Although The Little Mermaid live-action confirms Ursula is Triton's sister, the Sea Witch does not have a mermaid's tale like Ariel. Rather, Ursula's appearance is radically different from her family, and she sports tentacles that look like a permanent black dress.
Ursula was played by Melissa McCarthy in the 2023 live action remake of The Little Mermaid, directed by Rob Marshall. In this version, like with the Broadway musical, Ursula is the estranged younger sister of King Triton (played by Javier Bardem), thus making her the paternal aunt to Ariel and her sisters in this film.
Morgana is a villainess who appears in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. She is the infamous younger sister of Ursula and the older sister of Ulyana, but Ursula is worse than Morgana.
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.
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.
Are Triton & Ursula BROTHER AND SISTER? | The Little Mermaid Explained
Why is Ursula a squid and not a mermaid?
A squid has six arms, which is probably why Pat Carroll, the late voice actress who portrayed Ursula in the original film, claimed she was a squid. But Carroll didn't mention that most squid also have two tentacles and two legs—used for moving and swimming—while their arms are for grabbing and feeding.
Ursula was initially going to resemble Joan Collins, however, basing the character on Divine made much more sense. "It just seemed like a funny and quirky idea," Minkoff added, "to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen."
In the 2023 film version of The Little Mermaid, Ursula is presented as being Triton's younger sister, who had been exiled from their underwater kingdom. This also makes Ursula Ariel's aunt, bringing to mind Disney's long line of wicked matriarchs.
[The Little Mermaid] (1989): Ursula's pseudonym, Vanessa, was an intentional reference. "Vanessa" was a name made up by Jonathan Swift (that's not an important part) for a character based on a woman named Esther Vanhomrigh, "Van" from her surname and "Essa" being a then-common pet name form of Esther.
In addition to being the god of the sea, Once's Poseidon is also the father of Merrin Dungey's Ursula, a concept omitted from Disney's The Little Mermaid in 1989, though later included in the Broadway musical.
Melissa McCarthy's version of Ursula is revealed to be King Triton's sister. The sea witch was banished and wanted power and revenge on her older brother, as well as his trident.
Queen Athena was the wife of King Triton, and the mother of Ariel and her six older sisters. She was the Queen of Atlantica, and beloved by her family and subjects.
Ursula, also known as the Sea Witch or Vanessa, is the main antagonist of the 2023 musical fantasy film The Little Mermaid, the live-action remake of the 1989 animated feature film of the same name. She is a sea witch and the younger sister of Triton.
But in a desire to re-market these ladies to a chic clientele, it appears that they decided to shave more than a few pounds off of Ursula the Sea Witch and Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts. Because in order to be fashionable, you must be thin. The fact is, Ursula was fashionable.
The video goes on to talk about how this original concept for Ariel was too close to the Splash mermaid and the designers wanted to differentiate Ariel, so her red hair was born. We can't imagine Ariel without her red hair, but not everyone felt the same way back in the 80s.
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.
Betrayed and developing great hate against the human and her father, Ursula decided she no longer wanted to be a mermaid and used her father's trident to transform her fishtail into tentacles, becoming the Sea Witch.
During the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula asks Ariel for her voice, saying that men only want silent and obedient women, but secretly in an attempt to make sure Eric won't be able to recognize her or fall in love with her, to which Ariel agrees, and signs a contract.
The movie is loosely based on the fairy tale, so Disney has the freedom to give Ariel any skin color they want. In the 1989 movie, Ariel was born in the fictional underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which technically makes her Atlantican, not Danish.
