The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid (1989)
Directed by	John Musker Ron Clements
Produced by	John Musker Howard Ashman
Written by	John Musker Ron Clements
Starring	Jodi Benson Christopher Daniel Barnes Pat Carrol Samuel E. Wright Ben Wright Kenneth Mars Paddi Edwards Buddy Hacket Jason Marin René Auberjonois
Music by	Alan Menken Howard Ashman
Editing by	Mark Hester
Distributed by	Buena Vistas Pictures Distribution
Release date(s)	November 17, 1989
Running time	83 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Gross revenue	$235 million
Preceded by	The Little Mermaid (TV Series)
Followed by	The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

The Little Mermaid was a Disney animated film from 1989 based off the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name from 1837. It received much praise from critics and audiences, and it’s success launched Disney into what fans call the “Renaissance era.”

Plot

The 16 year old mermaid Ariel is very interested in the human world, and she spends a lot of her free time exploring ship wrecks, and collecting human objects, and placing them in her grotto of treasures. Her father Triton however, hates humans, and forbids Ariel from going to the surface to see them. After Ariel sings “Part of Your World,” she sees a ship, so she surfaces, and sees fireworks. Exited, she swims to the ship despite Sebastian telling her not to do so. She climbs upward to see what the humans are doing, and she sees them dancing, and she then encounters a dog named Max. Max likes her, and licks her to show affection, but his owner calls for him, and it’s a Prince named Eric. Ariel thinks he’s handsome, and smiles at him. Later, Eric’s advisor and steward Sir Grimsby shows him a statue of Eric, which he and Max don’t like that much. Grimsby tells Eric that he planned to show it to him when he got married, to which Eric says he hasn’t found the right girl yet saying she’s out there somewhere which gets Ariel’s face to light up. Then, a storm hits. The ship’s crew evacuate, but Max is still aboard. Eric risks his life to go save him, which he does, but his foot gets stuck in the wood, and the gunpowder gets set on fire, and the whole ship explodes knocking him out. Ariel then finds him, and swims him to shore saving his life. She then sings to him, which wakes him up, but she leaves almost right away due to Max and Grimsby finding Eric alive and well. Eric says a girl saved his life, but Grimsby says that’s nonsense.

Ariel then happily sings to herself which her sisters point out to her father that Ariel is in love which gets Triton to smile. Ariel the plans to see Eric again, but Sebastian sings “Under the Sea” to convince her that her life is good down here, and it would be a mistake to leave it. Flounder then tells Ariel there’s a surprise for her in the grotto, which he happily leaves Sebastian singing by himself. After the song, he’s informed that he needs to speak with Triton, and he thinks he knows what happened that night. He spills the beans, which makes Triton furious. Ariel sees the surprise, and it’s the Eric statue which she loves very much. However, Triton is there and tells Ariel that she should have let Eric die. After Ariel shouts out that she loves him, Triton destroys the grotto in a rage. It devastates Ariel, and even Triton has some regret. This is the opportunity Ursula needs to manipulate Ariel into giving her what she wants. Ariel then goes to Ursula’s lair, and tells off Sebastian due to him telling her father what happened. Ariel meets Ursula, and she tells her that she can turn her human, but she’ll have to get Eric to give her true livens kiss by sunset on the third day, or else she’s Ursula’s slave. Ursula also brings up that Ariel will have to give her her voice. Despite the lopsided deal, Ariel reluctantly signed the contract, and she gets a pair of legs.

At the surface, Eric is still looking for the girl who saved him, and seems that he won’t rest until he does so. As for Ariel, she is very happy to have legs, and she meets Eric almost right away. Despite not being convinced she’s the girl who saved him, Eric takes Ariel into his home, cleans her up, and gets her a change of clothes. Grimsby seeing an opportunity for Eric to find love, advises Eric to give Ariel a tour of the Kingdom, and Ariel gladly accepts the offer. She has a great time, and all is left to do is get Eric to kiss her to fulfill her end of the bargain she made with Ursula. It fails due to Ursula’s pet eels knocking the canoe over. Eric is still trying to find the girl who saved him, but he’s not as enthusiastic about it. Grimsby walks up to him, and says that a warm and sweet girl of flesh and blood is better than a dream girl. Eric looks at Ariel from her tower, and smiles at her. He looks back at the flute he used on the ship to find the girl, and he throws it into the sea. He’s about to go tell Ariel how he feels, but Ursula in a disguise and using Ariel’s voice hypnotizes Eric into marrying her.

The next morning, Ariel is heartbroken. She knows she’ll be Ursula’s slave for the rest of her life, but after Scuttle informs her that Ursula is in disguise, she and her friends crash the wedding, while Sebastian goes and informs Triton. Ursula’s magic necklace breaks, and not only is Ariel’s voice restored, the hypnosis on Eric breaks. The couple is about to kiss, but it’s too late. Ariel goes back to being a mermaid, and Ursula kidnaps her to use her as a bargaining chip. Triton then confronts Ursula, but not even the King of the Sea can break the contract. So he agrees to take Ariel’s place, but now, Ursula is Queen of the Sea, and is about to kill Ariel, but Eric risks his life to find Ariel and rescue her. It ends with sunken ships resurfacing, and Eric gets on one of them, and impales Ursula killing her. It restores Triton and all the other merpeople who fell victim to her deception. Triton recognizes that he was wrong about humans as not only did a human risk his life to save his daughter, but himself, and dozens of other merpeople. So he turns Ariel human, she then goes to Eric, the two kiss for real, they marry, and live happily ever after.

Cast

Jodi Benson as Ariel

Christopher Daniel Barnes as Eric

Pat Carrol as Ursula

Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian

Ben Wright as Grimsby

Kenneth Mars as Triton

Paddi Edwards as Flotsam and Jetsam

Buddy Hacket as Scuttle

Jason Marin as Flounder

René Auberjonois as Louis

Production

Co-director Ron Clements brought this up with Studio Chairman Jeffery Katzenberg, but he rejected it due to being too similar to the 1984 hit Splash, which had talks of a sequel at the time. After a repitch, Katzenberg gave the film the green light. He also planned to cut “Part of Your World,” despite John Musker, Ron Clements, Alan Menken, and Howard Ashman telling him it’s a bad idea. Katzenberg didn’t listen, and was ready to make the move, but Ariel animator Glen Keane convinced him otherwise, and it stayed in the film. Now, the song is recognized as one of the best Disney songs ever.

Originally, Ursula was not supposed to grow to giant size at the end, and Ariel doesn’t get her voice back until after Ursula is killed. Ursula was going to be more physical after she dropped the trident after Ariel attacked her, and Eric was supposed to get it from Sebastian, and throw it into Ursula’s chest. Katzenberg ordered for the ending to be changed because he wanted it to be like Die Hard.

Themes

Traditional marriage is portrayed very positively for a post Ron Miller Disney film. As Ariel’s desire to go on an adventure was great, and served as a motivation to be human, she did want to be with Eric, and was happy to be with him for their screentime together. As for Eric’s role in the relationship, his goal was to marry the girl who saved him, but slowly started to love Ariel. He ultimately made the decision to leave the girl who saved him in his dreams, and marry Ariel, but Ursula hypnotized him. After the hypnosis was broken, Eric quickly decided to risk his life to save Ariel despite him now knowing she’s a mermaid.

Feminism is there however as the 16 year old Ariel thinks she knows better than her much older father, and Ariel goes to the surface again after her father forbids her to do so. Although even after the grotto’s destruction, she still cares about her father, and reluctantly signed Ursula’s contract.

One may argue that homosexual co-producer and lyricist Howard Ashman tried to put his personal life into the songs of the movie most notably with “Part of Your World” but the villain Ursula was not only based off the infamous Drag Queen Divine, but was also portrayed in a very demonic way, and was shown to lie and cheat in order to win despite Ariel playing by the rules for the bargain.

Though not a major plot point, the world Eric lives in is shown to be Christian as a bishop blesses Eric and Ursula’s failed wedding and is implied he did it again for Eric and Ariel’s successful one. And with the rules of the human world, Ariel is implied to have converted to Christianity.

Sequels and Prequels

The Little Mermaid was the first Renaissance era Disney movie to receive a TV Series which ran from 1992-1994. Many themes from the 1989 movie stayed with the show with many of the original voice actors/actresses returning. In 2000, The Little Mermaid received a straight to video sequel called “The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea” where Ariel and Eric are shown to have a daughter named Melody. In 2008, The Little Mermaid received a straight to video prequel with character traits regarding Ariel’s love for the human world missing, and it was the last straight to video Disney film. Also in 2008, The Little Mermaid got a Broadway musical with many new songs written by Glenn Slater. There will also be a live action remake set for release on May 26, 2023.