The primary events of the film take place over the span of a few days, and I assume that the ruined Eric/”Vanessa” wedding was immediately repurposed to Eric and Ariel's, so she was at most 17 when she married Eric (if she had a birthday during that time and we didn't see it), but more likely still 16.
However, towards the bottom of the chart are some very young couples, including The Little Mermaid's, Ariel and Eric, who are just 16 and 18, and the youngest, other that Snow White, being Aladdin's Jasmine who is only 15-year-old, who is with 18-year-old Aladdin.
In the animated film, Ariel's 16, something which made her quick marriage to Eric within a few days of meeting him cringeworthy. Disney's production notes for the live-action film note that Ariel's a "spirited 18-year-old."
A rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life on land. On one of her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she falls for a human prince.
The decision to fix Ariel's age at 16 years old was also likely to appeal to the target audience of Disney's version of The Little Mermaid. Her age makes sense to the narrative of the story as it's driven by her curiosity about the world and her identity crisis; relatable themes for many at the same stage of life.
Ariel is 16 years old in the animated film, which certainly lends to her willfully young behavior, but makes her quick marriage to Eric a little worrying. The live-action remake ages the mermaid by two years, noting the change in the production notes by pointing out that Ariel's a "spirited 18-year-old."
The movie itself does not explicitly state Ariel's age, but Disney's production notes for the film shared by Yahoo! describe the lead character as a "spirited 18-year-old." The evidence behind Ariel being aged up two years compared to the animated movie can be seen in the live-action remake.
While it is known that her mother perished, there is no story attached to the event. However, much later, in 2008, an animated The Little Mermaid prequel revealed that Ariel's mother was crushed by a pirate ship during an altercation between humans and merpeople.
He says they were looking for the best actor for the role of any ethnicity who could not only sing but convey traits such as strength, passion, beauty, joy and intelligence, which they found in Bailey.
Years later, Ursula, in her guise as Vanessa, goes to the Odd Sisters and asks for their help to defeat Triton, who in the book is Ursula's brother and therefore makes Ursula Ariel's aunt, in exchange for helping them find their sister, Circe.
There, before Ursula is fully evil, she actually chooses to have octopus tentacles instead of the usual fishtails that mermaids have, and Triton betrays her because of her choice, banishing her from the kingdom.
In The Little Mermaid remake, Scuttle plays a bigger role than in the original. Instead of Scuttle being a male seagull, Scuttle is a northern gannet which is a female seabird. This allowed Scuttle to be included in the underwater scenes which ends up being an important change from the original movie.
Although multiple sources have claimed over the years that the character is 17, Henn estimated Belle to be in her early 20's. In an interview for Vanity Fair, Paige O'Hara stated to believe that Belle was the only Disney princess to be in her 20's.
They were given an official number in the franchise line-up based on the chronological order in which their films were released, starting with Snow White as the first and original Disney Princess, with Cinderella being the second, followed by Aurora and so on.
One theory is that each of Ariel's sisters represents different oceans that are home to various cultures and ethnicities. It's pretty problematic to have mermaids who all look the same representing such an expansive underwater world.
“There's so much you can do with tentacles. They give a creepy feeling,” supervising animator Ruben Aquino told Premiere magazine in 1989, adding the team ultimately decided to make her look like an octopus.
5) In the film's novelization, Moana's age is given as 16. This makes her the only Disney princess to be voiced by an actress younger than herself. Moana was released on Cravalho's 16th birthday.
Since the animated feature film had a white mermaid as Ariel, some people are angry that Disney has gone with a black actress in the live-action. Some people also believe that Hans Christian Andersen described the Little mermaid as a white mermaid in his book. Therefore, Disney should have cast a white actress instead.
"When I chose Halle for the role, it was literally because she was the best person for the role," Marshall says. "It's about who claims a role, who brings a role to life in a way you could never have imagined."
Though she spends most of her movie looking like one, Ariel is not technically a human. She may end up with legs in the end, but she was still born a mermaid and retains certain unique abilities, such as being able to talk to sea creatures, even when in human form.
