Btw, I did read a comment that the shot change in the Little Mermaid might be for more effective use of 3D.

That is, it may prevent the 3D effect from falling apart because of a fast or jarring change in scenes. The fact that we see it in the 2D version as well is because Disney is a bunch of cheap bastards.

Beauty and the Beast had more color changes, objects moved, lines thinned and new artwork painted in for the 3D release. I could easily see that being the case here as well.

Seriously, I think the worst treatment of library animation titles has been under John Lasseter's watch at the animation department.

Sure some unfortunate things were done when the IMAX releases were done, but I'm not sure Roy E. would have ever let this crap happen.