11 "Little Mermaid" Facts That Will Change Your Perspective on the Disney Classic
These little known facts about The Little Mermaid will change the way you watch the Disney classic forever.Â
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
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
She turned down the role and Pat Carroll voice the iconic sea witch instead.Â
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
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
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
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
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
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