Get ready to be part of her world all over again.
"But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."
The Little Mermaid is a romantic fantasy musical film that is a live-action remake of The Little Mermaid (1989) from Walt Disney Studios, which in turn is loosely based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. It stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Art Malik as Grimsby, and the voices of Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.
Like the original movie, it sees Ariel, obsessed with the human world, trade her voice to the sea witch Ursula in exchange for legs so she can finally achieve her dreams.
In addition, Noma Dumezweni plays a new character named Queen Selina, along with Lorena Andrea as Perla, Simone Ashley as Indira, Kajsa Mohammar as Karina, and Jessica Alexander as Ursula's alter ego Vanessa, while Russell Balogh, Adrian Christopher, and Emily Coates play undisclosed roles.
The movie is directed by Rob Marshall, with Alan Menken returning to compose the film and Lin-Manuel Miranda writing new songs in addition to producing. It was released on May 26, 2023.
Previews: Teaser Trailer
, "Wish" Teaser, Official Trailer
The Little Mermaid contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- Sebastian briefly rapping fast in "The Scuttlebutt" may remind you of another character played by Daveed Diggs.
- Mahmood, who voices Sebastian in the Italian dub, is of Sardinian descent; the film's scenes set on land were filmed there.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Ariel, compared to the 1989 film. Originally, during Vanessa and Eric's wedding, Scuttle commands the birds and sea creatures to crash the ceremony while Flounder ferries Ariel to the wedding ship using some barrels. As an aftermath of an altercation between Vanessa and Scuttle, Ursula's shell pendant (which is storing Ariel's voice) shatters on the floor. In this version, however, Ariel violently removes and shatters the pendant in a catfight sequence. Later, Ariel is the one to kill Ursula by steering a shipwreck's broken mast into her giant body rather than Eric.
- Eric has one in terms of Heroic Willpower. When Vanessa enthralls Eric in the original movie, he becomes a monotone zombie who does whatever she tells him and doesn't react to his surroundings when not under instructions. Here, while he cannot go against her, he seems dazed rather than robotic, feels something wrong the entire time and keeps trying to look for Ariel instead of forgetting about her, in an example of Fighting from the Inside.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- "Part of Your World" in the original film contained quite a bit of slapstick comedy from Sebastian while Ariel continued to sing in the background. Sebastian is removed from the sequence entirely, allowing the "I Want" Song to play out more seriously.
- Ursula's song "Poor Unfortunate Souls". In the original, she sways Ariel with her love for Prince Eric to convince her to become human. In this version, Eric is only mentioned as a method of the deal, relying on Ariel's desire to be a human and explore the human world as what sways her to go through with it.
- In the original version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula referring to the desperate merfolk as "pathetic" was a quiet aside to her eels. Here, she says it out loud to Ariel directly, presumably invoking "pathetic" as a synonym for "pitiable" rather than "contemptible".
- Rather than asking specifically for Ariel's voice as payment, Ursula simply includes her hypnotic "siren song" as one of many mermaid traits that Ariel will have to give up in order to become human. In addition, the verse from "Poor Unfortunate Souls" where she mentions the importance of "body language", implying that Ariel can simply use her beauty to win Eric over without talking, is cut completely.
- "Fathoms Below" is now sung in celebration of Eric's birthday. In the animated version, it's just a shanty that his crew sings during a day at sea.
- How Eric finds out Ariel’s name is different here. Instead of Sebastian whispering ‘Ariel, her name is Ariel’ to Eric, Ariel points at a constellation of Aries. When Eric repeats “Aries,” she puts her finger on his lips and lightly swipes down, making Eric say her name properly and he figures it out.
- Triton's hatred for humans in the original film was because they hunt fish. The remake states it's because they killed his wife. This is something that originated from the prequel film' The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning where it's revealed what happened to Ariel's mother.
- The wedding scene with Eric and Vanessa is an engagement reception instead. Which makes sense, as in the original film Eric was an orphan and the ruler of his own kingdom, so he could order an immediate wedding in his entranced state, but here his mother the Queen is alive and obviously would find a request for him to get married that very day strange.
- Adaptational Diversity: Both the humans and the merpeople are shown as considerably more diverse than they were in the original film and rather than having all of Ariel's animal sidekicks be male, Scuttle is now female.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Downplayed. In the original film, all of the fish and sea creatures were fully intelligent and able to speak. In this adaptation, with the exception of Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle, all of the sea creatures act like their real-life counterparts and are implied to be of lower standing than the more evolved merfolk. However, Ariel still looks horrified when she realizes humans go one step further and believe all fish to be unintelligent edible things, implying that the merfolk don't eat the nonspeaking creatures.
- Adaptational Jerkass: King Triton is generally depicted in a stricter and more serious manner than he was in the original film. His more humanising moments in the first half, such as his brief look of shame after destroying Ariel's grotto, are downplayed or omitted, and he doesn't show any regret for his harsher actions until Ariel is already gone.
- Adaptational Job Change:
- Sebastian's role as the royal composer is removed and he is simply Triton's advisor and majordomo.
- Grimsby is no longer the butler of the royal household but the prime minister of Eric's kingdom.
- Adaptational Location Change: The location of Eric's kingdom in the surface world is changed from a vaguely European/Mediterranean country in the original animated film, to what is heavily implied to be an island in the Caribbean.
- Adaptational Modesty:
- King Triton is gloriously bare-chested in the original movie. His appearance in the remake shows him in an armored top.
- Ursula is also more covered up, wearing a full-on collared top with long sleeves.
- While Ariel is no more or less covered up, her sisters’ upper bodies are also covered by fish scale tops rather than their animated counterparts’ seashell bras.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- King Triton is depicted as more serious and soft-spoken, with his moments of anger being portrayed as more Tranquil Fury, in stark contrast to the booming voice and explosive temper of his animated counterpart.
- Ariel's sisters act more mature and serious this time around and share their father's vendetta against humans, by virtue of their mother dying at their hand (which Ariel is indicated to be too young to remember).
- Adaptational Superpower Change: On top of having enchanted eyes, Flotsam and Jetsam now have electric powers, essentially making them moray/electric eel hybrids.
- Adaptational Villainy: The already-wicked Ursula is made out to be even more sinister here. Her blood relation to Triton and Ariel makes her evil deeds against them more personal, and she implicitly kills the merfolk who try to bargain with her. She even murders her own brother in the third act, though he is restored to life after she's vanquished.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- While Prince Eric was already one of the more distinct Disney princes (compared to the ones from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty), he has been generously fleshed out here. He's given a new backstory (being adopted into royalty instead of born), also has a protective parent to counterpart Ariel's, and is characterized as an explorer who collects trinkets from the sea, mirroring Ariel and her collection of human artifacts. He even has his own "I Want" Song, "Wild Uncharted Waters".
- Like in the stage adaptation, Ariel gets to voice her insight on the human world with the song "For the First Time", which is sung within her mind rather than out loud.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: One related to Ariel's hair — the film recreates the "Ariel mistaking a fork for a comb" gag from the original film, but here her hair is in dreadlocks instead of combed straight, so it doesn't make as much sense.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- In the original, the other daughters of Triton are named "Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, and Alana". Here they have been renamed Mala, Karina, Perla, Indira, Caspia, and Tameka.
- Carlotta, Prince Eric's head maid, is renamed Lashana here.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In this version, Eric the prince was adopted by the royal family on the island after being found in a shipwreck.
- Adaptation Species Change:
- Scuttle was a male seagull in the original film but is a female northern gannet here; this was done to allow her to share underwater scenes with the characters.
- A minor one: Ursula has eight limbs in the animated movie (six tentacles and two arms), making her technically an octopus. The film clearly shows eight tentacles, which means Ursula (like her sister Morgana from the direct-to-video sequel) has ten limbs like squids.
- Adapted Out:
- "Daughters of Triton" is cut from the film, with the introduction to the merfolk being changed to Triton meeting his daughters for a report on the condition of the seas.
- Chef Louis is absent in this adaptation. As such, his song "Les Poissons" is also cut. note
- The "body language" verse of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is cut, while the reprise of the song sung by Vanessa in "Vanessa's Trick" is reduced to non-lyrical humming.
- The seahorse herald who used to be Triton's majordomo. As mentioned above, Sebastian has his job changed and is now a majordomo, so this incarnation of Sebastian is a Composite Character with the seahorse.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: As in the original film, the merpeople have tails that come in a variety of colors even amongst the same family.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The movie doesn't specify the time period when it is supposed to take place, but there are a handful of clues pointing to the mid-to-late 19th Century.
- Eric speaks of the Brazilian Empire as something that currently exists, which narrows things down to sometime between 1822 and 1889.
- The mention of Colombia and Venezuela as separate states places the film after the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1831 (assuming Eric is using "Colombia" to refer to the Republic of New Granada or the Granadine Confederation, otherwise it moves up to no earlier than 1863).
- Eric mentions trading quinine with the European nations to treat malaria, regarding it as a recent medical breakthrough. Widespread use of quinine for malaria prevention began around 1850.
- Costume Designer Coleen Atwood places the story in the 1830s.
- Despite there being many people of African descent on the island, including the queen, there is no mention of slavery or the slave trade. Britain and France abolished slavery in their Caribbean colonies in 1838 and 1848, respectively.
- Artistic License – Biology: The scene where Ariel shows Scuttle the materials she collected from the ship is moved underwater, and though gannets are able to swim underwater to catch fish, Scuttle is shown staying underwater far longer than gannets have been observed to hold their breath (roughly 30 seconds compared to the nearly two minute-long scene in the movie).
- Artistic License – Marine Biology:
- This official poster shows an arapaima and a Geophagus among the sea animals surrounding Ariel on the right, even though in real life both are exclusively freshwater fish, with the former only living in The Amazon Rainforest. Arapaimas are also quite larger than shown in the poster, being the largest river fish in the world.
- Flotsam and Jetsam both resemble moray eels in terms of appearance (and the fact that they're in saltwater), but in the climax are shown to have electric capabilities, a quality no moray eels (or technically any true eels) possess.
- This official poster
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Ariel's singing voice is so beautiful that it acts as a literal siren song within the film.
- Ascended Extra: Scuttle and Grimsby have more substantial roles in this adaptation than in the original film. Scuttle is a much more active part of the group helping Ariel, while Grimsby is given far more attention as a Shipper on Deck for Eric and Ariel who encourages him to pursue his budding interest in her, a factor which was confined to one brief scene in the original.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Poor Prince Eric. On his birthday, he is (lightly) berated by Grimsby, caught in a shipwreck, has to run back through fire to save his terrified dog, is thrown overboard, and nearly drowns. This chain of events helps him meet his one true love, though.
- Big "NO!":
- During the interrupted engagement party, Vanessa/Ursula screams at Ariel reuniting with Eric, but, just as the sun sets, Ariel's human body reverses her transformation, and Ursula lets out a glorious Evil Laugh as she basks in her victory.
- Ursula unleashes one of these as her frustration grows while looking for (and failing to find) the ingredient she needs to transform into Vanessa.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool:
- The "Under the Sea" sequence includes a scene where Ariel swims through a cave filled with colourful, glowing jellyfish.
- The underside of Ursula's tentacles emits a neon-ish blue light.
- In the "Kiss the Girl" sequence, Flounder leads some other fish in creating bioluminescent trails around the rowboat Ariel and Eric are in.
- Birds of a Feather: Ariel falls in love with Eric because he is more like her, with both being nice and curious people, love exploring and tend to collect objects from their adventures, have a parent of the opposite gender who is suffocatingly overprotective over them, both view their royal life as suffocation and a limitation on freedom, and are open-minded about other places and worlds. For bonus points, the places where they keep their collections are similar-looking.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: A small, but noticeable example. Mermaids are shown having tails that are horizontal in relation to their body (akin to cetaceans), with veil-like trains coming off it. Mermen, by contrast, are shown having vertical tails (like fish), with no such trains.
- Blood Oath: This is how Ariel seals her deal with Ursula to become human; by plucking off one of her scales and giving a drop of her blood.
- But Not Too Evil: The film version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" removes the verse about body language and women staying quiet to find a man, apparently because the song had been criticized by some parents for sending a bad message, despite the fact it was sung by the villain who was manipulating Ariel and was never presented as a legitimate moral.
- Canon Foreigner: Eric's mother, Queen Selina, was created for the live-action film.
- Call-Back: When Ariel is on the fence about making the deal, Ursula works "NEVER LEAVE AGAIN!" into her sales pitch - repeating what Triton said to Ariel after wrecking his daughter's collection, pressing on Ariel's wound and pushing her into the pact.
- Cat Fight: A less intense example than usual, but the brief scuffle between Ariel and Vanessa when the former tries to take the seashell necklace to regain her voice has this vibe.
- Celestial Deadline: Ursula gives Ariel three days for her to fall in love with Eric and be given a True Love's Kiss. Otherwise, by the sunset of the third day, her temporary human form will revert back to a mermaid.
- Chekhov's Skill: During the storm, Ariel sees Eric steering the ship. When Eric unwisely made the decision to hand her the reins to a carriage, he discovers that she Drives Like Crazy. This comes in handy later when she sees the ship’s wheel and realizes she can control it to shank Ursula with the bowsprit.
- Colorblind Casting: This applies to all characters in the movie but is particularly prevalent with the mermaids. Eric, who is white, being the son of Queen Selina, who is black, is given the context of Eric being adopted, but the daughters of Triton, played by actresses of different colors and ethnicities, are implied to all be related by blood and have the same mother and father. According to Javier Bardem, this is because they were conceived in different oceans and during the act of reproduction the essence of each sea was embodied within them (a concept that was invented by Rob Marshall). Presumably each of them resembles the humans who live near her given sea.
- Darker and Edgier: Ursula no longer enslaves the poor souls who make a deal with her, she murders them, and her lair is scattered with the bones of her victims. As a result, her death doesn't free (and restore to their previous forms) the victims. She also sics her eels on Triton and temporarily kills him onscreen, a much grimmer moment than their confrontation in the original.
- Dark Reprise: "Part of Your World" is reprised twice this time around: first, when Ariel rescues Eric from drowning and sings over him; second, a sadder reprise where she ponders about her situation before the climax of the film.
- Demoted to Extra:
- While their broad role in the movie as Ursula's agents remains the same, Flotsam and Jetsam are comparably more passive, in part because they don't speak at any time. The one scene where they have any substantial lines is replaced with them just manifesting a means by which for Ursula to speak to Ariel directly.
- While he never spoke to begin with, Max's role is also downsized. He fulfills his initial role in the plot in showcasing Eric's goodness through Eric risking his life to save the dog from the burning ship, but his later roles in bringing Ariel and Eric together and restoring Ariel's voice are given to other characters instead.
- Disney Death: Unlike in the animated version, King Triton doesn't turn into a polyp when he sacrifices himself to save Ariel from Ursula. Instead he's electrocuted by Flotsam and Jetsam and turns to dust. But after Ursula is killed, he comes back to life. Also counts as a Death by Adaptation, albeit a temporary one.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Unlike the original, Ariel kills Ursula herself after all the trouble she put her through. This in turn rebuilds the mermaids’ fathers trust in her and drives him to let go of her and let her marry her human true love.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Like the original, Ursula regards Flotsam and Jetsam as her babies and is distraught after she accidentally disintegrates them.
- Everyone Can See It: Ariel and Eric's love for each other is so obvious that even their families know of it before they even know of the person's identity.
- Evil Laugh: Ursula provides a lot of these. Even in her Vanessa form, she gives a particularly memorable evil laugh (when Ariel turns back into a mermaid).
- Fairy Tale: The film is a remake of Disney's 28th animated feature film, The Little Mermaid, a loose adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen.
- Fictional Country: Queen Selina rules a small, independent Caribbean nation at a time (1830s, approximately) when most of the region was carved up between various larger European empires. The as-yet unnamed kingdom has clear parallels with the Kingdom of Tonga, an archipelago a hundreds of islands that is not only a monarchy, but also the only country in the continent of Oceania that wasn't colonised.
- Flat "What": Ursula has this reaction upon learning from Ariel what she's known as amongst the merfolk.Ariel: Who are you?
Ursula: Oh, you must not remember me. I'm your Auntie Ursula.
Ariel: The Sea Witch?
Ursula: The what? (scoffs) What has your father told you about me? - Fourth-Date Marriage: During the finale scene, we see Ariel and Eric's departure for a trip around the world instead of a wedding, with the queen stating they've just got married.
- Gender Flip: Scuttle was male in the original. His version in this movie is female and is voiced by Awkwafina.
- Godiva Hair: When Ariel is turned from a mermaid into a human, her bra comes off leaving her completely naked. Until she is covered up, her long hair stays draped over her chest.
- Green Aesop: A minor one. Ariel and her sisters spend some time clearing human wreckage off a coral reef, with one of them lamenting how it will take centuries for the coral to regrow.
- Happily Adopted: Although they don't always see eye to eye, Eric clearly loves his adoptive mother Queen Selina, who in turn adores her son and wants him to be happy and safe.
- High Collar of Doom: Ursula sports one made up of bioluminescent fronds.
- Hired Help as Family: As Eric was an orphan rescued from a shipwreck and the Queen is evidently single, Grimsby is the closest thing to a consistent father figure he has in his life. The old chancelor in turn loves Eric like his own son and supports the budding young love between the prince and Ariel in any way he can.
- Interspecies Romance: Mermaid Ariel falls in love with a human prince.
- Large Ham: Ursula like the original film. Hardly a piece of sub-aquatic scenery goes unchewed by her.
- Let Her Grow Up, Dear: A rare gender-inverted example: The queen understandably forbids Eric from chasing after the fantasy of "the mysterious girl" who saved him from the shipwreck, believing him to still be concussed and not in command of his senses. Grimsby the Prime Minister, however, seeing how the prince is falling hard for Ariel, would have none of that stuffiness, and arranges for a carriage date for the two kids behind his queen's back so that his "son" can experience the joy of young love.
- Light Is Not Good: While Triton's trident is a powerful magical artifact that glows gold, some of Ursula's magic is golden and glowing too, her eyes and Eric's glowing gold when she bewitches him, as well as the shell necklace that holds Ariel's voice, which gets a transition cut that morphs it into the sun. (This may have been done to associate Ursula/Vanessa with the sun, while Ariel is associated with the moon.)
- Live Mink Coat: King Triton wears a school of fish as a cape.
- Living Dinosaurs: Ursula's lair is beneath the skeleton of a Mosasaur. Given how the species died out with the dinosaurs, but the skeleton isn't fossilized, it must have been alive fairly recently, but no living Mosasaur is seen.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle:
- Like in the animated film, Eric loses his boots when Ariel rescues him after the shipwreck.
- Ariel's bra comes off during her first transformation into a human, though it's unclear if it's actually organic scales on her chest, as is clearly the case with some of her sisters.
- Made of Incendium: After it runs aground in the rocks, a fallen lantern causes Eric's ship to catch fire with prodigious speed, despite being in a storm with rain pouring in. One would be forgiven for thinking the whole deck was coated in gasoline given how it becomes a raging inferno in less than a minute.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: During the "Vanessa's Trick" scene, Ursula (as Vanessa) reclines on the couch to look at herself in the mirror, and Scuttle (who was spying on her through the window) sees Vanessa's true reflection in the mirror.
- Mind Control: Ursula has the ability to manipulate minds. She first pulls it on Ariel to hamper her quest, making her forget about having to kiss Eric and keep her legs. Ariel is confused when Sebastian reminds her about the kiss clause. This later comes in handy when Ursula breaks out the Mind-Control Music on Eric, convincing him that "Vanessa" saved him and thus he should marry her. However, it's not foolproof, as Ariel and Eric are both noticeably confused and out of it - in the latter's case, enough for Grimsby to intervene and hide the ring, helping the scuffle between Ariel and Vanessa escalate.
- Moving the Goalposts: In addition to turning Ariel human, Ursula puts a spell on her so that she won't remember the terms of her deal, ensuring that she fails to get the True Love's Kiss.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Triton says this nearly verbatim when he learns that his attempt to protect Ariel seemingly drove her to run away from home.
- Ursula is briefly rattled when she realizes that she killed her pet eels with the trident by accident, thanks to Ariel making her miss her aim at Eric, and she doesn't take this very well.
- Mythology Gag:
- Ariel sings a bit during "Under the Sea", as she did in the renditions of the song heard in Kingdom Hearts II and the 30th anniversary telecast.
- When Scuttle snatches away Eric's hat, he mistakenly refers to her as a "he"; Scuttle was indeed a male bird in the original.
- Ariel singing a song in her mind, giving us more insight into her experience on land, is an element that's borrowed from the stage adaptation.
- While Flotsam and Jetsam are still moray eels, they can now generate electricity like electric eels. This is also a nod to the stage show, which changed the eels from moray to electric.
- The climax combines elements from both the animated film and stage musical. Ursula still gets impaled with a ship like in the former, but now Ariel is the one who does her in, like in the latter.
- The film contains several nods to Hans Christian Andersen's original short story:
- Ariel never goes above the surface of the ocean until the night of Eric's birthday party; in the original story, the mermaid and her sisters weren't permitted to go to the surface until they turned fifteen.
- There's a very dark moment when Ariel sees a mermaid's skeleton on her way to Ursula's lair, a detail that was left out of the animated version.
- The path through Ursula's lair is described as having a path of molten fire along with eerie plants that "stared" at the mermaid.
- Instead of signing a contract, Ursula tells Ariel to pluck off one off her scales and drop it, complete with her blood, into the bowl where the spell is being prepared. Originally the sea witch used her own blood to make the spell.
- Walking is very painful for Ariel at first, as it is for the mermaid in the story, but in Ariel's case it's because she's given uncomfortably tight shoes to wear, as opposed to the pain being a by-product of the spell that causes the mermaid to feel like she's constantly walking on sharp blades.
- Scuttle asks when Ariel is going to kill the prince; in Andersen's story, the mermaid was given the opportunity to kill the prince and save her own life when he married another woman.
- Triton's hatred for humans as they killed his wife is based on the prequel film
- In the original film, after gaining control of the trident, Ursula transforms Triton into a polyp. However, in the stage adaptation and live action film, Ursula reduces Triton into a state of nothingness. After Ursula's defeat, Triton, like in the stage adaptation, reemerges from this nothingness to reclaim his trident.
- Naked on Arrival: Ariel naturally, after she is turned into a human by Ursula. Her bra also comes off during her transformation leaving her completely naked.
- One Head Taller: Prince Eric to Ariel, as in the original film, where the height difference between actors Jonah Hauer-King (6'1") and Halle Bailey (5'2") is clear.
- Organic Bra: Ariel's iconic purple top is composed of biological scales and fins rather than the Seashell Bra she made famous in the original.
- Parents as People: Both King Triton and Queen Selina deeply love their respective children, but this manifests itself as overprotectiveness that only ends up driving Ariel and Eric away from them.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- In the original film, Ariel and Flounder visited Scuttle by going to the surface, but in this version, it's explicitly shown that Ariel has never been to the surface before seeing Eric's ship. To accommodate this, Scuttle is depicted as a northern gannet - a diving bird - instead of a seagull, so that she can go underwater to visit them instead.
- Eric's statue was originally made of stone, which begs the question of how Flounder managed to get it into Ariel's grotto. Now the statue is made of hollow metal, which would make it much easier for Ariel to carry.
- Because Flotsam and Jetsam don't speak in this version, Ursula makes her offer to Ariel herself after Triton destroys her grotto, via a magical hologram created by her eels' tails.
- During "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ariel gives a scale from her tail and a drop of her blood to seal her deal with Ursula, instead of signing a written contract. This eliminates a plot hole from the original film, where Ariel’s explicit writing skills could have proven helpful when she tries to communicate with Eric.
- The film removes Chef Louis and his song "Les Poissons". As this version has photo-realistic sea creatures, it would’ve been too much to show someone violently chopping them up into seafood.
- In the climax of the original film, Scuttle rallied various sea creatures to raid the wedding and attack Vanessa. In this version, Scuttle attacks Vanessa alone (Max later assists by diving in and having a go at Vanessa's dress). Additional chaos is caused when Grimsby hides the wedding ring during the struggle, while Ariel eventually arrives and manages to take her voice back herself.
- At the end of the film, instead of showing Ariel and Eric getting married while she at least is still a teenager, they set out to explore the world in the immediate aftermath of their reunion.
- Race Lift:
- Ariel was white in the original movie but is played by African-American actress Halle Bailey for this adaptation.
- Ariel's sisters were all white in the original, but are now played by a cast of diverse actresses, representing the seas off of Scandinavia, Africa, India, and East Asia. While it is the first time this has happened in a film remake of Disney's The Little Mermaid, the sisters are usually portrayed as diverse in most stage productions of the Disney musical.
- Pakistani-British actor Art Malik plays the role of Grimsby, while Trinidadian actress Martina Laird plays Lashana, the live-action equivalent to Carlotta.
- Real Is Brown: Downplayed; while the underwater scenes are not as colorful as they were in the original film, they are still quite colorful with many different colored coral reefs and vibrantly patterned sea life on display.
- Related in the Adaptation: As in the early draft for the animated film (and the stage musical), Ursula is King Triton’s sister, and the aunt of Ariel. This allows her to have an even more personal vendetta against Triton, as her estrangement from the royal family left her relentlessly bitter, and hungry for power.
- Remake Cameo: Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel, plays a vendor that Ariel meets when she and Eric visit a market.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something:
- In this version of the story Ariel and her sisters are each rulers and guardian protectors of different parts of the sea.
- Eric is active in establishing trade relations with Europe and South America.
- Running Gag:
- Throughout "For The First Time", Ariel struggles with balancing on her newfound legs (and shoes). She keeps falling over whenever she sings about gravity pulling her down.
- Ariel has stealth skills par excellence, both underwater and above ground. Characters would turn to address her mid-conversation, only to realize she's long gone (and in one case, fast asleep).
- Scenery Porn: There are many gorgeous shots of the underwater world, including the famous sunken shipwreck and Ariel's grotto.
- Setting Update: The original fairy tale mentions no names, but is typically presumed to be set in Italy or a Mediterranean country, due to the descriptions (palm and orange trees, vineyards, tall mountains, and crystal clear water). According to Word of God, in the 1989 film Atlantica was in the Mediterranean and Eric's kingdom was in Italy. Their aesthetics were inspired by elements of the Mediterranean region and Italy, while Atlantica had elements of the Caribbean. The live action film has an explicit Caribbean setting for Eric's kingdom.
- Shipper on Deck: Grimsby notices Ariel and Eric's chemistry and not only helps Eric get a carriage so he and Ariel can spend a day out together, but covers up his leaving the castle when he'd been forbidden from doing so by his mother. He also encourages Eric to give up the search for the mystery girl not because he doesn't think she's real, but because he sees how much Eric likes Ariel. In the climax, he is also disappointed when Eric is bewitched to fall for the disguised Ursula, hides the ring that Eric was supposed to give to Vanessa, and even stops the Queen from interfering with Eric going off to Ariel's rescue when she's captured by Ursula.
- Shout-Out: Ursula's design bears some resemblances (and color palette) to how the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute is usually portrayed. Both of their famous songs ("Poor Unfortunate Souls" and "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen") feature the characters menacing and manipulating a young girl (related to them) into doing their bidding.
- Sirens Are Mermaids: While this trope has always been in place with Ariel here she is explicitly a siren, with her singing voice outright called a "Siren Song" several times, with Eric's desire to find the girl who saved him played very much like a man ensnared by a siren song, as perfectly demonstrated in his song "Wild Uncharted Waters".
- Stopped Dead in Their Tracks: After Ariel disappears, King Triton orders his remaining daughters to search the seas for her. As the girls wonder aloud why she would want to leave the safety of her home, Triton freezes in place, knowing full well he's the reason.
- Stripping Snag: After she's turned back into a mermaid and brought back to the ocean, Ariel's dress is torn off her after it is caught on a rock.
- The Speechless: Unlike the animated film, Flotsam and Jetsam don't speak in this version.
- Take That, Critics!: The finale emphasizes the diversity of Triton's entire kingdom, as mermaids and mermen of Asian, Hispanic, Indian, white and Black ethnicity are visibly present among the crowd happily bidding the newlywed Ariel and Eric farewell. A classy response to the anger of online bullies who lost their collective minds simply because mermaids, a fictional fairytale race, no longer have to solely confirm to outdated ideals of Aryan beauty and purity in the 21st century.
- Talking Animal: Considering it is a live-action adaptation of an animated Disney movie, the cartoony animals from the original become this when they make the transition from one medium (animated) to the other (live-action).
- Technicolor Magic: When Ursula casts her spell, a cloud of green and purple smoke emerges from her cauldron and encircles Ariel.
- Taking You with Me: After Ariel stabs Ursula with the ship, the sea witch uses the last of her strength to grab at her; Ariel leaps to safety in time, leaving Ursula to sink into the ocean with the ship.
- Title Drop: While looking through Eric's library, Ariel finds a small glass mermaid figurine, which he calls his "little mermaid."
- True Love's Kiss: This is the condition Ursula sets for Ariel to turn into human permanently, but Ariel must be given in three days' time.
- Under the Sea: Befitting of the remake of the film where the Trope Namer originated, the entirety of the first trailer takes place underwater, showing off a diverse amount of sea life in the process.
- The Voiceless: Flotsam and Jetsam do not speak in this adaptation, their lines being taken by Ursula. During the scene when they first speak to Ariel, they conjure up a bubble that allows Ursula to speak to Ariel from her grotto.
- Wicked Witch: Like the original movie. Ursula is described as a "Sea Witch", uses a underwater cauldron, and has shelves littered with ingredients stored in bright-coloured recipients. As for the "Wicked" part, she tries to cheat Ariel out of the deal, by creating obstacles for the girl to fail.
- With This Ring: The Queen bestowed a ring on Eric to propose to Vanessa. Scuttle attacks the prince so he drops the ring. Grimsby, knowing Eric loves Ariel, kicks the ring aside to further obscure it from being found, which buys Ariel enough time to snatch back her own voice and reveal her as the real mystery girl. By the time of the proper wedding, the ring has been found and is in its rightful place on Ariel's finger.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The movie doesn't say where Eric's island kingdom is located, though context clues would place it somewhere in the Caribbean:
- The island appears to have a tropical climate and the only trees seen are palm trees.
- The island's population is mostly of African and European descent.
- The product Eric uses to trade with the outside world is sugarcane, which historically has been the Caribbean's main cash crop for export.
- When showing Ariel his navigation charts, Eric points out Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia, all areas of South America in close proximity to the Caribbean.
- Eric has also visited Peru, where he purchased a rug and the loom that made it, which again places his kingdom in proximity to South America.
- When searching for the girl who saved him, Eric wants to send ships to an unspecified number of nearby islands, indicating his own island is part of an archipelago, like many islands in the Caribbean.
- Despite the mention of real-world locations, the tie-in material's world map of the seven seas ruled by Triton and his daughters have different names (Apneic, Piton, Carinae, Fracus, Brinedive, etc) and the surrounding continents look entirely different than the real world's. Eric's kingdom is stated to be located along the Carinae Sea, where Ariel and Triton's realm resides.
"Out of the sea. Wish I could be... part of your... world."
