In the Disney movie, Ariel marries Eric and the two live happily ever after. In Andersen's fairy tale, the Little Mermaid takes the knife and agrees to kill the prince. But when she tries to do it, she finds that she can't kill him, and instead, she sacrifices herself to save his life and turns into sea foam.
The climax of the remake closely follows the original 1989 animated film, with Ariel ultimately defeating Ursula. The film ends with Ariel and Eric getting married and embarking on a new adventure together, exploring uncharted waters on their own ship.
One of the ways that The Little Mermaid's original story is dark compared to the Disney adaptation is that Hans Christian Andersen's story pays particular attention to the souls and the potential afterlife of the individuals in the story.
Ariel falls in love with a human prince named Prince Eric after saving him from drowning, and visits the sea witch, Ursula, who agrees to turn her into a human in exchange for her voice. Ariel must make Prince Eric fall in love with her and romantically kiss her within three days, lest she belong to Ursula forever.
Crucially, King Triton had seen the error of his ways by the end of The Little Mermaid, granting his daughter the gift of becoming human permanently. Ariel became human because she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, learning and growing in a way life in the sea couldn't provide.
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.
In Andersen's story, the mermaid is motivated by her desire for an immortal soul, not a desire for love and life on land. When the mermaid saves a drowning human prince, she learns that the love of a human might allow her an immortal soul. The mermaid decides to venture onto land, but her legs come at a price.
While lighting itself isn't all that expensive, darkness can be used to hide a lot of things. Halle Bailey is not actually a mermaid, and so having the scenes be darker makes it easier to disguise the CGI work.
The theory becomes darker with the suggestion that Captain Hook killed Ariel's mother, Athena. In The Little Mermaid II, Ariel has a flashback to her mother's death, when Ariel and her sisters were just children.
Cinderella's mother dies and then her father marries her evil stepmother, adding her and Cinderella's evil stepsisters to the family. Lucky for Cinderella, her father doesn't die. Instead, he helps embarrass Cinderella along with her stepmother and stepsisters.
What is the overall message or moral of The Little Mermaid?
Disney's version portrays a more censored moral: one is able to achieve true happiness and acceptance by undergoing extreme change for the one they love. Through minor sacrifice and patience during said change, eventually they will gain the love and respect of those they changed for.
Triton confronts Ursula and agrees to give up himself and his magical trident in return for Ariel's freedom. Ursula then uses the trident to expand into monstrous proportions and attempts to kill Ariel and Eric, but Eric manages to impale Ursula with the splintered bowsprit of a wrecked ship, and she dies.
1. The little mermaid in the book was white. Here is how Hans Christian Andersen described the little mermaid: “They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all.
While Ariel is 16 years old in Disney animated The Little Mermaid film, her love interest is not the same age. The character's voice actor, Christopher Daniel Barnes, was just 16 years old at the time of recording the film, leading to the assumption that the character was intended to be the same age.
In the animated film, Ursula was a villain who enjoyed messing with people and getting what she wanted. In The Little Mermaid live-action, however, Ursula's backstory gets an adjustment — she is upgraded to Triton's sister and Ariel's aunt, making her revenge and motivations all the more sinister.
Cinderella marries the prince and forgives her two stepsisters, then marrying them off to two wealthy noblemen of the court. They all lived happily ever after. The first moral of the story is that beauty is a treasure, but graciousness is priceless. Without it, nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything.
And while creators of The Little Mermaid originally wanted Ariel to have blonde hair to stay in keeping with the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen, Splash's massive popularity was still too hot to ignore. So, in a bid to stand out from the crowd, an iconic change was given to the underwater princess.
In Andersen's fairy tale, the Little Mermaid is described as follows: "her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea." And if you're wondering if Andersen's Little Mermaid had that signature bright red hair that has become synonymous with mermaids, the answer is unclear.
The reported box office result of The Little Mermaid 2023 remake is about $560 million. On paper, these numbers look good. The film grossed over $298 million domestically and more than $263 million internationally.
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.
Triton is transformed into a polyp by Ursula, but is restored to his original form when she is defeated by Eric. Seeing that Ariel is happy with Eric, Triton uses his trident to transform her into a human. Triton is a regular character in the prequel television series, in which he is called by the son of Poseidon.
