The Original Story of The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most beloved films of all time, bringing the studio out of a dark place and putting it back on the map for animated classics. The Little Mermaid marked the beginning of the fifth era, The Disney Renaissance. This era includes many retellings of fairytales that have existed for centuries, with the story of Mulan (The Ballad of Mulan) being dated all the way back to 400 AD. This story was first written by Hans Christian Andersen, a famous Danish author who wrote novels, poems, autobiographies, and most notably, fairytales. The bulk of his most popular work was done between 1828 and and the early 1850s. He is credited for “Little Claus and Big Claus,” “The Princess and the Pea,” and “The Snow Queen”. “The Snow Queen” would later be the inspiration behind Frozen and Frozen II. But before Disney could get to telling the story of Elsa and Anna, executives decided to tell the story of little Ariel, a mermaid who desperately wanted to live on land. This story was original published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836.
The Little Mermaid movie poster. Image from: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10144-the-little-mermaid/images/posters
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Image from: https://www.amazon.ca/Little-Mermaid-Original-Illustrations/dp/0615963943
the original version of the little mermaid
The story begins with a vivid description of the underwater sea life where the Sea King and all of his subjects live. It is a beautiful and vibrant place to be, filled with bustling sea life, shells, corals and pearls. The Sea King had lost his queen, so he lived in his kingdom with his mother, whom helped him look after his six mermaid daughters. The six sisters played among the castle with the little fish that joined them. The youngest of them all was peculiar, had a great fascination with the sunlight shining through the ocean, the flowers, and with a marble statue of a handsome gentleman that had fallen to the bottom of the sea during a shipwreck. Her interest about life above sea level grew as she asked her grandmother about everything she knew about it. Her grandmother told her about the birds, which the mermaid had never seen before. Her grandmother also assured her that by the time she reached fifteen years old, she was allowed to visit the surface and see things for herself. She was so excited, yet patient, as she knew she had to wait five years until then.
The eldest daughter got to see the surface first, and when she came back down to tell her sisters all about it, she boasted about how much she loved the twinkling lights of the city, the sounds of people, music, and carriages, and she also loved the moonlight. As the sisters took turns visiting the land, one of them had an encounter with a dog, another with a ship, and another with an iceberg in the winter. They could all come and go as they pleased to the land since they had turned fifteen, and finally, it was the little mermaid’s turn. As she rose above the water she witnessed a ship passing by, with music, dancing, fireworks, and a handsome prince aboard. A storm brewed, and suddenly the ship was falling apart and sailors falling overboard. The little mermaid recalled that humans couldn’t live underwater, so when she saw the prince drowning, she scooped him up amongst the ship parts and brought him to the shore of a beach. She hid from the humans who came to check on him, and the prince awoke not knowing who saved him. The little mermaid was saddened that he didn’t attempt to find her, and dove back down into the sea in sorrow.
Though the youngest mermaid visited the prince’s palace often from afar, she became desperate to be a human being, not only to meet him so that he knew who she was, but also to have an “immortal soul” as her grandmother had taught her about human beings. When mermaids die after three hundred years, their soul would not live on. Her grandmother explained to her that she could only gain a soul by being loved by a man, but humans reject mermaids. Finally, the mermaid decided to visit the sea witch while her sisters distracted her father.
The part of the water the sea witch lived in was frightening, filled with skeletons of dead humans who had drowned. The “fat water-snakes” floated around the sea witch. The witch agreed to help the mermaid turn to human, but warned her that it would be a very painful process, with her new legs feeling “as if you were treading upon sharp knives”. As long as the mermaid could get the prince to fall in love with her and leave his family for her, she could get an immortal soul. If not, she would never be able to return home and would turn into the foam of the sea. The witch’s payment would be to take the mermaid’s voice by cutting off her tongue. The mermaid agreed, and the witch mixed together a potion that included her very own blood.
The mermaid said her own goodbye to the palace without letting any of her family know she was leaving, drank the magic draught, and grew her pair of legs. She was met by the prince on the shore, and she was wrapped in her long hair. The prince took her back to the palace and she was dressed, though she still couldn’t converse with anyone. The mermaid missed her singing voice and wished she could sing for him. The prince and the mermaid spent much time together, but the prince couldn’t view her as a wife just yet. The prince thought that another young maiden had saved him from the shipwreck, not her, and he was still subconsciously hoping another would show up. He was also being set up for an arranged marriage with a princess from another kingdom, but he still told the little mermaid he’d rather choose her. But when the prince laid eyes on this beautiful princess, he thought it was the one who saved him. The little mermaid was heartbroken.
The mermaid participated in the wedding of the prince and princess, holding up the princess’s train. She danced the night away to enjoy her last evening as a human, though her heart was still shattered and she felt the impending doom of death around the corner since she couldn’t make the prince marry her. Off in the distance, the mermaid saw her sisters approach, who had all cut off their hair. They explained that they gave their hair to the sea witch to break the condition so that she wouldn’t have to die. The new condition was that the little mermaid had to kill the prince to regain her tail back. Though she almost went through with it, the little mermaid instead flung the knife into the ocean and flung herself into the ocean, ready to become seafoam. But instead, she turned into a daughter of the air, in which one explained to her that she could gain an immortal soul by doing good deeds for three-hundred years. The former mermaid felt great relief, as she could now achieve one of the things she wanted greatly, which was to have her soul live on forever, even without the prince.
what disney did and didn’t use from the hans christian andersen tale
If you’ve ever seen the 1989 Disney retelling of The Little Mermaid, then you’ll see that there are quite a few differences from the original story to the film. These are some of the most significant differences and similarities:
One of the reasons King Triton gives Ariel about not allowing her to go to the surface is that she could get caught by a fish hook. In the Andersen story, the palace is so deep into the ocean that cables can’t even reach it.
There is no mother presence in either story, however there is a grandmother in the original fairytale. The grandmother is not a character in the movie.
In the tale there are five total sisters, in the movie, there are six total sisters.
Flounder, Sebastian and Skuttle are not named characters in the story, but, Flounder could have been born out of the part of the story that talks about mermaids loving to hangout with fish and stroke them. The idea of Skuttle was completely conjured up by Disney, as the mermaid in the story does not know about birds. The same can be said about Sebastian.
The statue of a handsome man that Ariel has that resembles Eric is in both the movie and the story.
In the fairytale, the sisters are allowed to go to the surface after a certain age and it is talked about frequently with their grandmother, but in the movie, the surface is banned completely by Triton.
The beauty of the moonlight is a central theme in both the story and the film, with the iconic poster of Ariel in front of the moonlight being an important part of marketing the movie.
In the movie, Eric is 18 and Ariel is 16. In the story, Eric is 16 and Ariel is 15.
When Ariel saves Eric, she sings, making it an easy storyline for Eric to want to find the girl with the voice. In the Hans Christian Andersen story, the prince does not hear the mermaid sing so he has no way of knowing she ever saved him.
The fat water-snakes could be inspiration for Ursula’s eels, Flotsam and Jetsam.
Ursula’s contract is a little bit different than the sea witch’s. No pain would be involved with Ariel becoming human, she would not die at sunrise, but she would have to be Ursula’s slave if she wasn’t successful. Ariel also had to win true love’s first kiss, but in the fairytale, the prince and the mermaid kiss plenty, but they had to be married for the contract to be honoured.
In the film, Ursula uses magic to turn Ariel into a human, but in the story, she uses a potion of her blood. Ursula also takes her voice by having Ariel sing into her conch shell. No tongue cutting was involved.
To keep things family friendly, instead of the little mermaid being found with no clothes on by Eric, she wears a washed up piece of sailing fabric and a rope.
The ends of each story are completely different, as Prince Eric realizes he’s about to marry the wrong woman and marries Ariel instead. In the tale, the prince does marry the other princess, and the mermaid doesn’t go back to the surface.
what we might expect from the 2023 live action version of the little mermaid
With the inclusion of some lost parents storylines in the live action Aladdin and live action Beauty and the Beast, we may get to learn a little bit more about Ariel’s mother in the 2023 film. We also might get to learn more about Triton’s true hatred for humans and the land, and what his motives are for keeping his daughters away.
We may also see other fascinations of Ariel’s, and all of the other reasons why she’d like to be a human outside of just her interest in Eric. Ursula’s alter-ego, Vanessa, may be even more sinister in this new version too.
The live action version of The Little Mermaid will be released on May 26, 2023.
2023 The Little Mermaid movie poster. Image from: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/the-little-mermaid/5V7zkeKCcrWo
