Since its first publication in 1837,
Hans
Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The
Little Mermaid,
has
been adapted into countless stage plays, films and animated efforts. Walt Disney
desired to be amongst that number as early as the 1930s.
 |
| Kay Nielson concept art for Disney's abandoned initial attempt. |
Disney first toyed with the idea of
adapting The Little Mermaid as part
of a package film featuring vignettes of various Andersen tales. Development on
the film began shortly after work was completed on Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs,
but
it ended up being abandoned in favor of another Andersen tale: The
Ugly Duckling.
In
1985, Ron
Clements, instructed to find new story ideas for Disney’s next animated
release, had discovered the fairy tale while browsing through a bookstore and
presented a treatment to then-Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Katzenberg initially passed on the idea, feeling it was too similar to the
in-development television film Splash,
Too, but
changed his mind the next day; feeling that after Disney’s recent lackluster
movie slate and the fact they hadn’t introduced a new princess since 1959, The Little Mermaid offered up some new
possibilities.
 |
| Concept art of the Sea Witch and the Little Mermaid. |
Clements and John Musker expanded Clements’ initial idea, eliminating the Mermaid’s grandmother as a character and giving a larger role to her father and the evil Sea Witch. Development was stalled for a time as the studio focused their attention on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Oliver & Company. When it resumed, songwriter Howard Ashman became involved and suggested changing the minor character of Clarence, an English-butler crab, into a Jamaican and shifting the musical style to match. Katzenberg, Clements, Musker and Ashman revised the story to become a musical, and Ashman teamed-up with Alan Menken to score the film.
 |
| Sebastian watches as Ariel resuscitates the prince. |
The Little Mermaid was
marked as Disney’s next major release, and the most animation resources of any
Disney film in decades was dedicated towards its production. The underwater
setting alone required a tremendous amount of special effects not seen since Fantasia in 1940. It was
also the first Disney film in years to use live actors as references for
character motions; with Sherri
Stoner and Joshua
Finkel standing in for the leads in key scenes with recorded
audio playback guiding them. It would also be the last Disney film to use
traditionally hand-painted cels, the multiplane camera, and many of the
standard optical effects as computers began to play a greater role in film
production.
 |
| Ariel and Flounder study her latest human artifact. |
While
the heroine was based on the original fairy tale character, Clements deemed her
too tragic and essentially created an all-new one in Ariel. Jodi Benson, traditionally
a stage actress, was cast in the role because Clements and Musker felt it
important that the same person could also perform the songs. Ariel was designed
by Glen Keane using
a combination of his wife, rising young star Alyssa
Milano, and Stoner. Footage of astronaut Sally
Ride
in space provided inspiration for the movement of Ariel’s hair underwater, as
did submerging Stoner in a pool. Ariel’s red hair was disputed against by
executives who wanted her to be blonde, but the filmmakers fought for it on the
basis that it was easier to darken with shading than yellow, better contrasted
with her tail (which was a special green they created and named “ariel”), and
that they already had a blonde mermaid in Splash.
 |
| Scuttle gives Ariel a fork and incorrectly explains its use. |
Newly
created for the film version was the aforementioned crab, Sebastian (Samuel E.
Wright), who served as the royal adviser and composer; Ariel’s best friend,
tropical fish Flounder (Jason
Marin); seagull Scuttle (Buddy Hackett),
who shared his (often incorrect) knowledge about the human world with Ariel, as
well as the nature of the human artifacts she collected; and the Sea Witch’s
eel minions, Flotsam and Jetsam (both Paddi Edwards).
The Little Mermaid opened in theaters on
November 17, 1989. Like the fairy tale on which it was based, it centered on
mermaid princess Ariel of the undersea kingdom of Atlantica who had a strong
interest in the world above the sea. However, her father, King Triton (Kenneth
Mars), forbade interaction between the worlds. That became impossible when she
went to the surface and rescued Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes) whose
ship was destroyed, falling in love with him in the process. The sea witch
Ursula (designed after drag queen Divine,
voiced by Pat Carroll),
tricked Ariel into making a deal to exchange her voice for legs with the
stipulation she must get Eric’s “kiss of true love” to remain human, or else
she becomes Ursula’s property forever. To hedge her bets, Ursula transformed
herself into a beautiful woman with Ariel’s voice and hypnotized Eric into
marrying her. After an exchange of Triton and Eric attacking and defeating
Ursula, Triton relented and let Ariel stay with Eric as a human and they were
finally married.
Initially,
Katzenberg felt that the “girls’ film” would make less at the box office than Oliver & Company, but after it was completed,
he changed his tune and predicted it would be the first animated feature to
make over $100 million. In reality, the film grossed over $84 million, short of
Katzenberg’s revised prediction but significantly more than Oliver. In an atypical move for Disney,
they released the film to home video just six months after its release {the
company had a successful practice of re-releasing their films to theaters every
seven years and feared home media would take away from the additional box
office). The Little Mermaid became
the top-selling title of the year, selling over 7 million copies in the first
month. As a result, Disney would change their home release policy and put films
out soon after the theatrical runs rather than delaying them for years. Mermaid also marked the beginning of the
Disney Renaissance; a period from 1989-1999 where Walt Disney Feature Animation
experienced a creative resurgence in adapting well-known stories that restored
interest in Disney.
 |
| Ariel and Flounder meet Spot. |
Shortly
before the film hit stores, Disney planned to capitalize on its success with a
show developed for The Disney Channel.
The Little Mermaid’s Island, the
show’s proposed title, would have featured puppets from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop interacting with
a live actress as Ariel. The video sales caused Disney to quietly drop these
plans in favor of an animated weekly series for CBS.
They tapped Jamie Mitchell,
who had previously worked on Walt
Disney Television Animation’s successful Adventures of the Gummi Bears, to
helm the series while Patsy
Cameron and Tedd Anasti,
who had worked on DuckTales, served as the story editors and part of the writing stable, and
the primary writers for seasons 2 and 3. Veteran writer Chuck Menville contributed two
scripts to the first season shortly before his death in 1992. One of his
episodes, “Thingamajigger,” was dedicated to his memory. Additional writers
included Marie Sager, Laraine Arkow, David Schwartz, Lynn Lefler, James A. Markovich, Chris Weber, Karen Wilson, Tony Marino, Emily Swass, Alicia Marie Schudt and Thomas Mitchell.
 |
| Ariel's sisters (from top left): Adella, Alana, Andrina, Aquata, Arista, and Attina. |
Disney’s The Little Mermaid chose to serve as a prequel to the movie; focusing on Ariel’s
adventures under the sea. Reprising their roles from the film would be Benson
as Ariel, Wright as Sebastian, Mars as Triton, Carroll as Ursula, Edwards as
Flotsam and Jetsam, and Kimmy
Robertson as Ariel’s sister, Alana; with Edan Gross coming on for Flounder
the first season and Bradley Pierce for seasons 2 and 3, Maurice LaMarche as Scuttle in
season 3, and Jeff Bennet as
Prince Eric for several guest appearances. Ariel’s five other sisters also
appeared, but where they were all voiced by Robertson and Caroline Vasicek, respectively,
each was given a unique voice actress: Sherry Lynn as Adella, Cathy Cavadini as Andrina, Mona Marshall as Aquata, Mary Kay Bergman as Arista, and Kath Soucie as Attina.
 |
| The Evil Manta. |
Newly
created for the series was orphaned merboy Urchin (Danny Cooksey), a friend of
Ariel’s who joined her on some adventures; Gabriella, a deaf mermaid who
communicated through sign language (based on a 2-year-old named Gabriella
Angelina Bommino, a big fan of The Little Mermaid who
died of leukemia) and with interpretations by octopus friend, Ollie (Gabriel Damon); fun-loving
mermaid Pearl (Cree Summer);
and Spot, an orca calf Ariel helps raise before reuniting him with his family.
While Ursula made a few appearances in the show, a new threat was created
called The Evil Manta (Tim Curry).
Manta sought to destroy Atlantica and was accidentally freed from his centuries-long
imprisonment in an undersea volcano by Ariel. Hans Christian Andersen (Mark Hamill) also appeared once,
needing rescue by Ariel when his submarine ended up stranded and leaking.
 |
| Deaf mermaid Gabriella and her friend/interpreter, Ollie. |
Not
wanting to disappoint fans of the film, Disney auditioned the best overseas
animation studios. Eventually, the task was put upon Walt
Disney Animation Japan, Wang Film Productions,
Animal House,
Film Magic, Jade
Animation, Morning-Sun
Studios, Nakamura Productions, Studio Robin, Studio CATS, Light Foot, J.C. Staff, Magic Bus, Studio Fuga, Tama Productions, and Takahashi Productions. The
studios tried to maintain as much of the quality as they could, but given the
tighter deadlines of a television series versus a film production the animation
was noticeably not as fluid or detailed. Mark Dindal, chief of special
animated effects for the movie, served as a consultant for the special effects
on the show.
 |
| Triton gets a second childhood. |
Like the
film, the series was done as a musical with most episodes featuring a song. Robby Merkin, who helped arrange
songs for the film, worked as the arranger and music producer for the first
season. The series’ music was composed by Dan Foliart, with additional
songs by Silvesher and Silvesher, Tom
Snow, Jack Feldman, Randy Petersen, Kevin Quinn, Anasti and Cameron.
The series’ theme was a combined medley of “Part of Your World”, “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” from the
film’s soundtrack. Merkin and Steve
Gelfand performed all the songs.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid made its unofficial debut on September 11, 1992 with a half-hour
primetime special: The Little Mermaid: A
Whale of a Tale, written by science-fiction author Peter S. Beagle. Although made by the same group of
people and the new character of Spot would appear later on, the special wasn’t
considered an official part of the show by Disney as it was made under a
separate contract from CBS. The series proper began the next morning,
immediately following the debut of fellow film adaptation Fievel’s American Tails. Because the show was the first
directly based off of a Disney animated feature and one of the few cartoons to
star a strong female character, it received a wide array of media attention.
However, not everyone was pleased with the show; some of the animators who
worked on the film complained both publicly and anonymously ab out it, feeling
the television division should come up with their own ideas.
 |
| Ursula, Flotsam and Jetsam. |
The
series was renewed for two additional seasons; its third spent as the lead-in
for the next Disney film-based series, Aladdin. Sebastian was also featured in a segment of Marsupilami during the second season; however, those segments were set after
the film and had no relation to the Mermaid
series. CBS elected not to renew the show again, and the final episode
aired in November of 1994. The following year, The Disney Channel began
rerunning the series seven days a week, and then once a day with Toon Disney until 2010.
The series again aired on Disney
Junior from the channel’s launch in 2012 until 2014.
 |
| Triton vs. The Evil Manta in Marvel's The Little Mermaid #1. |
In the
months before the series premiered, Disney Comics released a
four-issue
mini-series with stories that fit the premise of the show. The series was
written by Peter David and drawn by
various artists as most issues contained more than one story. Parts of the
series were reprinted in Disney’s Cartoon Tales #11, Disney’s Colossal Comics Collection #9, and Disney Princess Comics Treasury by Joe
Books. Disney also published a two-issue Sebastian mini-series.
From 1994-95, Marvel Comics published a 12-issue
comic series more closely based on the show; incorporating characters like
The Evil Manta and Spot. The series was primarily written by Trina Robbins. Ariel and
friends made an additional appearance in 1996 in Marvel’s Disney Comic Hits! #12.
In 1997, Acclaim
Books published The Little Mermaid: Underwater Engagements, a storybook-style comic that starred
Ariel on one side and flipped to a story about Eric, and Disney’s
Enchanting Stories #5.
 |
| The international VHS. |
In 1992,
a collection of songs from the first season was released by Walt Disney Records on the album The Little Mermaid: Splash Hits – New Songs
from the Popular TV Series. Between
1993 and 1994, Walt Disney Video released
VHS collections with two episodes each under the title of The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea
Adventures. Each was
subtitled with the name of first episode on the tape. Five were released in the
United States, while seven were released in Australia and New Zealand. “A Whale
of a Tale” was included among the featured episodes, which was never broadcast
again after its initial airing. In 1995, additional collections were released
under the title Disney Princess Collection – Ariel’s Songs
& Stories with two in the
United States and four in Australia and New Zealand. A new intro was created for
those episodes, and featured the song “Let’s Play Princess” which was shared by
all the videos in the line (the lyrics tailored for the particular princess in
question). While the series as a whole has not yet been released to DVD,
“Message in a Bottle” was featured on Disney
Princes Party Volume 1 and
“Wish Upon a Starfish”, “Giggles” and “Ariel’s Treasures” were part of Disney Princess Stories volumes 1-3, respectively. The series
was made available for streaming on Amazon Video
and iTunes in Germany and on Netflix in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and
Finland. In 2019, it became one of the launch titles for the streaming service Disney+.
Ariel has
become a permanent part of Disney’s
princess pantheon; being featured in various media—usually with Benson,
Wright and Carroll reprising their respective roles—and merchandising as well
as being represented at various Disney locations. But, her story didn’t end
there. When Disney began making direct-to-video sequels to their biggest
theatrical hits, Ariel was on the receiving end with The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea in 2000. It featured Ursula’s sister, Morgana (Carroll), looking
for revenge on the royal family of Atlantica through Ariel and Eric’s daughter,
Melody (Tara Strong). In
2008, a prequel film, Ariel’s Beginning, completely
ignored the events of the television series and showed Ariel’s first meeting
with Flounder (Parker Goris),
as well as the restoration of music to the kingdom after Triton (Jim Cummings) blamed it for her
mother’s death. In 2023, The Little Mermaid joined
the pantheon of Disney live-action remakes to their biggest animated hits with Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and
Jonah Hauer-King as Eric,
joined by CGI versions of Sebastian (Daveed Diggs), Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) and Scuttle (Awkwafina).
Season 1:
“What of a Tale” (9/11/92) – Ariel befriends a baby Orca that was sent away from his family to save him from poachers.
“The Great Sebastian” (9/12/92) – Sebastian convinces the king to allow him to negotiate with the Sharkanians, whom he’s deathly afraid of.
“Stormy” (9/19/92) – Ariel rides a wild seahorse and ends up lost in the wilderness.
“Urchin” (9/26/92) – Ariel befriends an orphaned merboy who has become a member of the Lobster Monster’s gang.
“Double Bubble” (10/3/92) – The Lobster Monster kidnaps the kids Ariel babysits as ransom for a pearl necklace their mother has.
“Message in a Bottle” (10/10/92) – Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder find a message in a bottle belonging to a lonely sea dragon.
“Charmed” (10/17/92) – Ariel runs off before her father can see the human bracelet stuck on her arm, but she ends up trapped in an underwater cave as a result.
“Marriage of Inconvenience” (10/24/92) – Ariel’s friends try to prevent the arranged marriage Ariel believes is on the horizon.
“The Evil Manta” (10/31/92) – Ariel accidentally frees the Evil Manta who tries to conquer the kingdom by turning its citizens against each other.
“Thingamajigger” (11/7/92) – Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder try to figure out what a pirate’s boot is, which Lobster Monster and Evil Manta believe is some kind of weapon they can use.
“Red” (11/14/92) – Ariel must babysit her father after he’s de-aged by a magic spell.
“Beached” (11/21/92) – Ariel and Arista end up grounded, which puts them in a position to stop gators from stealing from the treasury.
“Trident True” (11/28/92) – Urchin must steal the king’s trident in order to free Ariel from a giant octopus in a cave.
“Eel-Ectric City” (12/5/92) – A partying mermaid brings Ariel and Alana to Eel-Ectric City instead of her house where they were supposed to be going.
Season 2:
“Resigned to It” (9/18/93) – Sebastian quits to find a new life for himself while the Red Tide returns to consume Atlantica.
“Calliope Dreams” (9/25/93) – Triton wants Ariel to play the sea calliope, but she’d rather play the human harp she found.
“Save the Whale!” (10/2/93) – Ariel must save Sebastian and her whale friend from a circus.
“Against the Tide” (10/9/93) – Ariel rescues a creature with bad luck that Ursula wants.
“Giggles” (10/16/93) – A blowfish sorcerer casts spells on Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian.
“Wish Upon a Starfish” (10/23/93) – Ariel befriends a deaf mermaid named Gabriela and they decide to seek out the magical Wishing Starfish to make their dreams come true.
“Tail of Two Crabs” (10/30/93) – While Ursula plots her latest attack against Atlantica, Sebastian feels threatened by his old rival Zeus who happens to be better than him at everything.
“Metal Fish” (11/6/93) – Ariel rescues Hans Christian Andersen when his submarine becomes damaged and starts to leak.
“T’ank You for Dat, Ariel!” (12/11/93) – Ariel learns magic and uses her powers to make Sebastian bigger…TOO big!
Season 3:
“Scuttle” (9/17/94) – Ariel meets Scuttle and he helps rescue Sebastian from pirates.
“King Crab” (9/24/94) – With his parents coming for a visit, Sebastian must find a way to pass himself as the king he told them he was.
“Island of Fear” (10/1/94) – A mad scientist takes Sebastian for his sinister experiments.
“Land of the Dinosaurs” (10/8/94) – Ariel uses the trident to free frozen dinosaurs she found, but they end up causing havoc in Atlantica.
“Heroes” (10/15/94) – Ariel desires to go on an adventure with the great hero Apollo, but discovers his reputation is a far cry from reality.
“The Beast Within” (10/22/94) – Flounder becomes a howling hairfish after he’s bitten by one.
“Ariel’s Treasures” (10/29/94) – Ariel shows Gabriella her latest acquisitions, but a spell from Ursual causes them to attack living things.
“A Little Evil” (11/26/94) – The Evil Manta returns with his son who wants to be just like him—at least until he ends up befriending Ariel and attending merpeople school.
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