Ursula (Disney)

**Ursula the Sea Witch** (simply known as **Ursula**) is the main antagonist of Disney's 28th full-length animated feature film, *The Little Mermaid*, and one of the secondary antagonists in *Mickey's House of Villains*.

She is loosely based upon the sea witch in the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of the same name.

She was voiced by Pat Carroll in all of her appearances, who also voiced Ursula's sister, Morgana.

## Personality

By nature, Ursula is very dark and mysterious 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 fulfil their end of the bargain. During such deals, she speaks in a grandmotherly tone, as if her only concern is the pleasant 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 acquisitive and cannibalistic, as she is seen eating some sort of tiny sea creature alive.

She is also very nasty, vengeful, and acrimonious, 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 the oppressive ruler of the seas. This also ties into Ursula's duplicitous, power-hungry, and manipulative nature, which drives her motivation throughout the film, and is greatly expressed once she finally crowns herself queen during the climax.

Despite her irredeemably negative and antipathetic traits, Ursula has a softer side to her personality, seen with her relationship between herself and her minions, Flotsam and Jetsam. Ursula lovingly refers to the duo as her "babies" and has been shown to treat them with affection, despite barking orders at the two from time to time when enraged. She is also extremely protective and sympathetic of them, even expressing her remorse over killing them with the trident by accident before driving herself into a murderous state towards Ariel for causing it in the first place.

Despite being flamboyant and enthusiastic, she is also very classy, vivacious, and ostentatious, as she presents herself with confidence and an eye for high standards, as evidenced by her belief that lurking in doorways is 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 has the power to alter her appearance, but simply chooses not to, showing contentment with who she is as a person, but distaste with her social status and lack of complete power over the ocean.

## Trivia

* The name of Ursula's human disguise, "Vanessa", is derived from the Latin word "Vanitas", meaning "Vanity", "Worthlessness", "Emptiness" and "Nothingness".
* In an original draft for The Little Mermaid, Vanessa's role in the plot was quite different than in the final version. Originally, Eric proposed to Vanessa willingly after he discovered that she had the voice he was looking for, although he later had second thoughts at the actual wedding, when Vanessa intimidated him into saying "I do". Also, Vanessa was originally supposed to wear a scarf in order to ensure that her identity as Ursula was safe (as it hid her nautilus) when meeting people up close (such as Ariel).
* She is one of many villains who is an all-encompassing force.
* The attack on her was actually much different in the original version, as Scuttle and the various aquatic fauna did not start attacking her and the ship until just before the priest could pronounce them Husband and Wife. While fighting off the animals, Vanessa also nearly hinted that she was never who she claimed she was so she faked fear at a suspicious Eric. Scuttle, in this version, also decided to exploit the fact that Vanessa's true form can be revealed from her reflection by airlifting the mirror from the bridesroom over to her and positioning it near her, but she caught on and destroyed it before he could get into position. However, her reflection was already exposed from water seeping onto the deck from the animals, thus giving away who she really was to Eric. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Vanessa still kept Ariel's voice, though for some reason, she was unable to use it anymore.
* At one point while Vanessa was being harassed by Scuttle, she yells angrily "Oh, why you little!" and strangles Scuttle in a very similar manner to Homer and Bart in The Simpsons (Coincidentally, both The Little Mermaid and the first Simpsons episode were released in 1989).
* Her name is never revealed in the film before the wedding; Often in storybooks, she is known as "The Maiden".
* Vanessa is one of four Disney characters to possess violet eyes, the other three being Aurora, Megara and Doctor Facilier. On a related note, Vanessa was also the first villain to possess purple eyes, eventually being succeeded by Facilier.
* In the official comic adaptation, Vanessa was shown multiple times singing in Ariel's voice without the necklace hanging around her neck, implying that she does not need the necklace to speak in Ariel's voice so long as the necklace is not destroyed.
* Ursula is the first major Disney villain to have his/her own song all to his/herself. While the villain songs before her were either sung by the henchman (The Siamese Cat Song, The World's Greatest Criminal Mind and The Elegant Captain Hook), The "funny/incompetent" villains (The Magnificent Marvelous Mad Madam Mim, Hi Diddle Dee Dee, Who's Been Painting My Roses Red and Trust in Me), or the heroes who were against the villains (Cruella De Vil and The Phony King of England), while the "serious/non-comedic" villains (The Evil Queen, The Coachman, Chernabog, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Madame Medusa, The Horned King, Bill Sykes, etc.) never sang at all.
* In Once Upon A Time, Ursula is the goddess of the sea who gives mermaids the ability to walk for twelve hours from high tide till high tide once a year. She never makes contact with Ariel, as the one who made a deal with Ariel was The Evil Queen masquerading as Ursula. However, she does make contact with the Evil Queen who had deeply offended her by the masquerade, and threatened to show the Queen how real she can actually be if she ever pretended to be her again.
* Ursula's death is by far one of the most cruel, brutal, violent, merciless, and destructive ones in the animated Disney film, with her being impaled and electrocuted on-screen. Also, what appears to be pieces of her are shown sinking to the bottom of the sea (along with the trident) afterward.