| In the Book |
In the Movie |
|
The Little Mermaid wants to marry a human to gain an immortal soul. Otherwise she will live 300 years and turn to sea foam upon her death. |
Ariel falls in love with Eric when seeing him on the ship for the first time. |
|
The Sea Witch lives in a hut on the bottom of the sea made from the bones of drowned sailors. She merely facilitates the Little Mermaid's fate and is not evil |
Ursula has the form of an octopus and is evil. She actively interferes with Ariel's quest.
|
|
The Little Mermaid is 15 when she first goes to the surface. |
Ariel is 16 in the movie. |
|
The Grandmother explains how a mermaid might gain an immortal soul (through marriage to a human) but tells her that she will be happier in the sea. |
Ursula (the witch) tells Ariel how she can win the prince's heart and marry him.
|
|
The Little Mermaid has long hair adorned with white lilies and eight oysters painfully attached to her tail. She is unclothed. |
Ariel has long red hair and wears shells over her breasts. |
|
The Little Mermaid's garden has red flowers and a weeping willow tree along with a white stone statue of a handsome boy she found in a sunken shipwreck. |
Ariel has a collection of human artifacts she found or was given. Eric's statue was given to her by Flounder after Eric's ship sunk.
|
|
When mermaids turn 15 they are allowed to explore the surface of the sea and inland rivers. |
Ariel against her father's orders goes to the surface to explore and watch human activity. |
|
The Little Mermaid's sisters go to the surface to explore but prefer the sea bottom. Occasionally her five sisters would swim arm in arm to the surface and sing to the sailors they saw. Sailors thought the songs were the wind and feared the sound. |
Ariel's sisters are never shown going to the surface of the ocean.
|
|
The Little Mermaid's sisters show her where the Prince's castle is located so she can continue to watch him after she rescues him from the shipwreck. |
Ariel observes the prince alone after saving him. |
|
The Little Mermaid decides to go to the witch for help obtaining an immortal soul. |
King Triton destroys Ariel's collection of human treasure and the statue after she tells her father she loves the prince. Ariel then goes to Ursula for help in marrying the prince.
|
|
The Witch's home is surrounded by polipi (serpent like animal/plants) which would try to grab onto anything that passes. |
Ursula's place is surrounded by puny shriveled creatures which are mermaids/mermen who failed to fulfill contracts made with the witch. |
|
The witch makes a potion for the Little Mermaid to drink. It will turn her tail into legs. Walking will feel like she is treading painfully upon knife blades and make her feet bleed. |
The transformation of her tail into legs is not painful.
|
|
The Little Mermaid must marry the prince to obtain her soul. If the prince marries another then she will die the next morning and turn to sea foam without an immortal soul. |
Ariel has three days to make the prince fall in love with her and marry or else she will belong to the witch. |
|
The price for the witch's help is the Little Mermaid's voice. The witch cuts off her tongue. |
Ursula captures Ariel's voice in a seashell as payment for her services.
|
|
The Little Mermaid swims to shore after visiting her sisters. She drinks the potion and her tail is painfully split into legs. She wakes up the next morning to find the prince looking at her. She sees that she is naked and covers up with her long hair. |
Ariel drinks the portion underwater, is transformed into a human and brought to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian. On the beach she encounters Scuttle and finds some canvas to cover herself. |
|
The prince takes the Little Mermaid to the castle and dresses her in fine clothes. He enjoys watching her dance and calls her his little foundling. She is dressed in a page's clothes to go horse back riding with the prince. She sleeps on a cushion near her bedroom and is treated like a pet. |
Eric and Ariel go riding in a buggy, Eric becomes infatuated with her but they do not kiss. Ursula's minions, the eels Flotsom and Jetsom actively interfere with her efforts to make the the prince fall in love with her.
|
|
The Little Mermaid's walk was so painful she left red marks from blood where she walked. She soaked her feet in the cold sea in the evening to ease the pain. Her sisters visited her each night and one time she saw her father and grandmother in the distance. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
|
The prince is arranged to meet and possibly marry a girl from a neighboring kingdom. But he loves the girl from the temple believed to have saved him. During the journey the prince says if forced to marry he would rather marry the Little Mermaid (his dumb foundling) than another. |
Eric appears to have fallen in love with Ariel.
|
|
When the prince sees the princess he realizes she is the one who found him on the beach after the Little Mermaid saved him. He falls in love with her and decides to marry her. |
Ursula decides to directly interfere by turning herself into a black haired beauty with Ariel's voice. She hypnotizes the prince; forcing him to marry her that (third) day. |
|
The prince and princess are married and depart on a ship along with a wedding party and the Little Mermaid in attendance. |
The prince and Vanessa (Ursula in diguise) are to be married on a wedding barge but Ariel's friends intervene. Ursula is exposed and the prince's trance is broken, but before Eric can profess his love, the sun sets and Ariel changes back into a mermaid. Ursula resumes her octopus form and takes Ariel to the sea bottom to add her to the collection other mer-people she "raked over the coals".
|
|
The little Mermaid's sisters trade their hair to the witch for a knife. If she murders the prince and allows his blood to wash over her legs prior to sunrise, she will become a mermaid again and return to the sea to live her 300 years. |
King Triton tried to intervene but Ursula's contract with Ariel prevents it. Triton exchanges his life for Ariels. Eric dives into the water and throw a harpoon at Ursula, wounding her. She grows in size, creates a whirlpool which raises wrecks from the sea bottom and threatens to drown Eric. |
|
The Little Mermaid is unable to murder the prince and instead throws the knife into the sea. She jumps into the water and dies; dissolving into foam. She becomes one of the daughters of the air with the potential to gain a soul. |
Eric steers one of the resurected wrecks into Ursula's heart, killing her. Everyone in her clutches is restored including King Triton. Triton restores Ariels legs and she is reunited with Eric who she marries. Eric bows to King Triton and everyone is happy ever after.
|