Adapted from the 1837 short story by Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid is one of the most famous of Disney’s animated features, having become a global phenomenon since its release. A live-action remake of the movie is currently in the works, with singer-actress Halle Bailey of Chloe x Halle to star as Ariel.
Despite having been around since 1989, there may be things about The Little Mermaid that aren’t common knowledge among more casual fans of the movie, including its differences from Andersen’s version, its impact, its sequels, its Broadway connections… and the fact that the movie almost didn’t get made.
10 The Movie Closely Follows The Original Story, But Takes Major Liberties
The plot of Disney’s The Little Mermaid stays fairly faithful to the Hans Christian Andersen version, even closely adapting some scenes and paraphrasing certain dialogue.
No names are given in Andersen’s story, however, and the Little Mermaid’s sisters play a much bigger role. Triton, called “the Sea King,” is largely absent, with a more supportive grandmother character assuming his role. “Ursula,” or “the sea witch,” removes the mermaid’s voice by severing her tongue, and the prince never falls in love with “Ariel,” instead marrying a land princess (albeit not “Vanessa”), causing the mermaid’s body to start becoming foam until female air beings rescue her.
9 It Spawned Two More Movies And An Animated Series
The Little Mermaid was not the end of Ariel’s story. In 1992, a cartoon of the same name followed Ariel’s exploits before the events of the original movie. Then in 2000, Disney released the direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, which introduced Ariel and Eric’s daughter, Melody. Finally, 2008 returned to Ariel’s past in The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginnings, in which the heroine challenged a ban her father had placed on music.
The Little Mermaid characters have also guest-starred in shows, movies, and games. Sebastian, for instance, appeared in the Disney cartoons Raw Toonage and its spin-off, Marsupilami.
8 Ariel’s Voice Actress Has Played Many Other Famous Roles… Including Barbie
Ariel may be Jodi Benson’s signature role, yet she has also voiced several other notable characters. She played the titular lead in Thumbelina, Tula in Pirates of Dark Water and Aquagirl in Batman Beyond. She also provided the voice for robot Weebo in Flubber.
Additionally, Benson voiced two famous Mattel dolls, including P.J. Sparkles and, most famously Barbie. She has played Barbie for Disney since Toy Story 2, but actually began voicing the character in the non-Disney short Dance! Workout with Barbie, which also featured a young Jennifer Love Hewitt. For Disney, Benson also played Helen of Troy in the Hercules cartoon.
7 Pat Carroll Played Ursula And Her Sister, Morgana
The Little Mermaid’s villain, Ursula, quickly became beloved thanks to the spectacular performance of her voice actress, Pat Carroll. It was so memorable that imagining future installments of Ariel’s story without the fan-favorite antagonist and her actress seemed criminal, even though Ursula had been killed off in the original movie. The first sequel, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, devised a clever workaround by bringing back Carroll as Ursula’s sister, Morgana.
Equally cruel and theatrical, Morgana immediately established herself as a worthy successor to her evil sister by using the life of Ariel’s daughter, Melody, as a bargaining chip for Poseidon’s trident.
6 Splash Nearly Led To A Blonde Ariel… And An Unproduced Sequel Nearly Got The Movie Cancelled
The Little Mermaid is arguably Disney’s most famous movie about mermaids, but it wasn’t the first. That honor goes to Splash, the 1984 live-action movie starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Splash created a specific image for mermaids in certain viewers’ heads, including Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who originally felt Ariel, like Splash's mermaid Madison, should be blonde.
Splash’s success had led Disney to start developing a sequel right around the time The Little Mermaid was pitched by co-writer Ron Clements. Thankfully, the strength of Clements’ treatment convinced Katzenberg to produce The Little Mermaid regardless of similarities, while the Splash sequel was eventually dropped.
5 Some Scenes Were Inspired By Work From Night On Bald Mountain’s Designer
Before the version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid that everyone knows existed, another, much shorter variation of the story had been in the works as part of the movie The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. The unfinished biopic would have included short animated adaptations of several Andersen works, including the author’s famous mermaid short story.
After the people working on the full-length version of The Little Mermaid learned about the shelved project, they used imagery from drawings Kay Nielsen, designer of Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” had made for the biopic’s “The Little Mermaid” segment, especially during the storm scene where Ariel rescued Prince Eric.
4 The Music Was Co-Written By The Creators Who Made Little Shop Of Horrors A Musical
The Little Mermaid is often cited as having brought a Broadway sensibility to Disney’s animated movies, and with good reason. Howard Ashman (who had worked with Jodi Benson in the play Smile) and Alan Menken had taken the Roger Corman-directed film The Little Shop of Horrors and turned it into a popular musical, for which Ashman also wrote the script.
At Disney, Ashman worked on several movies, starting with Oliver & Company, and reunited with Menken to create an award-winning score for The Little Mermaid. Ashman also rewrote some key moments with Sebastian, along with the scene where Triton transforms Ariel’s tail into legs.
3 Sebastian’s Actor Was Also Mufasa In The Lion King Musical
Many people involved in The Little Mermaid came from the world of Broadway, including Howard Ashman, Jodi Benson and Samuel E. Wright, the last of who played the role of Sebastian. Wright used his skills as a musical stage performer to not only make Sebastian one of the movie’s most memorable characters (even ad-libbing a number of lines), but he also went on to portray another Disney icon, Mufasa, in the Broadway theater production of The Lion King.
Wright also played other animated movie roles for Disney. In 2000’s Dinosaur, he voiced the Iguanadon Kron, a more confrontational character than Sebastian.
2 Ariel Was Based On Sally Ride, Sherri Stone and Alyssa Milano, While Ursula Was Inspired By Divine
Ariel’s design has several inspirations, including animator Glen Keane’s wife, Linda. To convincingly depict Ariel underwater, Disney referenced space footage of astronaut Sally Ride and brought in actress and writer Sherri Stoner, who would swim in a tank so animators could recreate her movements and mannerisms. Alyssa Milano also inspired Ariel’s look, and would host The Making of ‘The Little Mermaid’ special herself on the Disney Channel. Years later, Milano played a mermaid on-screen in the Charmed two-part episode “A Witch’s Tail.”
The film’s villain, Ursula, was also based on a celebrity, namely drag performer Divine, who famously played Edna Turnblad in 1988’s Hairspray.
1 It Launched The Disney Renaissance
Walt Disney Animation Studios had an uneven output in the years just before The Little Mermaid’s release. 1985’s The Great Mouse Detective was relatively successful, but 1984’s The Black Cauldron had not lived up to expectations. Oliver & Company had made more money in its theatrical run than any past Disney animated picture, but critics’ reactions were mixed.
The Little Mermaid, however, was a financial and critical success, earning more than Oliver & Company and inspiring a decade of animated hits. Especially notable was 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, the first animated movie to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
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