The Disney adaptation makes many changes to Hans Christian Andersen's original fairytale, but Ariel's age is consistent as she's depicted as a teenager in the original tale too. 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.
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 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.
In the movie The Little Mermaid (Clements & Musker, 1989), Ariel displays symptoms of disposophobia, which is defined as the fear of getting rid of things.
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Is Princess Ariel autistic?
Even the smallest of details point towards Ariel being autistic, such as her toe-walking and her discomfort in human clothes, a struggle that resonates with autistic people all around the world.
In her initial film, Ariel is referred to as having a “most beautiful voice” multiple times. She is known throughout Atlantica for her immense vocal prowess. Her temporary disability of muteness is more noticed by characters later.
Ariel appears as an adult in Return to the Sea and gives birth to a daughter named Melody, becoming the first, and currently, only, Disney princess to become a mother. Ariel is protective of her daughter, as Triton was of Ariel in the first film.
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.
In the 1989 animation, Ariel gives up her voice to Ursula the sea witch in exchange for legs. While Ariel is hesitant, Ursula reminds her that she will have no need for her voice above water. I was curious to see how the live action adaptation would navigate this complex plot line.
Eric eventually takes Ariel sightseeing in a lagoon and starts to fall in love with Ariel but is reluctant to kiss her as he still hopes to marry the one who rescued him. With the help of Sebastian orchestrating a romantic stimulation, Eric and Ariel are finally about to kiss before Flotsam and Jetsam ruin the moment.
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.
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 The Little Mermaid, the chef scene from the animated version. wasn't included in the live action remake. This is because marine animals. like founder and Sebastian are photorealistic, and it would have been too much to see them.
"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."
In the 1989 movie, Ariel was born in the fictional underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which technically makes her Atlantican, not Danish. As Ariel is half fish, she cannot be categorized by our ethnicities and races.
Pocahontas is currently the only Disney Princess to have a tattoo (the symbol on her right arm) and the only one to wear one outfit throughout her entire film.
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.
Triton tosses Melody's locket into the sea and departs. Ariel and Eric then have a large sea wall constructed around the castle to separate the two worlds. Melody, 12 years later. Melody grows up as an ordinary human princess, unaware of her Atlantican ancestry, and banned from entering the sea.
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.
Although Elsa's disability is encoded as a magical ice power, the language the film uses to talk about her condition maps on to the experiences of people with physical, mental, and intellectual disabilities in recognizable ways.
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.
