Princess Ariel is a fictional character, a mermaid who appeared in Disney's popular 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid and its direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. Daughter of King Triton, she lives (prior to the events in the first film) in the underwater city of Atlantica with her friends Flounder and Sebastian. She has red hair, a green tail and wears a purple seashell bra. She is voiced by Jodi Benson in all her incarnations.
The Little Mermaid TV series
The show takes place about a year before the first movie, with Ariel as the main character. Some of the episodes feature Ariel adopting a whale, accidentally annoying a blowfish with giggles, meeting other mermaids, and dealing with lobster mobs, Ursula the sea witch, and the Evil Manta.
In this story, the beautiful Ariel falls in love with Prince Eric, as King Triton tries to keep her under the sea. Ariel is deep in love — and willing to give up her voice to Ursula for a chance to be human. After Ursula is defeated, King Triton transforms her into a human to be with Prince Eric.
One year after the wedding to Prince Eric, Ariel has given birth to Melody, her daughter. Ursula's sister, Morgana, acts as the villain in this film. To protect Melody from Morgana's evil intentions, Ariel and Eric decide they must keep Melody from the sea, and to this effect, build a large wall separating the castle from it. Melody's love of the sea proves too strong, however, and when Melody falls into Morgana's clutches, Ariel is forced to temporarily resume her mermaid form in order to rescue her. This film presents a more mature, adult version of Ariel, though her strong spirit is still very much in evidence. Ariel seems to recognize her daughter inherited much of her own personality.
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Ariel appears as a regular guest at Disney's House of Mouse along with her sea friends. her apperance alternates irregularly with her human form and her mermaid form, depending on what fits the situation. these appearances are not in the little mermaid canon and have no in universe explanation.
Ariel lives in the water world of Atlantica and deals with Ursula's attempt to use the Heartless to defeat King Triton. As in the movie, she is a stubborn individual who wants to see the world above the ocean and she often goes against her father's wishes. Ariel can be one of Sora's party members for this world. In this game, she encounters Sora as a Merman, Donald Duck as an Octopus, and Goofy Goof as a Turtle. She is the only Disney Princess featured in the game who is not one of the Princesses of Heart.
Ariel is a character in Atlantica — but one in Sora's mind. In this time, Ursula kidnaps Flounder — and baits Ariel into stealing her father's trident. Ariel brings Ursula the trident, believing that Flounder has been taken to the human world, and learns the truth when she does. After helping Sora defeat Ursula, she resolves to tell her father what happened.
She can be acquired as a Friend card after visiting the Key of Guidance room. Using the card causes her to swim across the arena, injuring any enemies she strikes.
Ariel's plot is almost a mirror of the movie's plot. Songs in this world are "Swim This Way", "Part of Your World", "Under the Sea", "Ursula's Revenge", and "A New Day is Dawning". There are some slight changes from the film:
- The music numbers, "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and "Kiss the Girl" are removed.
- Instead of Ursula's cave, the deal is made in the Courtyard.
- Sora, Donald and Goofy push the human Ariel to the surface instead of Sebastian and Flounder.
- Ariel already has clothes on immediately after her human transformation, in contrast to the film in which she appears completely naked with the exception of her seashell bra.
- Eric throws the trident — as originally storyboarded for the film — to defeat Ursula.
References in popular culture
- The Comedy Central TV series Drawn Together features a character named Princess Clara who is a parody of Ariel. Curiously, Clara's voice is provided by Tara Strong, who voiced Ariel and Eric's daughter Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea.
- Ariel herself makes a cameo appearance in the episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education" when she can be seen in a hospital waiting room being choked by a plastic six-pack ring, an apparent victim of oceanic pollution.
- Ariel has a small cameo appearance in the American Dad! episode "Francine's Flashback" while Stan is on a fishing trip.
- In the film Shrek 2, the opening sequence is a montage of popular film parodies, which includes The Little Mermaid, among other Disney features. After a wave covers Shrek and Fiona, a mermaid resembling Ariel is shown kissing Shrek. Fiona grabs the mermaid by the tail and throws her back into the ocean where it shows sharks going down for her.
- Ariel is referenced as a symbol of Mary Magdalene in the Dan Brown novel, The Da Vinci Code. A copy of the Georges de La Tour painting The Penitent Magdalene is displayed prominently in Ariel's underwater grotto. This is supposed to be a reference to the saced feminine and to the use of mermaid symbolism in medieval grail mythology. The title of the painting in the Little Mermaid is actually 'The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame' rather than the similar 'Penitent Magdalene,' as Dan Brown calls it.
- A Barbie doll based on Ariel appeared during a Robot Chicken segment where she was caught by a normal man (a generic Ken doll) on a fishing trip, who thought he would get three wishes for catching her.
- In Mission Hill, an Ariel lookalike appears on the cover of an adult magazine Kevin French secretly reads before accidentally burning down the general store while trying to dispose of the magazine. Though she's drawn in a different artistic style, it is clear that the woman on the magazine and in Kevin's dream is based on Ariel's character design.
- Ariel's hairstyle would often be used for the hairstyles of other female cartoon characters. One of the Bimbettes from Beauty and the Beast, for example, has this hairstyle. Another would be for Roxanne (Max Goof's former girlfriend in his appearances) from A Goofy Movie. Also, in A Goofy Movie, she makes a brief appearance as a lamp on one of the walls at a hotel, Neptune Inn, where Max switches the lamp on and off saying, "Nice lamp." Also during one scene in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Genie was fixing up Jasmine's hair as one of the hairstyles Genie cycled through looked like Ariel's.
- The Mighty Kong contains a sequence in which the female lead, Ann Darrow, dives underwater with her hair flowing in an Ariel-like fashion. This was a clear reference to the fact that Ann Darrow's voice was provided by Jodi Benson, just as Ariel's was.
- In Hook, when Peter (Robin Williams) falls in the Mermaid Lagoon, one of the mermaids has red hair and a green tail.