Movie Analysis: The Little Mermaid

By Justine L. Pasion

Characters:
The main characters in the movie ‘The Little Mermaid’ are Ariel, a mermaid princess;
Eric, a human prince; King Triton, Ariel's father; Ursula, the sea witch; Flounder, Ariel's best
friend; and Sebastian, a crab and King Triton's advisor and composer.
Characterization:
The directors did an excellent job of characterizing each character in the movie ‘The
Little Mermaid.’ Ariel is a curious and adventurous mermaid who longs to explore the human
world, as shown in the movie. She is always curious about humans and loves to collect things
that humans use, as a hardheaded child of her father, King Triton. Eric is brave and
kindhearted; from the way he speaks and acts in the movie, he truly resembles a brave and
kindhearted prince who is willing to save others even if it compromises his safety. Later on,
he falls in love with Ariel. King Triton is shown as a strict but loving father who is
overprotective of Ariel. He always makes sure that Ariel is safe, though it doesn’t seem like
that to Ariel. The scene in the movie where he destroys Ariel’s collections of human things
proves that he is a strict and loving father to Ariel because he thinks that meddling with the
human world would put her daughter’s life in danger. Ursula is evil and manipulative; in the
movie, she uses her magic to manipulate Ariel to get what she wants, which is Ariel's soul,
but she fails in the end. Flounder is timid but a loyal friend to Ariel. Though he's easily scared
of sharks and other species in the ocean, he still goes with Ariel and guides her on every
adventure they do. Sebastian is a wise and musical crab who acts as a father figure to Ariel. In
the movie, he acts as a messenger to King Triton and a guiding hand to Ariel. He makes sure
Ariel is safe in the human world and takes part in making the prince fall in love with Ariel.
From the clothes and the way, they act, I can say that every character in the movies did an
excellent job of giving justification for their roles.
Setting:
‘The Little Mermaid’ takes place underwater in a kingdom ruled by King Triton,
surrounded by creatures like fish and sea creatures. Later in the movie, the action moves to
the human world, where Eric's castle and his kingdom are situated.
Plot:
The movie opens with a crew on a ship seeking a mermaid. However, a guy
immediately jumps down from the top of the ship to stop them and explain that it is not a
mermaid they are after. At that point, Prince Eric was introduced, a royal blood and the son of
the Queen's kingdom. (Exposition)
Sharks welcome and pursue Ariel and Flounder as they proceed to a location with
many sunken ships to explore around and find items that people have left on board. She
forgets she has a meeting to attend when she meets with Scuttle to show her what she found
amid the wrecked ships. Upon observing that Ariel was absent from their meeting, King
Triton requests Sebastian to locate her and deliver her to him. Following that, Ariel meets
with King Triton to argue about her responsibilities and stop being curious about the human
world, which ends up with King Triton destroying her collections. (Rising Action)
After the meeting, she is upset, and then she sees flashing lights, so she follows them
and sees a ship lighting fireworks having fun and singing. But suddenly the ship is met with a
spikey stone, causing it to be sunken, and Ariel saves the crew and prince and falls in love
with him. Because of Ariel's curiosity about the human world and desire to be a human,
Ursula offered her a pair of legs, exchanging her voice with the twist that she must kiss true
love before the third sun has departed. After the deal, Ariel, escorted by her friends arrives on
land. After arriving on land, Ariel meets the prince and goes to have fun outside the castle. In
the night, they feel a spark in their eyes and almost kiss. On the second day, Ursula
transformed into a beautiful woman and tricked the prince to marry her and sabotage Ariel.
On the third day, the wedding is being held, and Ariel runs away after Scuttle explains that
the prince is marrying Ursula. She runs fast towards the castle, and after arriving, she goes to
Ursula to snatch the pendant that is caging her voice. After receiving it back, she sings a
beautiful note to convince the prince that she will save him. Ursula transformed into her
original look and took Ariel into the ocean to kill her, but her father saved her and died on her
behalf. (Climax) Ursula became the queen of the sea. She grew big and powerful, but she was
defeated by Prince Eric and Princess Ariel by stabbing the boat into her.(Falling Action) After
defeating Ursula, King Triton grants Ariel's dream of having legs and turns her daughter Ariel
into a human for her to be happy and live with the man she loves. (Resolution)