Scuttle



Scuttle is a seagull and friend of Ariel. He appears in the film as an expert on human objects with whom Ariel consults about items she salvages, though his identifications consist of nonsense. He wrongly names a fork a "dinglehopper" and says that it is used as a comb, and a smoking pipe a "snarfblatt" while claiming it works like a trumpet. Scuttle is the only one of Ariel's friends capable of flight and as such is very useful in getting help.

Despite his erroneous information on human things, Scuttle provides support and advice when he learns that Ariel has to win Eric's heart in three days. On the third day, Scuttle is the one who discovers that Vanessa, the woman Eric has decided to marry instead, is actually Ursula. He immediately tells Ariel this information, and helps stall the wedding so to allow Ariel to arrive and confront Eric.

The name 'Scuttle' is likely a pun off of the Navy term 'scuttlebutt', since he seems to have a great deal of gossip-type knowledge of humans, though most of it is wrong to some degree. In the Swedish-dubbed version of film, Scuttle is named Mozart. This naming is a pun, as seagulls in Swedish are called måsar, pronounced like "Mozart" but with a silent T.

Scuttle appears in a small role in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, where he helps Ariel find her daughter Melody, who has run away. Scuttle is voiced by Buddy Hackett in both the 1989 film and 2000 sequel. This film also implies that Scuttle is able to communicate with Prince Eric as he is the first to arrive on the scene at Morgana's lair after Ariel sent scuttle. Scuttle appears in two episodes of the final season of the prequel television series in which he is voiced by Maurice LaMarche. The episodes he appears in are "Scuttle", where Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian meet him for the first time (and all four almost meet Prince Eric), and "The Island of Fear". In these episodes, Scuttle's explanation of human things is a mixture of correct and erroneous.

In The Little Mermaid: Songs from the Sea, Scuttle performs a song called "The Scuttle Strut" on track 3.

Scuttle appears in the stage adaptation of the original film, where he sings two songs: "Human Stuff," where he explains the human things Ariel has brought to him, and "Positoovity," where he encourages a now-human Ariel to be positive in achieving her goal of winning Eric. The role is originated by Eddie Korbich. In the stage musical, Scuttle has a group of seagull friends, and together they perform a tap dance during the "Positoovity" number.

In The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, when Marina is on a rock at the surface (animated the same way with Ariel when she sings a reprise for "Part of Your World" in the first film), she pushes herself up but the wave splashes onto her. Scuttle then appears briefly (without a speaking role, but accompanied instead by realistic seagull sound effects) to whom Marina says "don't touch me", referring to his actions in the first two films - tormenting the villain.