Gabriella is a recurring character in the animated series The Little Mermaid.
Gabriella is a deaf mermaid who communicates in sign language, her friend is an octopus, named Ollie who serves as her interpreter.
Background[]
Gabriella is a young mermaid who becomes a close friend of Ariel. She appears to live outside of Atlantica, but sometimes comes to visit. Like Ariel, she is curious and inquisitive, with an adventurous spirit. She shares a close friendship with Ollie, who serves as her interpreter, as Gabriella is deaf and communicates exclusively through sign language, but she can also lip-read.
Physical appearance[]
Gabriella is a Latina mermaid with brown hair and green eyes. She has a pink tail and wears a pink bikini top.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Mermaid Physiology: As a mermaid, Gabriella possesses superhuman attributes, such as superhuman durability, speed and senses.
- Superhuman Durability: Gabriella is far more durable than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures, being able to withstand the immense underwater pressures.
- Superhuman Speed: Gabriella is much faster than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures. She can move at blur-like speeds while underwater.
- Superhuman Senses: Gabriella's senses are far more developed than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures, allowing her to see clearly in the dark.
- Aquapathy: Gabriella is capable of understanding and communicating with other aquatic creatures, albeit only with creatures that are sentient.
- Aquatic Breathing: Gabriella is capable of breathing both on land and in the water indefinitely.
- Thermoendurance: Gabriella is immune to extremely cold or hot temperatures and environments.
Abilities[]
- Expert Swimmer: Gabriella is a highly skilled swimmer, being able to swim in a dolphin-like manner.
- Sign Language: Due to being mute, Gabriella uses sign language as a way to communicate with other individuals.
Weaknesses[]
- Speechless: Gabriella is mute, so she uses sign language to communicate with others.
Appearances[]
The Little Mermaid: The Series[]
In "Wish Upon a Starfish", Gabriella meets Ariel after seeing Ariel express her desire to dance. Gabriella expresses a desire to be able to sing, despite not knowing what singing is, and convinces Ariel to come with her to seek out the magical Wishing Starfish. The two girls find the Starfish after facing many dangers together, but he is revealed to be a fraud. The girls are saddened, but Ariel reminds Gabriella that she expresses herself beautifully through her sign language.
In the episode "Ariel's Treasures", Gabriella returns to visit Ariel and is introduced to Ariel's extensive collection of human objects. But Ursula, as part of a plot, casts a spell over the collection, causing each item to attack other fish and merpeople. The two girls are able to stop the spell, but only by destroying each object.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The character of Gabriella was based on a girl, named Gabriella Angelina Bommino who was a huge fan of the original Little Mermaid film and the show of the same name, but she had lost her battle to leukemia during the show's first season. Therefore, Bommino had died before first season and overall the entire show itself was completed.[1]
- Initially, it was believed that Gabriella was deaf, but it had turned out that she is actually mute. It became clear when Ariel had mentioned to Gabriella that she communicates beautifully through sign language, as she had her eyes closed at the time, but she was still able to completely understand everything that Ariel was saying.
- Gabriella is the first and only mute character to appear on the show.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mendoza, N.F. (October 22, 1993). "2-Year-Old Girl Lives On in ‘Mermaid’ : Television: Disney animators introduce a new character based on Gabriella Angelina Bommino, who died of leukemia last year.". Los Angeles Times.
