The Little Mermaid is a Disney animated feature adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and first released on November 15, 1989 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. Grossing over $80 million domestically, this movie is given credit for breathing life back into the animated movie genre after a string of critical and commercial failures (The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective), signaling the start of a decade-long period of successful Disney movies. The Little Mermaid, movie poster This work is copyrighted. ... The Walt Disney Company (most commonly known as Disney) (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Animation refers to the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Hans Christian Andersen, (April 2, 1805 - August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet most famous for his fairy tales. ... A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ... The Little Mermaid is a fairy tale about a young mermaid by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. ... Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA) is the animation studio that makes up a key element of The Walt Disney Company. ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Walt Disney Pictures is a United States-based movie studio, and is a division of The Walt Disney Company. ... Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. ... The Black Cauldron is the 25th animated Disney classic film based loosely on the first two volumes of Lloyd Alexanders Chronicles of Prydain. ... The Great Mouse Detective (first released on July 2, 1986), known as Basil, the Great Mouse Detective in the United Kingdom, is the 26th animated film produced by the Walt Disney Company. ...

An upcoming stage adaptation of the movie is planned with additional songs by Alan Menken and new lyricist Glenn Slater. The book for the musical has been completed by Doug Wright. Alan Menken Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American Broadway and film music composer. ... Glenn Slater wrote the lyrics to Alan Menkens music in Home on the Range. ... Doug Wright is a playwright. ...

Plot

The film follows the story of a headstrong sixteen-year-old mermaid named Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson), who is dissatisfied with life under the sea. Ignoring the warnings of her father, King Triton (voiced by Kenneth Mars), the ruler of the merpeople, and the court musician, Sebastian the crab (voiced by Samuel E. Wright), Ariel and her best friend, a fish named Flounder (voiced by Jason Marin), often sneak up to the surface of the ocean. There, they collect human artifacts with the help of a goofy seagull named Scuttle (voiced by Buddy Hackett). Ariel knows that contact between the humans and merpeople is forbidden, but she longs to be part of the human world. The statue of The Little Mermaid, a monument to Hans Christian Andersen, in Copenhagen harbour. ... Ariel etymologically derives from (אֲרִיאֵל, Standard Hebrew Ariʾel, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĂrîʾēl) a unisex name meaning lion God. ... Jodi Benson (born October 10, 1961) is a U.S. voice actress and singer. ... Kenneth Mars (born April 14, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is a television, movie and voice actor, perhaps best known for his roles in several Mel Brooks films and for playing King Triton in Disneys The Little Mermaid. ... Voice of Sebastian in Disneys The Little Mermaid. ... Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, the most abundant fish species in the world. ... Genera Pagophila Larus Rissa Creagus Xema Rhodostethia Gulls are seabirds in the family Laridae and subfamily Lari. ... Buddy Hackett (August 31, 1924 - June 30, 2003), born Leonard Hacker, was an American comedian and actor. ...

Worried about his daughter's behavior, Triton assigns Sebastian to look after her and report on her activities. Sebastian discovers that Ariel has been collecting all of the items she finds on the surface in a secret underwater grotto, but he decides not to tell Triton for Ariel's sake.

Unbeknownst to anyone, all of this is being observed by Ursula the sea witch (voiced by Pat Carroll), who for many years has been seeking a way to exact her revenge upon King Triton for banishing her from the kingdom. She sees Ariel as the perfect pawn in her quest to rule the seas. Pat Carroll is an actress, she is best known for her role as the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid. ...

Ariel statue at a Toronto Disney Store location

That night, Ariel and Flounder travel again to the surface to watch a fireworks celebration for Prince Eric's birthday. Eric (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes) is presented with a giant stone statue of himself, commissioned by his guardian, Grimsby, who is pressuring Eric to find a bride and marry, so that he can assume the throne. The birthday celebration is cut short when a violent storm moves in and Eric's ship is destroyed. Eric is lost at sea and almost drowns before he is saved by Ariel, who has taken a liking to the prince. She disappears just as he is awakening, and Eric finds himself enthralled by the memory of her beautiful singing voice. Download high resolution version (480x640, 32 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (480x640, 32 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Christopher Daniel Barnes is an American actor who performed in many movies and television series. ...

Ariel spends the next morning floating around the underwater palace in a daze of love, and Triton attempts to extract from Sebastian the name of the person she is in love with. When he learns that his daughter is in love with a human, he becomes furious and destroys Ariel's grotto, including the stone statue from Eric's birthday party that Flounder had managed to find for her.

Ursula decides that now is the time to make her move, and she assigns her pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam (both voiced by Paddi Edwards) to bring Ariel to her underwater cave. There, Ursula makes a deal with the princess to transform Ariel into human form for three days. Within these three days, if she plans to remain a human, she must give Eric the "kiss of true love"; otherwise she will transform back into a mermaid at sunset on the third day. If this happens, Ursula will own her very soul and add her to her garden of lost souls, who have been transformed into polyps. Families Many; see text An eel is any of the fishes in the order Anguilliformes. ... Paddi Edwards, born in 1931, was an American actress. ... In zoology, a polyp is one of two forms of individuals found in many species of cnidarians. ...

As agreed, Ursula casts her spells and changes Ariel into a human. As "payment", she takes Ariel's voice and makes her a mute, knowing that Eric remembers Ariel only by her voice. Sebastian and Flounder bring Ariel to the surface, where she is taken in by Eric. He has no idea who Ariel is and what she has done for him, and she is unable to tell him.

While Ariel enjoys living in the human palace and spending time with Eric, Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle try to get Ariel and Eric to kiss, while Ursula is trying to prevent the very same. Taking the guise of a beautiful young human girl named Vanessa, Ursula appears onshore, singing in Ariel's voice, which is housed in a magic nautilus shell around "Vanessa's" neck. She casts a spell of enchantment on Eric, who immediately arranges a marriage ceremony, much to Ariel's dismay. The ceremony is set to take place at sunset, which is coincidentally when Ariel's deal with Ursula ends. Sebastian runs to inform Triton, while Scuttle, Flounder and Eric's sheepdog Max stall the wedding. "Vanessa" is distracted, and the conch shell is broken, restoring Ariel's voice to her. Realizing that Ariel was the girl who saved him the night of his celebration, Eric rushes to kiss her, but he is too late; the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. "Vanessa" transforms back into Ursula, and, grabbing Ariel, disappears into the sea. A Sheep dog is a type of domestic dog whose original purpose was to herd or guard sheep. ...

Triton catches up with Ursula and attempts to destroy the deal she made with Ariel, but is unable to do so. Before Triton's eyes, Ursula begins the process of transforming Ariel into a polyp, but then she offers Triton a deal: she will accept Triton's soul in the place of Ariel's. Triton accepts and is transformed into a helpless polyp, sacrificing himself for his daughter.

Ursula takes Triton's crown and trident and declares herself ruler of the sea. Ariel tries to stop her, and accidentally causes Ursula to destroy her pet eels. An enraged Ursula transforms into a giant and attempts to destroy Ariel. Eric sails out to sea and joins Ariel in the fight against Ursula, but the two of them appear to be no match for the behemoth, who drags wrecked ships from the bottom of the sea to try and prevent Eric from meddling. Eric jumps aboard one of the vessels and rams the bow of the ship through her heart, killing her. Italian barque Amerigo Vespucci in New York harbor, 1976. ...

With Ursula dead, the polyps in Ursula's garden, including Triton, are all changed back into merpeople. Noticing how unhappy his daughter is and how much she truly loves Eric, Triton decides to give Ariel what she wants. Ariel is changed permanently into a human, and she and Eric are wed. Both humans and merpeople turn out for the wedding, and Triton accepts Eric as a part of the family. Eric and Ariel sail away into the sunset to live happily ever after.

Significance

The Little Mermaid is an important film in animation history for many reasons: Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a...

• It marks a return to the musical format that had made Disney films popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, after a test run with Oliver and Company the year before. It features seven original songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, who also served as the film's producer.

• This film was the most special-effects-laden Disney film since Fantasia forty-nine years prior. Effects animation supervisor Mark Dindal estimated that over a million bubbles were drawn for this film, in addition to the use of other processes such as airbrushing, backlighting, superimposition, and some flat-shaded computer animation.

• The happy-ending wedding scene at the close of the film marked the first use of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) in a Disney feature. CAPS is essentially a digital ink-and-paint and animation production system that is used to take the animators' drawings and color them digitally, as opposed to the traditional method of tracing onto cels using ink and paint (see Traditional animation). The rest of The Little Mermaid is painted traditionally. All subsequent Disney features have used CAPS instead of traditional ink-and-paint.

• This film and Beauty and the Beast signalled a renaissance in Disney animation; the films brought in large amounts of revenue and acclaim, and the Feature Animation department began significant expansion, going from about 300 artists at the time of this film to 2,400 by 1999.

• The Little Mermaid won the 1989 Academy Award for Original Music Score. Both "Kiss the Girl" and "Under the Sea" were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, with "Under the Sea" coming out as the winner.

// Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... Oliver and Company is a 1988 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. ... Alan Menken Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American Broadway and film music composer. ... Howard Ashman (May 3, 1950 – March 14, 1991), born Howard Elliott Gershman in Baltimore, Maryland, was an American playwright and movie music lyricist. ... Fantasia is a 1940 motion picture, the third in the Disney animated features canon, which was a Walt Disney experiment in animation and music. ... Mark Dindal (born in Columbus, Ohio) is an American special effects animator and film director. ... The airbrush is a small, highly precise spray gun for applying paint. ... Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. ... The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) is a proprietary collection of software programs, camera systems and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company together with Pixar in the late-1980s to computerize the ink and paint and post-production processes of traditionally animated feature films produced by Walt Disney... Traditional animation, sometimes also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. ... Beauty and the Beast is the thirtieth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... From Rule Sixteen of the Special Rules for The Music Awards Original Score: An original score is a substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... Academy Award for Best Song 1930s 1934 - The Continental from The Gay Divorcee 1935 Lullaby of Broadway from Gold Diggers of 1935 1936 The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time 1937 Sweet Leilani from Waikiki Wedding 1938 - Thanks for the Memory from The Big Broadcast of 1938 1939 Over...

Voice cast

• Jodi Benson - Princess Ariel/Vanessa
• Christopher Daniel Barnes - Prince Eric
• Pat Carroll - Ursula the Sea Witch
• Jason Marin - Flounder
• Samuel E. Wright - Sebastian
• Kenneth Mars - King Triton of Atlantica
• Buddy Hackett - Scuttle
• Paddi Edwards - Flotsam and Jetsam
• Ben Wright - Grimsby
• Edie McClurg - Carlotta
• Rene Auberjonois - Chef Louis
• Will Ryan - The Seahorse
• Kimmy Robertson - Princess Alana
• Matthew Balaban - Princess Attina (uncredited)

Jodi Benson (born October 10, 1961) is a U.S. voice actress and singer. ... Christopher Daniel Barnes is an American actor who performed in many movies and television series. ... Pat Carroll is an actress, she is best known for her role as the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid. ... Voice of Sebastian in Disneys The Little Mermaid. ... Kenneth Mars (born April 14, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is a television, movie and voice actor, perhaps best known for his roles in several Mel Brooks films and for playing King Triton in Disneys The Little Mermaid. ... Buddy Hackett (August 31, 1924 - June 30, 2003), born Leonard Hacker, was an American comedian and actor. ... Paddi Edwards, born in 1931, was an American actress. ... Edie McClurg Edie McClurg (born July 23, 1951 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American actress. ... René Murat Auberjonois (born June 1, 1940 in New York, New York) is an American actor best known for his early 1980s role as Clayton Endicott III on the television show Benson and his role as Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ... Will Ryan is a voice actor orginally from Cleveland, Ohio. ...

Songs

• Mysterious Fathoms Below, performed by Sailors
• Daughters of Triton, performed by Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella and Alana
• Part of Your World, performed by Ariel
• Part of Your World (Reprise), performed by Ariel
• Under the Sea, performed by Sebastian
• Poor Unfortunate Souls, performed by Ursula and Ariel
• Les Poissons, performed by Louis
• Kiss the Girl, performed by Sebastian
• Happy Ending, performed by Merpeople

Rumors surrounding the movie

Two urban legends circulated about The Little Mermaid, these two links lead to a site that debunks those legends.

• A phallus was drawn on the video cover for the movie by a disgruntled artist.
• A minister becomes aroused during the wedding scene in the movie.

Nubian wedding with some international modern touches, near Aswan, Egypt A wedding is a civil or religious ceremony at which the beginning of a marriage is celebrated. ...

TV series and sequel

• The animated series version of this movie, The Little Mermaid, premiered in late 1992.
• A direct-to-video sequel, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, was released on September 19, 2000.

An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... The Little Mermaid is a series based on the movie of the same name by The Walt Disney Company. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alternate use, hydrogen fuel car: General Motors Sequel A sequel is a work of fiction (e. ... The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea is a sequel to The Little Mermaid. ... September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Trivia

• Glen Keane, the supervising animator for Ariel, stated on the Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD that Ariel looks exactly like his wife, without the fins. The character's body shape and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss?.

Glen Keane is perhaps the most famous traditional (2D) lead animator in recent history. ... Pocahontas was The Walt Disney Companys 33rd animated feature film. ... Alyssa Milano peering out her window in Charmed Alyssa Milano speaking to sailors Alyssa Milano being seduced in Embrace of the Vampire (1994) Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972 in New York City) is an American actress. ... Cast of Whos the Boss? Whos the Boss? was a television sitcom starring Tony Danza which aired for eight seasons on ABC from 1984 to 1992. ...

External links

• The Big Cartoon DataBase entry for The Little Mermaid
• The Little Mermaid at the Internet Movie Database
• Love Sucks (sort of a Little Mermaid love story)