Eric

### Voice

Christopher Daniel Barnes (original film, *Kingdom Hearts II*, and *Disney Dreamlight Valley*)
Jeff Bennett (TV series)
Rob Paulsen (*Return to the Sea*)

### Portrayed by

Sean Palmer
Drew Seeley
Gil McKinney
Graham Phillips
Jonah Hauer-King

### Inspiration

The Prince in the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Mark Hamill
John Stamos
Mel Gibson
Eric Larson

## Character information

### Likes

Sailing, the seas, fishing, explorations, his dog, playing the flute, romance, his family

### Dislikes

Storms, being forced to marry, Grimsby's nagging, losing his loved ones, pressure

## Family information

### Other relatives

King Triton (father-in-law)
Queen Athena † (mother-in-law)
Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina (sisters-in-law)
Crustacea (grandaunt-in-law)
Neptune † (great-grandfather-in-law)
Poseidon (grandfather-in-law)

### Partner(s)

Ariel (wife)
Vanessa † (ex-fiancée)

### Pets

Max (sheepdog)

 ―Eric

**Prince Eric** is the deuteragonist of Disney's 1989 animated feature film, *The Little Mermaid*.

Eric is a young, dashing prince of a seaside kingdom near the Mediterranean Sea, with a passion for sailing boats and exploring the oceans. In one of his voyages, specifically his birthday voyage, Eric was rescued from nearly drowning by a mysterious girl with a beautiful voice.

Eric immediately falls in love with the woman who rescued him and is determined to find this girl and make her his wife.

Eric's character is mainly based on the unnamed "prince" from the book that Hans Christian Andersen wrote for his book, "The Little Mermaid". But writer Roger Allers changed a few things for the Disney film.

Prince Eric is the fourth Disney prince (first being Florian, Prince Charming, and Prince Phillip.

## Background

Despite being born into a royal family, Eric is a well mariner who is often at sea along with his crewmates. Eric loves partaking in duties around the ship, and is a skilled helmsman as he is seen steering his ship in both the original 1989 film and its sequel, *The Little Mermaid II*.

Eric also spends most of his free time out in the sea, fishing, going on some voyages, and even taking the sail in his birthday even Grimsby, his personal confidant, often joins in on Eric's adventures at sea, but often disapproves of Eric's stubbornness and no interest in marrying yet.

### Personality

Eric is a romantic who is quite dreamy, believing that his true love is out there, but he has not met her yet.

On his birthday, where Eric was celebrating it on sea, a storm suddenly hit, causing Eric's boat to sink. After being rescued by a mysterious girl with a beautiful voice, he immediately falls in love with her and makes it his primary goal to find her and marry her, feeling deep gratitude for her actions. Eric would later prove his commitment towards romance by risking his life at the climax for the safety of Ariel, proclaiming he's lost her once and refuses to lose her again.

As demonstrated in the first film, Eric is initially shy around girls, as seen in the love song "Kiss the Girl", where, although he did not know at the time that she had rescued him from drowning, he wanted to kiss Ariel, but was initially too shy to do so, however, he eventually overcame this shyness and would have kissed her, if it had not been for Flotsam and Jetsam tipping over the boat they were in. By the climax of the film, Eric's shy nature, regarding girls has completely disappeared. This is evidenced by the fact that, after Ariel is permanently transformed into a human by her father, Triton, he not only lovingly embraces the woman he loves very much, but they also share their first kiss.

Eric grimaces at the massive statue of himself given to him by Grimsby, suggesting that he lacks vanity and is not impressed by such an extravagant gesture.

### Physical Appearance

Eric is a man with fair skin, short black hair, baby blue eyes, and a muscular physique.

Most of Eric's clothing throughout the first two films was a long-sleeved collared white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, teal blue trousers, with a red sash, and black boots with a light blue shoe cuffs. His shirt collar is somewhat opened to show his clavicles.

When he was saved by Ariel from drowning and ended up at the shore, his clothes were in shreds and he was barefoot, implying that he lost both his red sash and his boots after the shipwreck.

At the time he was hypnotized by Vanessa (who was Ursula in disguise), Eric wore a far more royal outfit. It is a navy blue long-sleeved royal uniform; it includes a black belt with a gold buckle at the midriff; gold buttons; redlining the collar, down the chest, and cuffs along with red epaulets; he wore a matching pair of dark blue trousers with red lining and black shoes. At his wedding to Vanessa (later Ariel), he wore another military uniform; a white coat with gold buttons and two vertical gold stripes lining the chest; a white sash, a navy blue collar and cuffs with gold lining and golden epaulets; blue trousers, and black boots with golden lining at their tops. He also wore white gloves. At the back of his coat, it has tail ends on each side.

During his fight against Ursula and rescues Ariel, Eric wears a combination between his primary outfit and his royal outfit; he retains his white long-sleeved collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up from his primary outfit and wears his blue trousers with gold linings and his black boots with golden lining at their tops from his royal outfit, after the defeat of Ursula he jump of the boat and swam to shore he lost his boots and was barefoot again.

In *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, Eric retains his primary outfit throughout the film. At the beginning of the film where they christened their daughter Melody, he wears his royal outfit at the end of the original film only his pants and boots are changed to white to match his military white coat. During Melody's 12th birthday, Eric retains his first royal outfit but in a minor color change which resembles his white military uniform. His royal uniform is white with the collar and epaulets are gold and his belt is also white, his trousers are now navy blue to match up to his black shoes.

### Abilities

* **Expert Mariner:** Eric is shown to be excellent at sailing boats, as he often goes on adventures even if he is born a royal
* **Expert Swordsman:** Showing that Eric was born a prince, it is assumed he is a well-skilled swordsman. As seen, that Eric is usually seen wielding a sword.
* **Expert Swimmer:** Though not shown, it is presumed Eric is a skilled swimmer as his kingdom is near the sea.
* **Expert Dancer:** Eric can also be shown to be well at dancing, as shown when he danced with Ariel with ease.
* **Expert Musician:** Eric also has musical skill, just like when he was playing a flute with amazing skill.

## Appearances

### The Little Mermaid

Eric's first appearance was when he, along with his servant Grimsby, and a crew of sailors were enjoying another day at sea. When suddenly, Eric overhears his sailors talking about King Triton, king of the mermaids, which made him quite curious, but Grimsby just said that it was nonsense.

One night, Eric along with everybody else was celebrating his birthday on the boat out at sea. It is revealed, by Grimsby, that the entire kingdom was awaiting the day that Eric would marry, as Eric has turned down one princess as a prospective bride, the Princess of Glowerhaven, saying that he was still looking for the right woman. Everything was fine, when suddenly a storm hit and lightning sets the ship on fire. Everyone was able to get to safety, but Eric climbs back into the ship to save his sheepdog, Max. He manages to save the dog, but he was now stuck on the boat as the fire reaches some explosives, making the ship explode.

When Ariel finds Eric, unconscious in water, she drags him back to shore, thinking he was dead but to her relief, Eric begins to breathe. Ariel then sung the reprise of "*Part of Your World*" to him, as Eric slowly wakes up. When Eric is fully awake, he opens his eyes to see Ariel briefly but Max and Grimsby then arrive, causing Ariel to go back to sea. Eric then describes Ariel as the most beautiful singing voice, and tries to spot the girl, but Grimsby, who was skeptic, put him back in the palace.

The next scene with Eric in it, he is on the beach, playing with his sheepdog, still thinking about Ariel and playing her song on his flute. But when Max starts to bark excitedly and run off, Eric follows Max, leading him to Ariel, who was human, thanks to Ursula. He finds her as someone he met before, but since she was mute, she could not have been the girl who rescued him, much to Ariel and Max's annoyance. But Eric brings her to his palace, and they spend some time together, although Eric is still determined to find that mysterious girl and marry her, but he slowly fell in love with Ariel.

That night, Eric and Ariel go on a boat ride while Sebastian leads a group of animals in a song, "*Kiss the Girl*" in a tried attempt to get the two to kiss so Ariel can stay human. Just when they were about to kiss, Ursula's eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, tipped over their boat.

That night, Eric plays Ariel's song on his flute, conflicted with himself over his determination to find the mystery girl and his love for Ariel. Grimsby advises Eric to forget about his "dream girl", and focus on the one "warm, caring, and right before his eyes". Realizing he is truly in love with Ariel, Eric chooses to give up his pursuits of the mystery girl and does so by throwing his flute into the sea, symbolizing his choice. However, before Eric can approach Ariel to declare his love, Ursula, who has disguised herself as a human girl named Vanessa arrives and uses Ariel's voice trapped in her seashell necklace to hypnotize Eric into thinking she is the girl who saved his life, causing him to forget all about Ariel. Eric almost marries Vanessa just so Ursula can stop him from kissing Ariel, but before the vows are completed, Ariel's seagull friend Scuttle discovers Vanessa's true identity and leads the same group of birds and sea creatures that sung to Ariel and Eric on a mission to stop the wedding while Ariel, with the help of her companion Flounder, swim to the wedding ship. During the chaos, the seashell around Vanessa's neck is removed from her neck by Scuttle with Max's help and is smashed, freeing Ariel's voice, which is restored to her. Eric, who has come out of Ursula's trance spell, sees Ariel who is finally able to speak with him and runs up to her after finally discovering she was in fact his rescuer and true love for whom he has been looking after all.

But before the two can kiss, the sun suddenly sets, and to Eric's surprise, Ariel begins to be back to her mermaid self as she falls to the floor. "Vanessa" turned back to Ursula and grabbed Ariel and dives into the ocean, while Eric worriedly watches. Determined not to lose his love again, Eric jumps and dives to the ocean to find Ariel. He strikes Ursula with a harpoon, and Flotsam and Jetsam strangle Eric, but Flounder and Sebastian free Eric. Ursula tries to kill Eric with Triton's trident, but because of Ariel's intervention, she destroys the eels instead, which enraged Ursula. Ursula enlarges and separates Eric and Ariel and traps the mermaid in the bottom of a whirlpool that she made. With Ursula mainly focusing on Ariel, Eric climbed on a shipwreck that has surfaced and steers the ship towards Ursula. Before Ursula kills Ariel, Eric plunges the splintered bowsprit of the ship to the heart of Ursula, killing her. This frees King Triton and all merpeople in Ursula's garden to go back to normal again. Ursula, using her last ounce of life, brings the ship down with her, but Eric jumps off in time.

He reaches the shore, but then collapses from tiredness. Upon waking up, he sees a human Ariel (turned back due to King Triton wanted his daughter to be happy) and they embrace while sharing their first kiss. The films ends with their wedding where Eric and Ariel exchange vows and Triton accepts Eric.

### The Little Mermaid: The Series

Although the television series is set before the events of the first original film and focuses mainly on Ariel and her adventures, Eric makes a brief cameo in three of the series' episodes. Which makes the storyline true that Eric and Ariel only first met in the 1989 film, not meeting nor seeing each other in the series.

His first appearance is in Season 1, Episode 9, *"Thingamajigger"*, where Eric makes a significant role in changing Ariel's point of view that humans are not all evil. As through dialogue, Ariel confesses, though collecting human things, she was fearful of humans thinking they would hunt her down. But when she witnesses Eric release a trapped dolphin from a net, she starts doubting the truth of those stories. To avoid contradictions with the film, Ariel does not see Eric's face, and Eric does not see Ariel at all. Eric plays an indirect role in the episode's conclusion; when the Evil Manta acquires the titular 'Thingamajigger' - just an old boot that the sea creatures mistake for a weapon as a cannonball strikes a location where it was 'pointing'- Ariel realizes that the objects are powerless when Eric loses one of his boots under a pier and tosses the other one away, allowing Ariel to trick the Evil Manta into fleeing by using both boots to force him to stand down.

In the Season 3 episode "Scuttle"- which also marks Ariel's first meeting with Scuttle - Ariel and her friends stop a bunch of pirates from boarding a vessel, which turns out to be Eric's royal barge. Ariel does not see Eric at all, but Eric briefly glimpses Ariel from a distance, though Grimsby brushes it off as his imagination.

In a later Season 3 episode "Ariel's Treasures", Eric is seen briefly aboard a ship, from which a human item falls and is later collected by Ariel.

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

In the sequel film to the 1989 original film. Eric is just a supporting character. Because of his marriage with Ariel, Eric now a king, instead of being a prince and Ariel is his queen consort. Despite their happy marriage, they have a problem with protecting Melody, their daughter, from Ursula's sister, Morgana, who wanted to avenge her deceased sister and finish what Ursula started. Knowing that Morgana might use Melody, Eric and Ariel build walls around the castle and raised Melody unaware of Atlantica. Melody distances herself from her parents as she grew up.

Generally, Eric does not contribute much to the plot, instead of supporting Ariel and Melody. He was the one who persuaded Ariel to keep Melody from the sea was tearing the family apart and that Melody needed to know about her roots and why the wall was built. He also persuaded Ariel to temporarily turn back into a mermaid to save Melody.

After Morgana takes both his wife and daughter captive, Eric teams up with Scuttle and leads an attack, though it is Melody who actually defeated Morgana. In the end of the sequel, he was reunited with them and the humans and merfolk celebrate together, with Ariel and Eric sharing a kiss, too.

## Live Action

### Little Mermaid (2023)

Eric appears in the live-action reimagining of the 1989 film. He is portrayed by English actor Jonah Hauer-King.

In this movie, Eric is adopted by the king and queen after he survived a shipwreck that killed his biological family twenty-one years prior to the story. Despite this, Eric developed an interest in seeing the world while his parents became isolated from the rest of the world. During one such voyage, Eric's ship falls victim to a storm and it sinks. Eric saves his dog Max but fails to jump off the ship when it flips over, causing him to fall in the other direction. Ariel manages to save him and bring him to shore. During recovery, his mother Selina insists he stay at the palace but he is adamant about finding the girl who saved his life.

When Ariel arrives at the castle, Eric shows her his collection from his adventures and she immediately shares his interests. She even impresses him by smashing one of his rocks to reveal the gems hidden inside and blowing a conch shell. The next day, the two sneak out to have a fun-filled day that ends with them nearly kissing before Flotsam and Jetsam turned their boat over. That night, Eric is alone on the beach when he hears a seductive siren song that controls him. Eric finds himself torn between Ariel and Vanessa. After Ariel restores her voice and temporarily thwarts Ursula's plan, Eric realizes she is the girl who rescued him. When they fail to kiss before the sun sets, Ursula takes Ariel back to sea after she transforms back into a mermaid. The queen attempts to stop Eric from going after them, but he is adamant about going after her, not caring if Ariel is a mermaid or not.

Together, they manage to defeat Ursula. Eric then swims back to shore but is heartbroken to realize he and Ariel can never be. A few days later, Ariel returns to the castle in full human form after her father turned her into a human. At the start of their marriage, they decide to travel the world together on one of their voyage ships. King Triton and the rest of the merfolk come to see them off.

## Gallery

***Disney Prince Wiki*** has a collection of images and media related to ***Eric***.
1. ↑ Joshua Finkel's Acting Bio