The Little Mermaid
All actors and roles (10)
All team (173)
Short description
Ariel is a mermaid princess, the daughter of Triton, king of the sea, and she is drawn to the human world above the surface despite her father's wishes. After she saves Prince Eric from a shipwreck and falls in love with him, she makes a bargain with the sea witch Ursula: her voice in exchange for human form, with only a limited time to win the prince's kiss before the witch's plans for her and her father come to fruition.
The film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who also wrote the screenplay, following their earlier work on The Great Mouse Detective and preceding later collaborations such as Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Moana. Howard Ashman produced alongside Musker. The voice cast includes Jodi Benson as Ariel, Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Pat Carroll as Ursula, Christopher Daniel Barnes as Eric, Kenneth Mars as Triton and Buddy Hackett as Scuttle, with 44 credited cast members and 173 credited crew. It was made by Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Feature Animation and Silver Screen Partners IV on a budget of 40 million dollars, and it took 211 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 7.6/10 from 310,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.4/10 from 8,571 votes. A film critics' rating of 8.5/10 from 127 reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Upon its release, the film was a record holder for the use of various animation effects. 1,000 different colors and 1,100 backgrounds were used. In total, the artists created over 1 million drawings.
- The director insisted that each air bubble be drawn by hand, and there were over 1 million of them, requiring a large number of animators and artists. For this, Disney turned to an animation studio in Beijing (China).
- Another innovation of the time was used: live actors were filmed to assist the animators.
- The cartoon was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2007.
- Characters from the cartoon were used in a campaign by the National Maritime Heritage Foundation (NMSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to raise awareness about the negative technological and anthropogenic impact on the world's ocean ecosystem.
- The cartoon set an absolute record for sales among collectible 'platinum' editions.
- The cartoon is based on a work by Hans Christian Andersen.
- The cartoon 'The Little Mermaid' was originally planned to be one of a series of short animated films from the 'Silly Symphonies' series, using vignettes from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.
- Production of the film began in the late 1930s, immediately after the release of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', but was soon suspended due to the creation of another Disney cartoon based on Andersen's fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling' (1939).
- Digital technology was used for the first time in the wedding scene that concludes the film.
- The scene stating that Ursula is Ariel's aunt was cut.
- The name of the girl Ursula transformed into is Vanessa.
- In the cartoon, you can spot Goofy (3:30 – in the bottom left corner, among the crowd), with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck standing next to him.
- In the cave scene with Ariel's collection, Sebastian is sometimes inside a thimble and sometimes without it.
- Ariel's appearance was modeled after Alyssa Milano, and Ursula's look was inspired by drag queen Divine.
- Upon its release, the film was a record holder for the use of various animation effects. 1000 different colors and 1100 backgrounds were used. In total, the artists created over 1 million drawings.
- Digital technology was used for the first time in the final scene.
- The director insisted that each of the 1 million air bubbles be drawn by hand, forcing Disney to turn to an animation studio in Beijing.
- The full name of Sebastian the crab is Horatio Thelonious Ignatius Crustaceous Sebastian.
- The cartoon was adapted into a musical in 2007.
- It was planned that the cartoon would be a short film from the 'Silly Symphonies' series.
- Production of the film began in the late 1930s, immediately after the release of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', but was soon suspended due to the creation of another Disney cartoon based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling'.
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