The Little Mermaid: Differences Between Disney’s Version And The Original Tale

gamerant.com:

Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a mermaid who wants to become human has been a hot topic of conversation recently. Specifically, Disney's version of the classic story has been a hot topic since footage of Disney's latest live-action remake endeavor with The Little Mermaid was first shown at the D23 Expo. There has been quite a mix of reactions to Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel, ranging from racist backlash to excitement around the representation.

Though there are a lot of complaints about Bailey's casting being a departure from the original 1989 animated version, Disney's animated movie itself took a lot of departures from Andersen's original story. While the bare bones of the tale are the same, Disney changed a lot of the details, and even the whole ending itself, to better fit the personal style of their brand and to tell the story they wanted to tell. Here are the biggest ways that Disney changed the classic fairytale to give fans the animated movie that they know and love today.

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While the protagonist of The Little Mermaid is well-known to most as the fiery redhead Ariel, Hans Christian Andersen's original story never actually names the character, referring to her exclusively as «the little mermaid.» She is also not the only character without a name. Prince Eric, Ursula, and King Triton are also much more vaguely named in the story, known as «the prince», «the sea witch», and «the Sea King» respectively. In fact, none of the characters in Andersen's story have names, and are just given descriptors instead. Clearly, Disney thought it wise to name the characters in order to make them more relatable to the audience and make the film easier to follow.

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