In the 1989 animation,
The plot of "The Little Mermaid," of course, involves Ariel literally losing her voice — but in the five Disney princess movies that followed, the women speak even less.
In the new film, as Ariel gets to know Prince Eric's Caribbean kingdom, she meanders away from his carriage and stumbles into a local market. Ariel can't speak, having given up her voice in exchange for legs in a devious deal made with Ursula, the sea witch played by Melissa McCarthy in the remake.
Ariel gives up her voice repeatedly to become an outside observer of humans from the moment the movie starts; she skips a solo at a concert to poke around a shipwreck. She shows us right away where her values lie and outright tells us about them before she meets Eric.
The character was a tribute to the actress' talents long before her passing. As Ursula, Pat Carroll stole a mermaid's voice, became a stand-in queen of the seas, all the while being such a marvelous menace.
Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and national television, has died. She was 10.
The episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul" contains further flashbacks to Ursula's youth, when she was a teenage mermaid living under the sea with her father King Poseidon (Ernie Hudson).
In the movie The Little Mermaid (Clements & Musker, 1989), Ariel displays symptoms of disposophobia, which is defined as the fear of getting rid of things.
She is known throughout Atlantica for her immense vocal prowess. Her temporary disability of muteness is more noticed by characters later.
Ursula commands Ariel to sing, as she summons up a pair of hands from her magic cauldron, which slowly approaches her as she sings, and her voice pulsates wildly in her throat. The hands then rip Ariel's voice from her throat, still singing, and proceed to place it inside the necklace, silencing it.
It's possible Ursula is not a mermaid in appearance because she and Triton did not have the same mother or father. If they're half siblings, Ursula's tentacles make more sense.
Ariel's fatal flaw is being too curious about the human world, a 16-year old who will disobey her father at all odds to explore the human world. Ariel's curiosity leads her to fall in love with the handsome Prince Eric.
One unexplored theme in the original film is the story of Queen Athena, Ariel's mother. While she is mentioned a few times in the production, it is not entirely clear what happened to her. Truth is, this queen's tragic story was a turning point in Atlantica and influenced the way King Triton raised their daughters.
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Although she's actually a queen, Elsa belts the most out of all the Disney princess and does it much like a pop singer would – with charisma. It gives her an edge over the other ladies. Voiced by Idina Menzel.
Kida (Debut: Atlantis and The Lost Empire, 2001)
A formidable warrior, royal by birth, and possessing a heart of gold, Kida should have been among the top official Disney Princesses. Still, she was not included because the movie did not perform well. Eventually, she was forgotten.
Ariel reaches the palace and manages to stop Prince Eric from marrying Ursula. She breaks Ursula's necklace and gets her voice back.
Ariel, our beloved Disney princess can be diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Pocahontas - Pocahontas
The sad truth is poor Pochaontas is a schizophrenic. Wandering off from her tribe, she spends her days playing out her delusions in the wilderness of rural Virginia and the shock announcement that she is to be married to one of her father's warriors only increased the intensity of them.
Snow White can be classified as having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Princess meets all eight of the criteria listed in the DSM-V to diagnose PTSD (See Appendix A). First, she directly experiences a traumatic event relating to a near death experience (Criterion A1).
What sets Elsa apart from the mass array of Disney princesses is her inner battle with mental illness, anxiety and depression. In Frozen II, Elsa is the only person who can hear a voice but everyone couldn't.
Belle's story is a tense psychological drama, following her struggle with schizophrenia while using her hallucinations as a lens through which we can examine our own ambivalence towards class conflict.
Dory, a happy-go-lucky Regal Blue Tang, suffers from anterograde amnesia, or the inability to form new memories. It was well-established in Finding Nemo that Dory has this condition, which is more commonly known as short-term memory loss.
Ursula's drag roots
Specifically, Divine, the drag alter ego of Harris Glenn Milstead. Rob Minkoff, the original movie's animator, told Vogue that it seemed like a “funny and quirky idea” to “take (Ursula) and treat her more like a drag queen.”
In the live-action adaptation, it was revealed that Ursula is Ariel's aunt and the younger sister of King Triton. The sea witch was exiled from Atlantica for an undisclosed reason.
Ursula is a squid – not an octopus
However, to make the animation process cheaper and faster, her tentacles were reduced from eight to six.