Disney’s The Little Mermaid has been my favourite animated classic for as long as I can remember. I love the story of a young girl who is fascinated by another world and her journey to find herself and love in that new world.
I have watched this movie, and collected just about every remaster and rerelease, so many times that I can recite it along with the voice actors. Even in the live action remake, which I watched when it was released on Disney+, saw me reciting lines enough times that my partner was watching me more often than the movie.
I read the original version of the story by Hans Christian Andersen when I was still fairly young, and I was shocked to see how completely different it was from the movie I loved so dearly. Characters, motivations it was all so different than what I had come to know and love.
And I didn’t like that at all.
As I grew older I have come to love and appreciate both versions of the story for what they are. They both tell the same basic tale but in very different ways. The same can be said for two authors who are given the same prompt – their stories will have similarities, but both will be wildly different from each other.
Let’s dive into 5 changes made to The Little Mermaid in animated movie from the original fairy tale. (If you read carefully you might see a few places where I draw inspiration for my reimaging of the classic.)
1. Ariel
When you say the name Ariel, many will automatically think of the feisty and independent red-headed mermaid from the animated movie. Would you be surprised to know she is quite different in source material?
While still deeply curious and fascinated with humans, The Little Mermaid did not have Ariel’s independent strike so many love about her. Her name and hair colour as well are inventions by Disney. In the book, she doesn’t have a specified name, instead she is always referred to as The Little Mermaid. In fact, none of the character are specifically named. Instead they are referred to as The Prince, The King and The Sea Witch.
All we really know about The Little Mermaid’s appearance is that she had “clear skin and blue eyes.” So maybe she had red hair, but it is never specified.
2. The Human World is Off Limits
This is another aspect Disney changed for the movie. Growing up with the movie we knew that King Triton had decreed the surface world completely off-limits to all his citizens, including Ariel. This creates tension and drama in a family setting when Ariel finds herself fascinated by a world she is not allowed to experience.
In the book, however, this isn’t exactly true. When a mermaid reaches their 15th birthday, they are allowed to go to the surface and experience the human world. We actually learn that each of The Little Mermaid’s sisters have already gone to the surface to watch and learn about the humans, as well as explore sunken ships, but they are not fascinated in the same way The Little Mermaid is. Her trinkets and collections are actually items her sisters have collected over time.
The Little Mermaid does have a statue of The Prince, like she does in the movie.
3. The Sea Witch
Ursula and The Sea Witch are both similar and very different from each other. In both versions the youngest of the king’s daughters seeks out the Sea Witch to grant her wish of becoming human. Both have stipulations to the deal and request some form of payment but the Original Sea Witch is a lot darker, and the deal is much more intense.
Ursula steals Ariel’s voice and gives her the timeline of 3 days to get Prince Eric to fall in love with her or “she belongs to” Ursula. In the book, The Sea Witch warns The Little Mermaid that if she cannot get the prince to fall in love with her and marry her, she will turn to sea foam. Beyond that, she also tells her that the transformation will not be easy. While she will have human legs, every step will feel painful, as if she were walking on knives, and it would actually cause her feet to bleed.
The Little Mermaid does also lose her voice, but instead of a spell pulling it from her throat, her tongue is actually cut out.
Overall, a much darker scene than what is depicted in the movie.
4. The Little Mermaid’s Motivation
We all know the catalyst of the movie is Ariel wanting to go to land because she fell in love immediately with Prince Eric. In the book her reasoning isn’t exactly the same. Sure, there is still the goal to have him fall in love with her, but why she wants his love is different.
In the book we see The Little Mermaid fascinated with humanity and the idea of an everlasting soul. Mermaids, we find out, are extremely long-lived, often living for 300 years. But once they’ve lived their life, they turn into sea foam, and that is it. For the Little Mermaid, she wants to know more about their short life span and how they continue on as a soul after they die, she wants that for herself.
The goal of obtaining a soul for herself, and not the love of a man she saw once, is what motivates her.
5. The Ending
Ariel and Prince Eric defeat the evil Sea Witch, they then get married and live happily ever after. The End.
This is not the case for the book. It is actually a lot sadder and more tragic.
In the original version, The Prince falls in love with another woman and goes on to marry her on a boat – that sounds familiar. However, The Little Mermaid’s sisters come to her with a knife they traded their hair for, and tell her the only way for her to survive is to kill The Prince. His blood will return her tail.
While standing over The Prince with the knife, she sees that he is happy and finds she can not take that from him and his wife, and instead allows herself to die and turn into sea foam.
Most know this ending, but did you know there is even more.
Upon her death the Daughters of the Air – a sort of angelic analogy – see her act of kindness and take pity on her. They tell her she has been granted a chance at earning a human soul, but she must work with the Daughters of the Air for the next 300 years performing acts of good dead.
These are just the biggest changes – there are many more. Like characters added or taken away from. The Sea Witch given a bigger role to play, familial tension, just to name a few.
Where there any changes that surprised you, or that you didn’t know about?
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