11 "Little Mermaid" Facts That Will Change Your Perspective on the Disney Classic

by N/A, 10 years ago | 1 min read

These little known facts about The Little Mermaid will change the way you watch the Disney classic forever.Â

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Sebastian was supposed to British, not Jamaican.

Without his accent, "Under the Sea" may never have been recorded in its calypso/island style, which won the movie an Oscar for best original song.Â

The climax of the movie was inspired by Die Hard.

Jeffrey Katzenberg told the animators that he wanted the ending to be much more intense and wanted it to look more similar to Die Hard, which was super popular at the time.Â

Bea Arthur almost did the voice for Ursula.

She turned down the role and Pat Carroll voice the iconic sea witch instead.Â

The movie almost featured no bubbles.

The Little Mermaid was the last Disney movie to use hand painted cels throughout most of the movie. The movie was also the first Disney/Pixar collaboration. Disney outsourced all of the handpainting to China at the same time that the Tiananmen Square protests were taking place, so animators weren't sure if or when they would ever get their bubbles back.Â

Famed drag queen Divine was the inspiration for Ursula.

Ursula and Triton are siblings.

This isn't explicitly said in the film, but her backstory is that she was banished from their kingdom for trying to overthrow Triton.Â

Part of Your World was almost cut out of the movie.

Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered that the song be cut out after seeing a screening of the movie. He thought the song was boring and producers and songwriters completely disagreed. The screening he watched featured unfinished animation, so an animator convinced him to wait until they finished animating the film before he made his final choice. After a second screening, he completely changed his mind.Â

Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck appear in the movie for just a second.

Alyssa Milano's face served as inspiration for Ariel's, but someone else inspired her body.

Sherri Stoner, a writer for Animaniacs and Tiny Toons worked as the body model and even acted out certain scenes as Ariel so the illustrators could perfect her movements. She also modeled for Belle in Beauty in the Beast.Â

The concept for the movie was almost rejected.

Disney was working on the live-action mermaid movie Splash, starring Daryl Hannah, at the same time and decided to make Ariel a redhead to distinguish her from Hannah's character.Â

Ursula only has 6 tentacles.

Some people aren't sure if she's actually an octopus, but others think that her arms are the replacements for her two missing tentacles. In any case, it was actually cheaper to animate six tentacles instead of eight. Early illustrations actually featured her with no tentacles.Â