Ursula's Tentacles Are Bioluminescent, And 21 Other Easter Eggs You Might've Missed In "The Little Mermaid"

    "It's like almost passing the torch you know it's quite lovely."

    Sam Cleal
    by Sam Cleal

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Warning, do not read this if you haven't seen the new The Little Mermaid.

    1. The Disney intro is "Little Mermaid-ified".

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    At the beginning of the movie, the Disney castle intro features "Part Of Your World" instead of the usual refrain from "When You Wish Upon a Star". The castle also transforms from the typical Disney castle into Eric's castle!

    2. Ariel has locs in the movie because that's how Halle likes to wear her hair.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images for Gucci

    Halle has opened up in several interviews about the decision to make Ariel's hair red, but keep her natural locs for the role. "It was super important for me to have my natural hair in this film", she told Ebony magazine. "I've had my locs since I was 5, so they're a huge part of who I am. We need to be able to see ourselves." In order to achieve Ariel's final look, Halle had her natural roots dyed red and wrapped her locs in the same colour you see on screen.

    3. Near the beginning of the movie, Ariel uses a large mirror to ensnare a shark and swim away from it.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

    This not only shows Ariel to be brave, but also clever and resourceful – we see this later in the film when she takes on Ursula!

    4. Flounder is not actually a flounder (and he's not a guppy either).

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Getty Images

    His name may be Flounder, but that's where the similarities between our fave Disney sidekick and the real-life flatfish species end. Flounder is, in fact, more likely a sergeant major – they look alike and they're also found in the same area of the world in which the movie takes place. In case you're wondering, he wasn't really a flounder in the animated version either.

    5. And Scuttle is no longer a seagull – she's a gannet now.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    Director Rob Marshall told Indie Wire that the reason for the change was simple – he didn't want Ariel to go above the surface until the moment she does. "She's never broken that rule, [so that helps] raise the stakes for that moment when she finally does it. If she's up and down, up and down, it's not a big deal."

    That meant, however, that Scuttle had to come ~under~ the water. It was decided that the character would become a diving bird, and Ariel would communicate with her underwater. "We looked at different ones", Rob continued, "[the Northern gannet] just seemed so fun and wonderful and it just fit Awkwafina more... They stay underwater for many, many minutes and then go back up."

    Why is she a female though? Well, I guess because it doesn't really matter and because Awkwafina is a woman!

    6. The fish tails of the king's daughters represent different fish from across the world.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Getty Images

    You may have noticed that Ariel's sisters all look and sound quite different to each other, and this is because they all represent different (fictional) oceans across the world. What you might not have spotted, however, is that each of their tails is a tribute to a different tropical fish!

    As costume designer Colleen Atwood explained to Vogue, "I tried to take all the different fishes and make them a part of the ocean world. The designs on real fish—you can't get much better than that and they were so beautiful."

    According to The Little Mermaid: Guide to Merfolk, the bimaculatus anthias, emperor angelfish, altum angelfish, red texas cichlid, mandarin dragonet, and potter's leopard wrasse are the specific inspirations for the sisters' tails.

    7. King Triton's crown is made from shark teeth.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    The costume department were eager to make sure that everything the merpeople wore came from the sea, but they admittedly struggled when it came to King Triton's crown.

    "[We were] trying to figure out how to make his crown look like a crown but not like it was a crown from above the sea", Colleen told Vogue. "I saw these really giant shark teeth in a magazine, and I was like 'Oh my god, we should make his crown out of shark teeth.'" The costume team sculpted fake shark teeth and made a base out of seaweed, which was then plated with gold.

    8. When she first sees Eric, Ariel hides in a lifeboat, which is a wayyyy more practical hiding place than in the 1989 version.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    As pointed out by Screenrant, Ariel spies Eric from a simple wooden platform in the 1989 movie, which is not really a great place to hide. A lifeboat, however, gives you walls or even a tarp to hide under, and it also cradles you and keeps her safe. The same lifeboat is then used by the sailors and Max when the ship starts to sink.

    9. Ariel falls for Eric's sense of adventure, rather than just his looks.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    In the animated film, it's pretty clear that Ariel is in love with Eric for the moment she sees him. Indeed, she professes so in the iconic "daddy, I love him" line without two words having been exchanged between them! However, in this version, instead of swooning as soon as she claps eyes on him, Ariel seems to connect with Eric's longing for adventure... That is what intrigues her!

    10. This film makes it clear that Ursula used to live in the palace and that she is Triton's sister.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    We don't get many more clues as to what happened between them, except for Ariel saying "you like to stir up trouble between humans and merfolk" when Ursula asks what her brother has been saying about her. I think that just means we NEED a Maleficent-style origin story for Ursula like YESTERDAY.

    11. Ariel is grabbed by a starfish with eyes instead of by shrunken merpeople.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

    Remember the shrunken merfolk that appear in the 1989 version of the film? Well, they are no more! Instead, as Ariel swims into Ursula's lair, she's grabbed by sea creatures with eyes. This more closely resembles what happens in the 1837 fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

    As the little mermaid swims towards the sea witch's home, she sees some "polyps", which Hans defines as half plant, half human creatures that reach for and capture anything they can get their hands on. There are also bones and skeletons along the way – the remains of seamen and merfolk who the polyps "had caught and strangled" in their grip. These appear in the live-action movie as well.

    12. Ursula's tentacles are bioluminescent.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    As explained by Colleen, "the glow-in-the-dark tentacles were great because of her dark environment. It was a really good artifice to have those lights around her and she's sort of a show girl at heart right?" Show girl indeed, but there's actually more to bioluminescence than that.

    The adaptation is often seen in deep-sea predators like anglerfish, who use it to lure in prey. This tracks when you consider that Ursula IS the villain of the piece. It's also present in organisms that live in ocean depths that light cannot reach, which is why Ariel has to swim down to get to Ursula's lair.

    13. The island that Eric and his family live on is probably Jamaica.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    There are several clues that allude to this. We know that the story is set in the Caribbean somewhere due to the nearby places Eric lists in the map room scene, the steel drums that are played in the market scene, and – of course – Sebastian's accent. Of the many islands in the Caribbean, we can narrow it down to either Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or Saint Lucia due to the fact that Eric mentions "rainforest" on the island.

    Earlier on in the film, Eric spots a Spanish Galleon and tells his crew. This means his people wouldn't be under Spanish colonial rule, which makes Jamaica the most likely candidate for the island that he lives on. This also tracks because Jamaica had been colonised by the British by the mid-17th century, and we hear many an English accent in the film.

    14. The "Les Poissons" song is missing, and for very good reason.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

    Since the movie is a realistic live-action re-envisioning of an animated classic, Rob felt the "Les Poissons" sequence had to go. The director told The Hollywood Reporter, "it's literally a Saturday morning cartoon section. If we had filmed it — I don't know how we would've filmed it — it never would have played. It's also a vacation from the story and has nothing to do with the story".

    15. Eric has a grotto just like Ariel's.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    As we all know, Ariel has a trove of "treasures untold" that she hides from her family under the ocean. In the live-action, we also see that Eric has one too – his map room. It even has a sky light (kinda) like Ariel's does! Both characters are shown to be collectors with inquisitive spirits, which adds to the similarities between them and seems to deepen the connection they feel towards each other.

    16. The spyglass that falls into the ocean at the beginning has more significance than you might think.

    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    At the beginning of the movie, Grimsby drops a telescope into the ocean, which Ariel promptly adds to her grotto of treasures. Later on, when she's a human, Ariel uses a telescope in Eric's map room, one which he uses for stargazing. The motif of astronomy and stars continues and becomes complete when – just before the "Kiss The Girl" sequence – Ariel uses the constellation Aries to help Eric guess her name!

    17. Jodi Benson (OG Ariel) makes a cameo on land as a market seller!

    So glad that people in my audience knew that this was Jodi Benson (aka the voice of the OG animated Ariel)#TheLittleMermaid #Ariel#PartofYourWorld pic.twitter.com/rKG5bv6CkD

    — Christian E. (@cjr3birth) May 28, 2023
    Twitter: @cjr3birth
    Probably the most brilliant easter egg in the whole film is when Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel in the 1989 film) appears to hand Ariel a fork (or dinglehopper) at a market. Of the cameo, Rob Marshall told Yahoo UK that he was keen to have Jodi in the film as she is an old friend.

    "I have known her for a long time and she's just very special", he said. "She embraced the casting of Ariel with Halle immediately, which is very moving to me too, you know, because it's hers... It's funny she passes the fork… it [had] actually already had been written but we were looking for a place for Jodi… it's like almost passing the torch you know it's quite lovely."

    18. It's Ariel who steers the ship that kills Ursula, not Eric.

    Giles Keyte/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    This switch to the original narrative does make more sense, since it's Ariel who unleashed and inadvertently empowered Ursula. Of updating the storyline to highlight Ariel's agency as a character, Halle has said, "as women we are amazing, we are independent, we are modern, we are everything and above... And I'm glad that Disney is updating some of those themes."

    19. Ariel's final dress is a homage to her white wedding dress and the pink dress she wears in the castle.

    Backgrid/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

    The dress Ariel wears after her wedding to Eric pays tribute to two dresses that appear in the animated version. Colleen has said she loosely modelled the dress after the fashion of the 1830s, and made it out of pineapple cloth to give the illusion of it almost being "underwater", in that light could pass through it.

    20. Some lyrics have been changed, including in "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and "Kiss the Girl".

    genius.com

    There have been some necessary – and honestly hard-to-spot – amendments to some of the songs in The Little Mermaid. For example, one change removes the lyrics that suggest Eric should kiss Ariel without her consent from the original version of "Kiss the Girl". The new version, instead, suggests Eric "ask her".

    Composer Alan Menken explained some of the changes to Vanity Fair, commenting that people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that [Prince Eric] would, in any way, force himself on [Ariel]."

    21. Lin-Manuel Miranda has collaborated with Daveed Diggs before.

    Amy Sussman/Theo Wargo / WireImage / Via Getty Images

    Daveed Diggs – who voices Sebastian – is probably best known for originating the dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the musical Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who produced this movie and co-wrote the new songs alongside Alan Menken. In fact, Daveed appears prominently in the songs "Kiss the Girl" and "The Scuttlebutt", which are Lin-Manuel's creations.

    22. And finally, there are A LOT of frames in this movie that echo some of more iconic shots from the 1989 animated version.

    Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    From the hair flip out of the water, to the hand reaching up to the surface, I think I speak for many of us when I say how fun it was spotting these moments!

    Was there anything you noticed in The Little Mermaid that wasn't on this list? Let us know in the comments below!