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| Ursula | |
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| First appearance | The Little Mermaid (1989) |
| Created by | Roger Allers |
| Voiced by | Pat Carroll Jodi Benson as Vanessa |
| Also known as | Vanessa, The Sea-Witch |
Ursula is a villainess who first appeared in the 1989 Disney animated feature film, The Little Mermaid. She was voiced by Pat Carroll in the film, its subsequent TV series and the Kingdom Hearts video games. She is a sea witch who "helps" unfortunate people while achieving her own goals. Though uncommonly known, Ursula's species is known as a Cecaelia- from her waist up, she has the body of an obese purple-skinned, white-haired female human (modeled after drag performer Divine), and from the waist down she has the tentacles of a black squid. However, in "The Little Mermaid" TV series, her kind was referred to as Octopian. She is based on the character the sea witch in the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen, although that character wasn't a villainess but rather just a disreputable mermaid.
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The Little Mermaid
Ursula the Sea-witch was once a senior member of the court of King Triton, the king of the underwater city of Atlantica. She was originally supposed to be his sister, but the scene mentioning that was deleted, and it is now considered only semi-canon. For her obsession with Dark Magic and treachery against the kingdom, Ursula was banished, and retreated to a secret lair on the outsides of the city with her two moray eel minions, Flotsam and Jetsam. For many years, she watched over the city waiting for her chance to seek revenge on Triton and gain the crown of Atlantica, becoming Queen of the oceans. Ursula lives in a leviathan (an enormous skeleton of a sea monster or whale), in the middle of a field of underwater lava tubes and fissures. The inside is lined with a garden of writhing, green polyps--which all actually used to be merpeople. They all came to Ursula for help, making deals in exchange for different favors from magic, but then found themselves unable to fulfill their side of the bargain in some way. Although not directly stated, the film implies that the vast majority, if not all, fall into this category. Ursula thus claimed them as her own and added them to her collection. She spends her time brooding and plotting and occasionally indulges herself by snacking on shrimp. After Triton punishes his daughter, Princess Ariel, for falling in love with a human, Ursula sends Flotsam and Jetsam to lure Ariel back to the sea witch's lair. Ursula proposes (in the song Poor Unfortunate Souls) that if Ariel gives her renowned singing voice to Ursula, Ursula will swap Ariel's fins for legs and transform her into a human, allowing her to pursue Prince Eric, the human with whom she fell in love. If Ariel does not succeed in kissing Eric within three days of the transformation, she will become Ursula's forever, being transformed into a little shriveled polyp. Ariel agrees to this, and Ursula magically pulls the mermaid's voice straight from her throat and placed inside her Nautilus shell necklace, and then splits Ariel's tail into two legs. When Ariel comes "too close" to succeeding in her task, though, Ursula takes the form of a beautiful human female with Ariel's voice in order to sabotage the relationship. The form she assumes looks remarkably like Ariel, though she has brunette hair instead of red, and her overall coloring is darker than Ariel's. Taking on the name Vanessa, Ursula lures Prince Eric into agreeing to marry, using Ariel's voice to cast a spell of bewitchment and entrancement upon him, thereby thwarting any chance of Ariel's success. After Ariel and her friends manage to disrupt the wedding at the last minute, the Nautilus shell necklace is shattered, Ariel's voice returns to her throat and the spell upon Eric is broken. However, before they can foil Ursula's plot, the sun sets. Both Ursula and Ariel regain their true appearances on the wedding ship, the former in a spectacular lightning-enhanced transformation. Taking Ariel into the depths of the ocean, Ursula meets Triton. She starts the process of withering Ariel down into a polyp, while gloating to Triton that there is nothing he can do about it, flashing the contract in his face. He attempts to destroy the contract with a blast from his trident, however that proves useless, as the contract Ariel signed is a magical one. She then makes Triton an offer--she will release Ariel if Triton takes her place. Triton agrees; Ariel is restored and Triton is withered. The crown and trident are now unowned--and Ursula rapidly claims them. When Eric comes and attacks Ursula before she can kill Ariel, Ursula turns her attention on him. However, Ariel attacks her, causing her aim to go awry. The trident blast intended to destroy Eric instead disintegrates her two eel pets. Enraged at this, Ursula grows to an enormous size. On the surface, she toys with the two tiny protagonists, creating a giant storm with Triton's magic trident. She then creates a whirlpool that brings a number of shipwrecks to the surface - a fatal mistake. As she laughingly prepares to kill the helpless Ariel with a bolt of energy, Prince Eric drives one of the ships through Ursula's abdomen, breaking her concentration long enough for the Trident's power to backfire and destroy her. She is then lost forever and never seen again, causing Triton and the other bewitched plants and ployps to return to their previous merfolk forms. Ursula appears as a frequent villainess on the Little Mermaid prequel television series. Some of her plans there included her tricking Sebastian to conquer Atlantica, destroying a Bad Luck Creature, recruiting the Octopods against Atlantica and using Ariel's treasures against Atlantica.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Ursula doesn't appear in this direct-to-DVD movie, but she is mentioned various times (mostly by her sister Morgana, also a cecaelia), and is seen in a picture in Morgana's lair. This picture sinks with Morgana when she is turned into a block of ice by King Triton at the end of the movie.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
It is unknown if Ursula returns in the direct-to-DVD prequel, "The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" which (much like the TV series) takes place before the events of the 1989 film. If she is, then the bigger question is how she is involved in "The Little Mermaid III". Although, it's possible that this film will explain as to how she was banished from Triton's Kingdom.
Theme Parks
Fantasmic!
As the Disney villains congregate in a bid to finally destroy Mickey Mouse, Ursula summons the powers of the oceans for her contribution. Mickey uses the powers of his imagination to destroy the sea-witch, and banish her back to the seas. Fantasmic! debuted in 1992, only a few years after The Little Mermaid premiered, and Ursula was already a very popular Disney character. Originally, a twenty foot Audio-Animatronic Ursula float travelled around her segment in the show on the water, but it was very expensive to maintain so currently Ursula only features in the animation projected onto water screens. In the Hollywood Studios version, however, she has a much smaller role, her only speaking role being "Yes, How exciting! I'm happy!". However, the footage of her in the Florida version is the same as that (ks) in California's.
Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams
A puppet version of Ursula, also voiced by Ms. Carroll, appears at the tail end of the Little Mermaid unit in Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams at Disneyland.
Happy Hallowishes
Ursula is a central character in the annual Halloween-themed fireworks show HalloWishes at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party "hard ticket" event along with Jafar, Oogie Boogie and Maleficent.
Kingdom Hearts series
Kingdom Hearts
In the video game Kingdom Hearts, for the Playstation 2, Ursula appears as one of Maleficent's co-conspirators, using the power of the Heartless to attack Atlantica and thus gain power. Taking advantage of Ariel's desire to see another world, Ursula tricks Ariel into giving her Triton's trident. In the game's first boss fight against her in her lair, Ursula gets some help from Flotsam and Jetsam, using her cauldron to grow in power she attacks by throwing potions into her cauldron to summon a storm and energy balls, and spinning after being hit. But she escapes before she is defeated. In the second battle against her, Ursula uses the trident to grow to massive size as she did in the film. She mainly uses powerful lightning magic such as Thundaga and an electric breath attack, she also spits bubbles and will attempt to suck Sora into her mouth to bite him (if she succeeds she will taunt Sora by saying "Ugh not very tasty"). But she is still defeated and apparently dies, though her reappearance in the sequel suggests that she survived (her page in Jiminy's journal in Kingdom Hearts II simply states that she used the power of darkness to return, without explaining it further).
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A facsimile created from Sora's memories in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, for the Game Boy Advance, Ursula takes Flounder hostage to force Ariel into giving her Triton's trident (she tells Ariel that Flounder has been taken to the "human world" and she needs the trident to rescue him). In the fight against Ursula, she uses the trident to shrink Sora and company, and attacks with electric breath, bubbles, and other attacks, but they again defeat her.
Kingdom Hearts II
Ursula recreates her movie role loosely in Kingdom Hearts II, again for the Playstation 2. She, Floatsam, and Jetsam appear to a despondent Ariel (strangely, she and the others do not seem to remember her and her previous efforts). She offers the young mermaid a deal: Ariel gives up her voice in order to gain human form, so that she may win over Prince Eric. However, if she fails to kiss Eric in three days, specifically by the sunset of the final day, she will belong to Ursula. Ursula then disappears, leaving Sora and his friends to search for her, to no avail. But she eventually makes her appearance on the third day, in the guise of Vanessa, using Ariel's voice to place a spell on Eric. But Sora uses the Keyblade to destroy the pendant Ursula was using, forcing her to kidnap Ariel. With Ariel's time up, Ursula threatens to turn Ariel into a polyp, but coerces King Triton to offer himself up in Ariel's place. Ursula then takes Triton's trident, growing to massive proportions, but Sora manages to knock the trident out of Ursula's hand, allowing Eric to kill her with it.
Origins and past
During planning for the film, Ursula was not originally designed as a Cecaelia. It was thought that she would be another sea creature, such as a rockfish. The production team, however, saw a documentary about octopuses, and decided that their multiple arms and overall imposing appearance would be perfect for the character they were creating (strangely, she is only drawn with six tentacles, due to the studio's budget at the time, however, including her human-like arms, she is a true octopod). Additionally, original concept art for Ursula (much of which can be seen at the Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction The Magic of Disney Animation) depicted her as a tall, skinny, older woman. When this look was abandoned in favor of Ursula's now-famous "Octopod" form, many of these same features were saved and subsequently attributed to the evil witch Yzma, villain of The Emperor's New Groove. In an interview with Disney Magazine, Pat Caroll claimed to have based her voice for Ursula on a combination of Uriah Heep, a used car salesman, and a Shakespearean actor. Ursula's lair, including its own cauldron and a short "hallway" with her shriveled victims looking on helplessly, is set inside a large skeleton of a seemingly ancient fish, identified as The Leviathan in a few sources, including the video game Kingdom Hearts. In the game, when you begin to enter the area where Ursula's lair is in, the subtitle says "The Leviathan". A Little Mermaid Disney comic revealed the origins of the creature: it was kept in a labyrinth by a race of eel-men, where it was used to train their warriors. When the creature escaped, it had to be killed so it wouldn't cause any serious damage. Ursula then acquired the carcass after making a deal with the eel-men. In the 2006 DVD of the film, deleted scenes have Ursula as King Triton's sister, making her Ariel's aunt. (This is also indicated in the book Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files.) This fact is also mentioned in the DVD guide. It is not clear if this is meant to be a fact of the finished film (with no indication except for Ursula's vague mention "when I lived in the palace...") or an abandoned story concept. According to Ursula in The Little Mermaid's entry in the Disney Princesses: My Side of the Story books, Ursula's actions for most of the film are actually the fault of a dark alter-ego she calls "Bad Ursula". In this book, she also harbors romantic attraction to King Triton.
Magic and music
The body text that is quickly flashed across the screen when Ursula offers Ariel the contract says: "I hereby grant unto Ursula, the witch of the sea... , one voice, in exchange for byon once high, Dinu*gihn thon Mueo serr on Puur-qurr I rehd moisn petn r m uenre urpti m srerp monk guaki ,Ch rich noy ri imm ro mund for all eternity. signed," During the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula recites the spell for taking Ariel's voice as:
- Beluga, Sevruga
- Come winds of the Caspian Sea
- Larynxes, glossitis
- Et Max Laryngitis
- La voce to me
The chant is also sung as part of her HalloWishes appearance. Her magic is almost entirely dependent upon potions from her cauldron, at least until she acquires the trident. Without her potions on hand, she is mostly powerless. During production of the film, Ursula originally sang a song titled "Silence is Golden". However, it was not liked, and quickly "thrown away". The song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", which originally contained an extra verse in the middle, was written and used in its place. In the one episode of the Little Mermaid TV series, she sings the song "You Wouldn't Want to Mess with Me".
Stage musical
In the stage musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid, Ursula is King Triton's sister. When their father died, the pair were given equal share of the sea (including their father's two most cherished items: the trident and the magic shell. Triton, of course, gets the trident, and Ursula gets the magic shell, which she uses to store Ariel's voice, and Ariel later destroys, leading to Ursula's demise, unlike the movie), but Ursula's greed and use of dark magic to usurp Triton led to her being banished entirely. She seeks to use Ariel to regain the throne, which she believes is rightfully hers. The musical recently had its pre-Broadway tryout in Denver, where Sherie Rene Scott portrayed the role. Scott is currently performing the role in the original Broadway company beginning on November 3, 2007. In the musical, 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. Ursula's subplot where she transforms briefly into a human and names herself Vanessa has been removed from the show entirely. An earlier demo workshop contained different songs written for Ursula that were eventually removed from the production. These numbers are "Wasting Away", which was replaced by "I Want the Good Times Back", and "All Good Things Must End", which was removed completely.
Trivia
Ursula's design was based on Divine. It has also been claimed that Ursula, with her two sidekicks Flotsam and Jetsam, are based on Madame Medusa, Brutus and Nero from The Rescuers.
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| Television and Films | The Little Mermaid · The Little Mermaid (TV series) · The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea |
| Characters | Princess Ariel · King Triton · Prince Eric · Flounder · Sebastian · Ursula · Flotsam and Jetsam · Scuttle · Max · Other characters · Princess Melody · Morgana |
| Songs | Part of Your World · Under the Sea · Poor Unfortunate Souls · Kiss the Girl |
| See Also | The Little Mermaid · The Little Mermaid (musical) · Hans Christian Andersen |
