BACKGROUND
Finally, after a decade of turmoil, and years of underachievement, Disney Animation actually produced a movie that was both financially and critically successful. Not only that, but the artform was beautiful, the characters were believable, and the music was amazing.
It might not sound true, but after the disappointment of Sleeping Beauty in 1959, the Disney Animation department had shied away from adapting fairy tales. The Little Mermaid was the first fairy tale to be adapted into a Disney animated film for 30 years and it signalled the start of a series of Broadway-style musical films.
This was it. After all the effort the animators had put in, being moved away from the main Burbank studio, trying to find their feet without the direction of artists from Walt Disney’s era, and the more aggressive move to change from the new management, The Little Mermaid began something new. 1989 meant the start of the Disney Renaissance, where the movies produced were released to critical acclaim and big box office numbers for a whole decade, for the most part, with some hitting higher heights than others.
To find someone who doesn’t like or can’t appreciate the importance of The Little Mermaid is difficult. It really was a major blockbuster, both at the time and in present day, as can be seen from the push to make the live-action version, released in May 2023. It’s a movie from one of Disney’s arguably most popular eras, so continues to be referenced and remembered by audiences and the Disney company.
I’ve always liked The Little Mermaid, but for some reason, I don’t choose to watch it very often and would rather watch other films from the Disney Renaissance Era instead. I’m not sure why that is, although it’s probably got something to do with the fact none of the characters are favourites of mine. I’d never wanted to be a mermaid, so Ariel doesn’t resonate with me; I find Eric a bit of a pointless prince, not having to do anything particularly brave until right at the end, when I think Ariel could’ve taken Ursula on her own; and Ursula isn’t my favourite villain, though I do like how flamboyant she is. But I still like the story and the music, with the ending always able to make a couple of tears spring to my eyes.
PLOT
Disney’s story begins with a ship sailing the open sea. Its sailors are telling their captain about the myth and legend of King Triton, ruler of the sea and the merpeople. Some on board do not believe these stories, but others believe them wholeheartedly to be true. As one of the sailor’s is making this point, a fish that they had just caught leaps out of his hands and dives back into the ocean. We then follow this fish deeper under the water, seeing lots of marine animals, and then finally, some merpeople who we follow into a royal castle. At the castle, an audience is assembling for a concert – eagled-eyed viewers might even be able to spot Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the crowd here, though what they are doing under the sea at this point, we don’t know. King Triton and his court composer, Sebastian, are very excited for this concert which will feature all seven of Triton’s daughters, with his youngest, Ariel, being named the most talented singer of all. Sebastian does say quietly, though, that Ariel does not always show up to rehearsal, so clearly is not as bothered by her musical gift as her father is. The concert begins, and everything seems to be going swimmingly – until we find that Ariel, the soloist, is not there!
Ariel is in fact looking at shipwrecks with her fish friend, Flounder. The two are searching for treasures from the “human world” that Ariel can add to her collection. Their fun day out is rudely interrupted by a shark at one point, but Ariel outwits him and goes up to the surface to see their friend, Scuttle the seagull. He is supposedly an expert on all things humans, but the audience soon finds that Scuttle has no idea what he’s talking about, as he thinks that a fork is called a Dinglehopper, used for combing hair, and that a pipe is called a Snarfblatt and is actually a musical instrument! Speaking of music, Ariel then realises that she has missed her father’s very important concert and rushes home. King Triton is not happy, especially when Flounder lets slip that they actually went to the surface. He warns Ariel not to go to the surface again, reiterating that humans are barbarians. Ariel is upset since she is sixteen and capable of independent thought and swims away to be alone. Sebastian is told by Triton to keep an eye on her. Sebastian follows Ariel to her grotto, which is full of things from the human world. He overhears her talking about how she wants to live above the sea with those humans, and is furious. As Sebastian proceeds to give Ariel the same spiel about humans as her father just gave her, Ariel is distracted by a shadow passing over the surface of the water. She swims up there; Flounder and Sebastian follow.
On the surface, she sees a boat, with fireworks flashing high into the sky. She swims closer and sits by the side of the boat, watching as music plays, men dance, and a dog even comes up to lick her face. Ariel is fascinated by this world, but then she sees a man – Prince Eric – and she is instantly smitten with him. It is a celebration for Eric’s birthday, with his butler, Grimsby, presenting him with a statue of himself as a present. Eric hates it! It was meant to be a wedding present, however, Eric did not like his would-be bride and wants to wait for his true love. Suddenly, a hurricane starts bubbling up nearby. It soon impacts the crew with wind, rain, thunder and lightning. The ship struggles against the high winds, tossing some of the crew overboard, who then swim towards their life boats. Things take a real turn when a lightning bolt sets alight one of their sails, spreading fire to the rest of the ship. Everyone is safely on board a boat, apart from Max, Eric’s dog, who is stuck in the middle of the flames. Eric gets back on to the ship to save him, tossing him to the lifeboat below as his leg gets caught in a hole in the floor. The fire reaches the explosives onboard before Eric can free himself, and the ship explodes. Ariel sees Eric unconscious and about to drown in the ocean. She pulls him to shore, and waits for him to wake up. As she does, Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle discuss whether the man is dead or not. Scuttle believes he is, but Ariel can see that he’s breathing. Eric begins to wake up and just catches a glimpse of Ariel’s face and hears her singing briefly, before she is spooked by Grimsby and the others looking for him and rushes back into the water.
Ariel is now falling in love with Eric and very much wants to be human. Her sisters see that Ariel is hopelessly in love, not realising who with, and tell their father, King Triton. Sebastian tries to tell Ariel to stay under the sea, where it’s best for her, but she doesn’t listen, and Flounder takes her off to her grotto, to find that Eric’s statue just so happens to have floated down into it. King Triton summons Sebastian, wanting to know who Ariel is in love, expecting it to be one of the kingdom’s mermen. Sebastian thinks Triton already knows about the human and tells Triton he tried to stop her. Triton is furious and goes to Ariel’s grotto. She tells her father she is in love with Eric, to which Triton responds by destroying pretty much every artifact in her collection, including the statue of Eric. She tells Sebastian and Flounder to leave her alone, and sobs her heart out.
At the same time as all of this has been playing out, Ursula, the sea witch, and her two eel henchmen, Flotsam and Jetsam, have been watching Ariel. Very creepy. Ursula thinks she can use Ariel to bring down King Triton once and for all, after he banished Ursula from the kingdom so many years ago. Now that Ariel is in love with a human, it’ll make things all the easier for her plan to succeed. The eels tell Ariel that Ursula can help make all her dreams come true. After some persuasion, she eventually follows them to Ursula’s lair. Sebastian and Flounder follow, knowing this will be trouble. Ursula tells Ariel that she can make her human and that she’ll be able to live on land with her man forever. Ariel is not sure, but eventually, Ursula manages to convince her, telling her about all the other “good work” she’s done for other people, and the reason she has a garden full of shrunken merpeople – or emaciated shrimp as Olaf likes to call them in his comedic retelling of the movie – is because they never paid her for her spells. Ariel agrees to Ursula’s deal, which has these conditions: to make her human permanently, she has to get true love’s kiss from Eric within three days; and the price she must pay is to give up her voice. Despite Flounder and Sebastian’s protestations, Ariel signs the contract and the deal is enacted; Ariel is given legs, in what seems to be quite a painful procedure, and is left to drown in the sea, as humans cannot breathe underwater! Luckily, Sebastian and Flounder swim her up to the surface.
At the surface, Ariel learns to walk on her legs, and is dressed up in a tatty sail, as advised by Scuttle and his all-knowing expertise. Max the dog is drawn to the smell of Ariel, leading Eric straight to her. She looks familiar to him, and Eric believes she is his dream girl, the one who saved him that day, but as she can’t talk, it can’t have been her. Err, Eric, have you never heard of laryngitis? Maybe she’s just lost her voice through illness, it doesn’t mean she’s been mute all her life! Anyway, Eric takes her inside the palace. There, she is cleaned up and dressed to have dinner with Eric and Grimsby. Despite Ariel blowing tobacco smoke all over Grimsby through his pipe, and combing her hair with a fork and looking a bit crazy, Grimsby thinks Ariel would be a great match for Eric, but Eric is still holding out for this “mystery girl”, though he does invite Ariel to go sightseeing the next day. In the palace, Sebastian has his own problems – the French chef, Louis. After going through the laundry, Sebastian finds himself in the kitchen, where stuffed crab is being prepared. Louis sees little Sebastian and thinks he’s missed one and tries to cook him! But Sebastian is too smart for that and grabs Louis’ nose, starting a whole war between them. Louis destroys the entire kitchen looking for him but cannot find him. Carlotta, Eric’s housekeeper, shouts at Louis for all the noise and mess, and takes the plates in for dinner. It turns out Sebastian hid on Grimsby’s plate and Ariel signals for him to crawl over to hers. Ariel clearly doesn’t eat anything, and must sneak Sebastian into her pocket or something, as he’s fine in the next scene, where Ariel is watching Eric as he plays her song on the flute. She goes to bed, as Sebastian tries to coach her about how to get this kiss from Eric the next day.
On this day out, Eric and Ariel look at the sights, dance, shop, even encounter a near-death experience when Ariel gets their horse and carriage to jump a massive ravine! They end the day on a moonlit boat ride, where Eric tries to guess Ariel’s name, going through random girls’ names, like Rachel, Diana, even Mildred, which Ariel really dislikes – sorry to all the Mildreds out there. During a song meant to encourage Eric to kiss Ariel, conducted by Sebastian, of course, Sebastian whispers her actual name to Eric. He thinks it’s “kind of pretty”. As the two are about to kiss, their boat is tipped over by none other than Flotsam and Jetsam; that was too close for Ursula, and she must be mad because she even goes so far as to call Ariel “a tramp”. Harsh. Ursula realises she needs a new plan now…
That night, again, Grimsby tells Eric that Ariel would be a good match for him and this time, he actually listens. He tosses the flute into the ocean, but just as he is about to talk to Ariel, a woman singing that song walks along the beach in front of him. It’s her, the dream girl. Except it’s actually Ursula, disguised as a woman called Vanessa, and using Ariel’s voice which she kept in a shell locket. This locket also just so happens to be able to entrance Eric so he is under her spell. The next morning, Scuttle wakes Ariel up as he hears wedding preparations are going on and assumes it must be for her. Ariel runs downstairs to Eric, but stops dead as she sees him cuddled up to someone else. Those two are actually going to be married by sunset that day, the same time that Ariel’s spell runs out. She watches as the wedding ship departs, feeling completely hopeless. Scuttle flies by the ship and sees that Vanessa is actually Ursula, as her real reflection is revealed in a mirror. He races back to the others, and they devise a plan: Flounder will swim Ariel over to the ship, while Scuttle gets all the animals to stall the wedding. Seals, birds, lobsters, and even Max, all get in on the action. Though this distracts Vanessa, the officiant for some reason doesn’t seem to notice and continues with the ceremony, which is really strange! Ariel arrives just as Scuttle and Max manage to break the locket, returning Ariel’s voice and breaking the spell on Eric. He realises she was the one all along and goes to kiss her, but it’s too late; it’s sunset.
Ursula reveals herself to be Vanessa and takes Ariel back underwater, as she has transformed back into a mermaid. Triton comes to rescue her, trying to break the contract with the trident but it’s legal and cannot be broken. Instead, Ursula offers Triton a deal: to take Ariel’s place, which he does, becoming an emaciated shrimp and leaving Ursula to take his crown and trident and become the new ruler, exactly what she’s always wanted. Meanwhile, Eric swims down to rescue Ariel, striking Ursula with a harpoon in the process. The eels try to keep Eric underwater, but Sebastian and Flounder help free him. As Ursula is about to fire a spell at Eric, Ariel grabs her head, making her shoot too high, destroying her beloved eels instead. Ursula is mad now and makes herself huge, big enough to go above the surface. She manipulates the waves and summons a storm, trapping Ariel in a funnel so she can finally kill her. Eric gets on a wrecked ship and drives it into Ursula, jabbing her with a broken piece of wood, defeating and killing her. Eric swims to shore and passes out.
Under the sea, Ursula’s spells are broken and all the emaciated shrimp come back to life, including Triton. Ariel sits on a rock by the shore and looks sadly at Eric, knowing they can’t be together. Triton and Sebastian discuss how much she clearly loves at Eric, and Triton decides to grant her wish to become human permanently. She looks over at her father, grateful, before reuniting with Eric. The two marry at the earliest opportunity, on a ship again, so that the humans and merpeople can celebrate together. Flounder is flown up by Scuttle to kiss Ariel; Ariel and Eric finally kiss; and Sebastian gets away from Chef Louis once again! Triton fashions a wave to bring him to Ariel’s level, where Ariel tells him she loves him. Triton magics a rainbow to appear in the sky, and Ariel and Eric end the film with another kiss. Aw.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid is based on the 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen, which was published under the name Den Lille Hayfrue. In Andersen’s much darker story, when a mermaid turns fifteen, she is allowed to swim up to the surface to take a glimpse at the human world for the first time. On the little mermaid’s first visit, she falls in love with a human who she sees celebrating his birthday on a ship and then saves him from drowning. The mermaid waits for a human woman to find him before returning home. Back under the sea, the little mermaid asks for more information about humans from her grandmother. She tells the mermaid that humans have an eternal soul that lives on after their death, whereas mermaids turn to sea form. The little mermaid goes to the sea witch who says that she can make her human, but that her tongue will have to be cut out and that the creation of her legs will be painful and that every step she takes from then on will feel like she’s being pierced by knives. She is also warned that she can never return to the sea, and that should the prince marry someone else, the mermaid will die of a broken heart at dawn the day after his marriage. The little mermaid does the deal anyway and is found by the prince, who grows close to her, but does not fall in love with her as he believes another woman saved his life; he has no idea it was ever the mermaid who did. He finds this woman and marries her, with the little mermaid realising that she will now die. Her sisters tell her that she could break the curse if she kills prince, and that she can then become a mermaid again. The little mermaid goes to kill the prince, but cannot do it and awaits her death. Her body becomes sea form but she then becomes “a daughter of the air”, due to her selflessness. She will now complete good deeds for humans for the next 300 years in order to finally obtain an immortal soul[1].
The Disney Studios were first going to adapt Andersen’s story in the 1940s, as was evidenced by the discovery of multiple concept artwork. The1940s version was similar to the 1989 film in some ways, as both versions decided to focus on the prince instead of the immortal soul, and wanted the prince to at least get a glimpse of the mermaid so he did not believe someone else had in fact saved him. The 1940s version would have had the mermaid rush off, not realising she’d lost her voice until she got to the surface, but the 1989 directors wanted her to know she was losing her voice, but to not make the process so graphic. They also didn’t want her to find having legs painful. The ending of both Disney versions was also different. In the 1940s version, the prince would have got married, but not to anyone specific, and the mermaid would have died and turned to sea form. The 1989 team wanted a happy ending instead, and gave Ariel everything she wanted[2].
Though I feel like the edits to the 1989 film version of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid were very much necessary to create family-friendly entertainment, with it seeming like the planned 1940s version was even going to be too dark and depressing, children’s author Maurice Sendak was quick to critique Disney for deviating from Hans Christian Andersen’s story in the ways that they did. As the story is about the risks of sacrifice and ultimately ends with the mermaid getting no reward, it was felt that Disney avoided having their mermaid learn this hard lesson, which is a fact of life sometimes[3]. The 1989 film does give a nod to Hans Christian Andersen’s story in many ways though, despite some changes to make it slightly happier and more suitable for a Disney feature film. They did also reference the original statue of the Little Mermaid which sits by Copenhagen harbour and was created by Edvard Eriksen; Ariel’s pose of her sitting on a rock watching Eric from afar at the end of the film is reminiscent of the statue’s same pose. There are thirteen replicas of the Little Mermaid bronze statue all over the world, including in Madrid, Seoul, and even California[4].
CHARACTERS & CAST
It might sound surprising to hear that Ariel is actually only the fourth Disney Princess; it sounds like there should have been more by 1989, but there was only Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora before her. This is because Sleeping Beauty (1959) did not do as well as expected, so the fairy tale adaptations were put on hold, until The Little Mermaid was greenlit thirty years later. A lot had changed societally in those three decades, so Ariel is a very different princess to her predecessors in terms of her personality. Ariel is a feisty, rebellious teenager who goes out of her way to change her life completely, to try to live it as she wants to, despite her controlling father trying to stop her. This is in complete contrast to the quiet, gentle, sweet temperaments of Snow, Cinderella, and Aurora. Ariel’s character led to different princesses being created by Disney, giving them more personality and more end goals for their life, so that they aren’t just trying to find love with a handsome prince. Glen Keane spoke to Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, two of Disney’s famous “Nine Old Men”, as well as Keane’s mentors, on the opening night of The Little Mermaid. Johnston and Thomas told Keane that they felt some of Ariel’s expressions were ugly at times, like when she screws her face up, and that their princesses were always pretty. Instead of being saddened by the criticism, Keane felt proud that they’d made Ariel real, and this showed that a new generation of animators with new ideas were coming in, signalling the new era.
Ariel’s hair colour was a point of discussion inside Disney at the time of her creation. Many animators felt that giving Ariel red hair would reflect her personality well, however, thanks to the live-action romantic comedy Splash (1984), one of the first Disney-produced films to be released during the time of the new management, the higher-ups felt that Ariel should have blonde hair, like Daryl Hannah did in Splash. As mermaids don’t exist, Keane said that they couldn’t just tell him that mermaids have blonde hair, so they went all in on making her a red-head[5]! The original Ariel dolls, manufactured by Tyco, later Mattel, were actually more strawberry blonde in their first production run as the company felt redheaded dolls would not sell well. Consumers later complained that the doll did not resemble Ariel sufficiently, so they were remade with her hair colour matching what is seen in the movie[6].
Ariel’s supervising animators were Glen Keane and Mark Henn. Keane said that his wife was one inspiration for Ariel’s physique but that he also looked at classical artwork like the 1901 painting A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse, as well as the statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. It has also been said that Henn and Keane used images of Alyssa Milano, who was starring in the programme Who’s the Boss? (1984-92) at the time, to get the look of an adolescent teenage girl. Milano was not aware of this fact for many years. Not only that but they took inspiration from Ariel’s voice artist, Jodi Benson.
Jodi Benson had worked with Howard Ashman on the musical Smile in 1986, which flopped on Broadway and closed after only 87 performances. Ashman invited many women from the show to audition for Ariel, with Benson being one of them and being the one who got the role. The directors needed someone who could sing as well as act, especially as Ariel’s songs in particular feel like an extension of her dialogue. Benson loved performing as Ariel, a role she has reprised for the spin-off films, television series and theme park attractions for many years. She also regularly sings “Part of Your World” during her concerts[7]. Not only that but Benson became a Disney Legend in 2011 for her role as Ariel. She has also voiced Helen of Troy in the television series spin-off Hercules (1998-99), voiced Barbie in Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010), and starred in the live-action/animation hybrid Disney film Enchanted (2007), which was also a parody of Disney’s princess films, as Edward’s assistant, Sam. Benson also “went over to the dark side” and voiced the title role for Don Bluth’s 1994 film Thumbelina, which I personally really like.
The character also benefitted from live-action reference modelling, as many Disney animated movies had done before. Writer and performer Sherri Stoner, who was performing as part of an LA-based improv group called The Groundlings at the time, was brought in to model for the character of Ariel. She was asked to audition by co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, who noticed she had a similar petite frame to how Ariel had been envisioned after Stoner came to teach improvisation to the animators with some other performers. As much of Ariel’s scenes are underwater, and her hair in particular was causing the animators some bother, Stoner spent three days performing Ariel’s underwater scenes, with two of those days taking place at Glendale’s YMCA swimming pool and the other being held in an 8-foot-deep clear tank at Walt Disney Imagineering. From this modelling, they were able to figure out how Ariel’s hair might look – the animators had also used footage of astronaut Sally Ride in space for this purpose – and added some facial expressions and personality traits from Stoner’s performances. The animators liked her big eyes and expressive hands, and she embodied the character of Ariel fully to make her believable. Her biting her lip was also included in the movie[8]!
Ariel’s prince, Eric, was supposedly named after the creator of the bronze sculpture of the Little Mermaid, Edvard Eriksen. Eric doesn’t get much character progression in this film to be honest, so I don’t care all that much about him. I’m glad Ariel finally gets her prince, and that just happens to be him, but I don’t find him very interesting, and think that Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty (1959) and some of the princes who come after Eric are much more engaging. Eric wants to marry his true love, fair enough, but when Ariel saves him, he is so obsessed with her that he constantly replays the song that he briefly heard her sing, yet when he sees Ariel, he is put off by the fact she can’t talk so she can’t possibly be the girl who saved him, despite the fact she looks just like her! It takes quite a lot of time to convince him that Ariel is good for him, because he’s too busy stubbornly chasing dreams to realise that, even if she isn’t his “perfect girl”. This really annoys me; I just find him frustrating! Still, he comes to Ariel’s rescue at the end, but I think she would’ve managed to defeat Ursula on her own if she’d been given the opportunity to do it. I’m sure lots of people like Prince Eric, and I guess he’s not THAT bad really. Christopher Daniel Barnes provides the voice of Prince Eric and continues to reprise his voice, as Benson does, in Disney projects. Though curiously, Barnes did not return to voice Eric in the sequel to The Little Mermaid, yet he did become the official voice of Cinderella’s Prince Charming for those two spin-off films and for other Disney projects. Barnes also voiced the role of Spider-Man in the animated series from 1994 to 1998.
Now, back to the important female roles. Ursula is an incredibly powerful Disney villainess, yet she is also hilarious and very flamboyant. She knows what she wants, and can persuade anyone to do exactly that. Ursula is devious and clever, with her thwarting all of Ariel’s attempts at getting Eric to kiss her, until the very last moment, but then she becomes Ruler of the Ocean so who cares about that? Ursula also managed to have two henchmen, her moray eels Flotsam and Jetsam, who are actually useful and do what they are asked to do without getting it wrong, unlike many other villains who just can’t seem to get good help. She has quite a painful death, similar to Maleficent in that the princes stab them both, which can’t be nice. I didn’t think I was that big a fan of Ursula, but when I rewatched the film this week, I thought she was amazing, right up there with Maleficent as one of the best Disney villainesses, who I tend to think pale in comparison to their male counterparts. Ursula is meant to be King Triton’s sister as mentioned in deleted scenes. This fact would not be made public until the original Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, though it was included in the extended version of “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, with this verse later cut out.
Ursula went through many designs, with Ruben Aquino, the Supervising Animator, stating that they originally made her a lionfish or a scorpionfish with spines, but one of the story men said that she’d probably work well as an octopus. It is debated whether or not Ursula is a squid or octopus, as she only has six tentacles, yet an octopus should have eight – this is supposedly because drawing two less tentacles was easier for the animators – but as Ursula also has two human arms, she is classed as just being “part octopus”[9]. Aquino tried varying sizes for Ursula, bigger and skinnier but decided that bigger was better. The performances of drag queen Divine was another inspiration for Ursula’s look, movements and personality. Divine had featured in many movies by filmmaker John Waters, of which Howard Ashman was a fan and suggested Divine as a vision for the character.
Pat Carroll was very excited to have been given the role to voice Ursula as she had always wanted to work on a Disney film. Carroll discussed her character’s performance with Howard Ashman at times especially for her song “Poor Unfortunate Souls”. Carroll said that she asked Howard to sing the song for her, and instead of just singing it, Ashman performed it full out, giving Carroll lots of ideas to play with her; she even admitted that she stole “innit” and some other ad libs from him[10]! Carroll continued to reprise her role as Ursula, and voiced Morgana, Ursula’s sister for the sequel, for Disney projects until her death in 2022. Carroll also starred in various television and stage productions, and voiced Granny in the English dub by Disney of My Neighbor Totoro (2005).
Then, there’s King Triton, the controlling father of Ariel. It’s plain to see how much he loves all seven of his daughters, but feels he has to be stricter with Ariel because she has her head in the clouds and doesn’t tend to listen to anyone’s advice. It is particularly harsh of Triton to just go and blow up most of Ariel’s things from the human world, a moment of actual nastiness from a Disney parent, but you can tell that Triton does regret having done that as soon as he has – though he does not apologise for it. Triton is out of his mind with worry when Ariel goes missing, blaming himself for it, and makes the ultimate sacrifice for her when he finds that she has done a deal with Ursula, trading his life for his daughter’s. He also comes good at the end when he decides to make Ariel human, without her even asking and knowing that he’ll miss seeing his daughter every day. Triton probably has the most interesting character development of anyone else in the movie.
Triton is voiced by Kenneth Mars, who appeared in two of Mel Brooks’ most famous films: as Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and as Police Inspector Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). Mars also chose to do a lot of voice acting in his later years, not only reprising his role as Triton for Disney, but also in Don Bluth’s Thumbelina (1994), as King Colbert, and as Grandpa Longneck in the series of The Land Before Time direct-to-video sequels, from 1994 to 2006. Mars passed away in 2011.
Before I move on to the animal sidekicks, there are a few other human characters to mention, specifically related to their voice artists. Firstly, Grimsby, Eric’s strait-laced butler, is voiced by Ben Wright. Wright voiced Rama, Mowgli’s wolf father in The Jungle Book (1967) as well as Roger Ratcliffe in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), a fact that was apparently unknown to the team working on The Little Mermaid at the time! Wright also appeared as Herr Zeller in The Sound of Music (1965). Grimsby was Ben Wright’s final role; he died four months before the movie’s release[11]. Carlotta, Eric’s maid, is voiced by Edie McClurg, who went on to voice many characters for Disney and Pixar, including Dr. Flora in A Bug’s Life (1998), Minny in Cars (2006) and Mary, a Nicelander, in Wreck-It Ralph (2012).
For Sebastian, it was Howard Ashman’s idea to give him a Caribbean accent, as I believe originally, he was going to have a stuffy English accent. However, though many say Sebastian is Jamaican, he actually has a Trinidadian accent. Ashman was looking for this specific accent as he had spent some time in Trinidad during his childhood. Samuel E. Wright auditioned for the part and Ashman was surprised to find that the accent was exactly what he had been looking for. Menken said that this choice opened up new musical styles to them, such as calypso and reggae, which are used in Sebastian’s songs[12]. Though Sebastian seems quite uptight at the start and has no desire to babysit Ariel as ordered by the King, he does realise that Ariel has her own life to lead and he wants to help her achieve it. As mentioned, Samuel E. Wright voices Sebastian, King Triton’s court composer and advisor. Wright would also reprise his role as Sebastian in other Disney projects, and also voiced Kron the Iguanodon in Disney’s Dinosaur (2000). He played the part of Mufusa in the original Broadway cast of The Lion King in 1997. Wright passed away in May 2021.
Flounder is Ariel’s best friend, who is kind and loyal. He is named after the flat fish flounder but looks more like a tropical reef fish. He’s a sweet friend, trying to help Ariel as best he can, but you can tell he is quite young and scared of the dangers of the sea, so he isn’t overly helpful at times, but he tries! Flounder is voiced by Jason Marin. Scuttle is the dippy seagull, who thinks he knows what he’s talking about and is generally just clumsy and very in-your-face, especially with Sebastian! He’s a bit much at times and his singing is truly awful, but it’s hard to not like Scuttle, because his heart is in the right place. Scuttle is voiced Buddy Hackett, who reprised this role for The Little Mermaid sequel. Hackett also appeared in such films as The Music Man (1967), as Marcellus Washburn, and The Love Bug (1969), as Tennessee Steinmetz. He passed away in 2003.
PRODUCTION
The Little Mermaid was the last Disney film to use the traditional hand-completed ink and paint method, with the movies that came after moving on to use the CAPS system in full, which used a digital ink and paint method. CAPS was used for The Little Mermaid’s final scene, specifically for the rainbow. This film also contained more effects animation than any Disney animated movie since Fantasia (1940) with nearly 80% of the film requiring effects. Over a million bubbles were drawn with two thirds of the film taking place underwater[13].
Eric’s shipwreck was another area where special effects were vital. The effects team wanted this sequence to be similar in size, scale and consequence as that of Monstro the Whale in Pinocchio (1940). The lightning flashes were important to create the mood of the scene and to light up specific areas of the ship. They also used concept art and reference material from the Animation Research Library for help. From here, they found materials from Pinocchio (1940), and also Bambi (1942), where the rain and blowing snow was useful to recreate weather. They also discovered concept art from Kay Nielsen that had been drawn in the 1940s when the Disney Studios looked to adapt Hans Christian Andersen’s tale. They found his art of a shipwreck to be useful. All the effects in The Little Mermaid had to be drawn, be they water, fire, weather, or even magic[14].
When production began on The Little Mermaid, it was in the mid-1980s, when the new management had come in and the animators were now working from that rundown warehouse in Glendale. When “The Gong Show” was brought in by Eisner, a place for animators to pitch new ideas, Ron Clements put forward the idea of adapting The Little Mermaid at their first meeting in January 1985. He had just read the story and wrote a two-page treatment of it, coming up with a happier ending. However, the idea was “gonged” i.e., rejected, because of a planned sequel to the live-action film Splash (1984), which was about a mermaid. Two weeks later, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, read the full treatment and did decide to greenlight the project. Katzenberg started to look outside for screenwriters, when Ron Clements and John Musker asked if they could give it a try; Katzenberg loved their screenplay and they moved forward with the film.
In early 1988, a work-in-progress screening was assembled for Katzenberg to view, containing sketches and voice recordings. Katzenberg liked the script and the songs but didn’t love the movie as a whole, admitting that he wasn’t able to see how it would look on screen, whereas the animators did know what would and wouldn’t work. They joked that management was not patient enough, but this was the first time the team felt they were in trouble. Howard Ashman helped rewrite a few scenes when they struggled with the story. with some of those being Sebastian coaching Ariel on how to get Eric to kiss her, and the ending of Triton deciding to give Ariel legs, where it was more of a visual element originally.
Then an audience of children was invited to view the movie, with a half-animated “Part of Your World” included. Katzenberg could see that the children were restless and uninterested, so said that the song should be removed. Everyone was horrified at this idea so the directors, the songwriters and the animators all tried to convince him to keep it. Katzenberg gave them a chance to finish animating it and then decided to keep the song in the movie. It would’ve been a mistake to cut the song, as Katzenberg has admitted, as it tells the audience exactly why Ariel wants to be human and ties us to her emotionally. At an official audience preview at the AMC Theatre in Burbank, the unfinished movie was a hit, with both children and adults alike. A marketing campaign for the movie then began, with this movie being marketed in all areas of the company, including at the theme parks. Katzenberg thought that The Little Mermaid wouldn’t surpass Oliver & Company (1988), the previous animated release, as he felt Oliver was a boys’ movie and The Little Mermaid for girls, with boys’ movies doing better at the box office, though the animators felt it would appeal to all.
MUSIC
As The Little Mermaid was Disney’s first return to their fairytale format for three decades, the new generation of animators knew they needed a fresh approach to the traditional style in all aspects, including the music; The Little Mermaid began Disney’s Broadway-style of animated musical. This was thanks to the duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Ashman had written the hugely successful musical Little Shop of Horrors, the horror-comedy rock musical about a human-eating Venus fly trap, in the 1980s alongside Alan Menken. Ashman then went on to write the musical Smile which premiered in 1986 but was not well-received. Because of this disappointment, Ashman wanted a new project away from Broadway. Howard Ashman felt that musical theatre and Disney animation had always worked well together, so he was interested in working on a Disney animated feature film. Ashman had already written a song for the previous animated Disney release Oliver & Company (1988) and was invited by Jeffrey Katzenberg to work on The Little Mermaid. Naturally, Ashman asked Menken to collaborate with him on the music, with Ashman writing lyrics and Menken composing the music, despite neither of them having any experience in writing music for films.
The film has a mixture of short songs and also bigger star numbers, but I’ll start with the shorter ones. The Little Mermaid begins with the song “Fathoms Below”, sung by Prince Eric’s crew as they talk about the legends of merfolk and King Triton. It’s a good opening number for building some backstory into the characters we are about to see, and also gives the film some atmosphere, with the ship moving through a misty screen. This song was meant to be extended, and would have included information about Ursula being Triton’s sister, however, the number was cut for the movie’s pacing. The next song follows on from “Fathoms Below” quite quickly and is performed by Ariel’s sisters under the sea, in the concert that Sebastian has arranged for their father. It introduced each of Ariel’s six sisters, giving us their names, which are: Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, and Alana. Even though this song is unceremoniously cut short, I actually really like it and would’ve liked to have heard more should Ariel have bothered to appear for her solo! The third shorter song is “Les Poissons” performed by René Auberjonois as Chef Louis. It’s very funny, though obviously stereotypically French! I quite like it, and it can quite easily get stuck in your head!
Moving on, we have Ariel’s big showstopping number “Part of Your World”. This was written to be the typical “I Want” song that the leading lady would sing in a Broadway musical, talking about her hopes and dreams for her life. In this case, we hear how much Ariel wants to be a human and live above the surface. It’s one of the most memorable songs from The Little Mermaid. I believe “Part of Your World” was written quite soon after Ashman and Menken received the story treatment, with the directors first hearing it in Ashman’s New York apartment. From this song, the Disney directors could tell how much the duo understood story and character. Unfortunately, I have heard too many renditions of “Part of Your World” through the years and they never match Jodi Benson’s original version. I sometimes feel like this song has been “overused” at times and I therefore don’t love it. “Part of Your World” features twice more in the film, as reprises: once when Ariel realises she is in love with Eric after saving him, where we can hear how desperate she is to be with him; and then again for the finale, sung by the chorus of guests at their wedding, which ends the film well. One other interesting fact about this song is that on the soundtrack, there is some dialogue heard before the song; this dialogue does not feature in the movie.
Sebastian the crab also gets two songs in The Little Mermaid: “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl”. Thanks to the choice to use a Trinidadian accent for Sebastian, Menken and Ashman were then able to incorporate the musical styles of calypso and reggae in these two songs[15]. “Under the Sea” is all about trying to convince Ariel that being under the sea is the best place for her, via a big party number with all the marine life, and “Kiss the Girl” is building a romantic atmosphere to get Eric to finally kiss Ariel. They are both fantastic, although I didn’t always like “Under the Sea”; again, I felt like Disney used it too much in their parades and shows, so I’d just heard it too much, but in recent years, I’ve found I really like it, especially when the song builds towards its finale. I’ve always liked the romance of “Kiss the Girl” and like seeing how Sebastian and all the animals are trying to help Ariel realise her dream of being human forever, even if it is a bit forcefully done!
The final song to cover is “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, the longest of all of them at almost five minutes, but hey, Ursula needs her big moment! It really makes a show-woman of Ursula and I think Pat Carroll performs it so well. It follows Ursula trying to convince Ariel to take her deal to become a human, and then ends with the spell actually being enacted. It goes through specific examples of her magic working for others, and warns Ariel of the price she will have to pay, or else she will belong to her. The song is a perfect example of devious, pushy sales tactics, really! I particularly like Ursula’s verse on body language and how men don’t like women to talk – it was quite a contemporary attitude to put into a Disney animated film, as this is something that we still discuss today in the overarching feminist debate – and also the point where the spell is complete, with Ariel singing those few notes that recur at multiple other moments in the film. It’s beautiful singing, even if Ursula is taking her voice!
For the score, though I do not have any specific instrumental pieces that I really like, it is obvious to hear how Menken’s music is able to impact the mood of the viewer to match what they are seeing on screen. I do like the finale music the best of the music within the score, but Menken continued to do great scores for other Disney animated films, many of which I do prefer to The Little Mermaid’s.
Menken and Ashman had a lot to be proud of with their soundtrack as they received three Academy Award nominations: “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” for Best Original Song and then the award for Best Score. They won both Best Score and Best Original Song for “Under the Sea”. “Under the Sea” also won a Grammy and a Golden Globe. Menken’s score also won a Golden Globe for Best Score and the soundtrack as a whole won the Grammy for Best Recording for Children. A few days after the Oscar ceremony in 1990, Ashman told Menken that he was unwell, and had been diagnosed as HIV positive. They continued to work on songs for Beauty and the Beast (1991) and for Aladdin (1992) whilst Ashman was ill. Sadly, he did not live to see either movie to completion, passing away in March 1991, eight months before the release of Beauty and the Beast[16].
RECEPTION
The Little Mermaid was released in theatres on 17th November 1989, and despite Katzenberg not foreseeing the movie doing as well as Oliver & Company (1988) had one year previously, the team were pleased to see that the movie continued to do well over the weeks that followed, earning over $84 million during its initial run in North America. The reviews were also dazzling, with many stating that the Disney Animation department had managed to reclaim the enchantment and the charm of their medium and had restored the public’s faith in animation. Many of the characters were praised, including Ariel and Ursula, with the songs being another major factor in the movie’s popularity. It would ultimately gross over $200 million worldwide, thanks to theatrical re-releases, both in 2D and in 3D. The Little Mermaid has also been released on VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray multiple times over the years.
LEGACY
As far as The Little Mermaid continuing outside of the original movie, on screen, the story was continued with the direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000), which happens to be one of my favourite Disney direct-to-video sequels. Many of the vocal cast returned with the addition of Tara Strong as Melody, Ariel’s daughter. The sequel sees Melody wanting desperately to be a mermaid, not a human, and goes to Morgana, Ursula’s sister to become one, in a complete reversal of Ariel’s story. Tara Strong has had a long history of voice acting, including as Timmy Turner in the long-running series The Fairly OddParents (2001-17), and in person appeared as Gwen in the two Sabrina the Teenage Witch movies, Sabrina Goes to Rome (1998) and Sabrina Down Under (1999). The Little Mermaid also spanned a prequel, titled The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (2008), which details King Triton banning music in his kingdom after his wife’s death with Ariel fighting to change that in her youth. I have only seen the prequel once and I didn’t think too much of it, to be honest. An animated series based on the film, which looked at Ariel’s life before the film, called simply The Little Mermaid, aired for three seasons from 1992 to 1994.
Following on from that, in 2019 Disney aired a television special called The Little Mermaid Live! This was to celebrate the original movie’s 30th anniversary, with additional live musical performances from the film and the Broadway stage show, which first went to Broadway in 2008. Auli’I Cravalho, voice of Moana, performed as Ariel, with other big names such as Shaggy as Sebastian and Queen Latifah as Ursula, joining her. I will admit I did not watch this, and I’m not sure whether I will; I have seen other television versions of musical films in recent years, such as Hairspray Live! and don’t think they have been worth it.
Finally, a 2023 live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid was also released. I have not watched this live-action film either. It did very well financially, as all of these Disney live-action adaptations seem to, but received mixed reviews, though it is supposedly one of Disney’s better attempts at modernising the original. It made such changes as adding new songs, written by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, such as “Wild Uncharted Waters” for Prince Eric, and “For the First Time” for Ariel, which apparently added to their character development. There was also some strange song called “The Scuttlebutt”, which was not popular with many viewers…They added more backstory to Prince Eric and his family, and made it so Ariel doesn’t know she needs Eric’s kiss to remain human, causing their relationship to develop more organically. Some of these story changes do not sound too bad, but I don’t think much of the casting, with Awkwafina being a particularly odd choice for Scuttle, though Halle Bailey seems to do a good job as Ariel from the few clips I’ve seen[17].
Generally, at the Disney theme parks, Ariel and The Little Mermaid are prominently featured at all the parks across the world, be that through parades, shows, nighttime fireworks performances or meet-and-greets, with Ariel and Ursula being the two most easily spotted, though Ursula may only be available for the Halloween season in some areas. Ariel is also likely to be at any location where the Disney Princesses can be found, including character dining such as Cinderella’s Royal Table at Walt Disney World or Auberge de Cendrillon in Disneyland Paris. Sometimes Ariel meets with Eric, but this is not common. Many children also choose to be made over to look like Ariel at Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutiques.
Some of the specific high points of The Little Mermaid references include the ride of the movie. The attraction is named The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at its home in Disney California Adventure Park, opening in June 2011, with a copy of the ride opening at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, as part of the New Fantasyland area, in December 2012 under the name Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid. This is an Omnimover dark ride that takes guests through highlights of the movie, such as the “Under the Sea” scene, Ursula’s lair, her defeat, and “Kiss the Girl”. The interesting thing about this ride is that it was originally in development in the early 1990s, however, the ride was put on hold and was not built. A computer-generated ride-through of this original attraction was added as a bonus feature to the 2006 Special Edition DVD release of the movie. Whether because of feedback from this ride-through or not, an attraction was then developed by Disney in the mid-to-late 2000s and opened as the ride we have today. The original ride would have had guests going through some different scenes such as a more intense battle with Ursula and an opening scene of Eric’s ship on the ocean in the mist, with the shell-shaped vehicles also being attached to a track on the ceiling, similar to Peter Pan’s Flight[18]. I remember seeing this ride on the bonus features before the actual attraction was built and was so annoyed it wasn’t real, so when it did open in some form, I was very happy, although I do find some of the animatronics of Ariel in the actual ride kind of creepy…
Also at Walt Disney World Resort, there is a whole section of the Art of Animation Resort dedicated to The Little Mermaid, as well as the area within New Fantasyland with the ride that includes an exterior building to look like Prince Eric’s castle, something that California’s version does not have. Sebastian’s Bistro is also a vaguely The Little Mermaid-themed restaurant at the Caribbean Beach Resort. There used to be a whole stage show for The Little Mermaid titled Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was a fifteen-minute re-telling of the movie which incorporated live performers, puppets, including a 12-foot-tall Ursula, water effects and a huge projection screen showing moments from the movie. It was only meant to be a temporary show however it ran from January 1992 until March 2020, when it closed with the parks for the COVID-19 pandemic, but never reopened. It has now been confirmed that this show will not be returning, and will be replaced by a new, albeit fairly similar, show titled The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. It is due to open in late 2024, and will feature songs from the film, as well as puppets, live characters, and digital characters, created via motion capture.
At Tokyo DisneySea Park, a whole area called Mermaid Lagoon is themed to The Little Mermaid. The façade of the building looks like King Triton’s palace and takes you into an indoor area, making guests feel like they are under the sea. This is where guests can meet Ariel, shop, play in the play area, and ride some more basic fairground-type attractions, such as the Jumping Jellyfish, a child-friendly drop tower-style ride, and The Whirlpool, similar to the Tea Cups. Outside, there are also two outdoor attractions: Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster, a child-friendly rollercoaster, and Scuttle’s Scooters, a non-spinning version of the traditional Waltzers. This area looks great and I would’ve loved an area like this at Walt Disney World for when I was younger – though I’d probably still like it now!
These were the most interesting attractions themed to The Little Mermaid, however, each of the six Disney theme parks does have attractions, restaurants, hotel areas, or shops themed to The Little Mermaid or its characters, but recounting them all would take too long! But that’s not all because when the live-action The Little Mermaid was released, a whole new Ariel could be celebrated. At Disneyland Paris, an outdoor musical show, featuring performances of songs from the live-action film, took place at Walt Disney Studios Park from 26th May 2023 to 23rd June 2023. Also to promote the release of the film, new snacks, drinks and merchandise were also available to buy at the Disney Parks. You can still meet live-action Ariel at Walt Disney World, at the end of the Walt Disney Presents attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but I’m unsure if you can still meet her at Disneyland by the it’s a small world attraction; the meet-and-greet is not listed on the website.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Little Mermaid continues to have a hold on the hearts of many, whether they were adults or children at the time of the movie’s release, or born five, ten, twenty years afterwards. It’s one of those Disney animated films that has remained popular with young and old alike, as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994) would do just a few short years later. The Little Mermaid sparked a whole new era for Disney Animation, lovingly titled the Disney Renaissance Era, and although Ariel would later be joined by multiple other Disney princesses and heroines, some more contemporary than herself, she was the one who started the new age of Disney Princess.
It is difficult to express how important The Little Mermaid was for Disney Animation, the Disney movie-goers and the Walt Disney Company as a whole but it was vital. It is thanks to The Little Mermaid that a nervous animation workforce managed to find their passion for their work again and thankfully, the viewers saw that and were happy to join them on the crazy ride that followed.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Charline Bouzon, ‘The Little Mermaid: The incredible true story of Andersen’s tale’, En-Vols.com, 16th February 2023.
[2] Credit: Disney, “The Little Mermaid: The Story Behind the Story”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).
[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Ariel’s Tale’, MousePlanet.com, 28th July 2021.
[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Little Mermaid (1989)’, pp. 82-84.
[5] Credit: Mackenzie Nichols, ‘’The Little Mermaid’ Turns 30: Inside the Disney Classic’s Rocky Journey’, Variety (online), 13th November 2019.
[6] Credit: Mackenzie Nichols, ‘’The Little Mermaid’ Turns 30: Inside the Disney Classic’s Rocky Journey’, Variety (online), 13th November 2019.
[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Ariel’s Tale’, MousePlanet.com, 28th July 2021.
[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘How Sherri Stoner Became “The Little Mermaid”’, CartoonResearch.com, 19th November 2021.
[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Little Mermaid (1989)’, pp. 82-84.
[10] Credit: Disney, “Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).
[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Little Mermaid (1989)’, pp. 82-84.
[12] Credit: Mackenzie Nichols, ‘’The Little Mermaid’ Turns 30: Inside the Disney Classic’s Rocky Journey’, Variety (online), 13th November 2019.
[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Little Mermaid (1989)’, pp. 82-84.
[14] Credit: Disney, “Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).
[15] Credit: Disney, “Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).
[16] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).
[17] Credit: Alex Abad-Santos, ‘What Disney changed (and didn’t) in The Little Mermaid remake’, Vox.com, 25th May 2023.
[18] Credit: Disney, “The Little Mermaid Under the Sea Adventure: The Virtual Ride”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).
The Disney Purist 