This article is about the character from the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. For articles that share the same name, see Ariel.
- “I just want to know more about them.”
- ―Ariel wanting to learn more about humanity.[src]
Ariel is the main protagonist of the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
She is based on both the nameless protagonist of the 1837 fairy tale The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and the character of the same name from the 1989 animated film.
Background[]
Personality[]
A curious and adventurous soul, Ariel has been fascinated by humans for a long time, despite the restrictions of her overprotective father, Triton. She always seeks to discover as much as possible, even if it means putting herself in danger. This sometimes leads her to neglect her royal duties, which she worries very little about. But simultaneously, apart from her friends, she feels quite alone under the ocean because of having no one with who she can share her state of mind. Unlike Triton, she does not limit herself to believing that all humans are bad. Her old routine of collecting objects from the surface would eventually bore her to the point of wanting to see what the human world was like.
Upon Ariel's first experience on the surface, she marvels at the human ship, especially Prince Eric after hearing him mention how he is not happy with his royal life, seeing a bit of herself in him. After saving Eric from drowning, she develops strong feelings for him, amplifying her desire to live among humans. When Triton confronted her about her secret desires, Ariel defended her beliefs without fear but was horrified when her father proceeded to destroy everything she had from the surface, leaving her sad and devastated. She later became more vulnerable to Ursula's manipulation to live among humans, though she briefly backed out of the idea when she felt she was making a mistake, her feelings of loneliness eventually got the better of her when Ursula reminded her that there was nothing truly keeping her underwater.
At the beginning of Ariel's new life as a human, she quickly proved to be clumsy and very socially inexperienced, especially now that she no longer had her voice and that Ursula has bewitched him to forget that she has a limited ultimatum. Despite her love for Eric, she partly regrets giving up her former life for nothing more than a maybe. As Ariel and Eric become closer, their feelings for each other grow, with the two almost kissing after two days of knowing each other. She was heartbroken when Eric fell for another girl, causing Ariel to exile herself into the water in sadness and morph. Once Scuttle reveals to her that the girl is none other than a transformed Ursula, Ariel becomes determined to stop her. As Ariel regains her voice, she also regains her self-confidence, finally having the courage to admit her love for Eric.
Physical appearance[]
Ariel is a young and beautiful mermaid with matte skin, a soft face made up of brown eyes, thin eyebrows, long wavy auburn red hair with some braided in dreadlocks. In addition to an upper body identical to a perfectly healthy human girl, Ariel has a long teal and green fish tail that ombres to salmon pink comprising two large caudal fins and two smaller ones on each side. Following her deal with Ursula, Ariel gains human legs in place of her fin, also making her shorter compared to her mermaid form.
As a mermaid, Ariel wears purple and teal scaled top with fins that covering her chest. After becoming human, she first wore a brown sack blanket to cover her naked body, then was dressed in a blue dress, a pink headband over her forehead, and pink lace-up boots which she removed shortly after to wear brown sandals. At the end of the film, Ariel is seen wearing a pink dress and with her hair in a ponytail.
Powers and abilities[]
As a mermaid, Ariel possesses aquapathy abilities that enable her to swim and breathe underwater. She can communicate with other aquatic creatures, albeit only with the sentient creatures. This version of Ariel has a new ability, siren singing. This has been pointed out by both Sebastian and Ursula.
Role in the film[]
Scuttle, Flounder, and Ariel with a "dinglehopper".
Ariel is introduced at the beginning of the film where she swims with her fish companion Flounder at a sunken ship curiously interacting with a fork she found. As Flounder fears that there might be sharks coming, a great white shark, Glut, swims in front of Ariel and Flounder, chasing them and attempting to eat them. Throughout the chase, Ariel drops a barrel onto the shark, causing him to chase after her across the ship which she then leads Glut to crash into a mirror by using her reflection to her advantage, leaving him unable to move and allowing the two to escape. Ariel and Flounder then encounter Scuttle who dives underwater for a meal Ariel shows her a fork she found at the sunken ship which Scuttle incorrectly calls a "dinglehopper" and as Ariel attempts to show her another object she collected (a corkscrew), Sebastian, who was out looking for her, alerts Ariel to return to her father.
Ariel approaches King Triton, her father, who is very upset with his daughter because she missed the Coral Moon. Ariel was supposed to attend this event with her sisters and Triton scolds her for not attending the event. Ariel visits her grotto showing a collection of objects as she sings the musical number, "Part of Your World" to help her father understand. Later that night, Ariel hears explosions from above the surface, which she thinks is dangerous, much to Flounder's worry only to find out that she is seeing fireworks exploding into the sky because Prince Eric is celebrating his birthday on his ship. All of a sudden, Eric's ship crashes into a rock formation, causing Eric, the surviving crew, and his dog Max to retreat, Ariel then notices Eric sinking underwater, leading her to save him from drowning.
Ariel brings Eric to shore.
The next day, Ariel approaches an injured Eric where she sings her siren song a reprise of "Part of Your World", only for Ariel to retreat from a group of castle guards searching for Eric just as the guards bring him back home to safety. Back underwater, Ariel helps her sisters clean up the mess from the shipwreck. As her father and sisters point out how the humans have no respect for the ocean, Ariel, disgusted by their xenophobia, points out that the mermaids don't have any respect for balance either and swims away. Ariel approaches Sebastian, who tells her to stay under the sea, convincing her that the above world is very dangerous for mermaids, telling her that life under the sea is much better than anything they got up there. Throughout the musical number "Under the Sea", Sebastian tries to convince Ariel to stay out of the human world and feel comfortable living under the sea just as the sea creatures continue dancing, only for Ariel to disappear. Sebastian and the other sea creatures notice this, making Sebastian worry that Ariel left just as the other sea creatures leave.
Later, Ariel approaches King Triton, who learned from Sebastian that she saved a human from drowning. When Ariel genuinely refuses to promise her father to never see Eric again, Triton furiously destroys all the treasures in Ariel's grotto, much to Ariel's sadness. Ariel then plans to meet Ursula in her lair by following Flotsam and Jetsam to change her fate.
As Ariel enters Ursula's lair, she encounters various merpeople who were turned into polyps. She encounters Ursula who gives her an opportunity to change her fate regarding her love interest Eric. During the number "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula gives Ariel a deal to find true love's kiss in falling in love with Eric within three days or she will turn into a mermaid forever. Accepting the deal, Ariel trades her mermaid tail, her siren voice, and her ability to breathe underwater, causing Ariel to turn into a human. Ariel swims up to the surface where she is rescued by a fisherman who takes her to Eric's castle. Now in human form, Ariel sings in her thoughts during the musical number "For the First Time" as she adapts to her life living on land. Ariel, now wearing a dress, spends her first day in the castle attempting to fall in love with Eric whom he was searching for. Her attempt is a failure due to Ariel's inability to talk. On the second day, Eric gives Ariel a tour around the kingdom while Sebastian realizes that Ursula, the sea witch, was the one who put a spell on her, causing Ariel to forget that she has to kiss Eric before the last day. That night, Ariel and Eric sit on a boat sailing across the lagoon during the musical number "Kiss the Girl" where Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle sing to the couple for them to kiss as the couple fall in love, but Ariel's attempt to kiss Eric is unsuccessful, due to Ursula's eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, knocking them off the boat.
Ariel with Scuttle and Sebastian.
On the third day, Scuttle reports to Ariel what she heard about Ursula who is disguised as "Vanessa" planning to hypnotize and marry Eric. Ariel then arrives at the area where the wedding between Eric and "Vanessa" is taking place at Eric's castle. Ariel confronts "Vanessa" and shatters the shell necklace to reclaim her voice, causing "Vanessa" to be revealed to be Ursula as well as Eric freed from Ursula's spell. However, before Ariel and Eric can kiss, the sun goes down and Ariel suddenly regains her mermaid tail, transforming her from her human form back to her mermaid form just before Ursula reveals her true form and takes her hostage, diving back into the ocean.
During an underwater battle, Ursula attempts to attack Ariel, but her father King Triton confronts her for what she did to his daughter only for Ursula to destroy Triton. Throughout the battle, Flotsam and Jetsam strangle Ariel and attempt to kill her by generating electricity. Eric throws a harpoon to attack Ursula and as Ursula sees Eric escaping, Ariel defends Eric from getting struck by Ursula using Triton's trident, causing her blast to destroy Flotsam and Jetsam instead. As Ursula uses the trident, she transforms into the size of a gigantic sea monster and creates a storm to kill Ariel and Eric. Ariel pulls herself onto a surfaced ship where she steers the ship towards Ursula, causing the broken bowsprit on the ship to impale her, killing the sea witch.
Eric and Ariel kiss.
After Ursula is defeated, Ariel reconciles with her father who is brought back to life just as the two recognize each other's sacrifice. Ariel feels unhappy that she cannot live without Eric just as Triton allows her to marry him by turning Ariel into a human so that she can reunite with him. Afterwards, Ariel marries Eric, before Ariel bids a farewell to her father just as Ariel continues to live a happy life with Eric, starting with a travel around the world.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This incarnation of Ariel is portrayed by Halle Bailey, who is African-American.
- She is the first iteration of the character to be African-American, the second is the counterpart from the animated Disney Jr. series.
- Unlike the animated character who has fair white skin, blue eyes, and vibrant red hair, this Ariel has dark skin, brown eyes, and dark red dreadlocks.
- Prince Eric asks Ariel if her name is Diana or Catherine, as if to be a reference to the late Diana, Princess of Wales and Catherine Middleton, both from the British Royal family.
- Unlike her animated counterpart, Ariel is the one to kill Ursula instead of Eric.
- In this version of The Little Mermaid, Ariel has a new ability, siren singing, which has been pointed out by both Sebastian and Ursula.
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