Ariel is the seventh-born and the youngest daughter of King Triton and the late Queen Athena of the merfolk, and over the course of the original film becomes human and marries Eric, a human prince. She is the only Disney Princess to reach parenthood in Disney's animated film canon.
Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, Eric's adoptive mother and the ruler of a Caribbean island kingdom. She is a new character for the film. Dumezweni was announced to have been cast on January 5, 2021.
Walt Disney later revealed after the movie was released their mother was almost in the movie (a flashback in a song that was also removed) however that idea was scrapped as it costed too much and would add too much time onto the movie. However, he did reveal her mother was named Aquarayna.
Newcomer Jessica Alexander Plays Vanessa In The Little Mermaid. As in the animated film, The Little Mermaid remake has Ursula transform into a beautiful brunette to trick Eric into believing she was the woman who saved him. In the original film, she is called Vanessa to separate her from Ursula's sea witch form.
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.
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Do Ariel's sisters have different moms?
Of course, the animated mermaids are the daughters of King Triton and Queen Athena, but that may change in the live-action version with the implication that Ariel's sisters have different mothers.
Other actresses who played the role include Heidi Blickenstaff and Faith Prince. In this version, Ursula is King Triton's sister, a concept for the original film that was eventually dropped. When Ursula and Triton's father died, the pair were given equal share of the sea plus two magical items.
Scuttle is not only changed from male to female but is also now a diving bird instead of a seagull. "This was done specifically so that Ariel would only meet Scuttle underwater, because, at the start of our story, Ariel has never dared go above the surface," director Rob Marshall said in production notes.
At the beginning of the film, we're introduced to a rainbow collection of mermaids, from Asian to African – in what made-up a kind of all lives matter pool of mermaids. And then Queen Selina, Eric's adopted mother, played by Noma Dumezweni, is also a Black woman (who does not have a Black king as a husband).
Rather, Ursula's appearance is radically different from her family, and she sports tentacles that look like a permanent black dress. It's possible Ursula is not a mermaid in appearance because she and Triton did not have the same mother or father. If they're half siblings, Ursula's tentacles make more sense.
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Ariel's mother is absent, having already died prior to the events of the series, though she is occasionally mentioned in vague terms. In one episode Ariel comes across Hans Christian Andersen, author of "The Little Mermaid", while he was traveling underwater in a primitive submarine.
What happened to Eric's parents in The Little Mermaid?
We learn that Eric, now played by John Hauer-King, is not a prince by birth— he was adopted by the king and queen. It's suggested that Eric's biological parents died in a shipwreck. We finally meet Prince Eric's mother. In the animated film, we never meet Eric's parents.
[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.
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.
Ursula's plan was not only to trick Ariel, so she could own her but also to get rid of her, so she could replace King Triton and thus rule over the oceans. However, her reasons to do so, for her resentment towards King Triton and company, and for her banishment and isolation weren't revealed in the movie.
“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.
Queen Athena is shown to be a stunningly beautiful and attractive mermaid with long, red hair tied in a partial ponytail, green eyes, and an aqua tail. Of all her daughters, her youngest, Ariel, resembles her the most.
