The Little Mermaid (1989)[]
The film begins on a foggy morning out on open sea. A ship then comes from the fog, filled with sailors singing stories of the legendary merfolk. Aboard that ship is a young prince, named Eric, his dog Max, and his advisor Grimsby. Grimsby denounces the merfolk as, "nautical nonsense", but one sailor insists them to be real. While distracted by Grimsby, a fish the sailor was holding, slips from him, and falls into the ocean.
The fish breathes a sigh of relief before swimming away from the ship. The opening credits play as the fish crosses the deep ocean, until at last, we see merfolk. The merfolk then make their way through the ocean towards a shining underwater castle. The castle is the domain of King Triton, and is where he was holding a concert in his name, performed by his seven daughters and the crab court composer, Sebastian.
The concert goes as planned until it is discovered that Triton's youngest, Princess Ariel, is not there, much to his chagrin. In truth, Ariel was out excavating a ship graveyard with her best friend, Flounder the Fish. Inside one wreck, she finds a pipe and a fork, which fascinates her curiosity, all the while unaware of a shark watching her and Flounder from outside. The shark bursts into the room Ariel and Flounder are in and gives chase to them, all across the graveyard, until the two manage to get the shark ensnared in an anchor ring. They then make their way to the surface, where their friend, a seagull named Scuttle, lives. Ariel asks Scuttle to tell her what the items she collected are. He describes the fork as a dinglehopper, an item humans use to style hair; and the pipe as a snarfblat, an object for making music.
Upon hearing the word, "music", Ariel is quickly reminded of the concert she missed and makes haste back home. However, Ariel fails to realize she is being watched by two suspicious eels by the names, Flotsom and Jetsom. The two were spies under the employ of Ursula the seawich a former member of King Triton's court before being banished. Ursula hates Triton with a passion for his atrocities towards her, and constantly schemes of ways to exact revenge. The moment Ariel caught her eye, Ursula commands her cronies to watch her, hoping to use her to get to the King.
The film then moves to the royal palace, where Triton and Sebastian are scorning Ariel for missing the concert. But Flounder moves in to defend her, accidentally letting slip the encounter with Scuttle, which quickly angers Triton. The law of his kingdom forbids going to the surface world, for fears of merfolk being caught by humans. But Ariel believes humans not to be all that bad, which angers Triton to the point of sending Ariel away crying, with Flounder following after.
When they've left, Triton asks Sebastian if he was too hard on Ariel, to which Sebastian replies, "definitely not". Sebastian suggests that Ariel needs constant supervision, which gives Triton the idea to send Sebastian to keep an eye on her. Sebastian complies with the King's demands but feels dissatisfied with the idea of, "tagging along some headstrong teenager." However, Sebastian's thoughts are interrupted when he sees Ariel and Flounder swimming off elsewhere, prompting him to follow her. He is led to a hidden grotto where he discovers a variety of human objects gathered together.
Ariel, still hurt by her father's words, sings of her collection of human objects, and how she desires to visit the world of humans, despite what her father had to say of them. ("Part of Your World") The mood is quickly broken by Sebastian crashing in, and threatening to reveal Ariel's grotto to the king. Ariel attempts to reason with him, but before anything could be resolved in the conflict, a large object is seen floating overhead blocking moonlight from the grotto roof. Ariel, being ever curious, swims to the surface to figure out what this massive object was. The object proves to be a human ship, shooting fireworks into the night sky. Ariel swims towards the vessel, in spite of Sebastian's protests, and climbs aboard to behold dancing seamen. Ariel learns that the humans aboard are celebrating the birthday of their prince; one creature that catches her eye is Max, the sheepdog who takes a liking to Ariel. But Ariel is left enamored when she sees the dog's master, prince Eric.
Eric is given a large statue of himself as a birthday present, by Grimsby, who sourly proclaims that he hoped it would be a wedding present. Eric protests that he just hadn't found the right girl yet, but insists that when he does it will hit him, like lightning. It was then, that the sounds of thunder echoed in the distance, followed by an ever growing gust of wind.
Without warning, a hurricane blows in, sweeping up both ship and crew violently in a volley of wind and water. Ariel is thrown off the vessel but manages to catch sight of the ship being struck by lightning. When the ship crashes into a gaggle of rocks, the crew is sent overboard, along with the statue of Eric. Though they all made it to the lifeboats, Eric discovers that Max is still on the burning vessel, and goes off to rescue him. While Eric manages to get Max to safety, he is unable to save himself when a massive explosion blows him away. Ariel sees this and rushes towards his aid; barely managing to rescue him and take him back to shore.
Once at the shore, Ariel sings of her desire to join Eric's world, before fleeing at the sounds of Grimsby and Max approaching. While Ariel sings, Eric only manages to catch a glimpse of her before she leaves; but as Grimsby raises him up, Eric vividly remembers a girl who had saved him, and is determined to find her. As Ariel watches them from a nearby rock, Sebastian tells her that the situation must be kept secret from her father, but Ariel doesn't pay attention. With vigor and determination; Ariel makes a bold proclamation that she will be a part of Eric's world.
What Ariel doesn't realize however, is that she's being watched by Ursula's eels. Ursula is gleeful of the situation, and eerily looks to a gaggle of polyps in her lair; all of them, former dreamers who came under her power. She then mutters about Ariel becoming a charming addition to the group. The scene ends there.
A few days later, Ariel spends her time day dreaming of Eric, which piques the curiosity of her father, who believes Ariel to be in love with another merman. All the while, Sebastian is a nervous wreck trying to keep the secret from being found out. Ariel then decides that she wants to visit Eric, but Sebastian is having none of that. He attempts to bring her down to earth with a musical number about how the sea is better than the land.
Sebastian manages to bring a bunch of fish together to sing along, but as this party is happening, Flounder shows up and manages to slip Ariel away unnoticed. The song ends with Ariel nowhere to be seen, and Sebastian left alone to grumble about her. Suddenly, the royal herald calls for Sebastian to report to the King about Ariel. Sebastian, afraid that Triton figures out what has happened, accidentally slips the truth during the interrogation, and is forced to tell the King everything. Back at Ariel's grotto, Flounder reveals that he had saved the statue of Eric from the wreck, much to Ariel's delight. However, the pleasantries are interrupted by Triton being led to the grotto by Sebastian. After a short argument, Ariel lets slip that she loves Eric, and Triton, in his anger, reduces Ariel's grotto of treasure to a junk pile, leaving Ariel in tears. She shoos Sebastian and Flounder away and is left alone to grieve.
However, unbeknownst to her, Flotsam and Jetsam enter the grotto and sweet talk Ariel into going to Ursula to achieve her dreams of being with Eric. As they leave, Sebastian and Flounder follow after Ariel all the way to Ursula's lair. Ursula explains that she can grant Ariel's wish to be human for three days, but she must give Eric the kiss of true love before the sunset on the third day, or she belongs to Ursula. In exchange for legs though, she must give away her voice. Ariel agrees to these terms and signs the contract, trapping her voice in a necklace Ursula wore, and giving her human legs.
Once Ariel has been transformed into a human, Sebastian and Flounder take her to the surface, where the group meet up with Scuttle on a beach near Eric's castle. Sebastian threatens to tell King Triton about the deal between Ariel made with Ursula, but Ariel manages to convince him to help the group. Scuttle then tells Ariel about how to blend in with humans, and the first step was to dress like them. Scuttle takes a portion of a sail for Ariel to wear, just as Prince Eric arrives at their location. Though Eric doesn't know she's the girl who saved his life, he is willing to bring her to his castle to be taken care of, with Sebastian tagging along in a pocket in Ariel's cloth. Later, inside the palace, while Ariel is taking a bath, Sebastian is sent, through a series of misfortunate events, to the castle kitchen. It's there that Sebastian encounters a fish cooking obsessed chef that attempts to murder him. As this conflict goes on in the kitchen, Ariel meets with Eric and Grimsby in the dining hall for dinner. There, Eric and Grimsby discuss giving Ariel a tour of the kingdom, to which she agrees to. Later that night, Sebastian discusses plans to get Eric to kiss Ariel, though Ariel doesn't listen, being too enamored in the human world's splendors. But down in King Triton's palace, the situation is grim. King Triton has sent several search parties everywhere looking for Ariel and Sebastian but hasn't found a trace of both of them. He is left depressed; blaming himself for their disappearance. The next morning, Ariel and Eric begin their tour of the kingdom, starting with the nearby town. Ariel is enamored by every single thing she sees, whether it is puppets, horses, or dancing. The day passes into evening when Eric takes Ariel on a lagoon cruise. Sebastian, seeing this as the perfect moment, decides to take matters into his own claws, and plays a song to excite the two into kissing. However, the song is quickly interrupted by Flotsam and Jetsam overturning the boat, successively ruining the mood.
Ursula, frustrated with the progress Ariel's making, decides to take matters into her own tentacles, and transforms herself into a beautiful young maiden called Vanessa. She then uses Ariel's voice to hypnotize Eric just before he could announce his true feelings to her. And the next morning, Eric and Vanessa were announced to be wed by sunset, leaving poor Ariel heartbroken as the wedding ship departed from port, leaving her and her friends behind while Vanessa convincingly plays her role as a love-struck young woman, clinging constantly to Eric's side and raises no suspicion.
Little does anyone know, Scuttle happens to fly over the wedding ship when he hears Ariel's voice coming from the bride's dressing room. He spies from a porthole, and once Vanessa takes a look at the dressing room's mirror, Ursula's reflection for shown. Scuttle flies off to inform Ariel and the group about Vanessa. The group then makes a plan, Ariel and Flounder go after the wedding ship on a barrel, Sebastian goes to tell King Triton of what's happening, while Scuttle goes off to stall the wedding.
Scuttle gathers sea creatures of all sorts to converse on the wedding ship as the wedding is just under way. There is little warning for Vanessa when the attack begins, and the ship is sent into disarray, giving Ariel the time she needed to get aboard. Moreover, Vanessa is utterly flustered, disoriented and sidelined from being able to do anything. Thanks to the help of Max, Scuttle manages to snap the necklace off Vanessa's neck, shattering it across the deck; freeing Ariel's voice, and releasing Eric from the spell. But before the two could kiss, the sun sets and Ariel turns back into a mermaid. Vanessa transforms into Ursula again; taking Ariel back with her under the sea.
It isn't long before Ursula and Ariel run into Triton and Sebastian, and a conflict occurs. Triton confronts Ursula and demands her to release Ariel, but no avail. He attempts to destroy the contract Ariel signed, binding her to Ursula, but finds that he's unable to do so because it's magically enhanced by being legal. So, to save his daughter Ariel, Triton sacrifices his soul to Ursula, and becomes a polyp, thus losing his crown, trident, and kingdom to Ursula, which angers Ariel to the point of when the sea witch almost destroys her. Meanwhile, Eric takes a rowboat from the wedding ship and speeds off towards the location where Ariel is. He goes underwater and attacks Ursula, who then commands Flotsam and Jetsam to go after him. The witch's eels drag him underwater. To save Eric, Flounder and Sebastian attack Flotsam and Jetsam.
In the midst of the chaos, Ursula attempts to kill Eric with the Trident, but a mad Ariel furiously pulls on her hair, causing her to miss and kill her eels. This enrages Ursula, provoking her to become a giant and leaving Eric and Ariel helpless to her power, after Flotsam and Jetsam are killed. But in the midst of her rampage, Ursula creates a whirlpool, raising shipwrecks from the ocean floor.
And it is with these shipwrecks that Eric is able to finish off Ursula by ramming its splintered bow into her. As a result just as Ursula prepares to destroy Ariel by using the trident, Eric saves Ariel and kills Urusla by ramming a splintered bowsprit towards the witch's evil aorta and abdomen. Ursula blows up into a scattered mass of organs while Eric falls unconscious on the shore. Arter Ursula dies from being impaled in the aorta with a bowsprit, her curse is removed from the merfolk in her garden, as well as King Triton, and peace is once again restored to the ocean.
Back on the surface, Triton decides that he has to let Ariel be free to lead her own life and tells Sebastian that he is going to miss her. He then transforms her once more into a human - this time permanently. Ariel goes to Eric, they finally kiss, and the two are immediately wed shortly after. And at this ceremony after Ariel and Eric are married, Ariel bids her friends and family, including her seven older sisters, her father Triton, Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle, goodbye to live her new life in Eric's world.
The Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea (2000)[]
Set some unspecified time after the events of the original film, the film begins with a celebration for Ariel and Eric's newborn daughter Melody (now a niece of Ariel's sisters) on a ship at sea. Ariel's father, King Triton, presents baby Melody with a magic locket, which is meant to remind her of her mermaid heritage. The party is interrupted by Morgana, sister of the deceased Ursula, who threatens to cause Melody harm, using her as leverage to get Triton's trident. Ariel and Eric work together to foil Morgana's plan.
Fearing Morgana and remembering what happened with Ursula, Ariel decides to withhold all knowledge of the sea world from Melody. The locket is tossed into the ocean, and a massive wall is built to separate the royal castle from the sea. In the meantime, Sebastian is tasked by Triton to watch over Melody. Flounder and King Triton return to Atlantica.
Twelve years later, Melody remains unaware of her mother’s mermaid heritage and is banned from ever going into the sea. In However, she has been sneaking out the castle regularly to swim and one day finds the locket and shows it to Sebastian and Scuttle. Seeing her name on the locket, Melody confronts her mother in an explosive argument. Furious, Ariel confronts Melody and warns her not to go into the sea. Angry at her mother's refusal to answer her questions, Melody takes a boat and sails away from home. Her parents soon learn that she is gone, and Triton uses his magic to transform Ariel back into a mermaid to search for Melody.
Melody is lured to Morgana’s lair by her manta rays; Morgana acts courteously to Melody and explains that the locket shows her heritage and she can help her become part of it. Undertow believes that Morgana is lying again, but finds that she has a bottle of Ursula's magic. A drop from the bottle lands on Melody's foot and she is lifted into the air in a green vortex that transforms her into a meriiad, filling her with joy. Melody jumps into the water and begins swimming around to her heart's delight. Undertow gets angry with Morgana for not using the potion to change him back, but Morgana tells him she's still reeling Melody into her plot. Once Melody has calmed down and thanks Morgana for fullfilling her dream, Morgana fakes crying and explains that the spell will only last a few days. The transformation can be made permanent if Melody can get hold of the trident, which she claims was stolen by Triton. However, unbeknownst to Melody, Morgana only wants the trident to make up for her own lack of magical talent. The trident can only be removed from its resting place by a descendant of Triton.
She gets a stone map from Morgana and leaves, signing about her situaion. Soon, she accidently crashes into ice and breaks the map, losing any clue how to get to Atlantica. However, she soon meets Tip the penguin and Dash the walrus, who seek to become heroes. She tells them that she needs to get to Atlantica and retrieve the Trident or she'll change back into a human. Tip is untrusting of her, but Dash convinces him to help out Melody as she is depressed by becoming human again. They begin signing and swimming away, bonding with each other.
They eventually get to Atlantica, where Melody temporarily loses sight of Tip and Dash. She then meets three mer-teens (a blonde girl with a purple tail and seashell bikini top, a Hispanic boy with a red tail and a blond boy with a green tail), who want to befriend her (but don't seem to notice her top is not a sea-shell bikini); Melody accidently introduces herself as "Mel-mel" due to stuttering from being attracted to the blonde mer-boy. Dash and Tip find Melody and pull her away, putting her back on track. They sneak into the throne room, where she sees Triton looking (unknown to her) at Melody's baby photo. Triton then leaves, ordering his men to double their efforts to find her. Melody quickly takes the trident and leaves with Tip and Dash, accidently losing her locket. Unbeknownst to Melody, her mother has just arrived and enters the throne room with Triton, where they see the trident is gone and her locket is on the ground. Ariel is confused as to how Melody could have gotten there, but they focus on finding her as she may cause trouble with the trident.
Melody successfully returns to Morgana with the trident, but is shocked to find Ariel arrive in mermaid form; Ariel is also shocked to see Melody is a mermiad as well. Morgana tries to keep Melody's favor by "scolding" Ariel for not telling her daughter about her origins. Ariel tries to apologize and stop Melody, but before she can explain that Morgana is evil, Melody gives the trident to Morgana. With the trident in her grip, Morgana reveals her true intentions. She kidnaps Ariel and takes her to the surface, while imprisoning Melody behind a wall of ice. She calmly mentions that the spell will wear off by sundown. Morgana uses the trident's magic to lord over the ocean, rising to the surface to gloat. Scuttle, Triton, Sebastian, and Eric arrive, and a battle ensues against Morgana and her minions. Ariel releases herself and rescues Eric from almost drowning while Sebastian clamps his claws down on the tails of Cloak and Dagger.
Soon, Morgana's spell wears off, and Melody returns to human form. Because she is no longer a mermaid, she begins to drown. Melody is freed with the help of Tip and Dash and an unlucky shark. Morgana puts every sea creature under her spell, forcing Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder, King Triton, Tip, and Dash to bow, but before Morgana is about to revive Ursula and Flotsom and Jetsom with the trident, Melody looks down and sees her feet, and realizes that, as she has reverted back to a human, she is able to escape the spell. She manages to grab the trident and throw it back to Triton by climbing up the cliff on which Morgana is standing and sneaking up on her. When Melody does so, Morgana tries to get the trident back, and throws her off the cliff. Just as Melody fears she is facing death, Dash takes action and goes to Melody's falling point; Melody lands on him safely, surviving the fall. Now having had his trident returned to him, Triton uses it to encase Morgana in a block of ice, which sinks underwater with a picture of Ursula from her kingdom and the icicles began to collapse, trapping Morgana inside. Melody reunites with her family when Eric takes her from Dash, although she was unconscious again. Melody then comes to seeing her father, holding her in his arms after Ariel told him to bring Melody to her. She then begins to apologize to Ariel, but Ariel says that she and Eric are sorry, and that they should've told her the truth instead of keeping it from her. King Triton offers his granddaughter the option of becoming a mermaid permanently and living with him in Atlantica or living with her parents on land. After looking at her parents (with Ariel giving her a knowing smile), Melody says she has a better idea. The next day, she uses the trident to disintegrate the wall separating her home from the sea and everyone from Atlantica comes to the surface to swim with the locals from the village. Melody bumps into the mer-boy she met before and shyly says hi to him. The humans and merfolk and sea creatures unite in a circle around King Triton, Sebastian, Flounder, Scuttle, Tip, Dash, Ariel, Eric, and Melody. Then King Triton uses his trident's magic to form a rainbow in the sky. As the scene come to a close at the end of the song, Melody giggles