YMMV / The Little Mermaid (1989)

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Given how easily Ursula is able to get Ariel to agree to huge life-changing deals when she is in an extremely emotional situation, an alternate lesson could be to never agree to anything in the heat of the moment — especially something that will affect your life or those around you.
  • Subterfuge and chicanery are better means of navigating a dangerous situation, rather than avoidance. Considering Triton had the ability to give Ariel legs quite easily, he probably could have found a way to switch her back when needed, thus allowing her to explore the human world without the potential danger of getting caught.
• Accidental Innuendo: This gem from "Under the Sea":
  Darling, it's better down where it's wetter.
• Adorkable: Ariel falls into this due to how she's cute, curious, and excitable.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: It's been argued that the story is a cautionary tale for parents. Triton is pretty applicable to the standard overprotective parent that goes too far and unwittingly sends his child into the arms of someone who wants to hurt and exploit her.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • It's possible to view Triton's change of heart as being a little more nuanced than just wanting his daughter to be happy. He was turned into a polyp and nearly doomed the entire ocean to Ursula's rule (and who knows what kind of queen she'd be after she was done destroying everything). But it was a human — the human Ariel loves — who killed her and effectively fixed the mess Triton himself made. So him giving the couple his blessing could partly be a non-romantic If It's You, It's Okay situation toward Eric. This interpretation is validated by the storyboarded alternate ending, where Triton says "That human saved my life" whilst watching Ariel with Eric at the end. The idea that Ariel's hand is Eric's Standard Hero Reward isn't exactly empowering, but it's the only interpretation that doesn't involve rewarding Ariel's near-disastrous decisions.
  • It's possible that Sebastian gets tasked with watching Ariel not just because he suggested it, but because Triton felt it was a fitting punishment for his part in the concert being ruined (the show wouldn't have started if whoever was in charge had noticed Ariel wasn't there).
  • It's only referenced in the Broadway version, and the parody Twisted has "The Sea Witch" saying there's more than one side to every story, but there are different explanations for why she was banished, depending on who's telling the tale. A Deleted Scene has Ariel recollect that Ursula was a ruler who abused her power. Ursula laughs at that. The sailors with Eric say that Ursula killed hers and Triton's sisters to gain power over the sea, and Triton intervened, his Rage Breaking Point being when she threatened his wife. Triton, however, says that humans ended up killing Ariel's mother. Ursula in-universe in the Broadway play says that "the sea wasn't big enough for the two of us," hinting that Triton may have been a Secretly Selfish Control Freak. On the other hand, Ursula references abusing power and says as ruler of the sea in the ABC version that she wants to eat her subjects, giving an Evil Laugh. The Sea Witch in Twisted snarkily explains to Ja'far that she was an atypical leader, wishing to "give the people a voice" and her brother took offense to that, sending her and "the truth" to a watery grave.
  • Was Ursula actually going to spare Ariel in the Broadway version after Triton took her place in the deal? She actually doesn't take Ariel back to the lair in the pre-Broadway version because Ariel is still human, and waits until Triton comes to bargain with her. Noticeably, Ursula doesn't threaten her with the trident as she does in the film, even when Ariel steals her shell. It could be Not Worth Killing, or perhaps not wanting to murder her niece after she served her purpose.
  • Does Ariel in fact realize that she's gotten herself into trouble once Ursula proposes the deal, and agrees to it partly because she doesn't think Ursula will let her leave if she refuses? She winces and closes her eyes as she signs the contract — suggesting she's somewhat aware of what may go wrong because of it.
  • Triton destroying Ariel's collection of human artifacts, when viewed in a real-world context of a parent destroying a child's possessions as punishment, could be viewed as dangerously ignorant at best and abusive at worst. With this in mind, Ariel accepting Ursula's deal so readily could be her desperate attempt to escape an environment she now sees as unsafe.
  • Was it always Ursula's plan to trade Ariel for Triton? She never mentioned it specifically, but her goal has always been to take out Triton. Was it a plan in the making? Was it her eventual plan, but Triton showing up merely accelerate it? Or did she just want a valuable trophy and come up with the idea on the fly?
  • Ursula's magic:
    • She prefers a Magical Contract form of spellcasting, but as shown when she transforms into Vanessa, she doesn't need to do it. Is it just personal flair? Or is it the only way she can turn the merfolk into polyps? Can she only use her magic on others via contract or other agreements?
    • The merfolk who failed and became polyps: Did they fail because they simply weren't up to snuff? Or did Ursula sabotage them? And if Ursula sabotaged them, why? Out of sadistic cruelty? Or is she practicing on no-stakes targets so she and her minions can be experts for when a really valuable target like Ariel comes along?
  • Does Ursula intend to give Ariel's voice back if she fulfills the terms of the contract? While Ursula says that Ariel's voice is payment, 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!" The exact terms of the contract are not disclosed to the viewer.
  • Is Scuttle a genuine Know-Nothing Know-It-All, innocently telling Ariel inaccurate information about the surface? Or his he maliciously lying to her for his own amusement? This flared up when the remake leaned hard into the former interpretation, leading supporters of the latter interpretation to complain about the alleged change.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Despite being well-liked elsewhere, the Disney adaptation is not well-liked by Danish folks (Denmark is where the eponymous Fairy Tale originated), mainly because of it abandoning the moral of the original story. However, after Ron Clements, during the world premiere, apologized to the Queen of Denmark for the changed ending, apparently taking the complaints to heart, she revealed she actually preferred Disney's take on it due to it now having a proper ending, claiming Hans Christian Andersen never really knew how to do endings anyway.
• Applicability:
  • The most common allegorical view of this film is that it's a story about growing up. Ariel's life under the sea can be seen to represent childhood, pleasant and secure yet confining, while the human world represents adulthood, with all its potential dangers and struggles, yet with freedom and new joys that a child can't know... not the least of which is romantic love. Like many parents, Triton wants to protect Ariel like a child forever, but like most teenagers, Ariel is eager to grow up and have new experiences. In the end, like all parents, Triton realizes that he needs to let Ariel leave home and build her own life.
  • As shown by the number of times on this very page that tropers have called Triton "racist," it can also be viewed as an anti-racism story. Open-minded Ariel looks beyond her birth culture's normalized bigotry, sees the value in a different culture, and eventually falls in love with a person from that group and chooses to adopt their ways. Triton's eventual change of heart can be seen to promote universal equality and positive race relations.
  • Like the original story, this version can also be viewed as queer allegory. Ariel's love is forbidden by her society, and like all too many, she's forced to leave her prejudiced family behind and risk her very life (the threat of Ursula serving as a stand-in for prejudice or AIDS) in order to truly be herself and love who she wants to love. She also faces the risk of Eric not returning her feelings, or returning them but choosing a more "conventional" partner like "Vanessa" instead. Her father is initially supportive when he thinks she is interested in the "right" person, but turns violent when he learns otherwise. Even though the happy ending is a straight relationship, it can be seen to represent LGBTQ equality, with Ariel attaining the secure love, joy, and acceptance that Andersen (bisexual) and lyricist Howard Ashman (gay and eventually died of AIDS) both undoubtedly longed for. The fact that it culminates in Triton making a rainbow appear over the newlyweds only enhances this vibe.
  • It's also been argued that Ariel's becoming human can be seen as a metaphor for a transgender woman transitioning. She always wanted to join the human world (a metaphor for transitioning), as she sings "Part of Your World" before she meets Eric. Then when she meets Eric, she decides to transition then so she can be with him — she always wanted to eventually, but the prospect of getting a boyfriend just gave her the final push, as is the case with some transgender women. So Ariel gets legs and, one can assume, what goes between them. Also, there is the rejection by and later reconciliation with her father, as a coming-out story might have. Check out some more info here.
  • Jodi Benson has said that she's met a lot of autistic children who related to Ariel having her voice taken from her and being unable to communicate her true feelings. In addition to that, she has a specific hobby/interest she's very devoted to that the people around her can't understand her fascination with. While on land, she embarrasses herself a couple of times by doing the 'wrong' social cue (thinking a fork is to brush her hair, and a pipe is to make music). What's more, is that her friends are all animals and she doesn't appear to have any friends of her own species (although the TV series would show her befriending other merpeople). She also doesn't appear close to any of her sisters despite clearly loving them.
  • Ariel chooses to leave her current life behind after an incredibly traumatic experience at her father's hands. More than that, she chooses to accept the clearly shady Ursula's help in doing so, partly because there's hardly anywhere else for her to go (and Ursula is also preying on her vulnerability). There are two ways to look at this, both of which are known to happen in the real world.
    • This all has too much of a striking resemblance to a classical depiction of a runaway child who turns to obviously shady illegal figures to help them run away from home because they seemingly have no one else to turn to and ends up in the hands of a person who specifically preys on traumatized runaway teenagers.
    • Given that the entire grotto destruction scene is straight-up child abuse, this can have the added applicability of a girl trapped by her Domestic Abuser father finally taking the initiative to escape him only to fall into the hands of a secondary abuser in Ursula.
• Audience Awareness Advantage: Ariel is often treated by viewers as being idiotic for trusting Ursula, due to these viewers thinking that Ursula's ugly Fat Bitch Wicked Witch physical appearance make her an obvious villain. While viewers are aware of the Disney trope of villains at that time often looking similar to the way Ursula does, Ariel does not have this trope for context. From her perspective, it would be unnecessarily judgmental to simply dismiss Ursula because of how she looks. She does have the warnings of her father, Sebastian, and Flounder, but considering that her father just destroyed her prized possessions, and Sebastian and Flounder are only following what her father said, it is understandable that she would not be eager to listen to them. It's also worth noting that things do work out for Ariel specifically because of her going to Ursula, which makes Ariel's decision to trust Ursula even more valid in hindsight.
• Award Snub: Heavily downplayed by "Under the Sea" winning Best Original Song, with an additional nomination for "Kiss the Girl," but the iconic "Part of Your World" was not nominated.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Is Ariel a good character/role model or a terrible one? Those who dislike her point to her being selfish and reckless and whose sense of rebelliousness and occasional irresponsibility often causes problems. Her making a deal with Ursula, who she knows to not be trustworthy and who curses those who can't fulfill their end of a deal was a pretty big mistake, especially since it's for the sake of a man she barely knows. They also note that she doesn't appear to learn anything from the ordeal. Fans of her praise her bravery and decisive attitude, feeling that she's good as a flawed protagonist rather than being too unrealistically perfect. They also make the arguments that she has every right to want a life where she can find happiness, that she'd long been fascinated by the surface world and not just Eric, and that after the deal she does spend a good deal of time getting to know Eric, that the film doesn't portray the deal as a good thing, but an understandable mistake in an extremely vulnerable moment and that she has to earn her happy ending, big time.
  • King Triton. A well-meaning father who only wants what's best for Ariel and who she should have listened to? Or an idiotic and possibly racist Jerkass father who brought the events of the movie's second act upon himself because he didn't handle Ariel's fascination with humans tactfully? And then there's the question of whether the second interpretation is the intent, but also, y'know, the whole point and he's supposed to be infuriating and realize he was wrong in the end — which of course further irritates people who agreed with him, to begin with.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: A bit; while the movie is very famous, for many, Ariel's nearly-nude first moments as a human stand out as one of the key details they remember.
• Broken Base:
  • Who is the oldest sibling: Aquata or Attina? Aquata was originally the heir, however, the third movie puts Attina as the oldest. Fans differ on which they prefer.
  • In Finland, as in many European countries, the movie was dubbed twice. Fans can get quite intense about which dub is better, especially the two voices for Ariel: Johanna Nurmimaa, the first Ariel has a more mature, operatic voice that's completely different from Jodi Benson's, while the second Ariel, Nina Tapio, has a light, contemporary sound, closer to Jodi's. Other countries where there is a huge debate over the two dubs are Greece, Germany, and France.
  • The decision to have Ariel's Norwegian voice actress Sissel Kyrkjebø also voice Ariel in the Swedish dub has drawn some contention in the Swedish fandom. Kyrkjebø speaks Swedish fluently, but her accent makes her prone to more than a few... unusual line deliveries which some fans finds very distracting, while other fans think her accent is precisely what makes makes her performance so unique and memorable. That being said, both camps agree that her singing is impeccable.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Ursula's French voice, Micheline Dax, remains particularly iconic and is quite a Tough Act to Follow for Magali Bonfils, the dub actress/singer of the 2023 film.
• Character Perception Evolution: While initially beloved for ushering in the Disney Renaissance of the '90s, Ariel became increasingly scrutinized in the 2000s as being too similar to the early Disney Princesses, owed to her motivation being romantic involvement with a man and her Damsel in Distress status in the climax. In The New '10s, however, these critiques faced backlash as being in bad faith. Other analysts pointed out how Ariel saved Eric's life twice before he saved hers, increased awareness of abuse dynamics made people reanalyze her as seeking to escape a draconian father, and the film's LGBT Fanbase noted how her character arc works well as a trans allegory, altogether changing Ariel's image from "giving up her whole life for a man" to "finally getting to be who she wants."
• Common Knowledge:
  • Everyone "knows" that the movie takes place in Denmark due to the author of the 1837 story the film is based off of being Danish. In truth, co-writer and co-director John Musker and co-producer Howard Ashman agreed early on that the story didn't need to be set in Denmark after the latter proposed using calypso and reggae elements in the music. Art director Michael Peraza, Jr. has also stated that the film's design is based primarily on the Mediterranean and Roman and Italian architecture, and Disney has even confirmed that Ariel grew up in the Mediterranean Sea and Eric's kingdom is in Italy.
  • Ariel left her family and her ocean life behind for the human world that she knew little about and went to a clearly shady figure for help all to chase after the man of her dreams that she had only just met. While that last part has some truth, Ariel's cavern of wonders being full of human artifacts clearly shows that she had an interest in the human world for years, and only went to Ursula after going through a very traumatic experience at the hands of her father, which more than that was something that Ursula preyed on when making the deal with the young Ariel. This also applies to her goal: while she wants to become a human, the point wasn't just about Eric, but about being part of his world, the human world, as Ariel sings about it before the scene where she meets him.
  • A surprisingly large number of fans think Sebastian is a lobster despite him being repeatedly referred to as a crab in the film. Moreover, the film features actual lobsters (including one who briefly plays music alongside Sebastian during "Under the Sea"), who are about three times Sebastian's size, are blue (lobsters generally only turn red when they're cooked), and have lobster antennae and tails that Sebastian lacks.
• Crack Pairing: Some people ship Ariel/Ursula.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "Les Poissons," Chef Louie's song that features him singing about filleting and taking apart dead fish, while a horrified Sebastian watches. It’s disturbing and catchy at the same time.
• Crossover Ship:
  • For some bizarre reason, whenever Disney pops up on Imageboards /u/, they ship Ariel with Meg from Hercules (something we need to thank batlesbo and X-Arielle).
  • Other very popular pairings in the fandom are Ariel/Jim Hawkins, Ariel/ Peter Pan, and Ariel/Sora.
  • It's also not unheard of to ship Percy Jackson with Ariel, probably because of the whole sea thing.
  • Courtesy of the "Mickey's Philharmagic" show in Disneyland, Ariel/Donald Duck after she tickles his chin and he falls absolutely head-over-heels for her and attempts to kiss her.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • On most websites, Youtube especially, many fans of the movie speak so well about Ursula and justify her behavior by saying that she explained the fine print to Ariel, and how Ariel was gullible for signing the contract. This is ignoring the fact that Ariel was just an Unwitting Pawn for Ursula to get close to the latter's goal to rule the land and sea. It also doesn't help that it is never explained in the original movie why exactly Ursula was banished from Triton's kingdom (later adaptations like the stage musical based on the Disney version reveal that Ursula was behind the death of Ariel's mother).
  • Another reason Ursula gets this is that there are some (mistakenly) see her as an unfairly vilified feminist icon because she's confident, intelligent, happily single, and powerful. Some even go so far as claim that she's just a victim of Triton's tyranny. Naturally, these interpretations completely ignore that Ursula is a cruel, power-hungry, manipulative sadist like most villains.
  • There are also those who find the film's treatment of Ursula unfair due to the fact that Ariel never would have been able to go to land and meet Eric without the help of Ursula. Ursula's Humiliation Conga at her failed wedding (as Vanessa), followed shortly after by the loss of Flotsam and Jetsam which she seemed genuinely heartbroken about, and then capped off by her Rasputinian Death makes some fans feel bad for her. This gets further compounded when comparing their life situations before the movie- Ariel is a beautiful princess and beloved by her kingdom (at least when she's not missing concerts), while Ursula has been banished for unstated reasons to live in a cave with only her two eel friends and is an obese, ugly witch on top of this. While Ursula is in fact responsible for Ariel's happy ending and had a terrible one herself in return, it does not change that her intent was always to just use Ariel as a bargaining chip to take over the ocean.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sebastian was so popular that voice actor Samuel E. Wright recorded two albums as the character. There was even a tie-in Disney Channel special, and the character also starred in his own shorts on the short-lived Saturday-Morning Cartoon Raw Toonage, along with his nemesis Louis.
  • "Vanessa" (Ursula's disguised form) is really popular with several fans.
  • Despite their very limited screen time, all 6 of Ariel's sisters have their share of fans and would be popular enough to have slightly bigger roles in the prequel TV series and third film.
• Epileptic Trees: In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown puts forth the theory that the directors and animators were pagan goddess worshipers and scattered clues and obscure references to the "Sacred Feminine" throughout the film, including Ariel's red hair. The reality is far less mystical though: the animators chose to make Ariel a redhead to avoid comparisons with Daryl Hannah's blonde mermaid character from Splash, and also because it gave a nice contrast with the blue sea and her green tail.
• Evil Is Cool: Ursula is one of the favorite Renaissance villains precisely because of how effective she is. A Manipulative Bitch who waits until a victim is emotionally vulnerable — and then offers them a deal they take in the heat of the moment. And she pretty much succeeds by the end of the film.
• Fair for Its Day: Today some take issue with the movie as its heroine is a girl who leaves behind her family and her undersea home to live out her dream of adventures and discovery on land and pursue a guy she just met. At the time though, Ariel was written by Disney to be a proactive girl, following after the more passive and demure Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. She also was the first Disney princess to set out and win the heart of the guy she loved, rather than have him show up and carry her off. (She was also the first Disney Princess to save the life of her prince, twice. She is a Damsel in Distress in the climax, but that is merely Eric returning the favor).
• Fandom Rivalry: Ariel is often compared (sometimes unfavorably) to the Disney protagonists that came after her. Belle from Beauty and the Beast is the most common, Belle usually being held up as a better feminist role model. If a debate about whether Ariel is a feminist or not comes up, she's usually compared to Belle in some way. This has gone the other way in recent years, as Belle has gotten a backlash from some fans who feel she is too perfect — the Unshaved Mouse in particular preferring Ariel because she was flawed. It's also been pointed out that Pocahontas gets compared to Simba for the reverse reasons that Belle and Ariel are compared; Pocahontas being too perfect and Simba being flawed. Simba is praised for his flaws, while Ariel is criticised for hers.
• Fanon: Despite the fact that it was scrapped for the final film, many fans still write Ursula as Triton's sister. This later became official canon once more after the Broadway musical brought this element back.
  • But does that mean that Morgana is also Triton's sister, despite the two evil sisters appearing to be a completely different species from the merpeople and having no references to being related to the main protagonists in either movie?
• Genre Turning Point: After the box office failure of Sleeping Beauty, Disney decided to make cheaper movies with animation of much worse quality. The Little Mermaid was the first movie after decades where a lot of effort was put into the animation quality, and the first fairy tale as well, and its huge success started the Animation Renaissance.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Mythology fans will recognize Ursula and Morgana as cecaelias, a race of half-octopus, half-human creatures.
  • Many fans who learn the What Could Have Been Fanon are confused about how Triton (a merman) and Ursula (a cecaelia) could be brother and sister. Those familiar with Classical Mythology, and the fruitful spawn of Poseidon (Triton's father), will know that children of the Greek gods were frequently different species of each other.
  • Ariel is named after the air spirit from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. This is most likely a reference to the original ending, in which the unnamed mermaid dies and turns into an air spirit.
  • Ursula's incantation for casting the spell on Ariel includes the words "Laryngitis" and "Glossitis." Someone well-versed in medical terminology would notice that they are rather common conditions that may result in mute-ness.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Ariel is unironically the most popular Disney Princess in Japan, far more popular there than in the United States, since Japanese Disney fans love telling stories about Mermaids.
• Harsher in Hindsight: During "Part of Your World," Ariel, being a sea dweller, says that one of the questions she'd like to ask the people of the surface is what a fire is, and why exactly it burns. Later on, she gets this question answered front and center, as Triton is destroying her entire grotto through the use of fire magic.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During the beginning, when Grimsby hears about mermaids from the rest of the sea crew, he tells Eric to "pay no attention to this nautical nonsense."
  • Kermit the Frog can be seen in the opening when Triton makes his entrance, back then when Jim Henson was in talks to sell the Muppets to Disney. To celebrate this, Disney then started to incorporate little Muppet-themed Easter Eggs in their films, unfortunately, the deal fell through... until Disney bought over the franchise in 2004. In short, Disney's pretty much celebrating over something that didn't actually happen for another 15 years.
  • Ariel was modeled after actress Alyssa Milano. Years later, Milano's character on Charmed would be turned into a mermaid — in a plot that heavily references this film.
  • A certain Sherri Stoner was Ariel's live-action reference model; she would just afterwards start working for Disney's greatest rival, on shows that routinely mocked everything Disney did.
  • A musical one happens in "Part of Your World" where in one lyric Ariel sings how they don't reprimand their daughters on the surface. Come to the sequel where she's doing that to her own daughter.
• Love to Hate: Those who don't apply Draco in Leather Pants to Ursula love her because she's just so shamelessly evil and badass. She's considered one of Disney's most iconic villains. Lindsay Ellis in her days as The Nostalgia Chick made a video including Ursula as one of her favorite villainesses — even stating she hates the movie but loves Ursula.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Penis Spire" in reference to the rather phallic-shaped spire◊ centered on Atlantica's castle on the original poster.
  • Hipster Mermaid. Disney's As Told By Emoji series turned this into an Ascended Meme for the Little Mermaid episode.
  • With all of the acquistitions Disney has made since the film's release, "Part of Your World" has been parodied again and again anytime Disney thinks "But who cares? No big deal. I want more," and acquires something new.
  • Mariah Carey's lip sync gaffe at the 2016 New Year's celebration led to people joking that Ursula stole her voice.
  • With "NBD" becoming common acronym slang in text messages, fans of the film latched onto Ariel's lyric of "But who cares/No big deal" and have churned out numerous fan-made shirts with an Ariel macro captioned "But who cares/NBD"
  • Red hair, obsessed with Muggles... Ariel must be a Weasley.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Ursula is fat, and the fact that she thinks of herself as attractive (and laments that she's actually "wasted away" from her former weight) is Played for Laughs. However, this actually made her popular with many body-positive Disney fans, to the point that there was an outcry when the official Disney Villains merchandise gave her a slimmer physique.
• Moe:
  • Ariel is a very adorable mermaid.
  • Flounder is just so cute.
• Moral Event Horizon: Ursula starts well over the line and really crosses when she interferes with her own deal with Ariel and hypnotizes Eric into falling in love with her in disguise. It gets worse when she attempts to blast Ariel with the trident, after turning into a giant version of herself. Also in the TV series, she attempts to murder an alleged bad-luck creature despite it being completely harmless, to begin with.
• Narm:
  • For some fans, the added seconds of animation in the DVD release of the film, such as having the camera show the shark's face at the beginning before it crashes through the window, or give more focus on Ursula's giant form and her attempting to zap Ariel with the trident comes off as this, due to those extra sequences clearly having a lower quality in the animation and reducing the frightening tone of those scenes. For instance, the shark's face looks like it came out of a more juvenile cartoon, and Ursula's extra seconds with a hammy laugh added come off as more silly than scary.
  • The scene where Sebastian has his Heel Realization and agrees to help Ariel find Eric, is a fairly heartwarming moment... but when you remember that Ariel is essentially standing there naked from the seashells down, the scene can come off as seeming a bit silly. Especially if you listen to the DVD commentary where the crew discusses how they had to be very careful with the camera angles for obvious reasons, and relied very heavily on her Godiva Hair.
  • The spell to take Ariel's voice includes the word "laryngitis," which Ursula sings with the exact same portentousness as the rest. It works for kids, but can really seem weird for adults who get the reference.
  • During the fairly intense climax, Ariel swims over to Eric and cries "Eric, you have to get away from here!" in warning, to which he replies "No, I won't leave you!". This exchange ordinarily wouldn't be funny, were it not for the animation error where neither of their lips is moving.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Ariel is frequently criticized for entering the deal with Ursula. A lot of the criticisms miss the fact that the film portrays it as a bad thing, the fact that Ursula is waiting until Ariel is in a particularly vulnerable moment to strike, and of course the fact that Ursula actively sabotages the deal when Ariel comes too close to fulfilling on her end. Not to mention that Ariel during the scene is actively questioning the deal and makes legitimate counterpoints such as she'll have to give up her family to be with Eric, only for Ursula to keep talking her down from it while also vindicating her as getting something she wants so as to make sure she can't back out.
  • Ariel is also criticized for giving up her life under the sea with her family for a man she barely knew. The fact that she already wanted to gain feet and join the human world long before she ever saw Eric is another point the criticisms fail to grasp.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Capcom, who in the middle of a great run of Disney adaptations, delivered a fun NES game resembling a sidescrolling shooter.
• Once Original, Now Common: The movie seems a bit like a paint-by-numbers Disney flick these days. Literally everything about it was new and groundbreaking at the time. Merging a fairy tale with Broadway elements? This was the first film to really popularize that formula. So numerous animated films these days owe their existence to this one. And in a form of meta Early-Installment Weirdness, Ursula in her initial scenes delivers a very theatrical monologue that's Leaning on the Fourth Wall, which doesn't happen in any of the other Renaissance movies.
• One-Scene Wonder: The shark who attacks the ship Ariel and Flounder are exploring. Doesn't appear past this sequence in the finished film (he was slated to appear again later, but that was ultimately left out) but often appears more in video games as a mini boss because he's that memorable.
• Popularity Polynomial: Not the movie itself, which has always remained quite popular, but Ariel's character. She was considered among the best and most beloved Disney heroines when her film first came out. Around the time of the 2000s when the general public were growing sick of Disney, criticisms towards her character started to emerge, and there was a huge Fandom Rivalry between her and Belle over who was the 'better' role model. Then in The New '10s, more defenders of Ariel emerged, holding her up as an example of a flawed and relatable heroine who still has lots of virtues (as well as acknowledging that some of the criticisms had uncomfortable elements of Slut-Shaming and Victim-Blaming). Even Lindsay Ellis — who in her days as The Nostalgia Chick had not been quiet about how much she disliked Ariel — eventually made a retraction video admitting the criticisms to Ariel's characterization could be overblown.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Unlike the NES version listed above, Ariel: The Little Mermaid wasted the more powerful Sega Genesis hardware for a game with unresponsive controls and terrible collision detection, along with labyrinthine levels that barely offer any gameplay variety.
• Rainbow Lens: Ariel falls in love with someone her father disapproves of, and said romance leads to him nearly disowning her. On top of Ariel's love for Eric, there's coding in her isolation towards others. Her "I Want" Song "Part Of Your World," highlights her feelings of isolation and her desires to be accepted by others. She eventually deviates from the norm in order to achieve her desires, similarly to a queer character in a Coming-Out Story.
• Refrain from Assuming: Ariel's main song, "Part Of Your World," is sometimes mistaken as "Part of That World" as she says the latter in the song. She does say the former in the reprises, however. It's because at first, she's referring to "that" world in the abstract. Later, she's singing about being part of Eric's ("your") world.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Ariel's VA would go on to voice Barbie and Miss Doe, among others.
    • Ariel's live-action reference model was Sherri Stoner, best known as a writer on Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs (for the latter also being the voice of regular character Slappy Squirrel).
  • Chef Louis is voiced by René Auberjonois, years before he became more well-known as Constable Odo (though some viewers might remember him from earlier as Clayton Endicott III or Desaad).
  • Mark Hamill has a very brief role at the very beginning as one of the sailors talking to Eric. While he was known for his work in Star Wars, this was a few years before he was well-known as an accomplished voice actor, with roles like the Joker, Fire Lord Ozai, Malefor, Colonel Muska or Skips.
    • Better still, he voices Hans Christian Andersen himself in an episode of the TV series.
• Ron the Death Eater: Being on two opposing sides of an issue, both Ariel and King Triton have people who ignore all faults and/or good qualities in one while demonizing the other.
  • While Triton’s hatred of humans may come off as extreme and he does have a scary Hair-Trigger Temper that resulted in him infamously destroying Ariel’s grotto, he is also shown as a loving father and he can be a nice guy when he’s not angry. His detractors, on the other hand, forget that he's a single parent trying to raise seven daughters, and run an entire kingdom. It also helps that he immediately regrets his overreaction to Ariel's love for Eric, and the effect it ended up having on her. Not to mention he more than earns his redemption by sacrificing himself to save Ariel from Ursula, and later using his magic to make her human permanently.
  • While Ariel can come off as naive, irrational, and (unintentionally) selfish, she is for the most part, a kind, adventurous, and well-meaning teenager who tries to stay true to what she believes in and give everyone, even humans, a fair chance. Her detractors, on the other hand, overlook the fact that she's also a sheltered teenager who, simply doesn't feel she fits in where she is and wants a life of her own. As for the deal with Ursula, she didn't exactly jump right into it. She was manipulated and pressured into taking it at a time when Triton's violent actions had left her hurt and vulnerable. She also immediately regrets the consequence of her own mistake. That is to say, Triton nearly suffering the same fate as Ursula's other victims.
• Sacred Cow: In response to the many pop cultural criticisms of Ariel's characterization that have put her flaws under intense scrutiny to paint her as a "bad role model," some Ariel fans have gone in the opposite direction defending her actions and treat her this way. A possible case of Misaimed Fandom, for the many other Ariel fans who like the character precisely because she's not an infallibly perfect role model.
• Self-Fanservice: Fan art of Ariel after her first transformation, wearing only her Seashell Bra is common, especially on DeviantArt.
• She Really Can Act: A deliberately invoked case, as the directors felt a bit guilty at losing Jodi Benson's performance for most of the second half after Ariel loses her voice, so they let her show more of her range by having Ursula use Ariel's voice in her reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls."
• Signature Scene:
  • The scene of Ariel finishing her "I Want" Song reprise, which shows her singing on a boulder while a wave crashes behind her in the background, is almost always the one scene that you will see in Disney's advertising and commercial spots that mention this movie.
  • The underwater musical in "Under the Sea" may be another one. Particularly the shot of the little sea horses swimming up around Ariel at the end are put in many generic Disney-referring clips.
  • There's a third one, the one in which Ariel rises from the ocean after being turned human by Ursula.
  • The scene where Ariel brushes her hair with a fork is also popular.
• Signature Song: "Under the Sea" with "Part of Your World" also a contender.
• Squick: Ursula. All the time. Especially when talking to Ariel and performing a lot of jiggling like a Burlesque entertainer.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Triton isn't wrong that humans do catch and eat fish (his subjects), and since merpeople are half-fish his concern for his daughter getting "snared on some fish-eaters' hook" isn't completely unfounded.^note He turns out to be wrong about humans while she's right, but this is more due to Moral Luck than actual knowledge on Ariel's part, since she started out just as ignorant about the human world as he was. Of course, fish are 100% sentient in this mythos, which humans are completely unaware of. The Carnivore Confusion doesn't help matters either — in real life, fish eat other fish all the time.
  • On a lesser note, Triton and Sebastian scolding Ariel for missing the concert. Based on Flounder's reaction, it seems the audience is supposed to think they shouldn't reprimand her at all for missing the concert. ("But it wasn't her fault!") However, this is far from Ariel's first no-show (as Sebastian noted earlier, "If only she'd show up for rehearsal once in a while," and Triton's "I just don't know what we're going to do with you, young lady"), and they have a point that because of her absence, the concert was ruined and those in it (Sebastian, her sisters) were humiliated. While Triton and Sebastian are too hard on her and won't hear her out, they have every right to be angry and hold her accountable for her actions.
• Superlative Dubbing: Ariel's stunning Norwegian voice done by Sissel Kyrkjebø gained a lot of attention, to the point she went on to voice Ariel in the Danish and Swedish dubs as well. To further exemplify the beauty of Sissel's voice, she's also the One-Woman Wail you hear on the Titanic soundtrack.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Part of Your World is largely a compositional and thematic re-working of Ashman and Menken's own "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors. In fact, while working on the song, Ashman and Menken jokingly referred to it as "Somewhere That's Dry."
  • Pay close attention to Louis the chef's ditty "Les Poissons," which has the same melody as "Be Our Guest." This has been noted and mocked as a horror movie version of "Be Our Guest."
• Tear Dryer: The film still looks like it's headed towards a Bittersweet Ending when Ursula has been destroyed, but she was Ariel's only chance at becoming human. Ariel sits sadly on a rock, watching Eric sleep, as if accepting that they can never be together. Triton then discusses with Sebastian "how much I'm going to miss her," and uses his magic to turn Ariel into a human. It then cuts to a wedding, where father and daughter properly reconcile and Triton accepts Eric.
• Testosterone Brigade: Ariel has one due to her general appearance, which includes a Seashell Bra and nothing else, from the beginning all the way up until a good minute or so after she's become a human, which undoubtedly sped up puberty for many.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Flotsam and Jetsam can feel somewhat underutilized as Ursula's loyal henchmen. They only get one major scene where they actually talk, which is when they have to convince Ariel to meet with Ursula.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The film doesn't delve into Ariel's character at the third arc of the movie and how the experience has changed her (if it changes her at all). One of the most criticized aspects of the movie about her shallowness could have easily been fixed by showing how sorry she was at her action that almost cost Triton his kingdom. A scene where Ariel apologizes to Triton after Ursula's defeat was storyboarded, but deleted from the finished film. There is a moment where she tells Triton that she's sorry and didn't know what she was getting herself into... but she's cut off before she can say too much more, making it less satisfying than a full scene would be.
• Unfortunate Character Design: The priest at Eric and Vanessa's wedding appears to have an erection when viewed from profile, but it's actually his knee. That didn't keep it from being digitally edited out of later releases.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Ursula is shown to be extremely unpopular In-Universe, between Triton banishing her from his kingdom, her reputation as someone to be avoided reaching the likes of Flounder and Sebastian, and even a deleted opening scene showing that people on land dislike her too, with sea tales that depict her negatively. It even goes to a supernatural extent, where the Animals Hate Her trope is what ruins her wedding with Eric, the resident Evil-Detecting Dog growls at her and later bites her butt, and while the wedding guests initially accept her in her “Vanessa” disguise, that all goes out the window immediately after she returns to her true appearance and they react with horror. It really seems as if Flotsam and Jetsam are the only people who actually like her. That hasn’t stopped fans in Real Life from absolutely loving her though for her genuinely affable personality, having fun Large Ham tendencies, and even being seen as a role model for her positive traits. Notably, she is seen as a body-positive icon for loving herself and her body as a bigger woman, and as an icon of female empowerment for being a single, confident, and very powerful woman. It has even reached a point that, during an era of Disney villains getting their own movies to show them from a sympathetic point of view, Ursula is far and away one of the most requested to get one of these movies herself.
• Values Dissonance: The second verse of "Kiss the Girl" implies that if a man doesn't know if a woman has feelings for him or not, a good way to "ask her" is just to kiss her. "It don't take a word, not a single word." This doesn't fit so well with more recent concerns about consent. Accordingly, in the 2023 remake, the lyrics are changed so that Sebastian urges Eric to verbally ask Ariel if she likes him before he kisses her.
  • On the hand, this is also missing the point of what the song actually is saying, which is that Ariel wants him to kiss her and she's not being shy about it. She doesn't have to say it verbally because she's sending him all of the signs through her eyes and body language. She's actually made clear from the beginning her attraction to him and that she wants to be with him, even leaning in to kiss him but pulls away cuz he's too afraid to reciprocate. It's all in the body language that the animators drew, but many people seem unable to recognize it, leading to some dissonance if they only take the lyrics at face value.
• Values Resonance: Triton, regardless of his intentions, comes off a bit like abusive father who has to learn to better himself, despite not wanting to hurt Ariel and never physically harming her. As such, Ariel wanting to get away from her father can give off certain vibes, and Triton recognizes that he went too far when Ariel runs away, going My God, What Have I Done?. For 1989, this is a very nuanced, subtle take on emotional abuse, especially due to the fact that Ariel only forgives her father when he saves her life and recognizes her maturity and intelligence by giving her legs.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The live telecast version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" has stunning pyrotechnics, intricate puppetry, and elegant costuming. When Queen Latifah as Ursula appears with giant tentacles and sheds them, the audience went wild.
• Win Back the Crowd: Big time. This film not only kicked off the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s, which revitalized Disney's animated feature film efforts, it was a massive critical and commercial success in 1989, and remains popular decades later.
• The Woobie:
  • Ariel is really good at looking like a kicked puppy. Yes she's disobeying her father's wishes but she's essentially being forbidden from something that makes her happy. And after Triton destroys her things, good lord...
  • Falling into the Jerkass Woobie category is Triton. Yes, he holds some pretty racist views in regards to humans and goes too far in punishing Ariel by destroying her collection. However, when he finally realizes what a terrible mistake he's made, Ariel is already gone and there's no sign of her.
    Triton: Oh, what have I done? What have I done?
  • Sebastian is one as well. He clearly regrets accidentally revealing Ariel's fondness for humans to King Triton, has to watch Ariel sign a contract with Ursula, which he is completely responsible for, is almost killed by Louis for food several times in the film and is terrified over being killed.
• Woolseyism: In both of Finnish's dubs, Sebastian dramatic exclaim of what Triton would say if he'd find out that Ariel has human legs was changed slightly more vulgar than in the original.
  Sebastian: What would her father say? I'll tell you what her father'd say. He'd say he's going to kill that darn crab, that's what her father'd say!

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