- Director: Ron Clements
- Year: 1989
Overview
Ariel is a mermaid princess who is fascinated by the human world, much to the frustration of her father, King Triton. After saving a human prince named Eric from a shipwreck, she falls in love with him. Desperate to join him on land, she strikes a deal with the sea witch Ursula. Ursula gives her human legs for three days in exchange for her voice, with the condition that she must receive a kiss of true love, or she will belong to Ursula forever. With the help of her animal friends, Ariel defeats Ursula's plot, and Triton lets her marry Eric.
Takeaways
Ariel is desperate to explore the human world, but her father's strict rules only push her to take a dangerous shortcut. She signs a sketchy contract with Ursula, who happily uses the girl's desperation to steal her voice as leverage to take over Triton's throne. Triton thinks he can protect Ariel by forbidding her from learning about humans, but his harshness drives her straight to the sea witch instead. In the end, it takes both humans and mermaids working together to defeat Ursula, showing that bridging the gap between their two worlds is much better than keeping them strictly divided.