Since its first publication in 1837,
Hans
Christian Andersen’s fairytale, 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 becoming 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
movies 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 fairytale 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 who used 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 fairytale 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 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 begin home releases 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 about the show,
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. These tapes
included “A Whale of a Tale”, 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 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.
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