The Little Mermaid/Trivia


 * The film was originally planned as one of Disney's earliest films. Production started soon after Snow White, but was put on hold due to various circumstances.
 * The idea for the movie was one of Walt Disney's favorites. In the 1980s, the Disney company did not know that Walt had intended to make a Little Mermaid film. The Disney Company thought of the idea independently. While in production in the 1980s, someone found Walt's Mermaid script by chance. Many of his changes to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s. (source: DVD making of)
 * Glen Keane, the supervising animator for Ariel, jokingly stated on the 100 Greatest Cartoons DVD that Ariel looks exactly like his wife "without the fins." The character's body shape and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss? and the effect of her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride, when she was in space.
 * In Ursula's spell to turn Ariel into a human, various references to the throat and voice are made, as well as references to fish.
 * When Scuttle is providing "vocal romantic stimulation" while Eric and Ariel are out on the lagoon, he is actually squawking his own version of Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet".
 * A number of backgrounds used during the "Kiss the Girl" number were recycled from Disney's earlier film The Rescuers.
 * The dress Carlotta wears is a larger version of the one used by Cinderella in Cinderella.
 * The Little Mermaid ranks as #51 of the 100 Greatest Cartoons as voted in Great Britain.
 * Near the start of the film when King Triton is seen riding a dolphin-pulled chariot over an audience of mermaids and mermen, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy can be seen in the audience. Also, one of the audience members in this scene resembles Kermit the Frog.
 * Divine was in part the inspiration for the design of Ursula.
 * In the contract Ursula has Ariel sign, there is a crude drawing of Mickey Mouse's head amongst a jumble of letters.
 * During Scuttle's disruption of the wedding between Eric and Vanessa, The Grand Duke and King from Cinderella can be seen standing together in the background.
 * In the scene after Ursula is killed, Ariel's pose as she looks longingly at Eric bears resemblance to the famous statue of Andersen's Little Mermaid in Copenhagen (sculpted by Edward Eriksen).
 * According to the DVD commentary, the shark that chases Ariel and Flounder at the beginning is named Glut, and he was planned to return for a rematch with Flounder later on.
 * The characters of The Little Mermaid, and the kingdom of Atlantica, are featured in all three installments of the popular Square Enix series of Kingdom Hearts games. In the first game, Ariel is featured as a character who joins the party in battle. In Kingdom Hearts II, Atlantica serves as a world of musical mini-games rather than a traditional searching and battle area like in the first two games. Among the songs in the mini-games, new versions of two of the songs from the film, Part of Your World and Under the Sea are featured. Ariel is also the only official Disney Princess featured in the game who is not one of the fabled Princesses of Heart. Strangely, Alice of Alice in Wonderland is featured as a Princess of Heart, while unlike Ariel, she in no way a princess.
 * The color that Disney Imagineers created for Ariel's tail was, in fact, created just for the movie and was aptly called "Ariel".
 * On the main menu (disc 1) of Finding Nemo, one of the things Dory says is: "I'm so excited! I've always wanted to see The Little Mermaid!"
 * When this film was re-released in theatres in 1997, some of the foreign translations were redubbed. The original dubbings were returned when the film was released on DVD.
 * The first-ever Russian dubbing of this film was made in 2006. Prior to this, only a male voice was used on top of the English version.
 * The original design for Ariel was showing her being completely covered in seaweed.