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Ursula is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures ' animated film The Little Mermaid (1989). Voiced by actress Pat Carroll, Ursula is a villainous Cecaelian sea witch who offers a mermaid princess named Ariel a temporary opportunity to become human so that she may earn the love of Prince Eric within three days.
- Overview
- Background
- Appearances
- Live-action appearances
- Printed media
- Video games
- Musical
- Disney Parks
“I admit that in the past I've been a nasty... they weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch.”
―Ursula
Ursula is the main antagonist of Disney's 1989 animated feature film The Little Mermaid. She is a villainous sea witch who strikes deals with poor unfortunate merfolk with the promise of making their dreams come true. Ursula's contracts, however, are covertly designed to advance her own ambitions and cause general misery. In the past, Ursula was a resident of King Triton's palace, before being banished and exiled by order of the king. Scorned, she has since vowed to exact vengeance by harnessing the power of the king's trident and installing herself as ruler of all the ocean.
Ursula is loosely based on the nameless sea witch from the original Hans Christian Andersen tale, while her characterization takes inspiration from the drag queen Divine. Ursula's fervent confidence and theatricality have been met with critical praise, and have influenced villains that followed. She has since featured prominently as a primary member of the Disney Villains line-up.
Ursula belongs to a race of creatures known as Cecaelia, which are half-woman, half-octopus. She states through a monologue that she once lived in the royal palace of King Triton, the king of the underwater city of Atlantica. She boasts that her previous life was lavish and included such spoils as "fantastical feasts." Power-hungry and devilish, even in the past, Ursula garnered a disreputable reputation amongst underwater dwellers. She was widely and infamously known as the "Sea Witch", an alias she accepted in stride.
Ursula's greed and use of dark magic led to her banishment. By orders of the King, Ursula was exiled from Atlantica and made her home in the remains of a leviathan lined with a garden of writhing polyps. These polyps were merfolk who had previously gone to Ursula for help but found themselves unable to fulfill their side of the bargain, leading Ursula to claim them as her own and adding them to her collection. Ursula laments her distaste for her living conditions, despite having maintained all of her powerful black magic. From her secluded lair, she awaits the chance to get her revenge on Triton and become Queen of Atlantica by stealing the king's trident, an extremely powerful weapon that grants its user control over the seas and its spoils. Ursula is aided by her two moray eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, whom she refers to as her "babies".
The Little Mermaid
“Flotsam! Jetsam! I want you to keep an extra close watch on this pretty little daughter of his. She may be the key to Triton's undoing.” ―Ursula When Ursula first appears in the film, she states through a monologue that she once lived in the royal palace of King Triton, the king of the underwater city of Atlantica. She was banished from Atlantica and made her home in the remains of a leviathan, where she waits the chance to get her revenge on Triton and become Queen of Atlantica. She currently resides in a leviathan home lined with a garden of writhing polyps which were merfolk who had previously gone to Ursula for help, but found themselves unable to fulfill their side of the bargain, leading Ursula to claim them as her own and added them to her collection. Though she remains powerful, Ursula laments her distaste for her living conditions, and secretly watches over King Triton's youngest daughter, Ariel, believing her to be "the key to Triton's undoing". With time, Ursula's assumptions are proven correct, as Ariel one day meets and falls in love with a human prince, named Eric, against Triton's explicit rules. Ursula commands her minions, moray eels Flotsam and Jetsam, to lure Ariel to her lair, claiming that only she can help make the princess' dreams of living on the surface, beside her apparent true love, a reality. Little does Ariel realize that this is part of Ursula's scheme to take the kingdom. Through the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula proposes an agreement where she will transform Ariel into a human for three days, during which Ariel must receive the "kiss of true love" from Eric. If Ariel succeeds, her transformation into a human will be permanent, but if she fails, she will turn back into a mermaid and be bound to Ursula for eternity. The price for the transformation is Ariel's voice (which Ursula will keep no matter what happens). Ariel agrees and signs a contract that Ursula has conjured. As Ursula orders Ariel to sing, the sea witch summons magical hands to rip out Ariel's voice, which is then magically pulled into Ursula's Nautilus shell necklace. She then laughs gleefully as her plans begin to unfold: Ariel's tail is split into legs. As she laughs, Ursula allows Sebastian and Flounder to take the human Ariel to the surface. During the time that Ariel is a human and must win a kiss of true love from Eric in order to remain human permanently, Ursula takes every measure to prevent the kiss from occurring, such as when Flotsam and Jetsam tip over the boat in which Ariel and Eric are sitting as the two are close to kissing. Realizing Ariel is doing a much better job earning Eric's love that she thought she could do and thus, will definitely share a kiss before the deadline, Ursula decides to take matters into her own tentacles. With intent to sabotage Ariel's relationship with Eric, so she can continue with her evil plan, Ursula takes the form of a beautiful human female with Ariel's voice. Under the alias "Vanessa", Ursula hypnotizes Eric into forgetting all about Ariel and marrying her. However, Ariel's seagull companion, Scuttle, discovers Ursula's villainy and quickly alerts Ariel and King Triton's court composer, Sebastian, who rushes off to alert the king. Before she can completely misdirect Eric into marrying her, Scuttle and many other animals are able to stall the wedding for the time being and, in the chaos, destroy the Nautilus shell containing Ariel's voice, breaking Eric's trance and returning Ariel's voice to its rightful owner. However, the sun sets before Ariel and Eric can kiss and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula changes back to her true form, grabs Ariel and jumps back into the sea, where she is confronted by King Triton. Ursula reveals her true goal and forces Triton to choose between his freedom and his daughter's. Triton agrees to take Ariel's place, and Triton is transformed into a polyp. Ursula steals his crown and trident. Furious with Ursula's trickery, Ariel attacks the sea witch, who immediately retaliates and threatens to destroy the former with the power of the trident. Before she can, Ursula is attacked with a harpoon by Prince Eric. Flotsam and Jetsam are sent to capture the Prince and successfully do so while dragging him down into the sea before Sebastian and Flounder rush to the prince's aid. Ursula readies a killing shot for Eric, but Ariel grabs hold of her hair, thus redirecting the blast towards Flotsam and Jetsam—killing them. Saddened and enraged by the death of her minions, Ursula seeks vengeance on Ariel and magically alters herself to a massive size. With her new form, Ursula declares herself as ruler of the entire ocean and creates a powerful storm. Eric takes control of a surfaced ship while Ursula's attention is on Ariel. As Ursula wickedly taunts the idea of "true love" and prepares to kill Ariel using the power of the trident, Eric impales the sea witch by plunging his ship's splintered bow through her abdomen. Ursula screams in pain, and the bow catches lightning, brutally electrocuting her body. As Ursula loses her last ounces of life, she drops onto the ship and sinks into the sea as her dismembered body remains fall to the ocean floor. Following Ursula's death, all of her magic spells die out, thus all of the merfolk who were under her power, including Triton, transform back into their true forms. With Ursula and her minions gone for good, her contracts lose their validity, Ariel is restored to her human form, and she and Eric are finally able to kiss for the very first time, marry, and live happily ever after, with no interventions.
The Little Mermaid: The Series
Ursula appears as the main villain of the Little Mermaid prequel television series, (which takes place one year prior to her death in the original film). The episodes she appears in are "Against the Tide", "Tail of Two Crabs", "Heroes", and "Ariel's Treasures". In all of these episodes, she executes various plans to antagonize King Triton and take over Atlantica. Contrary to the film canon where Ariel first meets Ursula during their deal, Ariel is shown to interact with Ursula more, usually foiling her schemes. In "Against the Tide", Ursula has been experiencing failures in her most recent magic spells. She believes it to be the work of an odd sea creature that is said to cause bad luck whenever it's around. Ursula decides to destroy the creature, but Ariel rescues it, as she believes it to be harmless. Eventually, the creature's whereabouts have been located at Triton's palace, and Ursula invades the palace during King Triton's homecoming. She prepares to eliminate the beast by using the stolen magic of the trident, though Sebastian was clever enough to make a makeshift version of the creature, and trick Ursula into destroying it instead. With the beast supposedly gone, Ursula departs. In "Tail of Two Crabs", Ursula takes advantage of Sebastian's jealousy towards his rival Zeus the Crab, by transforming into Sebastian's "Fairy God Crab". She offers him a wish if he can recover a rare artifact holding great power. Sebastian delivers, and Ursula is able to turn King Triton, Flounder, and Ariel into sea worms. Luckily, Zeus is able to subdue Ursula and revert her curse. In "Heroes", Apollo, a legendary hero who once saved Atlantica from Ursula and her army of octopi, returns to Atlantica, just when Ursula decides to revive her old army in an attempt to dominate Atlantica once more. Like the previous battle, however, Apollo prevails with the help of the fire-breathing Sea Dragon. It is also implied in this episode that the reason behind her exile was because she tried to create copies of the Trident, referred to as dark tridents, for the aforementioned army against Atlantica. Lastly in "Ariel's Treasures", Ursula enchants the human items in Ariel's grotto, in an attempt to wreak havoc on Atlantica.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Although Ursula doesn't make a physical appearance in the 2000 direct-to-video sequel, she makes a cameo and is mentioned various times, mostly by her younger sister Morgana, also a Cecelia, but with eight tentacles instead of six. Ursula, herself, can be seen in a picture within Morgana's lair. Interestingly, she serves as the driving force for Morgana's story arc, though not exactly in the sense of revenge. Rather, Morgana feels eliminating Triton and stealing the throne would prove her superiority over her sister, as the former spent most of her life in Ursula's shadow. In the deleted scene, yet fully animated song "Gonna Get My Wish", a younger Ursula makes a brief appearance in the form of a flashback, alongside Morgana and their mother. The scene also gives a visual representation of Ursula's past and relationship with Morgana. In their youth, Ursula wears a purple bow tied to her hair. At the end of the film, after Morgana is imprisoned frozen in an iceberg and forced to sink to the darkest depths of the sea, the framed picture of Ursula makes one last appearance, sinking alongside her.
Once Upon a Time
Two different, yet unrelated versions of Ursula appear in the ABC fantasy drama series.
Descendants 2
Ursula appears in the sequel, only making a cameo, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. She lives in the Isle of the Lost, and has established an eatery called Ursula's Fish and Chips, located on the docks, where she works, alongside her daughter, Uma. She unleashes one of her tentacles on the pirate gang and orders them and Uma to be quiet and tells them that the dishes are not going to wash themselves. She often likes to stay home and watch soap operas.
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Ursula appears in the 2023 live-action remake of the film, where she is portrayed by Melissa McCarthy. In the film, she is Ariel's aunt and Triton's younger sister. Ursula is seen in her lair watching Ariel via crystal ball where she feels humiliated of being banished into her lair for 15 years just as she tasks her eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, to keep a watch over Ariel. After Ariel becomes saddened when King Triton destroyed her treasures in her grotto, Ursula appears via image giving Ariel the opportunity to change her fate just as she follows the eels Flotsam and Jetsam to her lair. Swimming past various polyps, Ariel approaches Ursula in her lair where she gives a deal as she sings the musical number "Poor Unfortunate Souls" to Ariel who wants to become a human. Ursula tells Ariel that she must receive true love's kiss from Eric so that she can remain a human permanently within three days or she will turn back into a mermaid if she fails. Ariel accepts, causing Ariel to give up her voice, her tail, and the ability to breathe underwater, turning Ariel into a human. After Flotsam and Jetsam knock Ariel and Eric off the boat, Ursula became enraged that Ariel did not receive true love's kiss as she plans to transform into a beautiful woman using Ariel's voice so that she can fall in love with Eric, in which Ursula transforms into Vanessa. Later when Scuttle reveals that Vanessa is indeed Ursula when she sees her via mirror in a room, she warns Ariel about this, fearing that she might marry Eric. During the wedding, Vanessa attempts to marry Eric whom she hypnotizes at his castle where a large group of wedding guests are gathered to watch to which Scuttle disrupts the wedding, taking Ursula's shell from her neck and later shattering the shell, causing Ariel to reclaim her voice as well as causing her to transform into a mermaid. After Ariel transforms from her human form to her mermaid form, Vanessa is revealed to be Ursula in disguise as she reveals her true form, causing the wedding guests to retreat from the castle. King Triton later confronts Ursula in the ocean, noticing of what she has done to his daughter as Triton attempts to kill her, but Ursula blocks him, telling him that he already made a deal to which Ursula destroys Triton with his own weapon. As a result of Triton being destroyed, Ursula wears Triton's crown and arms herself with his large trident, transforming into a gigantic sea monster planning to take over the oceans. During the battle when Ursula threatens to kill Ariel, Eric tosses a harpoon to stop Ursula from killing his interest and as Ursula attempts to kill Eric using Triton's trident, Ariel stops her from hitting Eric and instead causes her to kill Flotsam and Jetsam. As Ursula creates a giant whirlpool on the ocean, Eric attempts to fight back, but Ursula attacks him, just as Ariel uses a piece of a destroyed ship and turns the helm to face Ursula. Ariel then steers the ship in front of Ursula, causing the broken part of a mast to impale her, killing Ursula for good. Following Ursula's death, all the merpeople who were turned into polyps were transformed into their normal forms, followed by King Triton who is revived whom he later turns Ariel into a human so she can fall in love with Eric and live happily ever after.
In the first two issues of the official The Little Mermaid comic, Ursula appears briefly to negotiate with a race of eel-men for the carcass of a Leviathan which she would convert into the home seen in the 1989 film. She also briefly appears in a segment of the fourth issue, where she tries to create a new hairstyle to entertain her due to banishment from Atlantica making her lonely on her birthday, but it backfired on her. She doesn't appear in the Marvel Comics serial for The Little Mermaid, although a character similar to her appears known as Pirhaia in the penultimate issue. Ursula frequently appears in Ariel's comics in the Disney Princess magazines, often in a villainous role. In the Disney Press book The Villain Files, it is implied that Ursula is Ariel's aunt, a concept that is based on the abandoned story concept of the 1989 film.
She also appears in the manga series of Kingdom Hearts and Kilala Princess.
Ursula is the final boss of all the Little Mermaid video games which were contemporary with the film's original release, from the versions on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis to the Tiger LCD handheld version. In addition, she has appeared in several multi-franchise Disney video games.
A stage musical version of the 1989 film debuted in Denver for a pre-Broadway tryout, and in January 2008 opened on Broadway. Actress Sherie Rene Scott originated the live role. The role was later played by Heidi Blickenstaff and Faith Prince. The show closed on Broadway Aug.30, 2009.
In this version, Ursula is King Triton's sister. As revealed in the lyrics of Ursula's song "I Want the Good Times Back", (later replaced with "Daddy's Little Angel") when their father died, the pair were given an equal share of the sea plus two magical items. Triton received the trident, while Ursula received the magic Nautilus shell. Though the two were to rule the seas together, Ursula's greed and use of dark magic to usurp Triton led to her being banished. Her need for revenge is her motivation for the show.
Unlike the 1989 film, Ursula is depicted as being large but not obese, and the entire subplot where Ursula transforms into a human has been removed entirely. In the show's finale, Ursula is defeated by Ariel, not Eric, when the mermaid destroys Ursula's magical shell since the climax in which Ursula becomes a gargantuan monster and then impaled by the bow of a ship is too expensive and impractical for a staged show.
Ursula sings new songs in addition to the film's "Poor Unfortunate Souls". These songs are "I Want the Good Times Back", in which Ursula reminisces over her luxurious past, "Her Voice", in which Ursula anticipates the sunset of the third day and a reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in which Ursula 'negotiates' an agreement with Triton for Ariel's soul. Ursula also sings briefly at the end of a new sequence called "The Contest", in which Ariel's voice can be heard as the sun sets, but is then merged with Ursula's own voice.
When the show was heavily revamped for the national tour, Ursula's song "I Want the Good Times Back", was deleted in favor of a new song "Daddy's Little Angel", which gives her a new backstory. In this new history, Ursula was the youngest of seven sisters, who born as a Cecelia, and not a mermaid disgusted her father Poseidon. Out of jealousy she murders her six older sisters, and becomes Queen, only for Triton, who in this new book is the younger brother, comes of age, and deposes and exiles her.
An earlier demo workshop contained different songs written for Ursula that was eventually removed from the production. Ursula's introductory song is "Wasting Away", though it was later replaced by "I Want the Good Times Back". A different reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was written for Ursula just before she transforms into Vanessa, but since the Vanessa subplot was removed, so was the reprise. Another song, "All Good Things Must End" features Ursula gloating on her victory over Ariel, but the song was removed entirely. Emily Skinner performed as Ursula in this workshop.
Disneyland Resort
The Fantasmic! show debuted in 1992 in the California park, only a few years after The Little Mermaid debuted. Ursula appears in the finale, summoning the powers of the sea to destroy Mickey Mouse, though she herself is ultimately beaten. Originally, a twenty-foot Audio-Animatronic Ursula float traveled around her segment in the show on the water, but the air constantly leaked from the blow-up tentacles, and the animatronic as a whole was a maintenance nightmare, so currently, the character is only featured via animation projected onto water screens. In the 2015 rendition of World of Color, Ursula was featured during the brief montage celebrating villains. She also appeared in the 2019 version called Villainous. In 2017, Ursula appeared as a special walk-around character in Disneyland's Frightfully Fun Parade.
Walt Disney World
In Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Ursula appears as an audio-animatronic living the same role as the film. After she strikes her deal with Ariel, the rest of her scenes are showcased on a screen where it shows her transforming into Vanessa, becoming a giant and her death. In Disney's Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic!, Ursula has a much smaller role compared to the original, taking part in the ensemble of villains. At the Magic Kingdom, Ursula serves as one of the Fantasyland villains for the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, where Hades revives her from her death and recruits her to steal a piece of the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom. However, like Maleficent, she plots to double-cross him and take the piece for herself. Once the piece is in her possession, Ursula plots to flood Cinderella Castle and the rest of the Magic Kingdom so that she may dominate the park along with the rest of the seas. Likewise, similarly to her transforming into Vanessa, she also disguises herself as Ariel at one point in an attempt to deceive Merlin and the guests into aiding her in her goal. She returns during the final battle with Hades. In the end, the park guests to defeat Ursula and the other villains by trapping them in the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom. Ursula's magical contract can be seen on the attraction Miss Adventure Falls in Typhoon Lagoon as an Easter egg. While the bottom half of the contract is obscured, it is visible within the archaeological collection of Society of Explorers and Adventurers member Captain Mary Oceaneer aboard her wrecked ship the M.S. Salty IV and has the visible text, "I hereby grant unto Ursula, the witch of the sea-". Also in Mary's possession of note is the Snarflblatt of Ariel's possession from the Little Mermaid. Ursula is a central character in the annual Halloween-themed fireworks show Hallowishes at the Magic Kingdom's Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party "hard ticket" event along with Jafar, Oogie Boogie, and Maleficent. Ursula also appears in the Happily Ever After fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, where she transforms to a monstrous size with the trident at hand during the Adversity sequence. Ultimately, Prince Eric manages to defeat her by throwing a spear at her, in which the Ursula scene loops into the Pride Rock scene. A massive sculpture of Ursula is also one of the features of The Little Mermaid's area of Disney's Art of Animation Resort.
Tokyo Disney Resort
In the Tokyo DisneySea version of Fantasmic!, Ursula's role is similar to that of California's. During the Halloween season, Ursula makes a live appearance on the Mediterranean Harbor's Villain's World show.
Nel musical The Little Mermaid Ursula è (come già accennato) la sorella di re Tritone e quindi zia di Ariel: i due fratelli, come rivelato nel musical con la canzone I Want the Good Times Back (Vorrei tornare ai bei tempi), avevano ricevuto dal padre Poseidone (il dio del mare della mitologia greca) ognuno un oggetto magico (il ...
20 ott 2022 · The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 28th Disney animated feature film, it is...
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Ursula appears as a recurring villain on The Little Mermaid prequel television series. The episodes she appears in are "Against the Tide", "Tail of Two Crabs", "Heroes" and "Ariel's Treasures". In all of these episodes, she executes various plans to antagonize King Triton and take over Atlantica.
4 ott 2023 · Once King Triton sacrificed himself to save Ariel, Ursula snatches his crown and trident, transforming from the sea witch into the ultimate Goddess of the sea.
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2 ago 2022 · A sinister sea witch named Ursula, right, with Ariel, an unsuspecting mermaid, in Disney’s 1989 animated feature “The Little Mermaid.”
