The Little Mermaid 1989 / Tropes A to D

The Little Mermaid (1989) Trope Examples
A - D | E - N | O - Z

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• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • The staircase Ariel runs down to find Eric and Vanessa.
  • The horse-drawn wagon that Ariel and Eric ride in during their village tour. It's especially obvious when Ariel starts driving, and a few shots reveal the wheels not turning at all in plain sight.
  • And the shot of the wrecked ship that Eric steers in the climax (immediately before Ursula's last words "So much for true love!").
• '80s Hair: Ariel's mall hair inspired by '80s teen idol Alyssa Milano. Doubly impressive in that her hair is like that when she's out of the water and sopping wet. Not even the power of the ocean can defeat THAT volume. Underwater... well, hair spreads out underwater. This is why female scuba divers keep theirs short.

A

• Above the Influence: Eric has a girl he rescued from the beach obviously into him, given how she clings to him when he helps her to the castle, and she happily spends the entire next day with him. This girl also makes him laugh, is gracious as she is silent, and is full of surprises. He hesitates on kissing her, however, because as he tells her, he doesn't even know her name. There's also the issue of Sacred Hospitality in that she's technically his guest. After Sebastian whispers that her name is Ariel and Ariel nods when he asks, Eric loosens up.
• Accidental Public Confession: "Humans? Who said anything about humans?"
• Accordion to Most Sailors: Prince Eric plays a flute and another seaman plays an accordion while festivities are in progress on the main deck of the ship. The music and merriment are done to celebrate Prince Eric's birthday. The crew in general seem to be a cheery and affable bunch.
• Act of True Love: When shown that not even his power can destroy the contract that binds Ariel to Ursula, King Triton solemnly replaces Ariel's signature on the contract with his own instead, reducing him to the form of a grub and letting Ursula seize his power, all to save his daughter.
• Action Girl: Ariel is one of the first Disney Princesses to fight villains directly, fighting off a shark, saving Eric from drowning in a storm, and distracting Ursula when she tries to blast Eric, though Eric rescues her from Ursula in the end. In the stage musical, she's the one who kills Ursula, not Eric.
• Actionized Adaptation: The movie made the Sea Witch the main villain, had her grow gigantic, and battle Eric and Ariel after gaining control of the entire ocean. This scene was even more action-packed than what was originally intended, with Jeffrey Katzenberg telling the writers to take inspiration from the just-released Die Hard.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Eric bursts out laughing when Ariel's attempts to "play" the snarfblast— Grimsby's pipe— cover the man's face in soot. He tries halfheartedly to simmer down.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Ariel is the youngest of seven sisters, here. The original mermaid only had five older sisters.
  • Ariel never yearns for an immortal soul, which was the driving motive of the original protagonist.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Possibly the case with Ariel's hair color. While the original story never explicitly stated what color the mermaid's hair was, it did mention that the mermaid greatly resembles the princess whom the prince eventually marries. Given the princess is described as having long dark eyelashes, it stands to reason that the 1837 mermaid had dark hair, not red hair.
  • All of Ariel's sisters had blue eyes in the original film. In the prequel, most of the girls' eye colors change.
  • Eric has blue eyes instead of coal black eyes like his counterpart in the original story.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Literally, as in two mermaids change personalities—the most distinguishing traits of Andersen's heroine were that she was thoughtful, quiet, and pensive (quite unlike Ariel), and one of her sisters is actually said to be by far the most daring and boldest of the family (quite like Ariel).
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The mermaid gets to marry the prince and live Happily Ever After. In the original story by Hans Christian Andersen, she dies after refusing to kill the prince and becomes an air spirit.
• Adaptational Jerkass: King Triton is subject to a bit of this. In the original story, the sea king had no particular grudge against humans, but Triton despises them and forbids his daughter from having any contact with them, with the third movie explaining why. The breaking point is when he destroys her collection of human artifacts. Of course he regrets it almost immediately afterward, but by this point, Ariel has already fled to Ursula.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed, but compared to the prince in the original story—who, despite generously taking the mermaid in, treated her more like a favored pet and had her sleep on a cushion outside his door—Eric's a lot nicer to Ariel.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the Sea Witch is a neutral character: when she turns the mermaid human, she requires no contract, tells her exactly what the consequences will be, and even allows her sisters to buy her a Last-Second Chance.
  • In the original story, the prince and his bride are a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, and there is no indication that this princess is a bad person. In the Disney version, "Vanessa" is actually Ursula in disguise, and Eric only agrees to marry her because he's under a spell.
• Adapted Out:
  • The little mermaid's grandmother, who helped the sea king raise his daughters after their mother died in the original story, is not in the movie.
  • The princess that the prince fell in love with in the original story is removed (although Ursula, disguised as Vanessa, plays a very similar role; and Eric mentions a princess from another kingdom that he rejected).
  • The daughters of the air aren't present in the movie either.
• Agony of the Feet: As Sebastian is trying to get away from Chef Louis, he drops a frying pan on Louis' foot.
  • Averted by Ariel; in the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story, the little mermaid was in agony with each step she took. Ariel's new legs are very shaky initially, but there isn't any indication that they hurt her.
• Advertising by Association: Of the "From the studio that brought you..." variety:
  • The original trailer began with clips of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Bambi, and Sleeping Beauty^note each of which had received a theatrical re-release 2-5 years earlier, followed in each case except Snow White by the first home video release, while Mark Elliot reminded moviegoers:
    "For over 50 years, Walt Disney has turned classic stories into classic animated motion pictures. Now, the tradition continues, as one of the world's greatest stories becomes the newest Disney motion picture classic: The Little Mermaid."
  • The 1997 re-release trailer began with clips of The Lion King (1994), Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, to help remind moviegoers of The Little Mermaid's role in starting Disney's Renaissance.
• Aliens Speaking English: But with merfolks. Without it, giving up a voice might not have been so painful. Ariel wouldn't know how to talk to the prince, and Biped!Ariel could have just learned to speak the local Deaf lingo.
• All According to Plan: Ursula the sea witch, transformed into the human woman "Vanessa," sings "What a lovely little bride I'll make / My dear, I'll look divine / Everything is working out according to my ultimate design." This, however, is actually something of a subversion in that Ursula is experiencing a Sanity Slippage because her original plan isn't working out. She had thought that she could just take Ariel's voice and this would be enough to keep her from ever getting Prince Eric to give her the kiss of true love. After a near-miss only just stopped by her eel henchmen, she hastily concocted this plan to put Prince Eric under her spell and marry him herself.
• All There in the Manual:
  • Triton's kingdom being called Atlantica is never called that in the movie, but it's called that in all other supplementary materials.
  • Ursula's human alter ego being called Vanessa too. You can hear the priest addressing her as Vanessa at the wedding, when he asks Eric the "Do you take..." part of the ceremony.
  • Ariel mentions in the film that she is sixteen, but in contrast, Eric's age of eighteen is only stated in the script.
  • The movie never explicitly states where it takes place, but Disney has confirmed that Atlantica is somewhere in the Mediterranean while Eric's kingdom is in Italy.
• Alliterative Family: The Daughters of Triton are all "A" names: Ariel, Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, and Alana. All of them are also three syllables, like their mother's name Athena.
  • Odd Name Out: Ariel's name starts with A like her sisters', but it does not end with A.
    • But sometimes she does....like in the Croatian and Italian dubs.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Ariel and Eric almost kiss when he realizes the truth, but the spell turning Ariel back into a mermaid cuts them short.
  • Also nearly occurs during the "kiss the girl" song before Flotsam and Jetsam overturn their boat.
• Alto Villainess: Ursula certainly qualifies. In the movie, she's got Pat Carroll's throaty, almost masculine contralto. ^note  In fact, she was supposed to be voiced by infamous Drag Queen Divine, and it shows even in the final film. However, s/he died prior to the recording sessions, so they hired Carroll instead.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Alana, Adella, Aquata, Attina, Arista, Andrina and Ariel all have different tail-colors. They're like an all-female underwater Sentai. And all of them but Ariel wears a Seashell Bra to match her scales.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The sea creatures and plant life all come in very bright colors that make the underwater world pop.
• Ambiguous Situation: The film is unclear as to whether Ariel will get her voice back if she fulfills the terms of Ursula's contract. Ursula says that Ariel's voice is payment, the exact terms of the contract are not disclosed to the viewer. Sebastian seems to view the payment as collateral, as during the "Kiss the Girl" number, he sings, "And she won't say a word, until you kiss the girl!"
• Ambiguous Time Period: Most of the fashions and technology suggest an 18th century setting, but the film is littered with anachronisms, from Ariel's 1980s hairdo to her sparkly gown at the end, to her poofy Princess Diana-esque wedding dress. Also, Chef Louis seems to have walked out of a 1930s slapstick comedy.
• Ambition Is Evil: Ursula in the original film, Morgana in Return to the Sea and Marina Del Ray in Ariel's Beginning.
  • Played Straight in the Disney on Broadway version as well, with Ursula having the line: "Girls with ambition! They don't like that, do they? No."
• Anachronism Stew: The movie looks like it's set in the 18th century. That doesn't prevent Chef Louis from making random Gay Paree references that wouldn't be possible until the 1920s-1930s, including "Maurice Chevalier". The Champs-Élysées avenue of Paris was not yet a staple of the image foreigners have of Paris or France.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Ursula's "garden" is made of former merfolk, now helpless, voiceless polyps, whom she transformed after they made near-impossible "deals" with her.
  • She does worse to Ariel. The contract fulfills its terms, trapping Ariel in a golden whirlpool and seeming to claim her for the garden as well. It transforms her partway, leaving her brown and writhing, with no ability to speak or move but still semi-mermaid. She's unable to do more than watching her father make a deal to save her. Given her expression, Ariel wanted to shout at her dad not to do it, the way Sebastian tried to warn her.
• And Then What?: When Ursula lays her terms for the deal, Ariel points out some of the problems with it: becoming human means that she won't see her father or sister again. And if she gives up her voice, how can she convince Eric to fall in love with her? Ursula has a legitimate answer for the first point; Ariel is going to have to make a tough choice. For the second, she asserts that Ariel's looks, pretty face, and "body language!" are enough to win Eric over.
• Angry Collar Grab: Scuttle tries to convey urgent news to Sebastian and Flounder, but is too flustered to speak coherently. Scuttle resorts to seizing a dubious Sebastian by his shell, and punctuates the sentence, "The Prince is gonna marry the Sea Witch in disguise!" by slamming the poor crab into the pier.
• Animal Eye Spy: Ursula uses this with her eels Flotsam and Jetsam to keep an eye on Ariel. Each of them has one enchanted eye so Ursula can have a stereoscopic view of whatever they see.
• Animal Talk: The majority of the marine animals, including Sebastian and Flounder and Flotsam and Jetsam, are capable of speech, as well as Scuttle the seagull. Max is a notable Aversion, as is the shark at the beginning.
• Animation Bump:
  • Ariel in the hands of Glen Keane. During "Part of Your World" and its reprise, as well as the first meeting between Eric and Ariel after she's traded away her voice, the level of detail is noticeably higher, especially in her hair.
  • Urusula breaking out of her Vanessa disguise and crawling across the deck of the ship to grab Ariel is remarkably detailed and smooth.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Sebastian tries to stop Ariel from striking a deal with Ursula, knowing she's an evil witch, Ariel, still pretty sore at him for inadvertently causing King Triton to destroy her collection of human treasures, delivers one to guilt him.
  Ariel: Why don't you go tell my father?! You're good at that.
• Art Evolution: This was the last Disney film to use traditional hand-painted animation cels. All subsequent Disney films were produced in digital ink-and-paint. Two scenes in Little Mermaid were done with digital ink-and-paint, however. They are Ariel running down the stairs before finding out about Vanessa (to accommodate the CGI stair background) and the wedding scene at the end.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • The first two lines of "Under the Sea" are "The seaweed^note an organism that lives in salt-water environments is always greener / In somebody else's lake^note generally a fresh-water environment.
  • Sebastian is in a shell chariot pulled by two goldfish when he enters the concert area. But goldfish are freshwater fish, and this is saltwater.
• Artistic License – Physics: When Ursula angrily shoves her potion ingredients to one side prior to turning into Vanessa, the vials shatter off-screen. This wouldn't happen underwater^note or at least anywhere near as quickly, but the scene wouldn't work as well without the sound of breaking glass.
• Ash Face: Sir Grimsby, after Ariel blows through his pipe.
• The Atoner: After arguing with Ariel over her fascination with humans and destroying her grotto, Triton tries to repair the damage done and regain her trust by taking Ariel's place as Ursula's prisoner.
• Attack Of the 50 Foot Sea Monster: Ursula in the climax.
• Author Appeal: Howard Ashman asked the production team to make Sebastian Jamaican just because he wanted to write calypso songs. Samuel E. Wright, being a native from South Carolina did an almost completely convincing Jamaican accent for the crab.
• Award-Bait Song: "Part of Your World", one of Disney's most iconic "I Want" Songs. Structurally it is extremely similar to Ashman and Menken's earlier "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors, to the point that they nicknamed it "Somewhere That's Dry". It was nearly cut when a boy yawned while watching it in a test screening, but Ashman fought hard for it to be kept, and it was. Ironically, this was the only time in the Disney Renaissance era that the Oscar for Best Original Song did not go to the obvious award-bait song; the two uptempo calypso-inspired numbers sung by Sebastian ("Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl") were nominated instead, and "Under the Sea" won the only Oscar that Ashman would receive in his lifetime.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Ursula may have had some sanity to manipulate factors in her favor, but Vanessa, Ursula's disguise? Hoo boy, is she a complete nutcase. Just look at her actions during "Vanessa's song" as well as her reactions when the attack of the animals occurred, and you'll see how she's become completely insane.
  • Chef Louis demolishes his entire kitchen trying to kill a single crab, wielding cleavers with reckless abandon.

B

• Background Body Part: As King Triton destroys Ariel's grotto with his trident, the lighting of the scene makes him look like a shadowy devil, with the spikes on his crown serving as the "horns".
• Badass Normal: Prince Eric.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Sebastian's part in the movie is a fleshed out version of this plot. The fact that his charge is 16 does not make things any easier.
• Bad Samaritan: Ursula.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: A central plot point. Ariel's singing voice is the one thing Ursula takes away from her before turning her into a human. Later, her voice is the one thing that makes Prince Eric remember her as the girl who saved his life when he shipwrecked at sea.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: One of the most famous examples in pop culture. The hero Ariel is regarded as an iconically beautiful mermaid with a beautiful singing voice, while the villain Ursula is remembered for her frightening, morbidly obese, and mannish appearance with a raspy, deep voice.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Ursula changes Ariel partly into a polyp to compel Triton to take her place. While her body is brown and withered, he (and the audience) can still see Ariel's face and her frightened eyes.
• Become a Real Boy: "Part of your World" is a passionate declaration of the desire to become human. The desire becomes uncontrollable after Ariel's encounter with Eric, who could be said to represent the human world she's always longed for. Even after she becomes human, she is just as, if not more, focused on exploring as she is on kissing Eric and saving her own life.
• Benevolent Boss: Ursula, which is unusual for a Disney villain. Subverted in the TV series, though.
• Berserk Button: Don't say anything about humans around King Triton.
• Be Yourself: A bit of an Unbuilt Trope, since Ariel being herself means she literally can't be with the man of her dreams, but her Deal with the Devil to live on land robs her of her voice, the only means by which she could have told Eric who she was.
• Big Bad: Ursula.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Subverted when Eric tosses a harpoon at Ursula to stop her from threatening Ariel with the trident. All it does is annoy her enough to set her sights on killing him. It is played straight when Ariel redirects the trident's lethal blow to Flotsam and Jetsam instead.
  • Played straight in the climax. Eric pilots a formerly sunken ship towards Ursula and rams her right when she's about to obliterate a trapped Ariel.
• Big Friendly Dog: Prince Eric's dog, Max. As Eric puts it, he's a knucklehead but he's harmless.
• Big Good: King Triton.
• Big "NO!": From Ariel, when her collection's destroyed and Ursula, when Eric's about to kiss Ariel.
• Bilingual Rhyme: Nutty French chef Louis sings "Les Poissons" as he prepares stuffed crab for Prince Eric and his guests, which mixes French and English liberally. Here's the first stanza rhyming "fish" with "délice."
  Les poissons, les poissons / How I love les poissons
  Love to chop and to serve little fish
  First I cut off their heads / Then I pull out their bones
  Ah mais oui, ca c'est toujours délice.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Eric's boat is sunk in a tempest (and he himself nearly drowns)on his birthday.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: "Vanessa" to the landfolk, and Ursula in her regular form to the seafolk. Her entire Villain Song is about how she is only trying to help “poor unfortunate souls” like Ariel, when in reality she is using her clients to try to take over Atlantica.
• Bittersweet Ending: After Ursula is defeated and all of her victims are freed, King Triton realizes Ariel truly loves Eric and reluctantly decides to make her human permanently so the two of them can be together. Ariel goes off to be with Eric but leaves her father and sisters behind. However, they still apparently do keep in touch, and compared to the original story's ending, this is quite mild. Triton also seems to have rescinded the order keeping the human and mer-worlds separated, as he, his daughters, and some other merfolk are openly attending Ariel's wedding from the water, and even waving to those on the boat.
• Black Comedy: Considering how much spotlight is put on the underwater inhabitants being sapient equals to the merpeople, the kitchen scene with Louis whimsically chopping up and cooking sea food is played in a hilariously morbid manner. A traumatised Sebastian has to hold himself from vomiting.
• Blackface-Style Caricature: The "Blackfish" in Under the Sea is borderline. Surprisingly, Disney hasn't edited it out... yet.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: King Triton's daughters are four dark-haired girls (Aquata, Attina, Adella, and Alana), two blondes (Arista and Andrina), and one redhead (Ariel).
• Both Sides Have a Point: During their argument about Ariel going to the surface, they bring up legitimate points. Triton says that she defied his orders and could have easily been seen by humans. There's no guarantee that a sailor would take one look at her and want Ariel on a fish hook. Ariel retorts that humans are not barbarians — and she's right when Triton sees Eric heroically stopping Ursula to save Ariel — and he refuses to listen to her viewpoint, so she has no choice but to go to the surface if she wants to explore. Triton even admits he may have been too hard on her.
• Bowdlerise:
  • The streaming version of the film re-animates the scene where Vanessa transforms back into Ursula. Rather than show her breasts erupting out of her dress, her entire stomach bursts out at once to mask this.
  • The 1990 and 1998 Norwegian and Swedish releases censored three scenes of the movie: the one with the shark, the one when Ariel gives up her voice (removing most of close-ups of Ursula's wicked expressions and any frame with the hands that took Ariel's voice) and the final battle sequence (removing close-ups of Ursula, the scene with Ariel falling into a whirlpool and Ursula trying to shoot her with Triton's trident, most of Eric's scenes on the sunken ship and the actual shot of Ursula being impaled as well as her writhing in pain before dying). There was no uncensored version of the movie until 2006.
• Brainwashed: Ursula-as-"Vanessa" does this to Eric to torture Ariel.
• Brainwashed Bride: Prince Eric hears an enchanting voice on the seacoast, and goes to look. There strides Vanessa, the disguised form of Ursula, using Ariel's voice, plus her wicked magic. A mist enters Eric's eyes and clouds his irises. Suddenly, he and Vanessa are ordering Grimsby to prepare the wedding ship, insisting on being wed that evening. He remains adamant about marrying Vanessa until Scuttle pulls the amulet off her, breaking it. Once Ariel's voice returns to Ariel herself, the spell is broken, and Prince Eric forgets all about Vanessa.
• Brick Joke: The "dinglehopper" and the "snarfblatt".
• Buffy Speak: Ariel is foreign enough to human life to call her collections "thingamabobs", "whatsits", "whosits" and "gizmos". It's implied that she learned them all from Scuttle, who is no scholar himself.
• The Burlesque of Venus: Played with in the "Daughters of Triton" musical segment, although with 2 mermaids per shell and not one... except for Ariel's shell, of which she was missing.
• Butt Biter: While Scuttle is stalling the Vanessa/Eric nuptials, Max gets loose and gleefully sinks his teeth into Ursula's butt.

C

• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Scuttle, the supposed "expert" on human culture, has no actual clue about the intended purposes of the objects Ariel brings him to identify, and simply assigns them made-up names and makes his best guess as to their proper use, with the result that Ariel calls a dinner fork a "dinglehopper" and uses it as a comb, and believes a pipe is a musical instrument called a "snarfblatt". Though, oddly, she knows to put the fork together with the knife and spoon in her treasure trove.
• The Cameo:
  • Easy to miss, but can you find Mickey, Donald and Goofy?
    • Kermit the Frog makes a cameo in the same scene.
  • A little symbol of Mickey can be seen like a crest on Ursula's Magically-Binding Contract.
  • The King and Grand Duke◊ from Cinderella are at Eric's wedding
  • A painting of Aurora and Phillip is in Eric's castle.
  • At the end of the "Under the Sea" musical number, among the sea creatures pointing at the rock where Ariel was sitting is Mr. Limpet (as seen here). In fact, if you go on the dark ride based on the film at Disney's California Adventure, during the "Under the Sea" room there's a Mr. Limpet figure peeking out of some seaweed!◊
• Canon Foreigner: Sebastian, Flounder, Scuttle and Grimsby are characters exclusive to this adaptation of the story.
• Car Fu: More like "Ship Fu" and was done by Eric in the climax.
• Carnivore Confusion: The main reason that King Triton and Sebastian don't like humans is because that they hunt and eat fish. This ignores the fact there are countless sea creatures that prey on other sea life. Even ignoring the shark that tried to eat Ariel and Flounder, Under the Sea featured plenty of aquatic life that get most of their meals through predation, including crustaceans like Sebastian.
• Cave Mouth: The front door of Ursula's lair is the mouth of a sea-dragon.
• Censor Shadow: After Ariel is transformed into a human, she's in the shadows before she leaves Ursula's lair.
• Central Theme: Part of loving someone means respecting their individuality and their emotional needs.
  • King Triton loves his youngest daughter, but he doesn’t respect her values or her opinions about the human world, and he places his Fantastic Racism towards humans over her desires for the future, trying to force her to be something that she's not to the point where he unwittingly becomes an abusive parent to her and destroys her trust in him. Once he realizes what he’s done, he winds up regretting it dearly later and does whatever he can to reconcile with her. Eventually, he gives her a pair of human legs with no strings attached, so she can make her own decisions and do whatever she chooses with her adult life.
  • Sebastian as well is initially very dismissive of the things that make Ariel unique, including her desire to be human. As the king’s right-hand man, he’s only interested in keeping her in line and urging her to conform to maintain the usual status quo, so they both can avoid invoking the king’s anger. It’s not until he sees how badly Triton hurts her and he knows his own part in that that Sebastian realizes Ariel is more than just the king’s daughter. She’s her own person with her own thoughts and feelings, so he starts treating her as such for the rest of the movie. Sebastian’s Character Development allows his relationship with Ariel to evolve and become much warmer in the second half of the film, as he becomes a parental figure towards her in Triton’s absence.
  • Like Flounder and Scuttle, Prince Eric is one of the few characters in the film who's always accepting of Ariel. Human Ariel is a very odd and peculiar young lady for her time (instead of being dignified or reserved, she wears her heart on her sleeve and has a bubbly, quirky, tomboyish, and endlessly curious personality), but Eric never treats her with anything less than kindness and respect, and he never tries to change her for his benefit. In fact, many of the things that make Ariel unique are things that Eric likes about her and feels attracted to, since he’s a rather atypical prince himself (preferring the company of working-class sailors over the pomp and circumstance of royal affairs). Ariel always feels comfortable being her real self around Eric, and he ultimately decides he still wants a relationship with her after discovering she was born a mermaid.
  • As for Ariel herself? In her grotto, she admits that what she wants — to be among humans, to walk and dance with them — is impossible. What she loves more about humans than their things is their freedom. She also knows she's being irresponsible, but she can't deny who she is or be the girl her dad wants her to be. Initially she's attracted to Eric because of his looks, but she becomes more enamored after hearing that he's seeking someone special, someone who may be impossible to find, and she sees how brave and selfless he can be. Ultimately, when she becomes human, she's allowed to be herself for the first time and explore her interests, and no one will destroy her self-esteem for it. At least not until Ursula steps in. Even then, when Ariel believes Eric has chosen someone else over her and she has her heart broken, she still accepts his decision and doesn't think to intervene, showing Eric the same amount of respect he showed her and resigning herself to the consequences of her deal with Ursula until she discovers Ursula double-crossed her and literally brainwashed Eric.
• Character Development:
  • Ariel was always fascinated by humanity, but after an encounter with Eric proves her right about humans being more than mindless monsters - that they can be good, kind, brave people - she learns to stay true to herself and what she believes in even if it means clashing with her family. She also learns her reckless actions have greater consequences than she expected. After risking danger for the sake of discovery for the entire movie, Ariel finally bites off more than she can chew when she loses her wager with Ursula and the sea witch betrays her. Ariel is forced to watch as Ursula enslaves her father, tries to take over the sea, and tries to kill her and all her friends. To a lesser extent, she's scared of Max for half the movie due to him being a giant dog, but she learns that he's more cuddle than bite. When she gets her voice back and Max runs to her, Ariel doesn't flinch or attempt to run.
  • King Triton gets a sizable amount of character development when he realizes being so hard on Ariel just ended up driving her away from him, and when Eric saves his daughter's life from Ursula, it allows him to overcome his xenophobia of humans and realize that it's for the better that he lets Ariel stay with Eric.
  • Sebastian get a lot of character growth too. He spends the first half of the movie obsessing about how what Ariel does will affect him and in fact rats her out to Triton because he's afraid of Triton punishing him. After seeing the horror Ariel goes through as a result and getting nearly served for dinner by Chef Louis, he decides to make Ariel happy and spends the rest of the movie trying to help her. Fittingly enough, both Triton's and Sebastian's character development is underlined in a conversation between them.
  • Eric also gets some about his Loving a Shadow and wanting the perfect girl for him. He has the right to turn down princesses who wouldn't be a match for him, but Grimsby rightly says that searching for an ideal partner is impossible. When Ariel saves him and vanishes into the waves, Eric spends days searching for the figure with the mysterious voice and for chivalry reasons he doesn't want to flirt with the voiceless girl that falls under his protection. Ariel shows off her flaws while human, and she makes him laugh. When he realizes that she likes him and he finds out her name, Eric is more willing to pursue Ariel and give up his impossible quest. Of course, then he learns that she's the girl with the voice and a mermaid to boot; cue him rowing solo to rescue her from Ursula, saying he's not going to lose her again.
• Chariot Pulled by Cats:
  • King Triton makes his entrance into the concert hall riding on a giant oyster shell pulled by three dolphins. Inside the concert hall, though Triton can swim just fine with his own fishtail. Mer-kings be wack.
  • Sebastian rides a normal-sized seashell pulled by two goldfish, which Sebastian has a little trouble controlling.
• Chekhov's Army: Scuttle recruits the animals who helped Sebastian in "Kiss the Girl" to stall the wedding. The flamingoes and birds fly to the rescue.
• Chekhov's Gun: The shipwrecks in the ocean, where Ariel explores. Ursula makes them float using the trident, and Eric pilots one to impale her.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Ariel is established as fairly strong, given she can move a boulder underwater with her bare hands, climb a ship's side with ease, and float a drowning man to the surface in seconds. She doesn't lose her strength when having to climb onto Eric's wedding barge, and does so pretty fast considering she's wearing a waterlogged gown.
  • Eric piloting (or at least attempting to) his ship in the hurricane. He manages to grab onto a shipwreck that Ursula accidentally summons with her trident, and directs it despite the choppy waters to kill her.
• Clothing Damage: Eric loses his boots in the ocean twice in the film (when Ariel rescues him from drowning, and later after defeating Ursula), and his pant legs get torn. It's worth noting though that in real life, it is very difficult for boots to come off in water.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Scuttle.
  • Arguably Ariel herself, especially compared to the other Disney Princesses and the other merfolk. Her family would have thought she was out there for having an interest in land, and what other Disney Princess is a Collector of the Strange?
• Collector of the Strange: Ariel, who collects many items considered mundane to humans but strange to merfolk.
• Combat Pragmatist: Unable to take the now gargantuan Ursula in an even fight, Eric instead uses the raised wreck of the ship he's pulled himself onto to ram its splintered prow clean through her.
• Compelling Voice: How Ursula brainwashes Eric. Special mention must be made to the fact that it isn't even her voice that brainwashes him but his love interest's, Ariel.
• Composite Character: In the original fairy tale, there's a sea witch who gives the mermaid her legs and a human princess whom the prince marries; Ursula combines them both, along with Adaptational Villainy.
• Coquettish Lip Biting:Ariel does a brief lip-bite when confronted with her Love Interest, Eric, after she's turned human and washed up on the beach. Of course, not having her voice at the moment, she has to find non-verbal means of expressing herself.
• Couldn't Find a Tissue: As Prince Eric and his bride-to-be march up the aisle, they pass Carmella and Grimsby. Carmella starts weeping with Ocular Gushers, so she grabs the closest cloth, which happens to be Grimsby's ascot. Grimsby is aghast as Carmella buries her face in it, but cannot escape her clutches, since the wedding guests leave little wiggle room.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Scuttle, despite spending most of the movie as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, leads the sea world in an attempt to crash Eric and "Vanessa's" wedding, and is directly responsible for destroying Ursula's conch, thus giving back Ariel her voice and breaking Eric from Ursula's hypnosis in time to realise what is going on.
• Crystal Ball: Ursula has a bubble that serves as this. It's also heavily implied that Flotsam's and Jetsam's eyes act as this.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: His first attempt to save Ariel goes south, but Eric actually does land a direct hit on Ursula with his harpoon. The problem is that she's tougher than she looks and has a magical trident to disintegrate him.
• Curtain Clothing: Ariel attempts to make a dress from a sail on a wrecked ship with Scuttle's advice. The result is more comical than anything, though Eric doesn't notice. Carlotta discreetly washes and disposes of it, giving Ariel actual clothes.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: "Vanessa", once she loses possession of Ariel's voice.
• Cute Mute: Ariel when she loses her voice.
• Cutting the Knot: On learning Ariel has been enslaved by Ursula, the first thing Triton does is try to destroy the contract with his trident. Unfortunately, since Ariel signed the deal on her own free will, the paper remains intact, and Ursula gloats how a legally binding contract is beyond his power to break.

D

• Darker and Edgier: While the film does have plenty of Disneyfication, it has some darker elements than the original story, which was more of a simple tragedy.
  • Here, the sea witch is far more menacing and the mermaid faces being eternally trapped in her garden as a polyp. Not to mention that the witch is essentially trying to conquer the entire ocean. The part where the mermaid trades her voice for legs is far scarier than in the story.
  • The shipwreck scene is far more horrifying than in the original story. Special attention is drawn to the fact that the sailors could very well have died, and the ship explodes due to gunpowder. Lightning strikes the sails, making them catch on fire too. The whole time, the focus on Ariel's reaction shows that she's terrified and doesn't know what's going on.
• Dead Guy on Display: The kitchen to Sebastian, which was full of seafood dishes and fish prepared to be cooked up. To Sebastian's absolute horror, he sees a plate of stuffed crabs, resulting in him fainting on the spot.
• Deadpan Snarker: Grimsby has a few moments, such as when he dismisses "nautical nonsense". You can see where Eric got his snark.
• Deal with the Devil: Ariel trades her voice to Ursula to be human. Ursula actually specializes in this kind of deal and has a "garden" full of merfolk who were turned into polyps when they weren't able to fulfill the terms of their contracts. Ironically, listen to the lines "This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl" - it seems the two examples Ursula gave already wanted each other; what they lacked was self-confidence. In the musical, Ursula's contracts had all the attributes of a literal Deal with the Devil:
  Ariel: And if I don't?
  Ursula: Nothing drastic darling, I'm sure. Oh, look, small print. Your soul is mine forever and you're doomed to spend the eternity in my watery hell-soaked lair. Lawyers, don't you just love 'em?!
• Death by Adaptation: As the original Sea Witch is not a villain who needs defeated, she's not killed in the original story.
• Declaration of Personal Independence: Ariel declares to her father that she's not a child anymore and after a fight, seeks to gain legs so she can see land for herself.
• Decomposite Character: Andersen's little mermaid only had five sisters; Ariel has six.
• Demoted to Extra: Ariel's sisters, who had more to do in the original story.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Ursula states that she was "banished and exiled." Both are the same thing.
• Depth Deception: Scuttle sees Ariel through a spyglass from the wrong end, and shouts to her as if she were far away, even though she is actually a few inches in front of him. When she moves the spyglass away, Scuttle exclaims, "Whoa, what a swim!"
• Despotism Justifies the Means: Ursula's plans to rule had she ruled as Queen of the Sea long enough.
• Determinator: Ariel with her desire to be human and marry Eric and Eric's desire to marry the girl who saved his life.
• Did You Get a New Haircut?: Scuttle asks Ariel this after she is turned into a human the first time, then if she had new seashells. Sebastian replies with "she's got legs, you idiot!" As Scuttle's doing this, he's standing on her legs and leaning on her toes!!! And LOOKING at them! She's even bobbing him up and down by kicking her leg slightly, trying to clue him in.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After Ursula gains the godlike powers of King Triton in the climax and transforms into a giant sea monster version of herself, Eric saves the day by piloting a ship to impale Ursula. This is based on the end of The Call of Cthulhu (!).
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Subverted. After Ariel hears the deal about if she does or doesn't kiss Eric, she starts reasoning that if she becomes human, she'll never see her father or sisters again. Considering what Triton just did, it's very wise of her to factor this in to her decision. Ursula then points out, "But you'll have your man. Life has tough choices in it, heh-heh." Then when Ursula demands Ariel's voice as payment, Ariel immediately protests, "But without my voice, how can I-?" with the obvious concern that she won't get Eric to fall in love with her. Ursula interrupts with, "You've got your looks! Your pretty face!" and sings about how men prefer women to not talk. While Ariel impulsively signs the contract and runs into problems communicating with Eric, she did put some thought into what she was doing.
  • Ursula gets this. She turns Ariel into a being that can't breathe water while Ariel's at the bottom of the sea. To make matters worse, Ariel can't swim as well in her human form and it's freezing in the ocean at that depth, so how was Ursula going to get Ariel to the surface if Sebastian and Flounder hadn't been watching?
• Digital Destruction:
  • Early pressings of the Diamond Edition Blu-Ray got hit with this, the ending of the memorable "Part of Your World" sequence plays differently than the regular versions of the film did. Instead of cutting from Ariel reaching her hand towards the surface, to her floating back down onto a rock and cut to Flounder looking sad, these latter two shots were switched. Also, the scene transition when Ariel and Flounder go to visit Scuttle has changed from a dissolve to a cut. (See the Digital Destruction entry for more.)
  • When Ariel is first transformed into a human, despite the scene being shadowy, much of Ariel's nude lower body could be seen if one lightened the colors on their monitor. However, on the Diamond Blu Ray print, they deliberately darkened the shadows so Ariel is more in silhouette after her transformation, rendering her butt and the area in between her legs impossible to see◊, no matter how bright the color on your monitor is. Of course, there was never any real detail to any of it, anyway.
• Disneyfication: One of the most iconic (albeit also successful) examples of the trope. The Bittersweet Ending of the book is now a clear happy ending, trading her voice is substituted for having her tongue cut out, and Ariel's fate if she fails doesn't involve death. Also, in the original story, the sea witch was a True Neutral character. In the movie, she's named Ursula and upgraded to the Big Bad.
• Disney Death: Ariel in the prequel.
• Disney Villain Death: Averted quite horrifically for a kid's film. To put it simply, Flotsam and Jetsam were electrocuted and disintegrated by a misfire from the Trident, and Ursula was impaled by a broken bow of the ship, electrocuted due to the Trident's blast backfiring on her, sinking, and then exploding. In both cases, the animators even went as far as to detail all of their pieces sinking down to the ocean floor. In fact, only one character, Ariel, actually ended up falling down a very huge height, and she survived.
• The Dog Bites Back: While Scuttle is stalling the Vanessa/Eric nuptials, Max gets loose and gleefully sinks his teeth into Vanessa's butt, presumably as revenge for her earlier kick to his face.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-Universe. According to Word of God, Ariel's fascination with the human world (at least partially) actually came out of her father's strict forbidding of it.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Flounder tries to defend Ariel and tells about how they were chased by a shark which could have killed both of them, Triton's response is fairly lackadaisical. But the second Flounder accidentally lets it slip that they went to the surface, Triton goes apeshit. Which is strikingly bizarre for a father trying his very best to keep his youngest daughter out of harm's way.
• Dreadful Musician: Scuttle's "singing" (more like squawking) provokes a cringe from Ariel, an exasperated outburst of "Geeze man, I'm surrounded by amateurs!" from Sebastian, and a remark from Eric about how "somebody should find that poor animal and put it out of its misery."
• Drives Like Crazy: Never, ever let Ariel drive your horse-drawn carriage (unless she learned better since then).

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