Prince Eric

**Prince Eric** is the deuteragonist of Disney's 1989 animated feature film, *The Little Mermaid*. He is a young, dashing prince of a seaside kingdom with a passion for sailing. During one of his voyages, Eric is rescued by a mysterious girl after nearly drowning during a storm. Grateful for her heroism, and enchanted by her beautiful voice, Eric becomes determined to find and marry his rescuer.

The character is based on the "prince" character of Hans Christian Andersen's story *The Little Mermaid* but adapted by writer Roger Allers for Disney's film.

## Background

Despite being of royalty, Eric is an accomplished mariner who is often seen partaking in various duties aboard ships in his own fleet. Eric is a skilled helmsman as he is seen steering ships in both the 1989 film and its sequel. This could be due to the fact that Eric's kingdom is coastal and most of the subjects make their livings by shipping and fishing, and as such, it is expected that the rulers be skilled in maritime trades. Eric spends much of his free time out at sea, fishing, going on explorations, or even taking the sail to celebrate his birthday. Grimsby, his servant, and personal confidant, often accompanies him on his voyages and disapproves of Eric's stubbornness and lack of interest in potential wives.

### Personality

Eric is a hopeless romantic and appears to be quite dreamy, believing his true love certainly exists, but simply hasn't been found by the earliest points of the film. 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 has fair skin, a muscular physique, short black hair, and light blue eyes.

Eric's primary mode of dress is a white, long-sleeved collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up, teal blue trousers with a red sash, and black boots with lighter blue cuffs. His shirt collar is open to the point that it reveals 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 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 Sailor:** As demonstrated in the first film, and its sequel *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, Eric is an excellent sailor, despite him being of royalty.
* **Expert Swimmer:** As demonstrated in the first film, and its sequel *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, Eric is an excellent swimmer.
* **Dancing:** As demonstrated in the first film, Eric is an excellent dancer.
* **Singing:** As demonstrated in *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, Eric is an excellent singer.
* **Swordsman:** Due to him being of royalty, it can be assumed that Eric is highly skilled in swordsmanship, as he is seen utilizing a sword in *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, but the exact level of his skills is never demonstrated in the second film.

## Trivia

* Prince Eric speaks the first non-musical line of *The Little Mermaid* is "Isn't this great? The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face!"
* Prince Eric's original voice actor Christopher Daniel Barnes was only 16 when he recorded his voice for Eric. The producers decided to cast him because he sounded much older than his actual age.
* In *Kinect Disneyland Adventures*, Prince Eric is mentioned by Ariel: "Oh, I can't wait to dance with Eric. He's so handsome."
* In the original The *Little Mermaid* fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the Prince is nameless and his love for the mermaid was strictly platonic.
	+ The Prince also married a different princess, whom he believed to be the one who saved him from drowning. As a result, the mermaid's heart broke (meaning she would dissolve into sea foam by sunrise) and she was forced to kill the Prince in his sleep in order to regain her old life. However, she loved the Prince too much and chose death instead.