Power of The Princesses: Ariel (with DisneyOtoko)

Moviefan12:   Hello & welcome back to Power of the Princesses.  And today, we jump 30 years from our last princesses as we leave 1959 to go to 1989  as DisneyOtoko joins me as we go under the sea to look at Ariel.



DO: Thanks for having me! I've been waiting for this. As many of you know Ariel is not just my favorite princess, but is one of my favorite characters of all time and I do honestly believe Ariel is the greatest Disney Princess of all time!


Original Voice Actress



Jodi Benson


Moviefan12:  Before Jodi Benson took on the role of Ariel,  she was best known as a stage actress. And that in part is why, she was chosen because the filmmakers felt it was vital that Ariel's  voice actress, also be able to do her singing.  And wow, does Jodi ever hit it out of the park with her singing.   Jodi has remained the voice of Ariel to this very day and she has even voiced other Disney characters.  Perhaps, the other role of hers that stands out the most to me and easily, the most drastically different from her most iconic role is that of Barbie in Toy Story 3. 




And as we saw last time with Mary Costa,  these ladies tend to grow to care about these characters as they become a part of them.   As I brought up previously,  Jodi Benson during the production of  The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning had to fight to keep  Ariel's rebellious nature as the producers wanted to make the little mermaid more contemporary.  Thankfully,  they listened to Jodi in the end and Ariel got to keep what is perhaps one of the most vital parts of her personality. Taking away, Ariel's rebelliousness would change the character.

DO: Yes Jodi Benson is fantastic every time. I'm not sure I would agree with the whole rebellious thing though. Yes she's rebellious, but NEVER for the SAKE of being rebellious. If Ariel disobeyed Triton there was always a pretty good reason. A rule was unreasonable and stupid or in the case of Ariel's Beginning he was being an asshole forcing every citizen of Atlantica to wallow in HIS grief. Anyway Mrs. Benson brings an unmatched energy and personality to the Princesses and even later ones would try to imitate her, but never quite succeed.




First Appearance



Moviefan12: Ariel  made her debut in the 1989 film,  The Little Mermaid,  a film that was important to the history of Disney as it kicked off what we know as the Disney Renaissance, which was made up of hit movie after hit movie.  In film, we first see Ariel  exploring a ship graveyard. And this scene really sells what kind of character she is, it shows us both her adventurous side and her curiosity.




Personality

Moviefan12:  The best way to sum up Ariel's personality is with this one word: teenager.   Seriously,  she is spunky, rebellious,  and quick and impulsive.  She doesn't always think before she acts but having said that,  I can't help but  love her.  This is a HUGE bias as she was one of my first two princesses and until Rapunzel came along, Ariel was my favorite princess character because she felt like the most realistic princess character because of everything I just mentioned.  Granted,  she's  now at second place on my list but she's still a great character that I feel a lot of people give her flack because her "I Want" according to her detractors is wanting to be with Prince Eric  and that is partially true but   that is just one small scope of it, as what she truly wanted to be a part of our world and her fandom of our world was around before  her crush on Eric.  Ariel: the original fan girl.

 




DO: Again I'm not sure I agree with such a base word like "teenager" being used to describe her despite the fact that she is a teenager. She's all of those things you listed, but I have to ask. Are those bad qualities? Obviously they can be, but that goes for any trait. These qualities are the key to making her interesting to varying degrees (keeping in mind what I said about rebelliousness earlier). These are far more relatable and lively qualities that her predecessors and even some of her successors only dreamed of. Still there's a lot more to her than spunky and impulsive. She's kind, caring, a quick thinker, master aquabat, sesoned adventurer, borderline fearless, responds well under pressure, and I could go on and on. I could probably spend two hours talking about Ariel's personality and abilities alone. Most importantly though she is adventurous, over confident and impulsive. These are traits that I think are far more character defining than rebelliousness. You get more interesting scenarios with these traits as well as a better opportunity to have Ariel learn from these shortcomings. 

If you want to royally (ha ha royal get it?) PISS ME OFF just take the feminist view of Ariel's character. OH GOD DOES THIS INFURIATE ME! The biggest reason why is because it's simply NOT true and it utterly fails to account for the character's legacy and personality. You take one aspect one TINY aspect of her motivation in the film and it's blown up so that she's labeled as a man chasing bimbo! But as Moviefan pointed out Ariel's real motivation and dream is to be a part of the human world.

She has a strong desire to learn. She wants to know anything and everything about humanity. She's an amateur anthropologist. She also wants to know everything about her own world not every adventure she goes on is to find a human object, but to learn more about the ocean and search for precious items (non human made). Also by wanting to be a part of the human world she wants to show Triton that humans aren't too different from merpeople and also wants to bring the worlds together. In other words Ariel is the first Disney Princess to promote multiculturalism and diversity! This is further supported by the cheesy and sappy songs on the Songs From the Sea album I reviewed eons ago. Also not to mention the animated series where she does practically everything except battle Nazis. She thwarts the militaristic Sharkanian Empire multiple times through quick thinking and improvisation. Also she explores the flooded catacombs of a mad scientist's lab and evades monsters and eventually blows up the facility! Even on a smaller scale she goes above and beyond and takes great risks to help her friends (becoming a sea witch to help Sebastian) and when a mistake is made starts to seek a solution immediately. Most importantly though Ariel is searching for a broader understanding and a place in the world she lives in and to have a blast while doing it.




Moviefan12:  In my defense,  I never said those were bad traits and in the hands of a less skilled team, she would not be such an interesting character as she is.  



Favorite Moment


Moviefan12: DisneyOtoko,  I do apologize if I'm stealing your favorite moment but to me, it had to go to ...

Part of Your World   &  Reprise



As you may have noticed with the Snow White and Cinderella entries,  I tend to go for musical moments.  And this to me is perhaps the most iconic moment from the film as it lets in on who Ariel is and what she wants and it shows that as DisneyOtoko pointed out, she is interested in learning all that she can.  And Jodi Benson easily has one of the most beautiful singing voices for any of the princesses.  And of course, the reprise,  has this iconic shot.

 

This image is the first image that comes to mind, whenever I think of Ariel.  It's just that iconic.  And this is such a great and beautiful moment both the song and the reprise as you really get to know Ariel and what she wants in her life. And it is just delivered beautifully.







DO: Yeah you did steal mine. Well if that's how it is I'll pick 3 amazing moments.

One is taking in Lucky from the animated series episode "Against the Tide" where Ariel takes in an injured helpless creature even though the creature has been completely ostracized by Atlantican society because she brings Bad Luck. She sees an innocent creature in need of help and she'll help in any way she can and doesn't give a damn what anyone else says.



Another one is escaping Dr. Vile's deathtrap. When Ariel and Flounder are trapped in the catacombs of Dr. Vile's underwater laboratory he does it to catch prey for his crab monster lurking in the shadows and to top it off dangerous pollution is heading right for Ariel and Flounder. This shows Ariel's unbelievable quick thinking and adventuring skills at their finest. Unfortunately there's nothing on the internet right now to illustrate this. 
And the last one is simply her being a party member in Kingdom Hearts.To fight alongside Ariel was and is an amazing thing and in a lot of respects was a dream come true! 

Later Appearances


Moviefan12:   Now as always, there are a lot of later appearances to cover and I've decided that from here on out, if a princess has appeared on Once Upon A Time, that' will be it's own separate category.  With that out of the way, let's begin.


In 1990,  Jim Henson proposed a  live action puppet show that never got picked up as both Jim felt uneasy about the show and that it could've been better and sadly,  he passed away two months after the filming of the unaired pilot.   I go into greater detail here in this article about the show and what could've been.

Now  I am curious as to what could've been with this show.   Now  in 1992 - 1994,  Ariel did get a TV  series that served as a prequel series set one year before the events of the film and like a lot  of Disney cartoons from back in the day, it was really good.  It did a great job of expanding upon the world of Atlantica and introducing new villains and characters such as Urchin into the Mermaid lore and making the adjustment feel natural.

Now,  I'll let DisneyOtoko  cover this show as he knows much more about it than I do.    Take it away.



DO: The Little Mermaid the Animated Series is one of my favorite shows of all time. When I finally got my hands on all of the episodes there was a fear of nostalgia blinding me to what I was getting and that viewing as an adult would ruin the experience because it aged horribly, but actually I think it's better as an adult! I got a lot more of the plot points I got more of the jokes and had an appreciation of many things in the show's creation. As Moviefan said the biggest contributing factor was that it turned Atlantica not just into a setting for a film, but made it a legitimate universe with Ariel doing what she does best going on adventures with a great diversity in environments. Also giving Ariel her very own rogues gallery with the Lobster Mobster, The militaristic Sharkanian Empire, pirates, Crab Louie, The Octopans and the Evil Manta and of course Ursula. Adventure wasn't the only type of story though there were some more down to earth character driven stories such as an  episode discussing Sebastian's inferiority complex as well the more "cute" episodes where Ariel takes in a wild animal in need as a pet. The Killer Whale episode being the main one. 

I find it really shocking how this show doesn't really conform to the gender stereotyping. This isn't a girly show nor is it really a guy show either. It has everything action, adventure, comedy, and good well written character driven stories and there aren't that many character driven animated shows especially at that time the only ones I can think of were Batman TAS and Gargoyles. This is a milestone that the other princesses really can't say they have achieved. True Jasmine was in the Aladdin TAS, but Jasmine has to compete with Aladdin and Genie and the other characters of Aladdin and there's a lot. Mermaid has a much tighter cast with Ariel being the lead and if she's not the lead then Sebastian is or it's a true ensemble approach. The cast would consist of Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder and occasionally Urchin or King Triton and maybe one of Ariel's sisters although that was rare.

Despite the fact that this show has constantly been in syndication since the first airing over 20 years ago this is very much ignored in the grand scope of Ariel's legacy and by not including this show you get the very ignorant feminist view of Ariel's character and this major character development and world development go  completely ignored. Come on! Release it on DVD already!



Moviefan12:  If I may interject, two episodes that stand out to me, are the first appearance of The Evil Manta(voiced by villain extraordinaire, Tim Curry) in how  the merfolk and fish show that they will not succumb to the hatred that Manta is spreading and Red in which Triton is turned into a little boy and Ariel has to take care of him and she learns how hard it is to take care of rambunctious young child that doesn't listen.

Also in 1992,   a Little  Mermaid attraction was added to Disney's MGM Studios.  The Voyage of The Little Mermaid,  it's just a watered-down (heh, watered-down, get it)  version of the film that lacks the magic of the film.  I've covered this in greater detail during my Top 6 Biggest Issues with Voyage of The Little Mermaid during  the A Look at Disney World event.    

Now  there is one other attraction that was planned for Disneyland Paris and The Magic Kingdom in the mid '90s but it was not built and it was also planned to be included in Hong Kong Disneyland.    However, a computer generated simulated version of what would've been the attraction was included on the Platinum DVD release of The Little Mermaid and it can also be found with the Classic Bonus Features on the Diamond Edition.  And thankfully, there is a video of it on YouTube.   It's a shame that this ride never got... Oh wait, it did get built.   Yes, that's right,   this ride did to see the light of day.  At both Disney California Adventure as  The Little Mermaid:  Ariel's  Undersea Adventure and at Magic Kingdom as Under The Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid as a part of the New Fantsayland expansion.  Now sadly,  last time,  I went to Disney World,  it was a month away from opening,  so I have not been on it yet  but  I WANT  TO GO ON IT,  SO BADLY!   This was one of my most anticipated rides coming to Disney World through the expansion.   It  may just be a simple dark ride but oh,  it looks so cool.   

And  I love at how at Magic Kingdom, the facade is  Eric's castle.  Oh,  why does  my next trip to Disney  World have to be three years away?   Forget the  Seven Dwarfs Mine Train,  this is my # 1 new ride that I want to go on.

I'm sorry to geek out here but this just looks SO COOL! I CANNOT WAIT TO GO ON THIS RIDE AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN.   This has a good chance of landing on my Top 6 Attractions,   from how good it looks, but what would come off the list then. I've still got three years until I experience it. 




 DO: Yeah when I went to Disneyland 2 years ago I went on that thing many times throughout my vacation it was awesome!



Now,  just like most of the princesses,  Ariel  can be found at the parks and  you get your picture taken with both mermaid and human Ariel,  though mermaid Ariel does seem more popular.

At  Disneyland,  Ariel  can be found  at Ariel's Grotto.  

Ariel  also makes an appearance  in Mickey's PhillarMagic and Peter Pan's Flight and  It's  A Small World at Disneyland  and Hong Kong Disneyland

Okay,  I'm  just stalling here to avoid these two.  Yeah,  Ariel  sadly fell victim to Disney's cheapquel-itis.  Not once but twice with  The Little Mermaid II:  Rewind The First Movie  Return To The Sea and The Little Mermaid:  Ariel's Beginning.

 My reason for stalling wasn't because I dislike these films but because I don't really hate the second one.  Return To The Sea isn't that good and it has terrible characters like Tip and Dash and Morgana but I do like Melody.  She's not a great or even good character but Tara Strong  does a good job of making her likable and  I feel like they captured the idea of what Ariel's daughter would be like, pretty well.

 And I'll admit that I have a soft spot for the song, "For A Moment",  I think it's one of the better DTV songs.  Though listening to it again,  I keep hearing Twilight Sparkle,  and Bubbles, when Tara Strong sings her part.  Again,  is this a good film.  No, but this one of the few DTV's,  I can't bring myself to hate.  

And this is the only time,  I like Ariel in the film because while I get the idea of her filling the role that her dad  was in the first film,  it just didn't feel like Ariel at all and that does bug me a bit but not to the point, where I want to bash this film.  I may break my own  No DTV  reviews rule to express why I like this film in the future because I don't think it's that bad.  I know it's probably nostalgia talking but I don't hate it.

Yeah,  Ariel does bug me in this and I imagine DisneyOtoko disagrees with me on this film but I think it's one of the least-bad cheapquels.   Now  as for Ariel's Beginning,  I've only seen it twice, once on YouTube after it came out and last month during a re-airing of it on Disney Junior.  So,  I don't really remember too much of it but from what I saw, it wasn't bad.





DO: I make of fun of Return to the Sea all the time. I don't hate it hate it I just don't like the execution. This is an example of completely FAILED execution. Now I actually disagree on Ariel's portrayal. As I said before I don't mind Ariel growing up in fact I encourage it because that is how character development works. What's the point in having Ariel's dream come true in the original movie if she would just act the same exact way she did as a 16 year old let alone raise a child? So I don't mind Ariel's portrayal, but the execution is horrible! The film needs to discuss Ariel's transformation into acting like her father for the better and for the worse and how she can learn from her father's mistakes as well as her own. But that's too original we need retread the first movie almost exactly! 

Also I like Ariel's Beginning! Horrible Origin Story, but a solid entertaining film! 




 Moviefan12:  And I think that is my biggest issue with II,  it wanted us to side with Melody, the same way we did with her mother in the original film,  and we do know why Ariel doesn't want Melody to go into the ocean but I feel that they push it too far to the point of putting Ariel in a negative light.  Now like most of the princesses, Ariel made appearances on House of Mouse. 

 As for how Ariel can be both a mermaid and human on land,  don't question it.  The show never explained it, so don't question it.  And I just found out that Rapunzel  is a fan of Ariel. Yep, Ariel makes a cameo appearance in Tangled on one of the books in Rapunzel's tower.  Cool! And  one of the more notable appearances of  late was when Ariel appeared in "The Floating Palace", a special episode of Sofia The First in which she helped Sofia through song realize to not give up. Now I will question why Ariel was a mermaid  in this appearance.  Well okay,  I get why because it was story dealing with mermaids but going by what Cinderella said in Once Upon A Princess, the show seemed to have set it's timeline after the events of the movies.  So, that doesn't get a pass from me. Still, a good song though and here it is, The Love We Share.

And  I was thrilled that  Jodi came back to voice Ariel in this special.  She's still got it.  There's a reason, she has one of the best princess voices.  She IS Ariel.   No, if's, and's , or but's about it.  Also this is kinda cute but Sofia's VA is named Ariel.  Now  I've gushed about this show a dozen times in the past as it's a great show.  One of the best on Disney Channel and unlike another certain series that uses classic character shall not be mentioned, Sofia most of time, treats the ladies with respect and grace.  I  say most of the time because well, you'll find out why, when I talk about Belle's appearance.  








THE LITTLE MERMAID COMICS

DO:Yes folks there were some Little Mermaid comics! Some were done by Marvel and even had Marvel writers like Peter David write some of the stories. Unfortunately they were always limited series! In a way these comics could sort of be an unaired season of the Animated Series and continue the adventures of Ariel and her friends and to be honest I really wish these had been made into episodes! They expand the lore even more! More Kingdoms more villains and even more perilous scenarios for Ariel to overcome! And even some of Ariel's earlier and possibly failed romances!   

Also look at some of these covers and don't you just want to spend 500 bucks on Amazon or Ebay just to read them? I certainly feel that way!

I could go on and on folks, but you get the idea! Ariel's legacy and awesome levels keep growing and growing!




Moviefan12:  Yeah,  I didn't even know about these and my  first reaction...

 And this particular cover reminds me of a book from my childhood.

Ariel's Christmas Under The Sea, which I reviewed a few years back and it was about  Ariel discovering Christmas, a human holiday and bringing it to the sea.   Someone has uploaded a recording to YouTube, if you want to look for that.

And  just as DisneyOtoko said that these comics felt like an unaired season,  that book to me felt like it could've been the show's Christmas episode.


Now, the next thing, I wish to bring up is a meme. A couple years back,  Ariel became the subject of a meme, Hipster Ariel.  

I only became aware of it, this year.  And Disney is aware of it, so much to  the point that  the Funko Pop  line of Disney characters  are selling Hipster Ariel figurines.  And  they are also trying the same thing with other princesses such as there is a Hipster Belle.  

DO: Ah yes I love the Hipster Ariel meme.  



Moviefan12:  The Little Mermaid was also adapted into a Broadway musical and responses were mixed.  It closed before I ever got the chance to see it but some critics weren't fans of it but it didn't get too many bad reviews.  It featured Sierra Boggess in the role of Ariel, when the curtain first went up and it did incorporate some elements form the original draft of the film such as making Triton and Ursula, brother and sister.   And I do enjoy the song,  "If Only (Quartet)" as it a rather enjoyable listen. This  song reminds me of the deleted song, One Dance in how Ariel's  part of the song is actually being sung in her head.  I am curious in seeing it but that's more because  one of the things on my bucket list is to see every Disney play.

And  I do apologize if this comes across as shallow but I think Sierra Boggess is a very pretty Ariel.   Now  Ariel  can also be  found on the Disney Cruise line for meet & greets and also on the Disney Wonder as the main statue that serves as the focal point.   

Ariel on Once Upon A Time

 Moviefan12:  Ah now, we come to one of my areas of nerdy expertise,  Once Upon A Time.  Now,  out of all the characters that the Once fandom wanted on the show,  we'd been clamoring for Ariel since season 1 or well season 2 in my case as they dropped a lot of mermaid hints throughout the show and we waited and waited and waited.  Thinking that we may never get to see our little mermaid but then it happened.   We found that she was going to be a part of our world.  We were first greeted with the announcement of Ariel coming to the show at Comic Con and a trailer for season 3 specifically focusing on Ariel was released from Comic Con,  it featured Ariel swimming to Storybrooke and stealing Grumpy's fork,  dinglehopper  (I had to use that)   as Grumpy goes to the pier to have lunch.

 And let me just say that the Ariel trailer worked  on me as I posted in to Facebook within minutes after I saw it.   I was pumped for Ariel's arrival.   Every Once fan I knew was talking about Ariel  coming and in my two years of being a Once fan, I had not witnessed anticipation as big as there was for Ariel's arrival.  This just goes to show how many love Ariel and that we greatly awaited our little mermaid making her splash into the world of Once.   And let me just say I loved the little nods in that trailer such as Ariel taking the fork and leaving a blue dress behind.   So yeah,  you  can kinda see that Ariel coming to Once Upon A Time is probably best summed this way.

 Seriously,  all of the Once fans went nuts over Ariel coming to the show.   Now how was Ariel, when she made her debut.  Honestly, she had one of the best episodes of season 3. Ariel  made her debut in her titular episode as we see her in The Enchanted Forest saving Snow White from The Evil Queen's guards  and from drowning and we learn from Snow White that mermaids once a year are granted 12 hours on land during high tides.   Now, here is what Ariel looks like in Once as played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher. (Best known for her role of Cheynne on Reba). 

 We learn that one year prior, Ariel saved Prince Eric and she has been harboring love for Eric ever since.  Snow suggests that she let him know how she truly feels.  Ariel is fearful of doing this because she fears that Eric will reject because of her being a mermaid.  However, Ariel convinces Ariel  to go Eric's  ball because she knows what love at first sight looks like and that night, Ariel and Eric share a dance and Eric says in the morning that he is leaving to go on an adventure and invites Ariel to go with him.

 Ariel  is still uncertain of what to do and turns to Ursula, (who in Once is a sea goddess) for advice and is about ready to give up until Ursula shows up but it's actually the Evil Queen Regina posing  as Ursula.   Actress Lana Parilla asked  for this as Ursula is her favorite Disney character and it shows as she was trying really hard to do a Pat Caroll impression.

Regina   gives her a bracelet that allows her to  switch her tail with anyone that she chooses.  And the next morning , she uses this on Snow White thinking that they can both get happy endings by Snow White  being able to escape The Evil Queen and  Ariel can be with Eric. However that was the case as Regina just did this as a way to try and kill Snow White.   But Snow is saved by Ariel and Snow convinces our mermaid to go tell her love the truth but alas she cannot as the Queen takes her voice.  29  years later in Neverland, Regina and Rumpelstiltskin call upon  Ariel as mermaids can travel  through  dimensions to go get an item that they need and at first,  Ariel is disgusted at the sight of Regina.  Rightly so,  she  took  away your voice for almost 3 decades and you weren't able to be with your love.  But Regina promises her that Eric is in Storybrooke and gives her a bracelet that will allow to stay human as long as she keeps it on and in the next episode, Dark Hollow, we get to see Ariel in Storybrooke mostly with Belle and the two of them seriously had great chemistry.  

Now, the last time we saw Ariel was in the opening  of The New Neverland, when her and Eric were reunited and got to finally embrace each others'  love.    

And Ariel  had one of my favorite lines as she saw Eric in his new Storybrooke job as a fish monger.

Wow, he must really hate me

But that wasn't the case at all, as when the two lovers got back together, they embraced each other with a loving kiss.  Now I would love to see Ariel more in the future but with season 3 having shift focus to Oz, I doubt that Ariel will be returning anytime soon but I really hope that wasn't the last we saw of her as I really like this take on Ariel.   She's sweet,  good-hearted and maybe a little naive but always means well.  Okay,  now  that I got to geek out over one of my favorite franchises.  I think it's fair that I let DisneyOtoko do the same with Kingdom Hearts. 






ARIEL IN THE KINGDOM HEARTS SERIES

 DO: Ariel is the most active and awesome princess in the Kingdom Hearts universe. She first appeared in Kingdom Hearts 1 at the age of 15 and her adventuring got even more dangerous with the Heartless stalking the oceans. While she Sebastian and Flounder are running away they encounter Sora, Donald and Goofy in their underwater forms and since the world traveling trio aren't used to swimming they decide to teach them. Impressed by Sora and company's fighting skills Ariel asks them a favor if they can come to the palace with them and Ariel joins the party. Ariel has 1 or 2 decent physical attacks a tail flip attack and a very powerful spin attack called Spiral Wave that is her signature attack and causes massive damage and has a Magic Point cost of 1 MP. All of Ariel's other abilities are magic based and consist of Thunder, Aero and Cure. The power of the spells depend on what upgrade to the spell that Sora has gotten throughout the game. So the player can come back with fully upgraded Thunder magic and Ariel's Thunder spell will have upgraded too. While Ariel is quite strong and reliable in healing you and protecting you with Aero she does use up Magic Points very quickly so it is advised to customize her behavior to conserve MP and have her standard attacks deal the majority of damage and then for the Ursula boss fights go all out and she can really kick some ass, just bring plenty of Ethers. At the Palace King Triton is obviously suspicious of outsiders and the odd appearance of our heroes. When Goofy lets it slip that they're looking for the Keyhole (So Sora can seal it to protect Atlantica from getting destroyed by the Heartless) King Triton immediately denies its existence. Ariel then takes Sora and the gang to her grotto and tells Sora about her dreams of exploring other worlds and her desire to travel and learn. Sora can definitely relate because before the adventure he had the same goals and dreams and Ariel is kindred spirit for him. Ariel always ready for challenges and adventure suggests that they look for the Keyhole. After some exploring and fighting the group gores to the Sunken Ship and finds the Crystal Trident and they take it back to the grotto and King Triton appears very upset and destroys the Crystal Trident to prevent the Keyhole from appearing. Triton does this because he has heard or in my theory has actually seen the destruction the Keyblade is capable of (he was probably one of the children who rebuilt the lost world) and doesn't trust Sora. He is gracious enough to thank Sora, DOnald and Goofy for saving Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian, but wants them to leave immediately. Meanwhile Ursula has been spying on the events and since she wishes to find the Keyhole and take over Atlantica for her part of the Disney Villain Empire (she is a member of Maleficent's group) and she goes to Ariel who left in a fit of rage after Triton destroyed the Crystal. She promises Ariel that she can send her to other worlds if Ariel retrieves the trident and she also reveals that Sora, Donald, anfd Goofy came from another world. When Sora, Donald and Goofy reach the palace they find Triton wounded and Ariel tending to his wound and Ursula possessing the trident flees and tries to find the Keyhole. In order to make amends for what she had done Ariel rejoins the party and the gang go to the Den of Tides where Ursula's lair resides. After the 2 bosses of Ursula have been defeated King Triton apologizes for his behavior and he asks Sora to seal the Keyhole and that his trident also has the power to reveal it and gives it to Ariel. After going back to the Grotto Ariel uses the trident to reveal the Keyhole and Sora seals it. Sora apologizes for keeping their identities as interworld travelers a secret from her and Ariel easily forgives them and is renewed with new hope that she can and will one day travel to other worlds. 

Ariel in Kingdom Hearts Cain of Memories 

 Ariel appears again in Chain of Memories as an illusion of Sora's memories after he creates the illusory Atlantica on Castle Oblivion's 7-10th floors depending on what order the player chooses to create worlds. The story this time is that Flounder has been missing and Ursula promises Ariel she can use her powers to rescue him if Ariel retrieve the trident for her. So Ariel steals the trident to rescue her guppy friend. Ariel obviously has doubts and doesn't trust Ursula, but is willing to go through with it if it means saving Flounder, but is glad when Sora and company agree to go with her to ensure Ursula keeps her end of the bargain. Ursula obviously doesn't honor her side and the boss battle begins. Instead of being an active party member Ariel along with Donald and Goofy is a Friend Card which can be obtained throughout Atlantica and Ariel can be summoned and perform the awesome Spiral Wave attack and if you stock up the cards to a maximum of 3 and the value of each card you can extend the duration and increase the attack's power and even mash the triangle button for even more hits. After the illusory Sea Witch's defeat Ariel chooses not to take Sora's advice and lie about her taking the trident. Ariel may not want to get into trouble, but if she lies about the trident that would mean she would give up the love and friendship for Flounder that was a key to her motivations. She's proud that she would go to those lengths to save someone she cares about. So Ariel and Flounder go to find Sebastian and tell him what happened and Sora and company continue their trek through the mysterious Castle Oblivion.

 Ariel in Kingdom Hearts 2 


OH GOD!!!!!!!! Here we go. Atlantica was used very poorly in Kingdom Hearts 2! I don't like this for different reasons. I actually like the minigames and I think they're fun, but I hate the story! 

The story is a very poor adaptation of the film! To be honest the film's story can't really work because of the Kingdom Hearts 1 storyline. It is also completely DEVOID OF LOGIC!!! When Ariel gets transformed into a human HOW COME SORA, DONALD AND GOOFY DON'T TRANSFORM INTO THEIR NORMAL FORMS AND HELP HER!! Ariel, Sebastian, Triton and everyone already know they're form other worlds so you can't bring up the "Protect the World Order" thing. There is no reason for Sora and company to stay in the ocean and watch! They could teach her how to walk and actually teach her about human objects and more importantly teach Ariel how to fight with legs! Also this makes ARIEL UNGODLY DUMB!!! Ariel is no stranger to lapses of judgment, but this is ridiculous! Ariel signs the contract to become human with Ursula just like the movie!! HELLO!! YOU HELPED SORA, DONALD AND GOOFY KILL HER!!! IT WAS 1 YEAR AGO IT WASN'T THAT LONG AGO YOU SHOULD REMEMBER!! THERE IS NO REASON TO TRUST AT ALL!! The first game it's a new universe and different circumstances so the trusting her in KH1 is fine, but this is dumb! Also the only mini game that is dumb is the Ursula mini game "boss fight" because it makes Ariel a spectator like in the movie instead of actually fighting like in the first game so that is also a FAIL!! I do hope Atlantica returns (because new mechanics lime the ocean floor in Prankster's Paradise could work just make up a new ability for Keyblade Masters to breathe underwater) and it has potential, but not bull crap like this where the story doesn't work and Ariel is made dumb!!


ARIEL IN CAPCOM’S THE LITTLE MERMAID

DO: Capcom had an excellent reputation of making high quality video game adaptations of classic Disney movies in the NES to SNES era games like Aladdin, Goof Troop(awesomely enough developed by Shinji Mikami the Creator of Resident Evil), DuckTales, Darkwing Duck and Chip N’ Dale Rescue Rangers are classics and pillars of the awesome Capcom Disney games. The Little Mermaid was also added to the list. The story was extremely basic in that Ursula had revived herself after her death for some reason and Ariel went to go stop her in other words an excuse to play! I myself haven’t played the game, but is often sighted as having excellent controls and fun intuitive game play that is light on the challenge, but extremely entertaining adding another awesome component to Ariel’s legacy.

Moviefan12:  The Capcom game was made available on both the NES and the Gameboy.

Is Ariel A Good Character?

Moviefan12:  I can safely say in my opinion that Ariel is not just a good character but in my opinion,  a great character.  I have enough confidence to place her in my top 4 of Disney princesses just behind Belle and Elsa.  Ariel  holds a special place in my heart as along with Belle, she was one of my first two princesses.  I  may have sold her short by just calling her a teenager but to be fair, those are some of her most defining attributes along with being curious and wanting to learn.  And explore,  the unknown.   I'd be hard-pressed to say something bad about Ariel.  I just love her too much.    To paraphrase  the cut song Spring Pageant from Frozen.

 Princess Ariel!  I really love her!

 And I use that sincerely as Ariel is a childhood favorite of mine  and she takes me back to simpler times, when there weren't so many things to worry about in the world and life  just seemed easier but even moving past that, she still to this day holds up as one of the greatest Disney characters of all time.






DO: I think you know what my answer is. Of course. I’ll go further in saying that she is an amazing character! A character that has so many stories, goals both short term and long term, experiences throughout her life over multiple universes over every entertainment medium imaginable which is something that no other Disney Princess can really say. Always adventuring, exploring getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, learning and growing. And also Ariel is extremely adaptable and diverse. This is a kind of character that you can put into any genre or scenario. You want action adventure Ariel can do it! You want a sweet and cute slice of life story? No problem Ariel can have a simple cozy day. You want a horror story? Ariel can even survive vicious monsters and abominations! Also the consistent legacy and popularity over the past 25 years! She opened the door for all princesses after her and redefined the Disney Princess and even when other Princesses surpassed her after the original film there was always another story or media where Ariel caught up and came back to being the best again. The best part about it is that she’s not slowing down yet and not out of stories. She has so many more adventures that have yet to be told and hopefully Disney gets off their concept of pretty dresses and puts Ariel back into her adventuring gear again ready for new experiences, challenges, lessons and villains!



Moviefan12:   Thanks  again for joining me on this rather extensive look at one of my all time favorite princesses.  This has to be the longest princess article and trust me, it could've been longer,  as we just scratched the surface on the legacy of Ariel.   Ariel  for good reason is one of the most popular princesses,  I can testify that to this day that little girls still love her as my 4 year old "niece"  is a huge Ariel fan.   Of course, her uncle may have planted that seed.   Peace!