Here Are The 12 Best (And 4 Worst) Differences Between 2023's "Little Mermaid" And The 1989 Cartoon

Justice for the "body language" verse.

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The Little Mermaid is finally in theaters, and you should RUN, not walk, to your nearest movie theater to see it.

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Don't be slow like Flounder, because you do NOT want to miss Halle Bailey singing "Part of Your World" in surround sound.

If you loved the 1989 version and are worried about what the reboot might change, rest assured that most of the changes only enhance the story and give you more to love while staying very faithful to the original.

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My authority for saying this is a lifelong obsession with The Little Mermaid and Ariel herself, and countless hours spent in beaches and swimming pools trying to re-create the iconic hair flip.

So here are all the best changes in the live-action reboot, along with some of the more unfortunate ones:

🚨SPOILER WARNING for The Little Mermaid (both versions) beyond this point!🚨

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1. BEST: Ariel kicks butt in this movie.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Ariel has always been a plucky, badass protagonist, but the 2023 movie really drives that point home by having her do some of the things that other characters did in the original cartoon. It might be the best overall change between the two versions.

* She tricks the shark that attacks her and Flounder with a mirror so that they can escape. In the cartoon, the shark gets stuck in the ring of an anchor by accident.

* During "Kiss the Girl," she figures out how to tell Eric her name without anyone's help. Sebastian just whispers it to Eric in the original.

* She physically fights Vanessa/Ursula to get her voice back. As in, Ariel runs up to her, tackles her, yanks her necklace off, and throws it on the ground. In the cartoon, the necklace falls off Vanessa, thanks to Scuttle.

* And finally, the movie reverses Eric's and Ariel's positions during the final fight against Ursula. This time, Ariel steers the boat that skewers Ursula.

2. BEST: Ariel and Eric have plenty of things in common before they ever meet.

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Bad news for those of us who had a massive crush on 1989 Eric: You will have an even bigger crush on 2023 Eric (and Jonah Hauer-King). New Eric is an orphan who was adopted by Queen Selina after a shipwreck killed his parents, and like Ariel, he feels out of place in his own life. Also like Ariel, he argues with his overprotective parent and has a neat collection of items he picks up on his high-sea adventures.

3. BEST: The movie gives a more specific backstory for Ariel's family, including Ursula's relationship to Triton.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

The original movie doesn't explicitly state how Ariel's mother died, but in the reboot, she was killed by a human, and it's part of the reason that Triton hates humans. Triton and Ursula are also siblings, and it's implied that Ursula's banishment happened around the time Ariel's mother died. 

4. BEST: Scuttle is a gannet, not a seagull.

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I'll admit that I was...puzzled, to say the least, when the trailers showed that Scuttle would be able to dive and speak underwater. But this Scuttle is a gannet, and gannets do indeed dive and hold their breath underwater. This might seem like a random change, but it actually serves a greater story purpose: Since she's not popping up to the surface all the time to see Scuttle, Ariel's first trip above water is on the night she saves Eric from the shipwreck.

5. BEST: Ariel and Eric have more scenes together to explore their connection.

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They bond over Eric's collection of stuff and his many maps, and Ariel teaches him what some of his sea artifacts do. The scene where she uses the constellations to tell him her name?? ADORABLE. The original movie saw Eric be amused by Ariel's curiosity, but in this version he encourages it because it matches his own. Soulmates! Romance is not dead!

6. BEST: The reboot really plays up Ariel's curiosity and fascination with humans over her infatuation with Eric.

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This was always the case! She sang "Part of Your World" in the animated movie before ever laying eyes on Eric! But in the reboot, she's slightly less obsessed with Eric based on physical attraction. Cartoon Ariel was very into that statue of Eric.

7. BEST: Ariel's siren song is more explicitly tied to Greek mythology. She doesn't just have a beautiful voice, she has an actual magical power.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

In the cartoon, several characters comment on Ariel's beautiful singing voice as something that is unique to her. She obviously still has a gorgeous voice in the reboot, but this time it's made clear that all mermaids have a siren song they can use to influence the world around them. For instance, Ariel uses her siren song to revive Eric after the shipwreck, and Ursula uses it later to hypnotize him.

You can also hear Ariel's siren song during "Wild Uncharted Waters," which Eric sings while frantically searching for the mystery girl who saved him. The lyrics are super literal — Eric sings "And your voice is like / A siren that guides me to / Wild uncharted waters." This references the Greek myth, which says that sirens could lure sailors to their doom with their irresistible song. If you thought Eric seemed a little stressed, perhaps even frantic while he was running through the hills singing his heart out, that makes a lot of sense: He's quite literally obsessed.

Ultimately, this small change makes Ariel and Eric's story even sweeter because they fall in love without any magical assistance.

8. BEST: Some of the changes in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” make Ursula even more threatening — and they even resolve a plot hole from the original movie.

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In the 1989 version, Ariel signs her name on a literal contract with Ursula, which lets us know she can write and raises the question: Why wouldn't she just write Eric a note to tell him who she was? Well, director Rob Marshall resolved this in the reboot by having Ariel "sign" her contract with a drop of blood and a scale from her tail.

Another small change is that Ursula holds up a bunch of skulls when she sings about those who "couldn't pay the price," implying that she just kills anyone who breaks a deal with her instead of keeping their souls in her garden. There's also a full merperson skeleton at the bottom of her lair. Fun!

9. WORST: Removing the "body language" verse, which wasn't necessary!

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I always thought Ursula was trying to convince Ariel to take the deal, not that she was espousing the values young girls should live by. This is Ursula we're talking about. She was lying and being manipulative! Plus, it's the best verse in the song. Melissa McCarthy was the perfect Ursula, so it's a shame we don't get to hear her sing those lines.

10. BEST: Three of the new songs written by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Wild Uncharted Waters" is sung by Prince Eric as he's obsessively searching for Ariel. It's soulful, angsty, and evocative of "Bet On It" from High School Musical 2. This is the highest compliment I can afford.

"For the First Time" is sung by Ariel during her first day on land, but it's an inner monologue, since she's already lost her voice. It's not just another chance to hear Halle's angelic voice, but also a lovely window into Ariel's excitement and anxiety as she takes her first steps as a human. It starts off perfectly lovely before the climax builds to a quietly devastating conclusion.

Ariel also sings a second reprise of "Part of Your World" after she learns that Eric and Vanessa are engaged. It will make you sad.

11. WORST: "The Scuttlebutt."

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Let's just say that "The Scuttlebutt" has gotten a mixed reception. Some people really like it! But I do not. Lin-Manuel's signature style of musical theater rap just doesn't fit in with the rest of the songs in the movie, and it also seems totally out of place within the plot. We just saw Ursula bewitch Eric, this isn't the time for Scuttle and Sebastian to do their "Hakuna Matata" cosplay! It gets points for the clever wordplay, but the two minutes spent here should have gone somewhere else.

12. BEST: Cutting "Daughters of Triton" and "Les Poissons."

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There is nothing wrong with "Daughters of Triton," but cutting it means that the first song we hear is Ariel's "Part of Your World," which is way more impactful.

As for "Les Poissons," if Disney insists on making the CGI animals in these reboots so realistic, it's probably for the best that the song about how fun it is to kill fish got the axe. 

13. WORST: There was literally almost no screentime for Ariel's sisters.

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Ariel's sisters didn't have a big role in the original movie, but at least they had a song! The reboot teased us with the possibility that the Daughters of Triton would have more screentime when it was announced that they'd have different names and ethnicities from their animated counterparts — Princess Indira is even played by Bridgerton's Simone Ashley. The mersisters in this version are also Triton's emissaries across the ocean and report back to him once a year, which is very cool! It's just a shame that it got so little attention in order to make time for Scuttle rapping.

14. BEST: Vanessa's spell barely works on Eric.

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You might remember that "Vanessa" is Ursula's human alter ego who uses Ariel's voice to bewitch Eric. That's still the case in the reboot — Jessica Alexander nails her scenes as Vanessa, and Halle sings her ~evil siren song~ perfectly. Eric is completely hypnotized by Vanessa in the cartoon, but the spell barely works in the reboot because he's already so in love with Ariel. He spends the whole time he's with Vanessa asking Grimsby where Ariel went because 2023's Eric is a simp.

15. WORST: Ursula sneakily changes the terms of her deal with Ariel to make her forget about kissing Eric.

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When Ursula turns Ariel into a human, she also throws a little bit of amnesia into the spell so Ariel won't remember that she only has three days to kiss Eric. The creative team probably added this so that Ariel wouldn't have any hidden agenda during her interactions with Eric and their connection would be even more organic. And you can see the good intentions there...but it honestly just made things confusing. It's never clear what Ariel does and does not remember from her visit to Ursula, and the movie relies on Sebastian to explain it through clunky dialogue.

Ultimately, this little detail doesn't change anything about Eric and Ariel's relationship anyway, so it feels kinda unnecessary.

16. BEST: Ariel and Eric's "happy ending" isn't just a wedding.

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Yes, after their (super-emotional) reunion after the Ursula battle, Ariel and Eric still get married. But we don't actually see it this time! Instead, the movie skips ahead some time to see Ariel and Eric leaving the kingdom to do what they've always wanted to do: travel the world and learn about other cultures with the blessing of both of their families.

Did you love the live-action remake, do you prefer the OG, or will you join me in rewatching both for all eternity? Comment below!

*whispers* I might actually like the remake even more.

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