Lagoon Residents

The Lagoon Residents are characters from the 1989 Disney animated feature film The Little Mermaid.
==Background==
The animals who live in the lagoon mostly consist of animals that can be found in lakes or swamps, consisting mainly of ducks, flamingos, cranes, pelicans, swallows, as well as crickets, frogs, and fireflies. They are shown to have a kind personality to Sebastian who tells them to serenade Ariel and Eric in an attempt to kiss them. However, at one point, it is shown that they dislike Scuttle's terrible singing, as indicated when Scuttle tries to join in only for the flamingos to stop his terrible singing. Later, despite Scuttle's terrible singing, they even followed Scuttle in a plan to help him stop the wedding between Eric and Vanessa.
==Appearances==
===The Little Mermaid===
When Scuttle calls for a vocal romantic stimulation for Eric and Ariel, he lands on a branch where a group of swallows are standing, which the birds make way for Scuttle, much to his terrible singing; Sebastian plans to create a romantic song for the couple. During the musical number "Kiss the Girl", Sebastian plans to add music to serenade Ariel and Eric just as Sebastian conducts some ducks using turtles as drums, crickets to use their legs as string instruments, and reeds to play wind music while he sings to Eric. As the three ducks sing in chorus with Sebastian, the latter sings with a flamingo while two more flamingos sing with him. Sebastian then tells a group of frogs to sing with him just as the frogs sitting on one of the oars sing in chorus in a plan for Eric to fall in love with Ariel, while Sebastian tells two pelicans and a turtle that Eric might not kiss her; Sebastian then tells Eric that whom he is falling in love with is Ariel in her human form.
Just as the song resumes, two cranes open a thicket of a willow tree while tadpoles happily leap, vocalizing just as more fish arrive and sing together. More fish, frogs, and tadpoles, as well as a squid and a sea turtle swim along to serenade Ariel, followed by fireflies flying and singing together with pelicans and fish joining along. Three flamingos then dance to the song as Scuttle tries to join in, but they silence his falsetto singing just as the fireflies and fish continue surrounding the couple. During the end of the song, frogs, swallows, a turtle, flamingos, and ducks are excited to see Ariel kissing Eric, only for Flotsam and Jetsam to knock the couple off the boat as part of Ursula's plans, causing the other animals to retreat.
Later in a plan to stall the wedding between Eric and Vanessa, Scuttle flies and calls the swallows and flamingos, followed by starfish, lobsters, dolphins, and seals following his orders. During the wedding between Vanessa and Eric, a flock of swallows fly into the ship where the wedding is taking place where they soar pass Vanessa as they frighten the guests in the wedding, followed by seals leaping onto the ship and pelicans deploying water with fish and lobsters, the one on Vanessa's head which pinches her nose, and later starfish swarming her body as the swallows continue flying past a bishop who is still talking, unaware of the birds flying around him, stalling the wedding. As the swallows continue to fly to scare away the wedding guests, Vanessa removed the lobster and starfish just before a group of seals leap onto the ship bounce Vanessa on their noses like a ball until she lands on the wedding cake just as the birds continue stalling the wedding, followed by three dolphins spraying water at Vanessa and later Scuttle squawking furiously at her and tried to get her seashell necklace containing Ariel's voice, which once removed and broken gave Ariel her voice back while Vanessa is suddenly revealed to be Ursula in disguise the whole time. The lagoon animals and the sea creatures suddenly retreat from Ursula. They do not appear again afterwards.
===The Little Mermaid (2023)===
The lagoon creatures appear in the 2023 reimagining of the classic film appearing during the musical number "Kiss the Girl". Unlike in the original film where they had more amounts of screen time, the lagoon creatures have a very small amount of screen time with Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian taking over their roles in certain scenes.
When Sebastian plans to create music to serenade Ariel and Eric, he interacts with several bamboo plants; Scuttle commands the lacewings to bring in string music; while Flounder commands a flock of pink ibises to bring in wind music just before Sebastian sings during the musical number "Kiss the Girl". During the part where Ariel and Eric attempt to kiss each other, Scuttle flies past the thicket of a willow tree to bring in fireflies while Flounder swims with a school of lagoon fish where the fireflies and fish surround the couple. However, Flotsam and Jetsam knock the couple off the boat as part of Ursula's plans. The lagoon animals do not appear in later scenes afterwards.
==Disney Parks==
===The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure===
The "Kiss the Girl" sequence appears throughout the climax of the attraction at California Adventure and the Magic Kingdom. In the scene, guests pass by two cranes who open a thicket of a willow tree, followed by Sebastian conducting ducks, frogs, and fish to help Ariel and Eric fall in love. Additionally, the light effect used for the fireflies also appears throughout the scene. Audio of the lagoon animals' vocals from the original film was reused in this scene.
==Trivia==
*In the Little Mermaid book which is part of the Walt Disney Treasure Chest collection, some of the birds from the lagoon that took part during the part where Scuttle plans to stall the wedding included not just swallows, flamingos, and pelicans, but also herons, ducks, and other seagulls as well whereas in the film, the only birds aside from Scuttle that took part during the plan to stall Vanessa's wedding included swallows, flamingos, and pelicans where they began pulling Vanessa's wedding gown as part of Scuttle's plans to save Ariel. The Walt Disney Treasure Chest: The Little Mermaid (page 13)
*A clip of Sebastian singing with a flamingo was later used in the "Disney Sing-Along Songs Theme Song" from 2003 to 2006.
==References==
Category:The Little Mermaid characters
Category:Ducks
Category:Turtles
Category:Grasshoppers and crickets
Category:Flamingos
Category:Frogs
Category:Insects
Category:Fish
Category:Pelicans
Category:Passeriformes
Category:Characters in the Disney animated features canon
Category:Disney characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Characters in Disney parks