The Crown of the Sea (January 6, 1987)

The Crown of the Sea is a classic Disney Renaissance era film with the beloved main character, Prince Fenwa, of the dolo-centric Kingdom of Dolania that rules the entire ocean, the film starts off with a tragedy as Prince Fenwa is designated to become the new King after the death of his father. Fenwa is then rushed through his coronation to his new leadership with no one adhering to his protests. The first song of the film "I'm Not Them" sets the mood for how he feels about becoming king. But before he can be officially crowned as the new king, the recently crowned King Stripe of the Tikonian Empire leads a charge against the Kingdom of Dolonia. In the chaos, Fenwa is separated from his kingdom and cast out to sea on his lonesome. With the kingdom in disarray, only Fenwa can bring hope and unite the dolos once more, but upon learning of his family's harsh conquering past to receive their power, Fenwa feels betrayed by his kingdom and the dying words of his father as he realises that his family has not been the peaceful rulers he was taught they were. Fenwa resides himself to reject his old life and to instead live out his days as a wayward ocean traveller. But along the way, he encounters friends, the snarky Tula of the Octopolis Nation and the absent minded but caring Gurgles of the Crabbians, both also left their families. But as they travel the ocean, Fenwa uncovers more about the conditions Stripe has put the ocean residents through. And with the help of his friends and what he had experienced on his journey, he realises his need to right the wrongs of his family's troubling past and guide the ocean into a world of peace. And with his new-found confidence, he and his friends confront Stripe and fight to regain Fenwa's power over the ocean. The film's ending scene shows Fenwa having the upper fin in the fight, offering to save Stripe from being eaten by his shark army and helping him rule the ocean with tikos and dolos alike. But Stripe, stubbornly, declines resulting in his death. In the end, Fenwa regains his position as the now King of Dolonia and the Seven Seas. Hoping to improve the ocean to a more harmonious way of life.

A Retrospective

Aside from boosting Disney into popularity with its animated musicals, The Crown of the Sea had kickstarted a popular trend to depict tikos and dolos as rivals despite this being nowhere near reality. The film did, however, establish composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman as top talents in the musical genre with their incredible work on the iconic songs of the film, most notably the film’s songs “On My Own’ and “I Am The King” both of which had won Oscars.

The film has been referenced in many other popular Disney owned films such as “Moana”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Finding Nemo", “Finding Dory", etcetera. The setting and characters even made an appearance in Kingdom Hearts where Sora visits Dolonia and must help King Fenwa defeat the Heartless. Despite the positive impacts, there were a few negative results of the movie such as controversy by how Stripe’s army of sharks persisted the “shark fears” that were most popular in the late 80s and 90s. As well as many people genuinely believing that the Kingdom of Dolonia was inspired by an ancient underwater civilisation much like the fabled city of Atlantis.

The fandom of the film is harshly protective of it, often being unnecessarily critical of any reboots or additional official media surrounding it. The spin-off TV series “King Fenwa” that ran from 1990-1996 became the set standard for how the fans believed any further shows should be. And when a separate show released for the movie in 2014 as part of Disney rereleasing the film in never before seen HD, the fans were harshly critical of the show “Fenwa Adventures” and the backlash caused the cancellation of the planned season 2 of the series. With a planned live action remake of the film set to release on November 5 of 2024, many fans have been harshly critical of the film's potential despite only seeing a poster for the film.

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