(Sound) To our surprise,
Disney still hasn't sent hired goons over to Cinefix after we did nine things you
didn't know about the Lion King.
So, we're tempting fate again.
It's time to share some lesser known things about the classic film that
ushered in Disney's golden age, and no, we don't mean the boner stuff,
everybody already knows about.
Here are nine things you didn't know about The Little Mermaid, probably.
(Music)
The Little Mermaid is as close to perfect as it gets.
But there were a lot of things that almost were that would have completely changed
the movie from what it is and could have made it less awesome.
For one, Sebastian wasn't even going to be Jamaican originally.
He was supposed to be English but
the late Howard Ashman suggested they make him a Caribbean crustacean instead.
Which of course,
opened the door to doing the Calypso inspired classic Under the sea,
which of course opened the door to winning the freaking Oscar for best original song.
(Music)
>> Another thing that almost was, well Ursula was almost played by Bea Arthur.
Bea Arthur turned down the role.
Though there is some speculation that her agent never even gave her the script and
the agent just turned it town. >> Life's full of tough choices,
isn't it? >> No doubt,
Bea Arthur would have been good but Pat Carroll straight up kills it.
Next thing.
(Music).
>> A lot of people have all ready heard that Aerial was based on
teenaged Alyssa Milano.
But that's only partially true.
Alyssa Milano's face was an inspiration for Ariel's, but
someone else was the body model and basis for her physical movements.
And that someone else was Sherri Stoner, who is a writer for Tiny Toons and
later Animaniac. >> Let's see how a world
that makes such wonderful things. >> Stoner basically did live action
portrayals of scenes from The Little Mermaid which the animators then used as
reference for the film.
They even used her again to model for Belle in Beauty and the Beast, boom!
Bonus thing you didn’t know.
(Sound) Meanwhile, Ursula was modeled after the legendary drag queen, Devine,
specifically Devine in Pink Flamingos and
Hairspray. >> Could you turn that racket down?
I’m trying to iron in here. >> At one point the filmmakers wanted to
give Ursula a mohawk, but the Disney execs weren’t onboard with the mohawk idea and
thought it was too over the top.
Probably because they didn't know that Devine was the reference point.
Though I do have to say, Ursula still has some pretty cool hair.
Yes. >> (Sound) There are debates
over whether Ursula is considered an octopus.
She only had six tentacles which would make it seem that she's two tentacles
short of being an octopus.
But, some argue that her two arms are there in place of a seventh and
eighth tentacle.
Now I'm not the Neil deGrasse Tyson of marine biology or
the Jacques Cousteau of the cosmos for that matter, so I'm staying out of it.
But, what I do know is why Ursula was drawn with only six tentacles.
Because it's cheaper. >> Pathetic.
>> That's right, it is significantly
cheaper to animate only six tentacles rather than eight.
Besides, there was a point where Ursula didn't have any tentacles.
Early concept art depicted her a number of ways before production came up
with the idea of making her an octopus sea-witch thing.
Yeah, these are cool and all,
but octopus sea-witch thing was totally the right way to go.
(Music).
>> His royal highness, King Triton. >> Here's something you almost
definitely didn't know.
Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and
Donald are apparently amphibians, at least according to this Easter egg bearer.
That's Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the audience when King Triton arrives,
breathing underwater without issue apparently.
Moving on.
(Music)
You know how the Little Mermaid is beloved by everyone ever?
Well the movie almost never even existed.
When it was first pitched to the Disney execs, it was rejected.
You want to know why?
Because of Splash with Daryl Hannah.
Disney was working on Splash too,
and they were afraid of doing more than one mermaid project.
And, by the way, this was the second time a Disney animated version of
The Little Mermaid wound up dead in the water.
(Sound) Sorry.
Kine Nilsen had been working on an adaptation of Hans Christian
Andersen's Little Mermaid back in the late 30s and early 40s with Walt Disney.
But the project wound up getting shelved indefinitely.
Luckily this didn't happen again in the 80s.
After his initial rejection,
Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to actually read Ron Clements' treatment for
The Little Mermaid and reversed his decision to reject it the very next day.
They went ahead with the project and decided to make Ariel a redhead
just to help the Distinguish her from Darrell Hannah as much as possible.
Boom, one other bonus thing you didn't know.
And, Kyle Neilson's artwork from 1941 was hugely influential on the animators
working on the little mermaid over 40 years later.
His drawings were often used as storyboards for scenes in the film.
Plus, they credited him in the final film as a visual development artist.
You know, because it's the correct and ethical thing to do.
Boo-ya, triple score bonus thing you didn't know.
(Sound) Even after the Little Mermaid got past
the hurdle of not existing at all, there was still a chance that one of the most
iconic and memorable parts of the movie wasn't even going to be part of the movie.
(Music)
Part of Your World was almost cut out of the film.
After a test screening, Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered the filmmakers to
cut the song because he thought it was too boring and that it slowed down the movie.
Mind you, the screening showed a version with unfinished animation on this part, so
the average Joe couldn't really get the full idea of what the scene would become.
Anyway, the directors, songwriters, and
animators were flabbergasted with Katzenbergs' decision to cut the song.
Just, flabbergasted.
I mean, I'm kind of flabbergasted right now and this happened over 25 years ago.
But, Glenn Kean who animated the sequence managed to persuade Katzenberg to let them
complete the animation on it and then do another test screening.
Needless to say, the second screening went over extremely well and the song was saved
and I totally don't burst into tears at all every single time I watch it.
(Music)
God, God, take it down, take it down, I gotta run.
(Sound) You're already aware that a good amount of the Little Mermaid takes place
under the sea.
(Sound) Ew, ew, sorry, sorry about that.
It won't happen again.
But, what you probably don't know is that the animators almost didn't have any
bubbles for the underwater scenes.
See this is actually the last Disney film to use hand painted cells.
Sure, there's a couple uses of CGI in The Little Mermaid, like those fish, or,
these stairs here.
In fact, The Little Mermaid was the first time Disney collaborated with Pixar,
using the computer program that Pixar had developed.
This shot here was the first time the computer animated production system,
AKA CAPS was used.
Though it became standard process on the Disney projects that followed like
Rescuers Down Under, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast.
Overall though, the computer animation just wasn't where it needed to be yet
to get the look the filmmaker's wanted.
Which means that everything still had to be hand-inked including the thousands or
maybe even millions of bubbles.
So, Disney outsourced the bubble work to China.
But, that turned out to be really bad timing.
The Tiananmen Square protests were going on that time
leaving The Little Mermaid's bubbles trapped in China indefinitely.
The animators weren't sure when or
even if they'd get their bubbles back from overseas.
So, yeah, democracy may not have worked out over in China but
at least Disney got its bubbles before the deadline.
(Sound) Next thing.
(Music)
Hey, I bet you didn't know that Ursula is Triton's sister.
The story point ended up being cut from the final film but the back story is,
Ursula was banished from the kingdom for trying to stage a coup against her
brother. >> She tried to overthrow my father.
>> And they also talk about Ursula and
Triton's troubled past in the original version of Fathoms Below,
which was a lot longer. >> There's a whole world
of mer people under the sea. >> King Triton's their ruler.
>> He's got seven fair daughters.
>> And a witch of a sister named Ursula.
>> Now that you know that
Ursula's reference to living in the palace probably makes a bit more sense.
>> In my day, we had fantastical feasts.
When I lived in the palace. >> You see?
Okay, one more thing.
(Music)
Our last thing today is about the climactic scene of The Little Mermaid.
And no, I still don't mean the boner thing.
I mean the part with Godzilla Ursula.
God-zursula.
Sure, God-zursula.
You'll never guess what inspired this ending.
And it wasn't Godzilla, or even King Kong.
It was my favorite movie ever, Die Hard.
(Sound) >> Yippee-ki-yay, mother (Bleep).
>> In the original ending,
Ariel was going to step in and
save the day by blocking a lightning bolt Ursula was aiming at Prince Eric.
The Katzenburg put in his two cents again and said the ending wasn't big enough.
Die hard was a huge movie at the time and he straight up told the filmmakers
that he wanted the ending to be quote, more diehard.
So they took the note and
came up with the ending we have now which is actually a really great ending.
So, good note, Katzenberg.
All right, hopefully you have now learned nine new things about The Little Mermaid
plus, a few bonus things here and there.
Let us know if you like this episode.
Our self-worth is based entirely on your praises and
be sure to leave a comment if you're going to go watch The Little Mermaid right now.
I sure am.
There's nothing wrong with a grown man watching Little Mermaid alone and
having a good cry.
Thanks for watching and be sure to check out cinefix.com and subscribe for
more true-ish things about movies and sometimes boners, just not right now.
Right here, on Things You Didn't Know.
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