#the little mermaid

[emberwritesinsight]

The discussion around Ariel TheLittleMermaid baffles me bc if my dad literally destroyed a bunch of stuff I collected in front of me in a terrifyingly violent display of anger and I had a witch offer me an out if I could score the boy I thought was hot, my name would be on that dotted line before you can say "poor unfortunate soul". What do you mean she's stupid, her dad ravaged her Special Interest Cave like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, I would also run the fuck away

[didanagy]

THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989)

dir. john musker and ron clements

[enchantedbook]

'The Little Mermaid' by Sulamith Wulfing, 1953.

[filmgifs]

THE LITTLE MERMAID 1989 — dir. Ron Clements & John Musker

[arielerics]

Where would we walk? Where would we run? If we could stay all day in the sun. Just you and me.

[nessa007]

the superior live action ships for me! 🙌🩵❤️😭

[rororonyan]

headshots only rn because thinking about a FULL outfit is a way bigger headache

And random facts i'm noting down

Hans/ the nutracker prince / the nutcracker (russian adapted ballet +/ german book)

The nutcracker's name in the book is Hans allegedly. But for variety's sake (and because i'm more familiar with the ballet and always assumed it was a russian story) this guy is russian and is named Ivan. I could not give you his age on account of being a wooden doll but he's physically around 27

He has a blank and expressionless face but he's very easily flustered and very reactive inside.

He has a lot of penguin babies friends and they love him very very much thank you.

Gets along with Pinnochio on account of them both being living doll-adjacent

His eyes are snowflakes and i think that's precious, also they expand and 'freeze' more of his eyes when he's happy

He insists on wearing gloves to hold people's hands or touch them because he's always freezing cold

Pinnochio / Carlo / the adventures of pinnochio (italian book)

Nothing much to say on the name, but did you know he's named Pinnochio because he's made out of Pine wood? He's pretty short, but in this ver Carlo and thus Pinnochio died at age 19 or so, so he is 19.

Lies of P has done irreparable damage to my perception of Pinnochio and it shows in this design i fear.

He's a shy little man, he works as an assistant in his father's workshop, so while i kept the bright fun palette from the known adaptation i kept it to more leathery and working clothes. I might change the cravatte for a bow but the blue clip will stay, it's a source of life or something, blue fairy lore i need to think on. It's also why his eyes are blue.

The little prince / Le petit prince (french book)

He is never given a name in the story and even exclusively reffered to as the little prince. So at this point i'm inclined to believe his officia name iss The (first name) little (middle name) prince (last name)...... anyhow it feels sacrilegious to give him a name for some reason, but if i do name him he's being named Estelle. His age is as mysterious as him. But he's pretty tall, looks around 22

His freckles glow like stars and his hair glimmers like there's glitter dusted on it or stardust

I feel like his design is just too much like the book so i might have more fun with it

I think he's whimsical and playful, he has a penchant for theatrics and games in that childish sense, but he also comes across as very nurturing and mature. He likes to joke that he can use magic- but like.. can he? Or is it just an alien kinda deal.

Momotaro/ Peach boy (japanese children's folk tale)

Momotaro, i'm not changing it, it's adorable. He's 23 or so

Plant adjacent? He sometimes sprouts leaves and little flower buds in his hair.

Very serious, shouldn't be taken seriously. He's not a tsundere type he's just very bad at sounding and looking happy, and while he talks a big game most people don't take it seriously on account of him being short. He always looks pissed but he just has a real bad case of resting bitch face i think.

Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs / O.Z / The wizard of oz (american book)

The name stays because i cannot top this name even if i tried. It's iconic. He is the moment. He's 36.

His earrings are an explicit reference to Howl from Howl's moving castle.

He has grey hairs in there but he will deny that.

The worst man you will ever meet (but like he looks so hot doing it though.) he has the vibes of a conductor or a state fair magician, which is why he's so good at pulling his whole act, and he's so charismatic he needs to be put down. He is full of lies and deceit. I want to kiss him so bad.

Snow white / Snow white (german book)

First name Snow last name white oh my god their parent could not have been THAT much better than the evil queen for giving that name.... Schnee sounds cute tho so it's staying. He's 18, and very holdable.

The flowers on his head are the blooms on apple trees, his hair is in the vague shape of an apple.

Malewife, he's very softspoken and likes to do chores because it's uncomplicated. He also has a REALLY low attention span, the type to follow a butterfly off a cliff. He's airheaded and silly and tends to get sleepy easily because he's always doing chores around the clock.

Alice / Alice's adventures in wonderland (british book)

I'm on the fence on wether i should keep him named Alice or name him Alex.

Tbh i don't think he went to wonderland dude was just SOOOO high. That or he has severe mental issues. Either way something isn't right. He likes to write a lot, the alice in wonderland thing is a self insert he wrote. He Iikes to babble about the stories in his head a lot. He's a lucid dreamer sot there's probably that in there. He is always sleeping, he prefers it to being awake and in reality. In reality his clothing style is a lot more bland than how i drew it (i drew his wonderland outfit, it might change tbh)

Mermaid / the little mermaid (danish book)

The mermaid is never given a name in the original, so it should say '???' Like the little prince's, i just wanted to note down my name for him. It's Finn, because it's a danish name and i have poor sense of humor. Naming a mermaid Finn.

Tbh i might change this one out i feel like there's less stuff to do with little mermaid and i'm generally less inspired

I heard somewhere the little mermaid was actually a gay story but i have no recollection of proof. But i'll believe it. That being said for the sake of that, merfolk are hermaphrodites. And their language doesn't really have a need for pronouns. I also don't know why in my brain the little mermaid is a platinum blonde w blue scales but. I wanted to pull that out.

They're very very very lovesick and daydreamy, the type to stare and just smile dumbly at a wall because he has their favorite human on the brain... He tends to beach himself on the shore trying to grab stuff out of reach, it's almost gotten him in trouble a couple of times.

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Part of Your World pencil tests for The Little Mermaid by Glen Keane, Tony Anselmo, and Dave Pruiksma.

[zimswife]

lots of adventures and fun times together! ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

💚 🌊 💚 | 🌊 💚 🌊 | 💚 🌊 💚

ariel stimboard

[baltharino]

The Little Mermaid (1989) Dir. John Musker & Ron Clements

[artist-issues]

fave ariel and eric scenes from the og film and return from the sea????

Well!

#1 Introductions

I don’t know if this counts but I’m counting it. The first scene Eric is introduced in mirrors the first scene Ariel is introduced in. Goes like this:

The camera pans and zooms in around the sails and mast of the ship to show Prince Eric, gazing out at the sea excitedly / The camera shows the shot of the tattered sails and mast of a sunken ship and Ariel pops into view, gazing at another shipwreck, also excitedly. They’re both looking out at a world they can’t be fully part of.

Eric asks his friend (Grimsby) “isn’t this great?” about the thing he loves, which is the sea / Ariel asks her friend (Flounder) “isn’t it fantastic?” about the thing she loves, which is the sunken ship. They’re both seeing the thing they love positively.

Eric’s companion (Grimsby) responds sarcastically “oh yes, delightful” and clearly isn’t enjoying himself, throwing up over the side of the ship / Ariel’s companion (Flounder) responds sarcastically “yeah, it’s great…can we go now?” and clearly isn’t enjoying himself. They both don’t have anybody, even the people closest to them, who can share their love.

Which goes right into my second:

#2 Ariel Sees Eric

It’s important how Ariel sees Eric in the scene where she’s at the boat and it’s his birthday. I know it’s cute, the way she looks at him, smitten, and romantic, the way she saves his life. But that’s not the part I mean.

I mean they specifically, in the script, wrote it so that Eric mentions, “the right girl is out there somewhere, I just haven’t found her yet.” and THEN the shot focuses on Ariel’s face. It’s not just because the narrators are saying, “she’s the right girl, he doesn’t realize it yet!” it’s because they’re very simply reminding you that Ariel is hearing all this. She heard the conversation between Grimsby and Eric about a Dream Girl.

The point here is that she learns exactly how much Eric is like her, and exactly how much he’s different, too, and it all adds up to be the perfect introduction to humans, for Ariel.

Because she’s been wrestling with a community who doesn’t believe in the way she sees her Dream for her whole life. She believes the Surface must have good in it, and has faith in the evidence she’s seen. They believe that’s ridiculous, there’s no good from the Surface, they believe her faith is vain.

Eric also has a Dream. He’s got faith in it. Ariel gets to see that. And she gets to see that, just like her, his community doesn’t believe in it. They don’t believe in his Dream Girl. BUT. Where Ariel has to sneak around and hide evidence that she’s still believing in her Dream, where she has to shut up about it when her father yells at her, Eric is not under the same restraints. He laughs it off when Grimsby doesn’t believe in his Dream. Can you picture Ariel laughing off her father’s fury about the Surface? No.

So she gets to see that 1) He’s just like her but 2) he’s more free than her. He can be the idealized hero in her mind—the guy who isn’t giving up on his Dream, and is a champion of faith, and is in some way succeeding where she has to sneak and sob.

It’s wonderful for her to learn that a human can be like this, so like her, but so much more hopeful, plus, he’s a handsome, heroic human. Also she gets to watch him risk his life for a dog (her dad said humans were barbaric and spineless) and humbly shrug off a way-too-extravagant statue of himself (even though he’s a prince.)

It’s just perfect.

Eric is introduced to her as a guy who makes his own decisions, isn’t bossed around by his advisors or escorts, but doesn’t resent or grow bitter toward them, either. He remains easygoing, secure in who he is and what he believes, without having to trample all over the people closest to him who disagree. He’s got great heart and character.

Whereas in the Live Action they stripped him of that subtle, realistic, down-to-earth value and gave it to Ariel by having her be the only one to defy people who disagree with her. By having Eric have an overbearing mother he kowtows to, that makes him her mirror in every way, except with no strength of his own and less of an enticing example of the freedoms of a different world for her to fall in love with. They make him blander, weaker, and less important, but they do it subtly and with chest hair, scruff, drippy “I love you even with your tail” hugging (which was fine but hardly necessary or any kind of improvement because he proved that he loved her tail-and-all in the original just fine by sacrificing himself to save her) and a British accent so that everybody wouldn’t notice.

Anyway.

#3 Eric Saves Ariel

They cut this in the remake, and in my understanding, in the Broadway, too, for no apparent reason and to the great detriment of the original movie which did it right the first time, but my third-favorite scene is Eric fighting Ursula to save Ariel.

Eric immediately expresses concern when Ursula drags Ariel, just revealed to be a mermaid, over the side of the ship. Tail and all. And immediately goes to save her single-handedly, even though, again, the people around him have no interest in helping or following him or fighting for his Dream.

Which is so interesting. He’s their Prince. They’re the closest people to him, invited to his wedding, on this boat. But nobody’s following him or trying to harpoon the sea monster that just dragged his Dream Girl over the side of the boat. But does that stop him? No! And the writers specifically wrote in a moment where Grimsby calls out to him from the deck of the ship and Eric insists he’s going, alone, because he won’t lose Ariel again. He jumps in the water with a sea monster. No fins, no gills, one harpoon, because he loves her and has chosen her and he’s not spineless. And then she even tells him to get out of there, but he refuses to leave her. And even when it basically means certain death (intentionally wrecking the ship HE IS ON by driving it into a demented Kraken-woman) he keeps fighting.

And he does it, by the way, by driving a shipwreck, which is the thematic thing bridging the gap between his world and Ariel’s. He’s standing on a shipwreck when he saves her. Shipwrecks are where she finds human things, and where she learned humans might be worth loving, and a shipwreck is how the human who loves her back saves her.

It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. It’s the right choice, the storytellers initially had a version where Eric wasn’t the one saving the day but Ariel was, and they scrapped that and did this instead because it was better.

And in the Live Action of course they ruined that and made Eric the damsel in distress and made Ariel the floppy fish fighter who steers the shipwreck and saves his life. Which is so lame. Because it also undermines how Triton would’ve learned that Eric was worth loving and Ariel was right to sacrifice for him. Triton needed to see Eric saving Ariel at the cost of his own wellbeing. I’ve said it before, but if Ariel saves Eric, all it proves to Triton is that she can clean up her own mess. Whereas in the original movie, Eric saving Ariel proves Ariel was right about him being loveable despite being a human.

So it’s a good thing the REAL The Little Mermaid made that right choice, because this is an excellent scene.

#4 When Eric Carries Melody

I guess people might like the parts where Eric is comforting Ariel while Melody is lost in the second movie, or when he tells her she’s beautiful in her new dress, but honestly he was very sidelined in this movie. I just like the part where, after the climax, it’s her dad who is carrying her to safety.

[sarafangirlart]

do retellings getting rid of medusa sisters count as fridging female characters?

Fridging means that a female character gets killed or badly injured solely to motivate a male character. What we have here is simply erasure, removing female characters that were important to a woman then sometimes replacing them (and therefore the emotional core of the story) with a male character.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid actually does this, minimizing the roles of her sisters and replacing them with two animal sidekicks.

[sophsun1]

The Little Mermaid (1989) dir. John Musker & Ron Clements

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

an italian fish conspiracy theory

We’ve been calling Mrs. Leech “Georgina” (which I believe has Greek origins) but what if her name is actually… “Giorgina”, a more Italian spelling??? Might this be how her name will be localized in EN?

I thought this because Ultramarine City strikes me as very… mediterranean?? More specifically, Italian. For example, the geography and architecture resembles Italy’s coastlines, which are rocky. The buildings and surrounding have similar coloration as well. Seafood is highly popular both in Italian costal cities and in Ultramarine City. (These are also true of Eric’s castle + kingdom from the film.)

Furthermore! Malleus has a voice line in his Shore’s Celebration card in which he mentions having gelato, which is an Italian frozen dessert similar to ice-cream. Gelato has lower milk fat content (less cream, more actual milk) and a slower churning process, which incorporates less air into the final product.

Now, it’s true that these Italian details apply to the city and not necessarily to Mrs. Leech herself. BUT—she has an acquaintance that is getting married here, in this specific place. It’s possible that they’re connected more than we think. Maybe Mrs. Leech has more “Italian” (or whatever the Twst equivalent of it is) background than we think she does.

Jade, her own son, has a voice lines in his Shore’s Celebration card in which he mentions wanting to arrive via gondola if he were to have his own wedding on land. A gondola is—you guessed it, an Italian boat. Now why would Jade specify a GONDOLA and not a ship, rowboat, or any of the other kinds of boats…? Why would he pick a type of boat that has no appearance in The Little Mermaid (which was originally a Danish tale) and didn’t associate with a particular location like Ultramarine City?

When you think about it, this isn’t even the ONLY Octatrio member with Italian ties. The -grotto in Azul’s surname is an English word adopted in the 1600s, but originally derived from Greek, Latin, and Italian origins. We also can't forget how the trio is constantly presented as "mob" or "mafia"-like. Mafia, of course, being an organized crime group or family originally operating in Sicily, Italy.

The on-campus café Azul runs, the Mostro Lounge, is Italian for “monster” (and many fans of even mistook the name as “Monstro”, the name of the whale from Pinocchio, which is set in Italy). His mother’s restaurant, La Grotta, also sounds Italian. Grotta refers to a pothole (ie a hole or cave made in rock by the action of swirling water). Azul even specifically refers to his mother’s restaurant in a few voice lines as a trattoria, which is an Italian eatery. Not only that, but food is a huge part of Italian culture. It’s important for families to come together to eat at the same table (something which is increasingly becoming difficult to so in the modern age), and feeding others is seen as a sign of love. AND WHAT DO MRS. LEECH AND MRS. ASHENGROTTO DO??? That’s right, they give Azul lots of food 😭 Not to say that food = love is exclusively related to Italian culture, just that Italian culture is one of the cultures with that strong association.

Because the twins and Azul live in the same general area of the Coral Sea (they are familiar with the ice floes of winter, they go to the same schools, their families seem to know each other), I find all these Italian details to be more than coincidence 🤨

That’s not to say that the Coral Sea and/or the Sunshine Lands ARE 1:1 twisted Italy. I’m sure the devs have additional inspirations as well, such as other mediterranean cultures and maybe even some non-mediterranean cultures. For example, the Octatrio mention their home, the Coral Sea, being frozen over in winter, which definitely does not occur in mediterranean areas but are moreso associated with Scandinavian (like Denmark, the area in which TLM originates) seas. just thought this was interesting to note!!

Goes back to tag all my Georgina posts with “Giorgina” too just in case…

[arielerics]

Eric when Vanessa/Ursula was being attacked:

Eric when Ariel was attacked:

[jokesitos-art]