<P> The Little Mermaid was considered by some as "the film that brought Broadway into cartoons". Alan Menken wrote the Academy Award winning score, and collaborated with Howard Ashman on the songs . One of the film's most prominent songs, "Part of Your World", was nearly cut from the film when it seemingly tested poorly with an audience of school children, who became rowdy during the scene . This caused Jeffrey Katzenberg to feel that the song needed to be cut, an idea that was resisted by Musker, Clements, and Keane . Both Muscker and Clements cited the similar situation of the popular song "Over the Rainbow" nearly being cut from 1939's The Wizard of Oz when appealing to Katzenberg . Keane pushed for the song to remain until the film was in a more finalized state . During a second test screening, the scene, now colorized and further developed, tested well with a separate child audience, and the musical number was kept . </P> <P> The film was originally released on November 17, 1989, followed by a November 14, 1997, reissue . After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King, Disney announced a 3D re-release of The Little Mermaid scheduled for September 13, 2013, but this was cancelled on January 14, 2013, due to the under - performances of other Disney 3D re-releases . The 3D version was released on Blu - ray instead, but it did play a limited engagement at the El Capitan Theatre from September to October 2013 . On September 20, 2013, The Little Mermaid began playing in select theaters where audiences could bring iPads and use an app called Second Screen Live . The film was also screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival . </P> <P> In a then atypical and controversial move for a new Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid was released as part of the Walt Disney Classics line of VHS and Laserdisc home video releases in May 1990, six months after the release of the film . Before Mermaid, only a select number of Disney's catalog animated films had been released to home video, as the company was afraid of upsetting its profitable practice of theatrically reissuing each film every seven years . Mermaid became that year's top - selling title on home video, with over 10 million units sold (including 7 million in its first month). This success led future Disney films to be released soon after the end of their theatrical runs, rather than delayed for several years . </P> <P> Following Mermaid's 1997 re-release in theaters, a new VHS version was released in March 1998 as part of the Masterpiece Collection and included a bonus music video of Jodi Benson singing "Part of Your World" during the end credits, replacing "Under the Sea" as the end credit song . The VHS sold 13 million units and ranked as the third best - selling video of the year . </P>

When was the little mermaid released on vhs