The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is a 1989 musical comedy fantasy animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was first released on November 17, 1989 by Walt Disney Pictures, but returned to theaters on November 14, 1997. The 28th animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon, the film is loosely based upon the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Little Mermaid".

The story centers a young mermaid named Ariel, who is captivated by the world upon the surface. When she falls in love with a human prince, she makes a deal with a villainous sea witch to become human, herself, and earn his love before the agreed time runs out.

The Little Mermaid was an unmitigated success for the studio, being praised for its animation, storytelling, and music by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. The movie grossed over $100 million at the US box office upon its initial release, and won two Academy Awards for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Original Music Score. It is credited as the film to have started the historic Disney Renaissance, an era that had breathed life back into the animated feature film medium after a string of competent, but only inexpensive successful animated films such as The Aristocats, The Rescuers, and The Great Mouse Detective.

Following The Little Mermaid were two direct-to-video sequels (The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning) and an animated television series that ran from 1992 to 1994. A decade after the film's release, Ariel would be inaugurated into the Disney Princess media line, while Ursula would appear as a staple character in the Disney Villains franchise. In 2007, a stage adaptation of the film made its Broadway debut. A live-action reimagining based on the 1989 animation, and featuring the music of Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, is currently in the works.

## Plot

The film begins on a foggy morning out on the open sea. A ship then comes from the fog, filled with sailors singing stories of the legendary merfolk. ("Fathoms Below") Aboard that ship is a young prince, named Eric, his dog Max, and his advisor Grimsby. Grimsby denounces the merfolk as, "nautical nonsense," but one sailor insists them to be real. While distracted by Grimsby, a fish the sailor was holding slips from him and falls into the ocean.

The fish breathes a sigh of relief before swimming away from the ship. The opening credits play as the fish crosses the deep ocean until at last, we see merfolk. They then make their way through the ocean towards a shining underwater castle. The castle is the domain of King Triton and is where he was holding a concert in his name, performed by his seven daughters and the crab court composer, Sebastian. ("Daughters of Triton")

The concert goes as planned until it is discovered that Triton's youngest daughter, Ariel, is not there, much to his chagrin. In truth, Ariel was out excavating a ship graveyard with her best friend, Flounder the Fish. Inside one wreck, she finds a pipe and a fork, which fascinates her curiosity, all the while unaware of a shark watching her and Flounder from outside.

The shark bursts into the room Ariel and Flounder are in and gives chase to them, all across the graveyard, until the two manage to get the shark ensnared in an anchor ring. They then make their way to the surface, where their friend, a seagull named Scuttle, lives. Ariel asks Scuttle to tell her what the items she collected are. He describes the fork as a dinglehopper, an item humans use to style hair; and the pipe as a snarfblat, an object for making music.

Upon hearing the word "music", Ariel is quickly reminded of the concert she missed and makes haste back home. However, Ariel fails to realize she is being watched by two suspicious eels by the names of Flotsam and Jetsam. The two are spies under the employ of Ursula the Sea Witch, a member of King Triton's court before being banished. Ursula hates Triton with a passion for his atrocities towards her, and constantly schemes of ways to exact revenge. The moment Ariel caught her eye, Ursula commanded her cronies to watch her, hoping to use her to get to the king.

The film then moves to the royal palace, where Triton and Sebastian are scorning Ariel for missing the concert. But Flounder moves in to defend her, accidentally letting slip the encounter with Scuttle, which quickly angers Triton. The law of his kingdom forbids going to the surface world, for fears of merfolk being caught by humans. But Ariel believes humans not to be all that bad, which angers Triton to the point of telling her that as long as she is living under his ocean, she'll do what he says. This sends Ariel away crying, with Flounder following after.

When they've left, Triton asks Sebastian if he was too hard on Ariel, to which Sebastian replies, "definitely not." Sebastian suggests that Ariel needs constant supervision, which gives Triton the idea to send Sebastian to keep an eye on her. Sebastian complies with the King's demands but feels dissatisfied with the idea of, "tagging along some headstrong teenager." However, Sebastian's thoughts are interrupted when he sees Ariel and Flounder swimming off elsewhere, prompting him to follow her. He is led to a hidden grotto where he discovers a variety of human objects gathered together.

Ariel, still hurt by her father's words, sings of her collection of human objects, and how she desires to visit the world of humans, despite what her father had to say of them. ("Part of Your World") The mood is quickly broken by Sebastian crashing in, and threatening to reveal Ariel's grotto to the king. Ariel attempts to reason with him, but before anything could be resolved in the conflict, a large object is seen floating overhead blocking moonlight from the grotto roof. Ariel, being ever curious, swims to the surface to figure out what this massive object was. The object proves to be a human ship, shooting fireworks into the night sky. Ariel swims towards the vessel, in spite of Sebastian's protests, and climbs aboard to behold dancing seamen. Ariel learns that the humans aboard are celebrating the birthday of their prince; one creature that catches her eye is Max, the sheepdog who takes a liking to Ariel. But Ariel is left enamored when she sees the dog's master, Prince Eric.

Eric is given a large statue of himself as a birthday present, by Grimsby, who sourly proclaims that he hoped it would be a wedding present. Eric protests that he just had not found the right girl yet, but insists that when he does it will hit him, like lightning. It was then, that the sounds of thunder echoed in the distance, followed by an ever-growing gust of wind.

Without warning, a hurricane blows in, sweeping up both ship and crew violently in a volley of wind and water. Ariel is thrown off the vessel but manages to catch sight of the ship being struck by lightning setting the ship on fire. When the ship crashes into a gaggle of rocks, the crew is sent overboard, along with the statue of Eric. Though they all make it to the lifeboats, Eric discovers that Max is still on the burning vessel, and goes off to rescue him. While Eric manages to get Max to safety, he is unable to save himself when he gets blown away by a massive explosion and lands into the ocean below underwater. While she sees this and rushes towards his aid, Ariel rescues Eric and takes him back to shore.

Once at the shore, Ariel sings of her desire to join Eric's world, before fleeing at the sounds of Grimsby and Max approaching. While Ariel sings, Eric only manages to catch a glimpse of her before she leaves; but as Grimsby raises him up, Eric vividly remembers a girl who had saved him, and is determined to find her. As Ariel watches them from a nearby rock, Sebastian tells her that the situation must be kept secret from her father, but Ariel does not pay attention. With vigor and determination, Ariel makes a bold proclamation that she will be a part of Eric's world.

However, what Ariel does not realize, is that she's being watched by Ursula's eels. Ursula is gleeful of the situation and eerily looks to a gaggle of polyps in her lair; all of them, former dreamers who came to her power. She then mutters about Ariel becoming a charming addition to the group.

A few days later, Ariel spends her time daydreaming of Eric, which piques the curiosity of her father, who believes Ariel to be in love with another merman. All the while, Sebastian is a nervous wreck trying to keep the secret from being found out. Ariel then decides that she wants to visit Eric, but Sebastian is having none of that. He attempts to bring her down to earth with a musical number about how the sea is better than the land ("Under the Sea").

Sebastian manages to bring a bunch of fish together to sing along, but as this party is happening, Flounder shows up and manages to slip Ariel away unnoticed. By the time the song ends, Ariel is nowhere to be seen, and Sebastian is left alone to grumble about her. Suddenly, the royal herald calls for Sebastian to report to the King about Ariel. Sebastian, afraid that Triton figured out what has happened, accidentally slips the truth during the meeting, and is forced to tell the King everything, much to his fury. Back at Ariel's grotto, Flounder reveals that he had saved the statue of Eric from the wreck, much to Ariel's delight. However, the pleasantries are interrupted by Triton being led to the grotto by Sebastian. After a short argument, Ariel confronts Triton and tells him that she rescued Eric from drowning to death, and she loves him. Horrified by her words, Triton ultimately snaps and obliterates all the secret treasures in her grotto and reduces them to a junk pile, leaving Ariel in tears. After a now remorseful Triton leaves, feeling extremely guilty over what he had done, a weeping Ariel tells Sebastian and Flounder to leave her alone to grieve, not allowing them to comfort her.

However, unbeknownst to her, Flotsam and Jetsam enter the grotto and sweet talk Ariel into going to Ursula to achieve her dreams of being with Eric. As they leave, Flounder and Sebastian follow after Ariel all the way to Ursula's lair. Ursula comforts Ariel and explains that she can grant Ariel's wish to be human for three days, but she must give Eric the kiss of true love before the sunset on the third day, or she belongs to Ursula. ("Poor Unfortunate Souls") In exchange for legs, though, she must give away her voice. Ariel agrees to these terms and signs the contract, trapping her voice in a necklace Ursula wears, and giving her human legs.

Once Ariel has been transformed into a human, Sebastian and Flounder escape Flotsam and Jetsam's grasps and take her to the surface, where the group meets up with Scuttle on a beach near Eric's castle. Sebastian threatens to tell King Triton about the deal Ariel made with Ursula, but Ariel manages to convince him to help the group. Scuttle then tells Ariel about how to blend in with humans, and the first step is to dress like them. Scuttle takes a portion of a sail for Ariel to wear, just as Prince Eric arrives at their location. Though Eric does not know she's the girl who saved his life, he is willing to bring her to his castle to be taken care of, with Sebastian tagging along in a pocket in Ariel's sail cloth.

Later, inside the palace, while Ariel is taking a bath, Sebastian is sent, through a series of unfortunate events, to the castle kitchen. It's there that Sebastian encounters a seafood-obsessed chef who attempts to cook him. ("Les Poissons") As this conflict goes on in the kitchen, Ariel meets with Eric and Grimsby in the dining hall for dinner, where the two men discuss giving Ariel a tour of the kingdom, to which she agrees.

Later that night, Sebastian discusses plans to get Eric to kiss Ariel, though Ariel does not listen, being too enamored in the human world's splendors. After Ariel falls asleep, Sebastian tells her she is "completely hopeless" and drifts off.

But down in King Triton's palace, the situation is grim. King Triton has sent several search parties looking everywhere for Ariel and Sebastian, but not a single trace of either one of them has been found anywhere. Triton tells them to keep looking and to not rest until they're found. Triton is left in grave remorse over his actions, blaming himself for Ariel's disappearance.

The next morning, Ariel and Eric begin their tour of the kingdom, starting with the nearby town. Ariel is enamored by every single thing she sees, whether it's puppets, horses, or dancing. The day passes into the evening when Eric takes Ariel on a lagoon cruise. Sebastian, seeing this as the perfect moment, decides to take matters into his own claws, and plays a song to excite the two into kissing ("Kiss the Girl"). However, the song is quickly interrupted by Flotsam and Jetsam overturning the boat, successfully ruining the mood.

Frustrated with the progress Ariel's making, Ursula decides to take matters into her own tentacles and transforms herself into a beautiful young maiden named Vanessa. She then uses Ariel's voice to hypnotize Eric just before he can announce his true feelings to Ariel. The next morning, Eric and Vanessa are announced to be wed by sunset, leaving poor Ariel heartbroken as the wedding ship departs from a port. Ariel and her friends are left behind while Vanessa convincingly plays her role as a love-struck woman, clinging constantly to Eric's side, raising no suspicion. While Ariel witnesses the ship sailing off, she begins weeping over Eric's loss.

Little does anyone know, Scuttle happens to fly over the wedding ship when he hears Ariel's voice coming from the bride's dressing room. He spies from a porthole, and once Vanessa takes a look at the dressing room's mirror, Ursula's reflection is shown. Realizing Vanessa's true identity, Scuttle flies off to inform Ariel and the group about Vanessa. The group then makes a plan, Ariel and Flounder go after the wedding ship on a barrel, Sebastian goes to tell King Triton of what's happening, while Scuttle goes off to stall the wedding.

Scuttle gathers lagoon and sea creatures of all sorts (including bluebirds, flamingos, pelicans, lobsters, starfish, dolphins, and seals) to converge on the wedding ship as the wedding is just underway. There is a little warning for Vanessa when the attack begins, and the ship is sent into disarray, giving Ariel the time she needs to get aboard. Moreover, Vanessa is utterly flustered, disoriented, and sidelined from being able to do anything. Thanks to the help of Max, Scuttle manages to snap the necklace off Vanessa's neck, shattering it across the deck, returning Ariel's voice back to her, and releasing Eric from the spell. Eric finds Ariel and admits she's the one who saved him, but Vanessa warns Eric to leave Ariel alone, before realizing that her voice was now Ursula's after her shell broke. But before the two can kiss, the sun sets and Ariel turns back into a mermaid. Ursula transforms herself back to her true form, taking Ariel back with her under the sea.

It is not long before Ursula thinks of her next move and runs into Triton and Sebastian, and a conflict occurs. Triton confronts Ursula and demands her to release Ariel, but to no avail. Ursula counters by insisting that Ariel is her slave. After Triton hears Ariel apologizing to him, he attempts to destroy the contract she signed, binding her to Ursula, but finds that he's unable to do so because it's magically enhanced by being legal. So, to save his daughter, Triton signs the contract and becomes a polyp in her place. Ursula claims Triton's crown and trident and becomes queen of the sea, which angers Ariel to the point of attacking her when the sea witch almost destroys her. Meanwhile, Eric takes a rowboat from the wedding ship and speeds off towards Ariel's location. He goes underwater and attacks Ursula, who then commands Flotsam and Jetsam to go after him. The witch's eels drag him back underwater, so she can blast him. To save Eric, Flounder, and Sebastian attack Flotsam and Jetsam.

In the midst of the chaos, Ursula attempts to use the trident to destroy Eric, but a furious Ariel confronts and stops Ursula by pulling on her hair, causing her to miss Eric and hit Flotsam and Jetsam instead, reducing them to ashes. Ursula mourns their loss before vengefully turning to the ones responsible. As Ariel hurries to join Eric, the enraged Ursula spouts black ink and begins to enlarge. Ariel attempts to tell Eric to save himself, but he refuses to abandon her, just as Ursula's gigantic form emerges, leaving Eric and Ariel helpless to her power. In the midst of her rampage, Ursula creates a whirlpool, raising shipwrecks from the ocean floor.

Just as Ursula prepares to kill Ariel with the trident's blasts, Eric saves Ariel from Ursula by ramming a splintered bowsprit towards the evil witch's abdomen. Ursula blows up into a scattered mass of organs while Eric makes it to the shore and passes out on the beach. After Ursula's remains sink to the ocean floor, her curse is removed from the merfolk in her garden, as well as King Triton, and peace is once again restored to the ocean now that Triton has regained his crown, trident, and kingdom.

Back on the surface, Triton observes Ariel looking at Eric and realizes she really does love him. After taking with Sebastian, Triton decides that he has to let Ariel be free to lead her own life and tells Sebastian that he is going to miss her. He then transforms her once more into a human - this time permanently. Ariel goes to Eric, they finally kiss, and the two are immediately wed shortly after, and at this ceremony, after Ariel and Eric are married onboard the wedding ship, Ariel bids her friends and family, including her six older sisters, her father Triton, Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle, goodbye to live her new life in Eric's world, and the film ends with Ariel and Eric kissing as the screen fades to black.

## Characters and Voice Cast

* Ariel - Jodi Benson
* Flounder - Jason Marin
* Sebastian - Samuel E. Wright
* Prince Eric - Christopher Daniel Barnes
* Ursula - Pat Carroll
* King Triton - Kenneth Mars