The Little Mermaid Fixes a Plot Hole From the Animated Movie
Written by on June 12, 2023
The Little Mermaid is a highly beloved Disney classic based on a much darker story. Most people have at least heard of it, and the brand-new and highly anticipated live-action movie helps that significantly. With that said, the remake has been pretty well-received, except for the seemingly endless stream of random controversies.
One of the biggest controversies lately comes with the few changes made to The Little Mermaid remake’s plot to modernize it and make certain aspects a little less problematic. This includes design changes to the lovely companions like Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian. Prince Eric’s character is explored much more, and he gets his own song, too. This change helps to express that their romance isn’t just a spur-of-the-moment feeling, as they have a connection, fixing Eric and Ariel’s highly-flawed relationship. Other changes help to extend the story and add a bit more complexity as well. Overall, these changes aren’t too significant, nor do they ruin the story. In fact, one such change actually fixes a pretty annoying oversight from the 1989 version.
Ariel’s Communication Creates a Little Mermaid Plot Hole
One of the biggest plot points of The Little Mermaid is Ariel’s deal with Ursula. It’s a pretty simple, albeit cruel, deal that would allow Ariel to walk among humans. In order to gain the legs necessary to do so, she goes to the sea witch Ursula and trades her voice in for the new limbs. While the scene is important, it’s rather clouded by the awesome song “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” This deal is tightly sealed with the average magical contract, and then Ariel’s voice is sucked into a magical shell. But, upon further examination, it’s clear that Ariel actually signs the contract. In itself, this isn’t too mind-boggling. However, it adds a very confusing layer to Ariel’s biggest conflict.
After the contract is signed, Ariel is seen struggling to communicate with Prince Eric, and because she can’t speak to him, there are a lot of issues blocking their courtship. That said, it would be fair to assume that the deal with Ursula would also inhibit written communication. But that’s not exactly the case. Instead, Ursula just took her voice away and never said anything about other forms of communication; she genuinely just couldn’t speak. As such, many viewers have questioned why Ariel didn’t use writing to communicate with Eric. Even though erasing this problem would erase a big part of the story’s conflict, that part of The Little Mermaid doesn’t make much sense and is quite frustrating once noticed.
The Little Mermaid Remake Fixes the Communication Problem
Luckily, The Little Mermaid‘s live-action remake made an easy fix to that problem. During the same scene, Ariel and Ursula make the deal. It’s seemingly the same exact trade, except it’s sealed in a less aggravating way. Instead of signing the contract with a quill and written communication, Ariel signs the contract by giving Ursula a scale from her tail. With this, it’s never established that Ariel can write or communicate in any way other than her voice. But, beyond that, the scale from Ariel’s realistic mermaid tail is a part of her DNA, which would make the spell much stronger. It can definitely be speculated that even if she knew how to write, the spell would be specifically preventing her from communicating with the prince, as Ursula would have a stronger magical hold over the young mermaid.
Most importantly, this small change has a colossal impact on audiences. It doesn’t change any of the story and could be an easily missed detail. But, because it plugs that frustrating communication plot hole, it significantly improves the viewing experience for audience members. There’s no room for someone to be peeved about Ariel’s communication skills in that context.
To see the change and more, The Little Mermaid is now playing in theaters.
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