8 Differences Between The Live-Action Little Mermaid And The 1989 Disney Classic

The time has finally come to talk about The Little Mermaid, specifically about the most recent iteration. The 2023 movie shows a story everyone should be familiar with, one about the inquisitive and beautiful young mermaid Ariel, who wants to learn more about the world, including the forbidden human world above the sea. The film is a live-action adaptation of the 1989 animated classic, which itself is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale with a much darker ending.

Overall, the movie follows the plot of the original cartoon, with some minor plot deviations in favor of a more modern agenda, but people have noticed some very interesting differences between the two films.

1. The animals

Nobody expected to see a cartoony, big-lipped Jamaican crab in the live-action, but come on, Hollywood, this is just lazy. Poor Flounder got an even worse treatment. Now he’s just a fish. At least Scuttle the Seagull, voiced by Awkwafina, feels somewhat alive.

2. The prince

In the 1989 film, Prince Eric was so one-dimensional that everyone remembers him for wearing a white puffy shirt. In the new live-action version, Eric’s role has been expanded upon, and now his character is much more similar to Ariel’s, which makes their relationship that much more real.

3. King Triton’s backstory

In the old animated film, King Triton was there to tell the viewers that humans are bad, but we never got to learn why. At least not until the prequel series came out when we found out that his wife, Ariel’s mother, was somehow killed by the surface dwellers, and that’s why he hates them so much. Javier Bardem’s Triton gets all these nuances and then some!