An early animated film was the Soviet one that was released in 1968 called Rusalochka (The Little Mermaid). Later in 1976, a live action film by the same name was released.

In 1992, Golden Films adapted the story, and made it into a video and later a DVD. This version stays between the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen and the Disney film. This version features a semi-happy ending.

During the late 1990's the fairy tale series "Happily Ever After" ran an episode based on The Little Mermaid story. In this version, the mermaid named Mija is dark skinned with black hair and has a yellow tail.

In 2004, the TV series "Hans Christian Andersen - The Fairytaler" had an episode telling the story of The Little Mermaid.This stayed true to the original version and kept the sad ending.

The Royal Danish Ballet commissioned composer, Lera Auerbach to create a modern performance based on this fairytale. This premiered in 2005.

The Little Mermaid story is particularly popular in Japan, and as a result the story has been adapted into numerous animated films and television series.

The first Japanese adaption was the 1970 TV series Maho no Mako-chan (Magical Mako-chan). This version kept the basic storyline, but it was set in modern day Japan. The mermaid, Mako goes to high school while she awaits the meeting with her beloved Akira and also helps those in need with her magical pendant.

The next adaption was in 1975 called Anderus en Dowa Ningyo Hime (Andersen's Story: The Mermaid Princess). In this version, the mermaid had blonde hair and her name is Marina. This version also introduced a side-kick like Disney did.

After Disney's success with their version, the Japanese released yet another version in 1991, again in the form of a TV series, but this time it was called Ningyo Hime Marina no Boken (The Adventures of Mermaid Princess Marina). This series also had Marina as the mermaid with blonde hair. Originally, the series was aired on Fuji TV in Japan, and it was later taken to the United States of America under the title of Saban's Adventures of The Little Mermaid). This time however, the series included a magical whistle which was given to Marina by the Sea Witch. This whistle allowed her to change back and forth from human to mermaid. However, it was not as popular as the Disney version, and disappeared quite quickly.