭😭
Omg I remember watching this movie when I was like 10 and In love with mermaids (and I still am along with other types of fantasy type stuff) and like it was amazing and will always have a place in my head
The fact that this movie was filmed in Australia, but not set in Australia; but Australia's still a huge part of the plot always amused me. But then, I'm an Aussie.
"I could easily twist this into an allegory for how her love over her best friend was the key for coming out of the closet. Which is exactly what I'm doing." Miss Drawpinion, you are amazing. THIS SAID, the major element of "Film School" is the notion of viewing movies through different lenses or vantage-points. Seeing what allegories exist within a work, or inversely how easily potential allegories can be twisted to fit the narrative and musings offered by the work.
I had to take a pause when you said the characters were starting 8th grade in this movie. When I was little, I thought they were like 16 but this whole time they were supposed to be like 12-13?? 😭
I'd forgotten this film existed but I loved this as a kid when it originally came out, I had it on DVD and watched is so many times 😅 I don't think I had any kind of queer interpretation at the time I was all aboard that power of friendship train, but now remembering that film again and watching this I can now see that it makes so much sense looking at it from a queer perspective, even without watching this video I think if I watched this film again now as a queer adult I'd definitely pick up on those things on my own. This was a really interesting video, and thank you for reminding me about a film I used to love so much ^^
I love how you not taking these girly films too seriously and being respected and not like other UA-camrs that are just flat out saying it's cringy teens' movies with current trends, tropes, or others they complain about. I'm so happy I found your channel a few months ago and I always love your analysis.
“oh neat! High schoolers who really look like high schoolers”
“They’re going into 8th grade”
huh.
They look about the same age as my 9th grade sister.
A million times better than a 30 year old high school senior
@@user-jm6cl6fj1l Agreed
They're WHAT I'm going into 9th and I look younger than them 😧
@@Cometsarecool well, they were 14 and 15 during the time of filming and that’s the age of high school freshman
Ah, yes. The most important question of all: “ But is this movie gay?”
I, myself, always ask this question.
A true scholar
It is, by law, a required question to ask and to answer immediately
@@nikk-named AH, yes, a fellow professional.™
@@nikk-named Well, yes, but not immediately, just as soon as you have the energy. Battling homophobia can be super exhausting. Love the idea other than that, though.(=w=)🏳️🌈
@@gpettus9508 of course. :3
You have to make sure you're coated in enough rainbow colour first before you can paint anything else. :)
A-QUEER-MARINE 😂😂 as a queer mermaid myself, I can confirm this movie is 100% gay 🧜♀️🌈
Gay-Mergirl
@@galaxychill9578 *steals your girlfriend and swims away*
“I’ve never been to film school, but I know they know nothing about films”
Do they even know anything about school either?
@@Silver_Sonic_23 considering (from personal experience) most people in film school are failed filmmakers no, they know nothing about film nor school.
You know the saying "those who can't do, teach"
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 Not always true lol. Look at the chess world. The best players are often teachers too.
Just got a barbie ad in the middle of this video, the algorithm knows the audience and content
I haven't seen the movie, but when you put it like that it's kinda hard to not get lesbian/aro vibes from it. Their relationship can very well be interpreted as QPR
Yesss !
Queer Platonic Relationships are so underrated
@@galaxychill9578 I’ve heard the term “queer platonic” before. One of my favorite writers even wrote her main characters in a QPR. But I feel so dumb because I still don’t really understand what it is. 😅 Like how is it different from a really deep friendship? Why is it queer? /gen
@@the_blind_chick first off I'd like to clerify that I am not aromantic, I know some stuff about the community because I used to identify as aro!
Secondly, the way I understood it is that it's like a relationship that bends the rules of what is platonic and what is romantic, it's the grey area that doesn't fit in the social expectations of either forms of relationships. The queer part is that it's not conforming and the quasi part is because it's partially platonic.
Again, this is from my understanding and interpretation of it, I'm just an alloromantic bish
In the same way you can put any lyrics to a backwards song and hear the devil in it if you want lmao. You can make anything seem like something if you try hard enough. This video doesnt need to exsist.
“Is this movie gay?” is the question we should all be asking even if you’re not watching a movie
Three girls chilling in the sea, no feet apart cuz they might be lgbt.
Best use of this meme I've ever seen.
As an aromantic person, I adore the message of this movie. There is more than one kind of love.
Me too! I used to watch this movie all the time when I was a kid and always felt I related so much to Aquamarine and never understood exactly why
First of all I'm happy to here more aro people 🤸 just so happy
Second omg me too
excuse me sorry if this sounds offensive but I want to understand what does "Aromantic" mean? I have never heard that term before I would just like to understand since everyone here is using the word
@@sunshinegirlmissriddlerent5605 It means little to no romantic attraction!
As an aro who grew up with this movie and enjoyed watching it everytime, I always knew there was something about it that felt like me. That was in the character of Aquamarine, and the theme of close friendship/platonic love. I didn't exactly know what it was that made me love this movie cause I was only 8 when I watched this. . but dang when I tell you I related with the performative romance aspects of her character, it all makes sense now. I did that same thing in elementary, I tried to date a kid that my friends deemed attractive, like the besties in this film, and I just went with it in a clumsy way. I remember crying at the ending too when I watched it later as an older teen, very emotional. Oh and the starfish earrings? Those we all wish we had, huh?
This video was well constructed, brought me back memories. . great analysis!
as another arospec (didn't see the movie tho lmao) it's very interesting to see another aro-coded character that treats love as a more performative thing, wanting to feel it but not being able to
The performative aspect of it all, I relate so heavily
Me toooo 😭 this comment 😭😭😭
And they were ✨roommates✨ 😌
Oh my god they were ✨roommates✨
Just ✨roommates✨ nothing else😌
@@thatonegirlwithacat8997 HAAAAAAHAHAHA that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day
Omg they were fishmates!
@@shroederthatboy.4691 or crewmates (cause sea or whatever)
say what you want, but "H2O : just add water" has a special place in my heart just from the nostalgia
I agree with that statement.
I very much agree and I also Stan with the sequel series mako mermaids aka mako island of secrets
Same
same here
Same here :) And recently my sis got me into those hilarious "Cleo" yelling Tik Toks lol.
I THOUGHT- I thought only I remembered that movie! It definitely fed my hunger for mermaid content as a kid 😂
Aquamarine is definitely aro/ace (at least how I see it) and ended up being supee good friends with Raymond after the movie and may make a journey each year to see Haley in Australia
Lovely video!
I remember just thinking "Wow! Aquamarine is just like me, she tries to feel love for the first guy she sees, and is forced with her." When i first watched it, i thought it meant friendship. But watching it now, it seems to show Aquamarine there are other types of love. You don't need to fall in love with the first person you see. You can take your time to find out how you love. It's really a wonderful movie I feel like everyone should watch at some point.
How *DARE* you dig up the most obscure parts of my childhood. -Just kidding. It’s great that I’m not the only one who enjoyed this film.-
i never thought about it before, but the way they crush on raymond is exactly how i felt about boys when i was in school. i didnt actually want to have a relationship with a boy, i just liked the idea of it because so much of teen media is centered around (straight) relationships and how wonderful and magical that type of love feels, so i would have that fantasy of having a boyfriend even though i was never actually into boys
I loved everything mermaids when i was a kid, and honestly, this movie definitely gave me the vibes. The failed straight plot, the love and protection her new friends give her, it just always felt ... accepting :)
that one scene where Hayley is trying to convince Aqua to not go into the ocean was so emotional and very gay. when rewatching the movie I always saw something more between them going on
JoJo was a true One Hit Wonder, if you don't remember her for 'Leave (Get Out)' or that other song, it's for 'Aquamarine.'
Lies
@@princess1peach how is my opinion a lie lol
So because of this video, I rewatched Aquamarine today for the first time in 8 years, and I was surprised to find out that the end credit song is "Connected". The song in Barbie and the Diamond castle. 🏳️🌈 Connected is the queer girls' national anthem 🥺
“What else would they be doing?”
* YMCA playing faintly in background *
Your description of Aqua's "crush" on Raymond reminds me of the romance subplot in Futari Wa Pretty Cure. Nagisa has a crush on the most popular guy in school and... that's it. Nothing comes of it.
Meanwhile she declares Honoka (the deuteragonist) her most important person in the world, promises to be with her forever "even though [she's] not good at cooking or very reliable when it comes to chores", and straight-up has a breakdown when she believes she'll move to another town. Like... girl.
Yes!!!!! I love Pretty Cure and definitely got Sapphic vibes from it ^_^
oh yeah im def watching futari soon
Pretty Cure franchise itself has so many sapphic vibes to be honest. there are literally 2 seasons where 2 of the leads, after being separeted, tearfully meet each other after they grow older, and girl... theres no way you could read those scenes in any other way other then girls in love with each other
I think your theory may explain why I adored this movie as a teenager. I’m just gonna add this to my list of clues to my sexuality that went ignored by my oblivious younger self.
At this point, I’m just waiting for Drawpinion to calculate the speed of gay in one of these videos.
to gay or not to gay, that is the 2000’s.
I love that Heily decides not to wish to stay and not ruined her moms dream ! It's such a...not teen movie thing to do ! (Ok..as a child I hated it but yeah...)
I like that you put an aromantic reading of this movie on the same level as a sapphic reading 😍 it made my little aromantic heart happy
Aww, I watched this film back in my mermaid phase -- along with the Tail of Emily Windsnap and H2O. This vid is nice nostalgia and I'm really digging the aro merpeople theory :)
As someone who's aromantic, when you talked about Aquamarine's experience with love and her "kind of" crush on Raymond, i just immediately started to relate, my aromantic raydar was blazing. x) I didn't know about this movie so it's very interesting to watch this video, i really like that interpretation ! ^^
you deserve more wievs!! the way you speak is calming and you talk about queer mermaids so duuh
i love this reading of the movie 😭 i was always happy with the focus on platonic love, but i never expected and super love the vibe of Aqua as aro and Claire as gay it makes so much sense and is cute as hell, but my favorite part of this film was and will always be Raymond telling Aqua three days wasnt enough to know he loves her romantically-bc it was just such a healthy message to send young girls who were told romance was all their life should be about, to know not to rush into stuff like that, that its okay to take time with relationships and let things happen naturally. The girls and Raymond were just healthy good well written characters for us to see as kids idk this movie is genuinely amazing i will watch it till the day i die
(i recently even had like a really bad mental health day and this movie was put up for free on yt the same day and watching it healed my actual soul)
I'm aromantic, and all sorts of excited recognition bells were going off in my head when you were describing the plot, I love it!
I discovered this movie randomly. It was airing on TV, I was a bored... kid (I genuinely have no idea how old I was, less than 12 most likely) and I thought "Eh, I might as well watch it"
For most of the movie, I didn't care much, I thought it was fun, but it seemed like a fairly generic teen romcom. But the ending changed it. The fact that Raymond more or less rejected Aquamarine but wasn't potrayed as some sort of shallow asshole or a bad guy for it. The fact that it was friendship between girls that counted as the real proof of love... I have never seen this movie since, but it lives rent free in my head just for that. Heck, the whole fact that these girls have a crush on this dude and yet decide to help Aquamarine win his heart just so they can I stay together... now that I know that I am LGBT+ myself, I am honestly glad I saw it, even if it was only once, on a whim and I didn't think much of it at the time.
I was not a girly girl, but I loved girly movies with tight friendships :)
As a now-mid-twenties aro bi, my love of this movie suddenly makes so much sense.
It was subtly validating my own struggles in a kind, gentle, and well-written way.
I just rewatched it again, I used to watch it so much when I was a tween and seeing it again, it’s still amazing
This movie was one of my childhood favourites and I just adore the overall message of love, it also kept me longing for a lovable friendship but nowadays I think I just wanted a girlfriend but didn't know it was possible haha 🌼
I'm a lesbian and this was my favorite movie as a kid, I watched it over and over. Thank you for this video I feel so seen
7:32 - 7:33 that’s a rainbow flag on the magazine, probably unintentional but still the lgbtqia+ flag
Finally someone said it 😤🌈✨
comitting the sin of commenting before finishing to say this was one of my fav movies as a kid and still is a huge fav. theyre lgbt. what, all at once? *yes*. i love how they can fit so many categories, like tbh i like the idea of the three girls being in a qpr so so much. like sure they could just be noobs to romance as teens but hmhmhmhm thinking emoji
also this movie handles trauma surprisingly well? also how she didnt swim safely with the dolphins but jumped in the storm to save aqua with hailey like,,waaaaa. "i dont think they'd want you to scared of life; i think they'd want you to be friends with it" WAAAA--
This makes me feel so vindicated about my bby closeted-ace self glopping onto this film in 2006 and making it my entire personality during the 7th and 8th grades.
I honestly got a sisterly vibe from the three girls, not saying neither could be queer I just see Hailey and Clarie being more like "Sisters from another mister" and Aquamarine being the cool honorary big sister
I'm not trying to put a "heteronormative" license on it, that's just how I see the three girls relationship that their love for each other is meant to be platonic
I love this interpretation. It’s actually kinda awe inspiring that such small representation existed in my most fav movie ever. I can definitely see Claire as a sapphic or lesbian who is on the brink of discovering her sexuality but is holding back due to the time period, and fear of losing her only best friend as well as just not being popular among other teens. Aqua definitely doesn’t have a clear definition for what love is until her two only human friends literally almost drown in a storm for her. To make sure that she was safe and sound and wasn’t hurt physically or emotionally. She felt platonic love for the two of them and cherished her time together with them as they taught her to not only figure out what love is but how to love herself and accept that she can be independent without a partner and still be in love. Hailey needed to understand that not everything is going to be about boys and that she needs to look inside herself for whatever answers she needs instead of reading from a magazine. And also Hailey had a non typical feminine style that many girls didn’t have at the time, choosing her own bodily comfort over being overtly feminine and being semi sexual. Discovering that she didn’t need to be feminine to get a boyfriend. Or be popular. Or that her body needed to look a certain way to get what she wants in life. Same with Claire. Aquamarine eventually gets to kiss raymond at the end of the movie and with the hopes of visiting Claire and Hailey at both sides of planet to make sure they stay connected. And potentially visiting raymond in college and helping him with his class work by using her traveling and migrating experiences to help him pass his classes and maybe learn a thing or two about why humans work so hard to be together.
Wait I thought this was a fever dream of mine. whenever I thought of mermaid or merman movies that I used to watch as a kid I remembered bits of this movie but couldn’t recall the name. I absolutely loved this movie and watched it all the time when it was playing on TV.
I remember thinking how sweet and refreshing it was at the ending that there is different forms of love.
I always thought that at the end of the movie they could just wish that they could all turn back and forth from mermaid to human as much as they want to so they can visit each other as much as they want even though they live across the world now ☺️
Feels like a very aro/ace story...
My name is Claire, my birthstone is aquamarine and I am very gay and love my friends with all my heart. Could my viewing of this movie back on its tv premier have influenced my very being?
Probably lol
3:36 I’m actually laughing so hard at this, like why does this seem to be sarcastic but is ironic cause it’s low key so true
Her: *watches a movie* that's kinda gay
Me, right next to her: it totally
This is like one of my favorite movies and I'm so glad I'm not the only one who saw the sapphic energy sksafklfj 💕
SPOILER ALERT For those you haven’t read the book by Alice Hoffman:
It is imply towards the end that Raymond ends up with Aquamarine. In the book Claire is the one who moved away with her family, while she was at the beach she met up with Raymond who was surfing. She saw him what look like he was swimming with another person until Claire saw a glimpse of Aquamarine’s silver-bluish tail. Raymond was on his surfboard paddling towards Aquamarine’s direction as if she was waiting for him to join her for a swim.
So in the book it is left both Claire and the reader’s imagination that Ray & Aqua continued dating. I’m glad that the movie adaptation somewhat kept the scene of both of them kissing on Raymond’s surfboard, it’s the closest thing we have to what happened in the book.
I did loved the change in the movie adaptation how it was never a romantic love that Aqua had to prove to her father, but that there exists more than one kind of love that can even be stronger than a romantic one.
I never had a problem with the movie adaptation of the book. I love the film adaptation for its cute, humorous, and entertaining moments. I definitely prefer it more than the disappointing film adaptations of Twilight, Inkheart, Golden Compass, and Percy Jackson.
The book version will always hold a special place in my heart for being more laidback, magical, and how beautiful Alice Hoffman’s descriptive imaginary. I highly recommend giving the book a read, it’s just as heartwarming and enchanting as it’s film counterpart. ^_^
I always wanted the this to be a book! I had no idea that it was a book and now I'm going to have to read it. I'm so glad you made this comment!
@@erickae.419 Aww no problem! ;) I highly recommend the book. It’s one of my childhood favorites. ^_^
This was one of my favorite movies when I was hitting double digits. Looking back I see it's impact on me and understand why I loved it so much.
The theme in the end scene of ' love isnt forced, it comes naturally and has many forms ' is so touching. Of course everyone will interpret the movie in their own way, but for me it helped me accept myself. I didn't see it as clearly as I do now, but this movie played a big role in starting my realization I was bi and accepting that.
thank you for the wonderful analysis
First time I see a video from this channel, and before everything else, I'd like to mention that your voice is really chill.
Goddamit my little aro self always loved the typical friendship movies over the romance ones (not that they aren’t good as well) and still do, this movie is a treasured gem
This movie is definitely one of my favorite movies ever, if not THE favorite. Every character is interesting, every conversation, - everything. You covering this movie made me really happy. I definitely see Emily Robert's character as queercoded, but Imma ignore it because it pains my heart knowing that the love for her best friend is unrequited.
Thank you for a great video once again!
Oooh yeah you're the first comment I've seen that reads Emma Roberts character as queer but also her feelings being unrequited romantically by her best friend.
I super agree with this but also its probabaly important cause how many young queer girls had feelings for their straight friend that would never be able to like them in that way back. 😥
One of my favorite "family friendly girl time fun" movies is one I can't remember the title, it's about 2 girl friends with opposing personalities, I think one of them recently moved, and they live in this seaside town and the climax is about one of them getting stuck in a cave and the other has to seek help before the high tide comes.
Pretty sure you’re talking about “ Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain” with Christina Ricci (Casper, The Addams Famiky, Now & Then) & Anna Chlumsky (My Girl, Veep). Hope this helps you find it
You’re telling me that wasn’t reese witherspoon. Wow my whole life…
her bathtub ice cream scene was so iconic to me i always wanted to recreate it lol
I love this movie so much, i watched it as a kid in theaters and my sisters and i still watch it together. Its such a great sleepover type of movie and im a grown ass adult lol
holyshit you dug up an oldie goldie !!! i love this so much i didnt pay attention to why i loved it but the scene where they saved aquamarine was my favorite, i wont lie i kinda liked the way she clumsily tried to flirt with raymond it was funny and amusing to watch and i agree it doesnt seem like she actually loves him but i love that, i love that! kinda love to see more of the main "couple" realizing they're better off as friends or maybe hints that they could be really good friends if they break up ya know no hard feelings just wholesomeness, i can't emphasize how much i love platonic relationship in movies/books etc. wish there was more attention to it rather than it being a side thing. romantic love is not the "next" step for platonic love. more importantly THOSE STARFISH EARRINGS !!!
I love this movie from childhood and I love seeing it through these new lenses now. I think it’s really important for all young girls to have something like Aquamarine directly contradict the media narrative of what romantic love and crushes should be and the idea that they’re the center of a girl’s life. I love the emphasis on the power of friendship between girls in the movie, but you are so right that it also has such sapphic and aromantic vibes. I’m happy to see reading the comments that people find comfort in those readings! I want to rewatch through those lenses now! I love mermaids and I loved girly kids media as a child and I’m queer af, so maybe I should watch Diamond Castle since it came out after I’d aged out of Barbie and I missed it. I’m curious! I am also an atheist for real though, we’re not all argumentative or closed minded, FYI! :)
I also want to say I’m obsessed with the thumbnail on this video. That rainbow tail! The algorithm was my friend today in recommending this!!!
Love that mermaid tale pun, because aquamarine is based off a story that I read in a 2 for 1 book titled: Mermaid Tales. 🧜♀️
Aquamarine was one of my favorite movies growing up😊 That explains a lot
It all makes so much sense now! I loved this movie as a kid and now I’m married to my wife who was my best friend lol. Great video!
I'm a straight male and I watched this movie all the time with my straight male cousin. Aquamarine is a genuinely great preteen movie
Wasn't this a multi seasoned series and not a movie?
Mhm
Maybe I'm just mixing things up.
They look very similar tho
maybe you are thinking of H2O
There is H2O and Mako Mermaids, visually similar but different plot
I forgot about this movie omg. I love listening to you talk about movies like this. Do you think you'll talk about the Monsters Inc tv series; Monsters At Work? Episode 3 is basically Mike and Sulley acting like gay dads and it is hilarious
yess
I learned the "fluff and retreat" flirting technique from this masterpiece and IT WORKS.
my friends and I tried doing that when we were 12 or something; I'll say, it wasn't half bad!
Lesbian mermaids yesssssssss
also mad props for this rad outfit at 2:08 🙏
Oh the irony of me and my friends watching this over discord once cause we thought it was gonna be meh, we also read those Gaydar signs from a while away, we genuinely enjoyed the movie. We were expecting the usual cliche mermaid movie but it ended up so good at the end.
Is it weird that the medication I've been taking for a few years for anxiety makes me feel asexual/aromantic and I now have a new appreciation of stories like these where it's all about cute platonic love 💕
It absolutely isnt, some medication can actually mess with your sex drive but no one really talks much about it. But where I live there have been some documtentaries about this. I think it's very important to not only acknowledge that but also that there is more love of this planet than just romantic or sexual.
I didn't know I needed this vídeo until now. I was in my mermaid phase when this came out so I obviously LOVED Aquamarine, and you just kind of unlocked a lot of cute summer tween memories 🥺 I didn't really had in mind that girls could like girls that way back then, and Claire's charachter still managed to strike me out as queer. Like, I couldn't have say it with that word, but I totally got the vibe, since it stood out to me how very little she seemed to care for anything besides Hayley. No wonder she was the charachter I identified the most with, lol. I think even without the romantic connotation, I still liked watching a girl putting her friendships well above her romantic interests, to a point where It wasn't even comparable. That's always refreshing to see in a world that revolves so much around, well, men.
Something I didn't remember Is how awesome Raymond actually Is. I never was into the popular guy type, and it's a shame because this one could've given my younger self way better standards than the type of guys I ended up falling for at first, lol.
When I saw this video I immediately thought of the show H2O
Very cool video, and I always appreciate aro subtext :D
As someone that never got to fully explore a girly childhood (closest I ever got was tokyo mew mew, and... I think it shows #formativememories), watching your video essays on your childhood movies is a warm experience. Please never stop
I like your cat logo I hope you have a good day
"As someone that never got to fully explore a girly childhood"
I don't mean to be rude, but why?
@@DrawciaGleam02 I'm transgender, and cultural osmosis told me stuff for girls was dumbed down and supposedly uninteresting for a 'boy' like me. So girly shows weren't for me... Unless I managed to sneak a glance at them while everyone was out of the house, heh.
@@PrincessFelicie
Did you watch Sailor Moon?
@@DrawciaGleam02 Nah, I'm a 1999 kid, it wasn't airing in France anymore by then.
oh my god now i know why i was obsessed with this movie as a kid
I don't really get gay vibes, but I get the aro kind to some extent event (I should point out that I'm not gay or aro). Actually, I think the best thing about this movie is how important friendships are and valuable platonic love is. It's even more important than the romantic kind in my opinion because every one needs it. Us straight girls (het ace in my case) ought to love and value our friends of any gender just as much as we do our boyfriends or husbands, something I wish more movies pointed out.
I have never heard of this movie but sounds cool. Like Australia gold.
Its free on youtube!
@@Domtheidiot_ Cool, gotta put it on my “movies that are good with UA-cam” list
this hit me right into my early teen hood, i only saw this movie twice on nickelodeon movie sundays in the netherlands and they left a strong impression on me
I have to go back and watch all my old comfort media and ask the age old question. Is it gay
Just watched it yesterday and i was thinking the exact same thing omg thank u so much for talking about this
Oh! I haven't seen this movie in years!
I remember that the behind-the-scenes mentioned Aquamarine's actor saying a bunch of inappropriate things to get the other two leads to laugh
your voice is so calming i love it
Why do so many mermaid based media have some sort of relation to Australia, are we a mermaid country or something. 😆
Its probably cause we are the biggest island country that has a largish media output. North America, Bollywood and Europe are all landlocked on at least one side.
So I guess more ocean access more mermaid media? 😂
I think it's more that Australia's population density is almost all in its coastal cities. The seas capture your imaginations simply because it's that or the Outback.
When two sapphic teens (platonically) fall in love with an ace aro mermaid: 👁👄👁
/hj /lh
this is such a beautiful and nostalgic video for me, i was 6 when it came out but i was so obsessed with it and now im 20 and queer and this interpretation is so good and its true raymond is so wholesome and sweet, set the bar way too high for me as a kid 😭😭😭😭
Omg I remember watching this movie when I was like 10 and In love with mermaids (and I still am along with other types of fantasy type stuff) and like it was amazing and will always have a place in my head
Heart* auto correct said nope XD
And I will also say the ending did stand out to me and I never really understood it or questioned it until now
Damn, now I wanna watch this movie again.
I love the way you talk it’s so calming
The fact that this movie was filmed in Australia, but not set in Australia; but Australia's still a huge part of the plot always amused me. But then, I'm an Aussie.
"I could easily twist this into an allegory for how her love over her best friend was the key for coming out of the closet. Which is exactly what I'm doing."
Miss Drawpinion, you are amazing. THIS SAID, the major element of "Film School" is the notion of viewing movies through different lenses or vantage-points. Seeing what allegories exist within a work, or inversely how easily potential allegories can be twisted to fit the narrative and musings offered by the work.
Aquaramine as aromantic is making me cry I love this rep 😭
I had to take a pause when you said the characters were starting 8th grade in this movie. When I was little, I thought they were like 16 but this whole time they were supposed to be like 12-13?? 😭
There’s the movie “Scales: mermaids are real” that’s cishet
Jebus crust that movie was a fever dream 😭
sorry I can't be heterosexual mom, I watched Aquamarine as a child
I'd forgotten this film existed but I loved this as a kid when it originally came out, I had it on DVD and watched is so many times 😅 I don't think I had any kind of queer interpretation at the time I was all aboard that power of friendship train, but now remembering that film again and watching this I can now see that it makes so much sense looking at it from a queer perspective, even without watching this video I think if I watched this film again now as a queer adult I'd definitely pick up on those things on my own. This was a really interesting video, and thank you for reminding me about a film I used to love so much ^^
Sooooo that explains why I was absolutely obsessed with this movie as a child LOL
Makes more sense in hindsight why I was so obsessed with this movie as a kid.
I love how you not taking these girly films too seriously and being respected and not like other UA-camrs that are just flat out saying it's cringy teens' movies with current trends, tropes, or others they complain about.
I'm so happy I found your channel a few months ago and I always love your analysis.