Ursula

**Ursula** (also known as the **Sea Witch**) is the main antagonist of *The Little Mermaid*. She is a villainous cecelia (half-woman, half-octopus) who strikes deals with unfortunate merfolk with the promise of making their dreams come true. Ursula’s contracts, however, are covertly designed to advance her own ambitions and cause general misery. In the past, Ursula was a resident of King Triton’s palace, before being banished and exiled by order of the king. Scorned, she has since vowed to exact vengeance by harnessing the power of the king's trident and installing herself as ruler of all the ocean. Ursula’s fervent confidence and theatricality have been met with critical praise, and have influenced villains that followed. She has since featured prominently as a primary member of the *Disney Villains* line-up.

## Background

Ursula belongs to a race of creatures known as Cecaelia. She states through a monologue that she once lived in the royal palace of King Triton, the king of the underwater city of Atlantica. She boasts that her previous life was lavish and included such spoils as "fantastical feasts." Power-hungry and devilish, even in the past, Ursula garnered a disreputable reputation amongst underwater dwellers. She was widely known as the "Sea Witch", an alias she accepted in stride.

Ursula's greed and use of dark magic led to her banishment. By orders of the king, Ursula was exiled from Atlantica and made her home in the remains of a leviathan lined with a garden of writhing polyps. These polyps were merfolk who had previously gone to Ursula for help but found themselves unable to fulfill their side of the bargain, leading Ursula to claim them as her own and adding them to her collection. Ursula laments her distaste for her living conditions, despite having maintained all of her powerful black magic. From her secluded lair, she awaits the chance to get her revenge on Triton and become Queen of Atlantica by stealing the king's trident, an extremely powerful weapon that grants its user control over the seas and its foils. Ursula is aided by her two moray eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, whom she refers to as her "babies".

### Personality

By nature, Ursula was very dark in tone, with a wicked sense of humor. After her banishment from Atlantica, the sea witch established herself as a physical beacon of hope towards unfortunate merpeople, allowing them to strike deals and business propositions that would supposedly result in their happiness, should they successfully fulfill their end of the bargain. During such deals, she speaks in a grandmotherly tone, as if her only concern is the satisfaction of her customers. This makes her schemes easier to fall for, though should she feel a deal is going nowhere, she resorts to pressuring her victims into accepting her offer, additionally portraying herself as their last attempt at making their dreams come true. However, if Ariel's deal is to be believed, Ursula sadistically ensures her customers fail at upholding their end of the deal, resulting in their souls being forever in her possessions and their bodies becoming permanent members of her living garden, as polyps. The motivation of such practices are never revealed for any individual other than Ariel, whom Ursula uses to obtain power over the seas, implying the sea witch simply enjoys causing havoc to the innocent, having no sense of true morality or remorse for those she torments. Apart from this, Ursula may also be cannibalistic, as she was seen eating some sort of tiny sea creature alive.

Ursula was vengeful, holding a vendetta against King Triton for a prolonged period of time, spending her days spying on his relatives to eventually take advantage of them and concoct a scheme capable of ending in her favor - as ruler of the seas. This also ties into Ursula's power-hungry nature, which drives her motivation throughout the film, and is greatly expressed once she finally crowns herself queen during the climax.

Despite Ursula's irredeemable traits, she had a softer side, as seen in her relationship between herself and her minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula lovingly refers to the duo as her "babies" and has been seen to treat them with affection, despite barking orders at the two from time to time when enraged. She was also extremely protective of them, even expressing her (genuine) remorse over killing them with the trident by accident before turning their rage towards Ariel for causing it in the first place. In the TV series, however, she does abuse her minions for failure at times.

Ursula was classy, despite being flamboyant, and presents herself with confidence and an eye for high standards, as evidenced by her belief that lurking in doorways was rude, in addition, she regularly flaunts her curvaceous appearance in a sultry manner, and spends time in her vanity, admiring her own physical appearance. She had the power to alter her appearance, but simply chooses not to, demonstrated contentment with who she was as a person, but distaste with her social status and lack of complete power over the ocean.

Despite Ursula's intelligent and calculating traits, she was extremely arrogant to the point of underestimating her opponents. For example, when she used the trident to transform herself into a giant (which made her an easy target), she did not consider Eric a threat due to her having the trident in her possession and being in her giant form. This proved to be a fatal mistake; by the time she realized she had underestimated him, it was too late, as Eric had (mortally) impaled her seconds before she could react.

These negative traits of her were what eventually led to Ursula's painful yet deserved/justified death at the hands of Eric.

In the original film, it is left ambiguous whether she actually realized she was evil, although some extension media such as the Disney Villains book has Ursula making clear that she is not only aware of her more infamous reputation among the merfolk, but fully agreed with their assessment.

### Physical appearance

Ursula is a plump light lavender-skinned, white-haired cecaelia and from the waist down has six black octopus-like tentacles with violet suckers. Although she has a light complexion, the area around Ursula's eyes is a darker shade than the rest of her skin, in addition to having gray eyes and a mole on the right side of her mouth. She is always seen wearing makeup, in particular, she has aqua eye shadow, deep red lipstick, and red nails. She wears purple coral shell earrings and a gold nautilus shell necklace.

Her alter-ego, Vanessa, is a fair-skinned human female with long wavy brown hair and pink lips. Unlike Ursula, Vanessa's eyes are violet instead of gray. She appears in a lavender dress with a purple corset.

### Powers and abilities

Ursula's magical abilities, even without the Trident, were very potent. She was able to concoct various potions to create various spells, including mass-transfer (implied during the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls") as well as physically altering people's bodies, as evidenced by her transforming Ariel into a human, as well as her own transformation into Vanessa and Ursula (although in the case of Vanessa, she needed Ariel's voice to disguise her own). However, she was incapable of altering her reflection, which is eventually how her enemies got the drop on her. It is also implied that she was capable of generating storms and may have electrokinetic abilities even prior to gaining the trident, since storm clouds were generated the very second the sunset on the third day, and she utilized lightning bolts from the storm clouds to transform back into her original form. When it comes to physical powers, Ursula possesses Superhuman Strength, though not as strong as Triton, yet strong enough to throw a mermaid towards a rock, as what she did to Ariel in the alternate ending of the movie.

She was also capable of creating poisonous ink clouds which could absorb the energy of the Trident and enhance Ursula's power. Her most dangerous ability, however, was her ability to turn people into polyps should they fail to fulfill their end of the bargain via contracts, having done so multiple times under unspecified circumstances, nearly did so with Ariel, and successfully did so with Triton. It's also implied that she absorbs their souls while transforming them into polyps, making herself more powerful in the process. Likewise, once the contract is made, it is indestructible even to someone as powerful as Triton.

Presumably, this arcane power is one-way, as she does not end up becoming a polyp for failing to fulfill her end of the contract. In fact, the only way to completely stop a contract short of fulfilling it is via her death, as evidenced when the polyps turned back into merpeople by the aftermath of her death at the hands of Prince Eric.

## Appearances

### *The Little Mermaid*

When Ursula first appears in the film, she secretly watches over King Triton's youngest daughter, Ariel, believing her to be "the key to Triton's undoing". With time, Ursula's assumptions are proven correct, as Ariel one day meets and falls in love with a human prince, named Eric, against Triton's explicit rules. Ursula commands Flotsam and Jetsam to lure Ariel to her lair, claiming that only she can help make the princess' dreams of living on the surface, beside her apparent true love, a reality. Through the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula proposes an agreement where she will transform Ariel into a human for three days, during which Ariel must receive the "kiss of true love" from Eric. If Ariel succeeds, her transformation into a human will be permanent, but if she fails, she will turn back into a mermaid and be bound to Ursula for eternity. The price for the transformation is Ariel's voice (which Ursula will keep no matter what happens), saying that Eric and other men prefer for women to never speak or sing and a voice is useless in a romantic relationship—in other words, women are to be quiet in the presence of a man and that men repulse at the hearing of a woman's "constant blabber, gossip and idle prattle". Despite her reluctance, Ariel agrees and signs an unbreakable contract that Ursula has conjured.

As Ursula orders Ariel to sing, the sea witch summons magical hands to rip out Ariel's voice, which is then magically pulled into Ursula's Nautilus shell necklace. She then laughs gleefully as Ariel is transformed into a human and is taken ashore by her friends Flounder and Sebastian. During the time that Ariel is a human and must win a kiss from Eric in order to remain human permanently, Ursula takes every measure to prevent the kiss from occurring, such as when Flotsam and Jetsam tip over the boat in which Ariel and Eric are sitting on as the two are close to kissing. Fearing that Ariel and Eric may actually fall in love and share a kiss before the deadline, Ursula decides to take matters into her own tentacles. With intent to sabotage Ariel's relationship with Eric, Ursula takes the form of a beautiful human female with Ariel's voice. Under the alias "Vanessa", Ursula bewitches Eric to marry her. However, Ariel's seagull companion, Scuttle, discovers Ursula's villainy and quickly alerts Ariel and Sebastian, who rushes off to alert the king.

Before she can completely misdirect Eric into marrying her, Scuttle is able to stall the wedding for the time being and, in the chaos, destroy the Nautilus shell containing Ariel's voice, which breaks the enchantment and returning Ariel's voice back to its rightful owner. However, the sun sets before Ariel and Eric can kiss and Ariel changes back into a mermaid. Ursula, restored to her normal form, grabs Ariel and jumps back into the sea, where she is confronted by King Triton. Ursula reveals her true goal and forces Triton to choose between his freedom and his daughter's. Triton agrees to take Ariel's place, and once Triton is transformed into a polyp, Ursula takes his crown and trident. Furious with Ursula's trickery, Ariel attacks the sea witch, who immediately retaliates and threatens to destroy the former with the power of the trident. Before she can, Ursula is attacked with a harpoon by Prince Eric. Flotsam and Jetsam are sent to capture the prince and successfully do so while dragging him down into the sea. Ursula readies a killing shot for Eric, but Ariel grabs hold of her hair, thus redirecting the blast towards Flotsam and Jetsam—killing them.

Saddened and enraged by the death of her minions, Ursula seeks vengeance on Ariel and magically alters herself to a massive size. With her new form, Ursula declares herself as ruler of the entire ocean and creates a powerful storm. Eric takes control of a surfaced ship while Ursula's attention is on Ariel. As Ursula wickedly taunts the idea of "true love" and prepares to kill Ariel using the power of the trident, Eric impales the sea witch by plunging his ship's splintered bow through her heart. As Ursula screams in pain, the bow catches lightning, brutally electrocuting her body. Once Ursula loses her last ounce of life, she drops dead onto the ship and sinks into the sea as her dismembered body remains fall to the ocean floor. After Ursula's fate was sealed, all the merfolk that have had been under her power, including Triton, are released from their bonds and transform back into their true forms and with Ursula and her minions gone for good, Ariel was able to become human again, allowing her and Eric to kiss for the very first time, marry, and live happily ever after.

### *The Little Mermaid: The Series*

Ursula appears as the main villain of the *Little Mermaid* prequel television series, (which takes place one year prior to her death in the original film). The episodes she appears in are "Against the Tide", "Tail of Two Crabs", "Heroes", and "Ariel's Treasures". In all of these episodes, she executes various plans to antagonize King Triton and take over Atlantica.

In "Against the Tide", Ursula has been experiencing failures in her most recent magic spells. She believes it to be the work of an odd sea creature that is said to cause bad luck whenever it's around. Ursula decides to destroy the creature, but Ariel rescues it, as she believes it to be harmless. Eventually, the creature's whereabouts have been located at Triton's palace, and Ursula invades the palace during King Triton's homecoming. She prepares to eliminate the beast by using the stolen magic of the trident, though Sebastian was clever enough to make a makeshift version of the creature, and trick Ursula into destroying it instead. With the beast supposedly gone, Ursula departs.

In "Tail of Two Crabs", Ursula takes advantage of Sebastian's jealousy towards his rival Zeus the Crab, by transforming into Sebastian's "Fairy God Crab". She offers him a wish if he can recover a rare artifact holding great power. Sebastian delivers, and Ursula is able to turn King Triton, Flounder, and Ariel into sea worms. Luckily, Zeus is able to subdue Ursula and revert her curse.

In "Heroes", Apollo, a legendary hero who once saved Atlantica from Ursula and her army of octopi, returns to Atlantica, just when Ursula decides to revive her old army in an attempt to dominate Atlantica once more. Like the previous battle, however, Apollo prevails with the help of the fire-breathing Sea Dragon. It is also implied in this episode that the reason behind her exile was because she tried to create copies of the Trident, referred to as dark tridents, for the aforementioned army against Atlantica.

Lastly in "Ariel's Treasures", Ursula enchants the human items in Ariel's grotto, in an attempt to wreak havoc on Atlantica.

### *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*

Ursula doesn't actually appear in this direct-to-video sequel, but she makes a cameo and is mentioned various times, mostly by her sister Morgana, also a Cecelia (who has eight tentacles instead of Ursula's six).

Ursula, herself, can be seen in a picture within Morgana's lair. Interestingly, she serves as the driving force for Morgana's story arc, though not exactly in the sense of revenge. Rather, Morgana feels eliminating Triton and stealing the throne would prove her superiority over her sister, as the former spent most of her life in Ursula's shadow.

At the end of the film, after Morgana is imprisoned frozen in an iceberg and forced to sink to the darkest depths of the sea, the framed picture of Ursula makes one last appearance, sinking alongside her.

In the deleted, yet fully animated song "Gonna Get My Wish", a younger Ursula makes a brief appearance in the form of a flashback, alongside Morgana and their mother. The scene also gives a visual representation of Ursula's past and relationship with Morgana. In their youth, Ursula wears a purple bow tied to her hair.

### *House of Mouse*

Despite her death in the film, Ursula made numerous cameos in the series *House of Mouse*, often seen alone or with Ariel.

In "Ask Von Drake", she was seen popping out of Ariel's giant shell during Ludwig Von Drake's song.

In "Pete's House of Villains", she replaced Daisy at her desk after Pete took over.

In "Jiminy Cricket", Jiminy gives Ariel advice resulting into taking her voice back from Ursula. Her mode of transportation was seen as a wave vehicle.

At the end of "Max's Embarrassing Date", Ursula is seen in an advertisement attempting to steal the voice of Max Goof's girlfriend Roxanne.

In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", Ursula was one of the many guests to be annoyed when the Pink Elephants are briefly released.

She was also part of the all-female guest list in the episode "Ladies' Night".

In the episode "House of Crime", Goofy interrogates Vanessa, asking if she has seen any disguised villains. She silently shakes her head and then transforms back into Ursula when Goofy leaves her table.

Ursula was also one of the lead villains in *Mickey's House of Villains* and was seen in *Mickey's Magical Christmas*, telling Mickey that she wants his voice for Christmas.

### Other appearances

Ursula appears in the *Hercules: Animated series* episode, "Hercules and the Bacchanal" as she tries to sell perfume to Hercules and Hermes.

## Trivia

* Ursula's species is a cecaelia (a half-person (usually woman)/half-octopus).
	+ In the TV show, however, her species was referred to as Octopid.
* As her death scene reveals, Ursula actually appears to have a skeleton, despite having a lower body of an octopus (as octopuses are cephalopods and do not have bones).
* In the original story, Ursula (simply known as "the Sea Witch") was not malevolent, but rather neutral. She was also a minor character only appearing once. In the film, while she was a cecaelia she is not an animal but rather hideously ugly. In the film, she never met Ariel's sisters but in the original story, she did.
* Despite being half-octopus, Ursula only has six tentacles. However, if her arms are counted as limbs as well, then she actually does have eight limbs altogether.
* Although Ursula is usually depicted with light lavender skin, her appearance as a child in both the family photo and the song "Gonna Get My Wish" indicated that her natural skin color was actually light green colored similar to Morgana and their mother.
* Saleen, a villainess from the *Aladdin* TV series, had her design based on Ursula's old concept art.
* Ursula's blood's color is dark blue like cephalopods, as shown briefly when Eric's Harpoon scratches her arm, but appears black due to how dark it was.
* The final battle with Ursula was intended to play out very differently than in the final film. First, Ariel initially succeeds in getting herself out of Ursula's grip, only for Flotsam and Jetsam to retrieve her. Also, she was to have accidentally killed Flotsam and Jetsam without any feelings of remorse or horror at what she had done, and her manner of death involved being impaled with the Trident by Eric before he passes out. The reason for the change was because Jeffrey Katzenberg had seen the Bruce Willis action thriller film *Die Hard* during the film's development, and advised that they "make the ending more like *Die Hard*." On a related note, Ariel's voice was to be released to her after Ursula was killed.
* In the book *Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files*, it's revealed that Ursula was originally more slender in her youth and got to the size she's seen with in the film due to overindulging on the gourmet meals at the palace. The musical also makes it clear that the lavish meals are what she misses most about her old life.
* In one of the *Little Mermaid* stories, "Reflections of Arsulu", Ursula disguises herself as Arsulu (an anagram of her original name), a beautiful blonde mermaid with a red tail and magenta shells. She does this in order to gain entry to Atlantica, where she causes a great deal of discord. Ariel finds out about her whole plan and uses a mirror and a flock of goldfish to foil Ursula's plan by showing her family Arsulu's real reflection.
* Ursula is the only female villain to come from the Disney Renaissance, and is the first and only Disney Princess movie villain created after Walt Disney's lifetime until Mother Gothel from *Tangled* in 2010.
* Ursula's addressing Ariel's problem was paraphrased by the unemployment clerk in *An Extremely Goofy Movie* when suggesting that a then-recently-fired Goofy return to college.
* Ursula become Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of The Little Mermaid.*
* Ursula guest star to get revenge on Thomas, Twilight and their friends for ruining her plans to take over Atlantica and get revenge on King Triton for banishing her.

## Gallery

Ursula's human disguise: VanessaUrsula's deathUrsula in The Little Mermaid series.Ursula's picture that Morgana hangs on her wall.Ursula in Mickey's House of Villains.Ursula's first appearance in the shadows of her throne.Ursula tells Flotsam and Jetsam to watch Ariel.Ursula's in glee when she finds out Ariel fell in love with a human.Ursula and Morgana as children.Ursula showing off her, "slender, sleek, physique."Surf's up dudette.The gang's got Mickey and Minnie in a bind.MIckey's gang vs a group of powerful jerks.Ursula's got the house along with her villainous pals.Ursula and some other villains plan for a special night at the House of Mouse.Ursula holds Minnie helpless.Ursula and Kaa have Minnie all wrapped up.The gang's all together (sans Jafar, fighting Mickey).Ursula with Cruella in the House of MouseUrsula with Cruella De Vil, Jafar, Iago and Captain HookUrsula getting fired by PeteUrsula with her sister, Morgana