Memorable Moments: The Little Mermaid

Atlantica, home of the merpeople.

I remember watching the movie for the first time, I was totally awed by the amount of detail and realism given to the watery atmosphere. I'd seen other versions of The Little Mermaid before, but this was the first one that made me truly believe that such a world could exist. And the haunting opening sequence music still gives me goosebumps.

The first of mer-isms in the movie.

Ariel's wide-eyed wonder at something as simple as a fork.

Ursula's snacktime...

Ursula is just too cool. Unlike her other classic predecessors (eg. The Stepmother, Maleficent, Cruella de Vil), Ursula has a refined outward appearance that hides a core of raw malice and snarling anger. With that depth, she is more three-dimensional than those who came before her.

After Flounder slips up in front of King Triton, Ariel has a weak go at defense. But Triton's seen too much of this behaviour to be easily willed by Ariel's innocent wide-eyed look.

The entire Part of That World sequence... This is one of my favourite Disney songs of all time. It's heart of the movie, and the heart of Ariel's character. Even after all this time, it leaves me breathless.

After Sebastian makes his presence known in her secret grotto, Ariel proves once again she's terrible at defense, and even worse at lying.

Eric's reaction to his birthday present from Grimsby. There's something about the pose and dramatic grandeur of the statue that's just... wrong.

The storm ... It's the event that will start up a chain reaction that'll change Ariel and Eric's lives forever. It was quite a bad storm at that. Was King Triton in a bad mood or something?

Beached. Singing does wonders for reviving near-drowned princes. This is actually my favourite scene in the entire movie. The pose, the music, the earthiness of the animation, the feeling that you know something has happened, it all just adds up beautifully.

Things that are too good to be true usually are, but villains never have the foresight for that sort of thing.

Ariel's sisters are bewildered by her dreamy behaviour. By the way, I love Attina's funky hairdo (she's the one with the spikes).

Total girl-in-love symptoms. I just love Ariel's dizzy giggle!

Despite going all out with the Under the Sea sequence, Sebastian finds it has actually no effect on Ariel's point of view.

A very nervous Sebastian answers King Triton's summons, thinking that he knows what he knows when actually he only thinks he knows something which is not the thing that Sebastian thinks he knows.

Sebastian lets it slip.

Ariel: "Daddy, I love him!"
Triton: "No... Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!"
Ariel: "I don't care!"
Triton: "So help me, Ariel, I'm going to get through to you. And if this is the only way, so be it."

Ariel makes a choice. Her father just pushed her too hard on this one.

Ursula, ever the shmoozer, names her price.

Ursula takes Ariel's voice. This is an absolutely haunting sequence.

When I was a kid I had a classmate who loved to re-enact this scene for no apparent reason in front of the class. And that classmate was a boy. Heh.

Scuttle's scatterbrained persona.

Eric sees Ariel for the first time.

So close and yet so far!

Yes. Yes, she is.

Sebastian watches the dinner preparations. This scene is purely for comic relief and doesn't contribute to the story in any way, yet has succeeded in becoming memorable. Perhaps it foreshadows the unaddressed problem in the love story: How will Ariel adapt to life on land?

King Triton regrets his actions. Of course, this guilt is pivotal to the plot later on...

Of course she is! She's Ariel!

Eric decides that Ariel's the one for him. Yay! This is important, because it shows that Eric is in love with Ariel, and not only her voice that he heard on the beach.

Surprisingly, this roundabout blathering is one of my favourite funny speeches in animated moviedom.

Sometimes when I watch this scene, I like to mentally superimpose the image of Ursula on top of Vanessa. The final effect actually creeps me out a bit, because I don't think those animals would have had the courage to attack Ursula had she been, you know, in her scary octopus lady form.