The Little Mermaid Makes NO Sense | Disney Film Theory
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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Today J dives into the ocean of The Little Mermaid to discuss how it makes NO SENSE at all - Seriously why didnt Ariel just write stuff down for Eric to read? And can he understand the sea creatures or not?
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Edited by :: Riley Murtagh
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Every time you give us a thumbs up a Narwhal gets its horn! (maybe..)
Like... did she just forget she can write stuff down?
watch the remake is gonna try and address this and fail miserably lol
She's very ditzy
Maybe it should be retcon into she can’t communicate using words.
Would a mermaid know how to write?
@@elsiebrook She signed the contract with Ursula in the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls”. Fun Fact the signature Ariel uses here is different from the one she signs at Disney World.
1. Why didn’t Ariel ever write down her name for Eric?
2. How was Eric able to understand a love song performed by fish, birds & frogs?
Because she did it get the opportunity to, love made her think irrationally, she ain’t that smart. It is the same logic as Snow White, tangled and a bunch of other Disney movies.
Sebastian writes and conducts his own orchestra music. How can Ariel not know how to write her own name?
It's fiction. There's your answer.
@@joshuamerriweather2861 she literally wrote her name signing Ursula contract and it makes the plot hole even deeper xD
@@Kyleplier Fiction should still follow the basic rules of reality or at least try to make their characters smarter than a bag of rocks.
I think it's funny how you said "Ariel should have just stolen the Trident" and I was like 'that's exactly what her daughter did'! 🙈
I agree with you that the REASON King Triton hates the humans and forbids Ariel from going to the surface to see them is directly connected to her Mom. If we have seen the third movie in this series, we KNOW that Ariel's mother, Queen Athena, was killed by humans (presumably sailors or pirates) while trying to save the music box that Triton had given her. That is WHY Triton hates the human world and why he forbid music in Atlantica....the humans killed his beloved wife and Queen. Of course he would want to protect Ariel from that fate. On that note though, for this movie, if ANY parent has a teenage daughter, that they are smothering with overprotectiveness, THEY KNOW that this child is going to rebel and do exactly the opposite of what their parent wants for them.
There's a Little Mermaid 3?? I seriously HAD to stop the vid & Google it because you just blew my mind right now!! 😅
@@AHufflepuffAndASwiftie Yep. There's a sequel where Ariel and Eric are married and have a daughter named Melody, and then the third one is a prequel. I like them. They are both on Disney+, along with the original.
@@CeltycSparrow I knew about the sequel; just didn’t know about a 3rd one until I looked it up! 😅
I just commented about the 3rd movie too lol!
But I don't believe music was banned because she was supposed to be in a concert in the beginning singing
@@brookchristy8311 Music was banned, as you learn in the 3rd film. At the end its unbanned. Since it takes place prior to the first film, it would make sense. The concert Ariel is meant to sing is is probably one of the first concerts legally being held.
In some versions of the story (specifically the Broadway Musical) Ursula is Triton's Sister. In the musical she has a song that explains why she is mad a Triton, why she got banished and her whole plan including why she take Ariel's voice. I almost think the music from the musical is better than the movie. Ursula's song is "I Want the Good Times Back"
...she has many more "legs" than him. Half-sister? What happened there...?
But srsly, do you happen to recall why she was mad, got banished and how marrying Eric fit into her plan? ... *was* marrying Eric / a human her ultimate plan!?
If Ursula is his sister then how come she’s half octopus not half mermaid? It makes no sense unless maybe Ursula was a mermaid at one time and Triton turned her into an octopus to punish her in someway ?
@@thekueken Triton and Ursula are both literal gods. It's possible
Maybe it's just the fact I was a brat as a kid, but honestly the way Ariel was introduced in the original movie was relatable, a teen girl avoiding responsibilities to do her own thing? J, dude, that was what most teens would do. Ignore their parents to do their own thing!? It's more realistic than it seems!
I unsubbed! This video was the last straw for me.
When I was a kid, I hated Ariel _because_ she was a brat. Sure, teens do their own thing, but she was just too much. My older sister would watch the movie and the tv show so I have vague memories of that. But I never liked her. My sister and I would always listen to my dad. There was one time my sister snuck out the house when she was grounded but other than that one instance, we never did anything drastic to defy him just cuz we wanted to rebel or something. My sister got some tattoos before she was 18 but that isn't anything major, really
Unlike Ariel who put her life in danger just for some kinda cute guy she saw one time and curiosity
Sure, Triton was strict, and he shouldn't have destroyed her treasures, that was wrong. He should have actually talked to Ariel about his reasonings and Ariel shouldn't have gone to the creepy sea witch
@@RedRoseSeptember22 what why?
But what about the hundreds of males in the audience including J!
@@RedRoseSeptember22Did you even watch the whole video?
There is a prequel from 2008 called "The little mermaid: Ariel's beginnings" where it is shown that Ariels mother, Queen Athena actually died during an encounter with pirates. So your Theory is confirmed.
Yeah I got to be honest, the fact they didn’t even try bother looking this up bugs me a little bit. I mean I still love the channel, and I will still watch but it still annoys me.
EDIT: They mentioned it the video " The Truth about Ariels Mother"
I didn't know that Ariel's mum was Athena, which just led me to the conclusion that Ariel's parents are cousins as well.
He knows, he was playing dumb to get you commentors typing
@@red5_skywalker That was just her name, they're not talking about Athena the goddess.
THANK YOU. I was in shock that they didn’t know tbh
I think Úrsula going so far as to marry Eric does make some sense. She has made it clear she wants power, so if she marries Eric and he dies (mysteriously) she will have power over the kingdom on land, as well as having power over the kingdom under the sea.
So marrying the prince was a case of "may as well while at it" for Ursula then?
I've always sorta wondered how did Ursula spend that 3rd day doing. We see her early morning, then we see her just before sunset. That's many hours for her to occupy herself with.
She mentions missing great feasts earlier. So maybe she spent the entire day eating? Now that she's the prince's fiance, and has access to royal cuisine again, which she says she misses a lot.
So maybe she got access to what she spent many years wanting, she lost self-control and spent the entire day eating compulsively, like a madwoman.
Maybe while even secretly using some kinda "infinite stomach" magic on herself just so she could eat more.
With the entire castle staff watching her in horror as she eats months and months worth of food supply, while being a 16 years old with a wasp waist.
The staff probably thinking "where does she put all that food? Is this magic? This woman is obviously a witch!"
And Ursula probably laughing them to the faces because she knows they can't do anything.
And the reason we don't see any of the named servants on the interrupted wedding, ks because they've figured out that he's marrying a witch that's hypnotized him, but they can't do anything about it, so "not attend" is the only thing they can do.
And I'd imagine as probably have summoned an exorcist of some kind, but he couldn't make it in time because Ursula works quick.
Ah, I'd really love to see a midquel about this.
@@tatik8682 For the record- I love this idea. 🤣
@@tatik8682 take my upvote!!!!
about your first point...she's a teenager. if it's supposed to be accurate, it is indeed. she's doing something she enjoys, loses track of time, and accidentally misses the concert. and it is just that - a concert. not in her honor, though they make a big deal out of the fact that this is Ariel's first concert.
I remember Ben said his first crush was Vanessa and I can't help noticing the physical similarities to his wife.
What can he say, he’s a man of his word
That concert was not about Ariel. It was a concert about Triton. Triton commissioned a concert about how great of a job he did naming his daughters (everybody having a name that begins with an “A”). It’s a weird thing to have a concert about. Clearly Ariel (who rarely showed up for rehearsals) wanted nothing to do with her father’s strange need to proclaim how awesome he is at using the letter “A”. 😂
In the 3rd film (a prequel) Ariel makes a huge deal about the need to bring music back since Triton banned it after the death of his wife. Note, she was either the same age as she was in the original, maybe slightly younger (a year or 2 max). Triton brought music back like she wanted. Between bring a princess and the fact that she wanted music back, of course he was expecting her to be there.
Well more importantly it was Ariel's musical debut so your going to disappoint a lot of people if you don't come to a concert that is for you. Ariel forgot the concert it's common for teens to forget things.
His daughter's all played characters in Pretty Little Liars obviously.
@@melindoranightsilver9298 Ariel’s beginning (3) is supposed to end right before little mermaid starts. At the start of little mermaid it’s her musical debut.
@@Npence09 Would have been nice to see young Ariel "begin" that EXPANSIVE collection of Human world lore and Artifacts she has in the original to add a cornel of believability to that claim. You know, for character consistency's sake?
3:41 The image of the pipe/snarfblat shown also shows the bag that she was carrying on the floor. Implying that she just brought it with her into the cave; she did not have it in her cave before that scene.
On the subject of contract-magic, it's a fairly common thing in magic systems that have such things, that the power you can bind into a contract depends on the conditions of the contract. Being a sea-witch, Ursula would be well aware of how much leeway she has in setting the conditions of the contract in order to both create the magic that transforms Ariel, imprisons her voice, and which can potentially bind her soul. That is probably why there needs to be some way, even against the odds, for Ariel to succeed in fulfilling the contract - a contract that is impossible to fulfill would have minimal power at best. This is also probably why Ursula does not immediately imprison Ariel or ever directly take action against her - she only ever takes action against Eric, the other humans, and their property. Ursula and Ariel are bound by the contract; Eric is not party to the contract so is fair game, particularly since the contract only stipulates that she receive a kiss of true love, not specifically who has to give it to her. As such, Eric as a third party can disrupt the contract by boat-stabbing Ursula, since he isn't party to the magic. Of course, Ursula is under no compulsion to *explain* any of this, and Ariel never really asks many questions at all, so we can only speculate on how such things work.
This also helps explain why the Trident is so desirable for her, despite the power she can wield through her contract magic; the Trident does not have the kind of limitations that contract magic has, and can simply *do things* as necessary, likely under its own internal rules which are likely to be a lot more relaxed. In most settings where witchery is placed in contract to other forms of magic, witchery is generally more complicated or difficult, and generally either weaker, or requiring a lot more hoops to jump through to be as powerful as more mainstream magics.
Thank you 100x for typing all this. I was thinking this exact thing the entire time J was talking about the contract and the magic.
Did you mean "contrast" the last time?
Thank you for explaining contract magic so I didn't have to. The only thing that I would add to it is that, in all cases that I know of, if a contract is impossible to complete it will automatically become null in void. I would like to also point out that part of the contract verbally explained is that she gets to go to the surface. If Ursala prevented her from going to the surface, then she would have been violating the contract and it would either be null in void or she would face some penalty. Think Hades from Hercules and the deal he makes there.
Not to mention they are usually sole bound contracts, so there is an element of"good Will understanding"between the signatories.
i'll add that contract magic is something often associated with the various mythological fey creatures. Ursula and Triton could be considered fey creatures, and therefore are likely bound by other magical contracts that govern how they can interact with each other. Triton might not be allowed to attack Ursula directly; theoretically that could have been part of the contract that stipulated the terms of her banishment.
Personally, I believe that the spell was anchored not to Ursula, but to Ariel's voice, amplifying Eric's desire for it and directing said desire to the person that had it at the time and was capable of magic aka Ursula. If that is true, then Ursula would need Ariel's voice as it was the voice that Eric fell in love with. Again, this is just a theory I have.
I agree, Ursula wants power, and Eric, being a prince would give her the power to rule which is why Ursula tried to marry him by using Ariels stolen voice. I think Ursula needed to prepare her human form which is why she gave 3 days to ariel knowing Eric wouldn't fall for her because she didn't have her voice. Theres actually a whole book on a version of this plot where Ursula wins and marries Eric. it's pretty interesting.
Explains why the spell breaks the moment the shell containing Ariel’s voice is destroyed.
Ariel is a siren so it tracks
I thought the same thing and then wondered "If the explanation is that simple (and also explains so much more in the story... like, ALL of it) then why did they not spend the 7 seconds to say it?" ... logic and head-canons are great, don't get me wrong, but almost worse than exposition is leaving relevant plot points up to interpretation / completely unaddressed, when they really do not need to be a mystery at all (it's not that kind of movie/story). Heck, it's a Disney movie! They could have made it into a 'show don't tell' by doing a song and dance-number about Ursula's powers, abilities and limits (flashbacks to her doing lotsa magic stuff but only causing an impotent ~poof~ when trying to bend someone's will without a token of sorts).
Tht would make sense but also it's not good when fans have to make it make sense 😂
I disagree. I've always been bothered by people calling Ariel a spoiled brat who gives up her voice for a guy she barely knows. I don't think she is spoiled at all (other than the fact that she is a princess), she collects human things because she is fascinated by humans and her father forbids anything related to humans. She is a teenager who loves something that she is forbidden to know anything about. She falls in love with Eric when she first sees him but she loved humans before that Of course, she is going to take crazy reckless action. I relate to Ariel so much in this way as I grew up very religious and there were always things I loved that I wasn't allowed to and I too did some crazy things as a 19-year-old rebelling against my parents. Ursula saying "It's she who holds her tongue who gets a man" really foreshadows how wrong Ursila is about life on land (or in general) especially how wrong she is about Eric. Eric is always interested in how Ariel feels and what she thinks and he does his best to communicate with her despite her not having a voice. He cares about what she has to say and that is a top-notch man in my book.
❤
Right? These people have no idea what they're talking about.
Honestly, at this point, the criticism on Ariel feels like people mimicking popular complaints, because everything is taken out of context or just pure bad-faith criticism.
Can we just talk about how Eric understanding Sebastian means that human animal communication is possible and humans not knowing this means we just keep eating sentient species? This seems like an overlooked fact.
All of these animals would be sentient regardless of whether they can speak of not. That's not what sentience means.
You do realize this is a cartoon right?
@@RedRoseSeptember22 are you new to this channel or something because overthinking cartoons is kinda what we do here... I mean this video is exactly the same kind of thing so what exactly are you complaining about?
Makes me wonder if there is a sweeping reform in Eric's kingdom after the events of the movie, where everyone suddenly becomes a lot more vegetarian. 🤣
Ariel is a teen whos rebelling against a over bearing parent.
The prequel does explain that trident's wife was killed by pirates.
Its treated like a classic demon/witches/fay deal,
The pen seems to move on its own as you can see Ariel is not even looking at the paper as she's signing.
In most myths about demons you have to give the signer a fair shot.
(in other words you're not allowed to be flat out lie you can omit information but saying I wont kill you then turning around and stabbing them would break the deal and even at the end of the movie you see Ursula is a stickler for the rules.)
I'll give you the sea life one though time wise he also might have ended up in a nuthouse.
I'll also give you the voice part but the marriage part was to break Ariel's heart/will.
You try swimming in a dress.
Ursula doesn't add a clause to pass it down to her next of kin which is why all the others get freed when she dies the rights revert back to the original owner.
When Ursula trades the soul its a trade up she's getting more value which as the contract holder she has the right to do a king is much better then a last in line princess.
Are you a law major? If not that was impressive.
@@leebulger7112 Not yet but next spring I will beXD
@@trex1233 Congratulations! I was kinda joking but I'm surprised that I was actually right.
Ima defend my favorite childhood movie for a moment:
They do endeer you to arial. In the ship fight, they show you that she is: brave, kind, and curious. Then they show you that at the same time she: doesnt always think things through, gets overwhelmed with emotions (like excitement), and is unintentionally very selfish. This sets up the entire movie. A perfectly logical character would not act the way she did, but thats fine because she isnt a perfectly logical character.
So for example. She did try to tell Eric that she could write. He didnt get it a single time. And then she immediately gets distracted by her actual true love, nerding out about surface world stuff.
I thought the last line about Ariel nerding out was funny.
I love these videos where you question the logic of Disney movies. It’s funny and thought provoking. Doesn’t ruin the movies for me but it is rather interesting to point out
I took the contract shenanigans to be that Triton and his Trident are bound to "sea-law", and that it wasn't a magical piece of paper, per se, but that because it was a legal contract, as per "sea law", that Triton had no power to break it whatsoever.
Kind of like what's theorized to be happening with the Goblet of Fire. It's magical contract law, like the Devil and his fiddle contest. Doesn't matter how powerful you are, it's an immutable power in that world. Which is why Ursula can't also just... enslave people on a whim.
I thought the same thing. It's just magical contract rules. You still got to trick them into signing
Not only that but going by the theme of consent, Ursala consented to overwriting Ariel's contract with his.
I always figured that they used the typical magical contract rules, Where a person who makes a magical contract with another person is honor bound to tell the truth about what the contract says. There are a lot of works of fantasy where Making deals with someone is actually enforced by the magic itself.
Another example of this is the sinbad movie from the early 2000's. Where the Goddess Eris is bound by magic to keep the terms of the deal she made with Sinbad.
Thats a good rule. It would be pretty one-sided if one person could not just lie, but support or "prove" their lie with magic. Also I love Sinbad, and the villain is awesome.
1. Ariel losing her voice might be a nod to sirens killing sailors with their singing.
2. The Merpeople must be super old, so they might have picked up on some of the modern languages, at least from all the sunken ships.
I like to think Ariel writing her name down was in another language but just written in English for us.
Edit: Therefore, Ariel didn't think to write.
She probably could have learned how to write after becoming human but she only had 3 days so it would have taken too long.
Ariel is the one coming on to Prince Eric constantly and yet the directors for the live action movie say Eric needs consent from Ariel but in all honestly it was Ariel that was the one constantly coming onto Eric. Multiply times he turns away when she tries to kiss him.
well i think its because in the live action they changed it to how Ursula slipped in a memory spell in Ariels transformation so she doesnt know she needs to kiss him, thats why during the kiss the girl scene it'll less of ariel wanting to kiss him
If she knows he's looking for the girl that saved her, then technically… LOL
There is an entire novel called “Poor Unfortunate Soul” that explains everything about Ursula and she does those things. I think you guys would love it 😊!!!
I think Ariel Is supposed to be relatable to people who don't feel like they fit in with their peers or their family dynamic. if you come from a loving supportive home with only a couple siblings you will not understand Ariel's position.
I dont remember Ariel being an outcast or feeling like shedoesn't fit in with her family. It felt to me like she didn't fit in with her species.
If that's the case, and I think that you may be right, it doesn't translate well. She might be considered a bit odd to them, but she's not presented as be outcast because of it.
@@izzywoods794 if she doesn't fit in with her species, that would mean by proxy she doesn't fit with her family. theres also like multiple scenes where she has arguments with her dad because he doesn't understand her. you are basically saying the same thing i am.
@@scaper8 not once did I say "outcast". Not feeling like you fit in is not the same as being an outcast per-say. like an outcast is actively someone whose peers don't want them around. Ariels family want her around but they don't really understand her. In the end Her dad accepts who she is and she finds where she belongs.
Wow, it's almost as if the Little Mermaid was based on a classic book or something, and had an entirely different moral and ending. But what would I know.
LOL, this just clicked for me. I've never read the original, a very brief question on my Google home mentioned something about minor changes whilst Disney is major change LOL. Would love to hear your thoughts
The "conscent" takes that have been addressed lately for these Disney movies have baffled me.
Is like, wasn't Ariel in love with Erick before she got legs? Yes she was. She was stalking him in his boat and that's why she was able to save him from the wreckage. And in the boat you could see, if she was able to speak, she would have ask him to kiss her. 😂 Meaning, she likes him and she didn't reject his advances. So....
Same for Aurora. She was in love with the prince and she was in her way to meet him and scape with him to live together. So, she needed conscent for his kiss, specially when the said kiss only took place while she was sleeping because it was to save her life? The answer is, it's obvious people who want to be together want to kiss each other.
Same case with Snow White.
These stories were written in a time where if a girl took the first step to kiss a man, it would have been seen badly. Doesn't mean men kissed them without conscent.
Well... eh... Snow White was also, like, 14. And she and the prince had never met. And he didn't know about the curse, IIRC. He just wandered over and kissed what he believed was the corpse of a dead child. Even if he did know, Snow White couldn't possibly consent because she was a child. (The others may have been too but Snow White was def one)
@@yawninglion1677 well, i can understand your point about Snow White. She was 14 and the price was allegedly 21. (Like eew). But she did met him when she was singing in the well. She ran away from him but it was implied that she liked him but was shy.
The story says the prince was looking for Snow White until he found her in the cristal coffin and knew it was her.
Doesn't mean he was looking for her to wake her up because of a curse he didn't know. BUT, do you think a dead body need concent to be kissed? Idk. My point with Snow White is that she met him before being into the woods and also when he woke her up with the love kiss, she didn't refuse him because she liked him. Idk. Maybe Snow White could be a point of discussion but not Ariel nor Aurora, i.m.h.o. that is. Thx for interacting.
Remember, Aurora didn't know that the man in the woods was the Prince. She met him in the woods, spent a short amount of time with him and then they parted. When she thought thought that she had to give up the guy to marry someone else, she was devastated but ultimately agreed to go back to the castle to do her duty as a Princess. Keep in mind, everything she knew turned out to be a lie growing up and she was still sad. Prince also didn't know that she was the Princess that his father expected him to marry. Both just kind of got lucky.
You have no idea what the prince does to Sleeping Beauty in the original story.
@@melindoranightsilver9298 All that you said is true, and i forgot about those twists and turns. But even when all those twists happened, they still were the same person in the end and once they would have found out, they would have still like each other.
My parents are scuba divers. I noticed Ariel getting the bends or something upon being turned into a mermaid. My work-around explanation for that is that she was still transitioning upon her ascent. Her outer body transformed but the inner fishy was still transforming upon her going to surface.
Stop it with betterhelp, that's not a good company
About Ariel using writing to communicate: the closest that she comes to writing anything in the movie is when she signed the contract with Ursala.
This doesn't mean that she could read or write. People who can't write still sign things.
Hmm… not sure where people get the sexism from. Eric was just the final push into going on land. And if anything, her father’s terrible reaction to her stuff and Eric statue was an even bigger push
Also, I usually love your videos, but you have a few really bad takes in this one. First about the consent thing, Ariel was basically throwing herself on him! I’m pretty sure he’s smart enough to gather that he has consent. And secondly about the not being able to swim, she hasn’t even swum with legs before. When she went up to the surface, Flounder and Sebastian helped her
there's a prequel movie which explains why her dad hates humans, The contract she signs with Ursula doesn't stipulate Ursula can't interfere preventing her from getting a kiss or that Ariel can't get help to get the kiss Sebastian helps with the undersea orchestra
@@byronrush9802 yeah, I barely remember it, but I know the mom died via humans
Sounds like SuperCarlinBros are trying to not get canceled
THANK YOU! The animated movie is NOT SEXIST. Her interest in the human world predates Eric, that's why she already has so many human trinkets she's collected. And Ariel wanted Eric to kiss her, it was obvious. If anything, Ariel was pushing herself on Eric! She needed consent *from him*!
@@lancethefilmguy9392 To be fair, if Disney keeps making movie for their videos, they can keep bringing food to their table.
I am sick of people saying the little mermaid is sexist. Ariel didn’t give up her family and the sea for Eric, she loved land and human life long before she knew him. Part of your world was before anything. Only the reprise was sung about him because her love for him solidified that decision. Also Mulan, she did it for her dad, that’s doing something for a man and yet we call her a feminist.
Difference: mulan did it for her father, Eric is a complete stranger. Also, if mulan didn’t go, her dad’s life would be in danger. Ariel just thought Eric was hot.
About the concert - She didn't willfully neglect it, she just wasn't interested, roped into doing it and just forgot about it when something more interesting came along. Still she might have been expected to stay, but I'd say don't be too harsh on her for that.
About the ban on the surface - I think in the third movie it's confirmed her mom was killed by humans, but I haven't watched it myself, so don't take my word for it. All the same, I see no problem with it, the very first scene of the movie is a ship pulling up nets full of fish to kill and consume, and one gets away and is visibly relieved, so we understand they have some sentience and that humans are non to kind to them. We also later see the chef cooking fish and crab, so I think we have plenty of visuals telling us why fish (and fish people) should be weary of humans and potential human contact.
About Ursula collecting souls - Sure you can argue about the terms of the contract and why even bother with a contract at all. For the sake of a kids movie we don't really need anything deeper than what we get, but if we're gonna make up potential scenarios in our heads there might be some clause to her magic that she can only collect their souls and/or demand payment if a contract is written and that some aspects of that contract need to be met, like the one signing the contract has to be given a proper chance at completing the task. As for the souls themselves, she probably don't get a whole lot from just keeping the seaweed creatures, but she probably made deals with all of them that she'd get something of them if they failed in whatever, and becoming one of those things are just also a side effect. Also means fewer people to oppose her when she's trying to take over.
About Ariel writing to Eric - The fact that she can write her name does not necessarily mean she is litterate. It's not uncommon that illiterate people is taught how to sign their own name for legal purposes. Also, just her name won't do any good as it pertains to getting Eric to realize she's the one he's looking for, as he don't know her name. And even if she can read and write, how would she go about explaining everything that happened. Sure, mentioning rescuing Eric at sea is a giveaway that she is telling the truth, cause how else would she know, but imagine if you found a girl at the beach and she wrote you a novel about how she used to be a mythological sea creature that only superstitious sailors believe in and how she sold her voice to an octopus witch who transformed her into human so she could get a true loves kiss. If I was the guy I'd probably think the girl had hit her head badly drifting ashore and probably swallowed too much salt water to boot.
About Eric still falling in love with Ariel - He's young and seemingly haven't been with a lot of (or maybe any) girls, and here is a beautiful young girl who is funny and all over you. Need I say more?
About Ursula putting a spell of Eric - The spell was probably an extra measure of safety, since he's already shown some interest in Ariel. Also, I've always assumed she couldn't have cast the spell without the voice since that already had some power over him (and the legends of siren song and how it influences men from real life), but that's just me. I'll give you that the wedding seem a bit drastic unless Ursula has some motive to gain power on land as well, in which case marrying a prince would be a logical step on the way.
About transferring the contract - Ursula surely made a clause or a footnote somewhere to make it possible, since it was always her end goal, but also, I'm not sure "for all eternity" needs to be read like you do. If I buy a car and pay for it in full, I get a piece of paper saying that this in now my car, in all legal terms I own this car, and I can technically go on owning it until I die, and if I will it to someone they can technically own it until they die and so on, but being my property, not something leased or borrowed or stolen, I am free to legally sell it, trade it away, gift to someone else or get rid off as I see fit, that is my right as the owner, so I think Ursula is in her full legal right to do what she does. The "for all eternity" bit just means it's not like a timed jail sentence where after X amount of time Ariel will be automatically released.
About making stuff stronger than the trident - I don't think that Ursula can just make powerful magical things that will work the same way as the trident, what she can do is write up contracts that follow the rules to be legally binding when signed, and the trident don't have the power to break those contracts. It's magic beyond what they can do themselves, like how Harry is magically contracted to be a champion in the tri wizard tournament in Harry Potter.
And disregarding the condition of the ship and how currents work, I think you could totally stab someone with a ship. The prow would be made of wood, and we see it's broken to create sharp points. Historically hunters traps have been set with sharpened sticks that release to kill on impact and both arrows and spears can be just sharpened sticks if you don't have any metal or stone heads to put on them. A ship would probably crush rather than stab, accounting for it's size and the speed at which it's going, but also, octopi are squishy and might just flex until they where pierced.
I thought this was more about the dad has changed. Since at the end he doesn't hate humans and let's her marry one.
I'm kinda hoping in the movie they'll make Ursula involved in killing Ariel's mom in some way but King Triton misunderstood it as being entirely humans fault and that's where his hatred for them comes from.
That’s interesting but in the little mermaid sequel where Ariel’s mom is killed she is killed by humans but maybe they’ll change it for this remake. I don’t even know if they’re going to mention Ariel‘s mother in the new movie hopefully they do though because I want a full backstory on her
I'm calling it but won't be able to confirm it since I'm blind, there will be a frozen Easter egg in the shipwreck.
As for the casting people complained about.
The film is set in the Caribbean.
Hailie’s casting fits as Javier’s.
Listen to Sebastian’s voice.
That was actually a really smart idea on their part! Especially because the Caribbean was colonized by the French and British, so Eric still being Caucasian makes sense
They get so hung up on the animated one being set in one place that they never comprehend that the only things that matter are; mermaid, prince, Triton, witch. Location is just flavouring.
@@VelaiciaCreator I think the consensus of where the original movie takes place is Denmark or around it.
@@leebulger7112 Yes, but that does not mean that it cannot be retold anywhere those necessities can be met.
@@VelaiciaCreator I just wanted to stating a fact okay 👍.
Can't wait to see how much less sense the live-action remake makes.
She has to make him fall in love with her, without her voice. So telling him that she needs to be kissed isn’t the solution.
Also, the consent thing…. Her entire reason for being there is to make him kiss her, so if anyone needs to ask for consent, it’s her, not him
I thought the voice casting a spell on Eric was just visual storytelling and he thought she was Ariel
Mythology-wise, if we go with the mermaids/siren theory, Ariel’s voice would attract mortal men by default
Thank you so much, Ursula literally stole the siren power and used it on Eric, she cant enslave people on her own she needed the siren song, also i think she wanted to marry Eric just to stick it to Ariel
That is not the entire truth of Sirens though. They don't just automatically attract men, they attract EVERYONE with something they desire. A woman could happily hop into the water, not for the promise of a sexy time with sirens, but because they're totally telling her that they know an amazing skin care routine, and all she has to do is swim through those razor-sharp rocks and she can have it. Money, power, the truth you always want to know, the sirens offer it, to your doom.
@@robertgronewold3326 Got it. But for the purpose of the movie, the goal was to attract Eric, and that’s what it did.
Ursula being stabbed by a boat was probably inspired by how one of Cthulhu's avatars was "defeated" (more like deterred) in one of his stories.
So it can totally work.
The prequel Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning does answer your question and fills in the plot hole a of why he hates humans and you guessed it.
4:48 - Why is Ursula collecting souls? It's obvious- she sells sea souls by the sea shore.
Ariel being a minor may have been the loophole to break the contract. Sure, back then, maybe she wasn't considered a minor, but the rule her father imposes over here would indicate that she might have been too young at that time, in that society, to make that kind of contact.
I am only 1:30 and the fact that you called Little Mermaid sexist means that you do not understand Ariel’s motivation. Eric is simply Ariel’s way permanently into the human world. Does she love him? Clearly. Does that mean that he is not simply a means to an end? No, he most definitely is a means to an end. Her “I Want Song” explains her motivations and the reprise is where they add her feelings for Eric.
1. OK, so as you said, Triton didn't give any examples in original animated movie proper, but your theory is actually the explanation used in the direct-to-video prequel: Ariel's mother was killed by human pirates.
2. Since Ariel was fully human at the time, it would just be the bends, not the reverse-bends (whatever that is).
3. I know they don't explain, but it seems pretty obvious to me that if Ursula cheats (more than she did), then the magic just wouldn't work. Like, she has to give Ariel SOME sort of chance for the terms of the contract to give Ursula her soul.
4. Eric was infatuated with Ariel's voice, fell in love with Ariel as a person.
5. Again, Eric doesn't love Ariel's voice more than Ariel herself, so Ursula SHOULD need that extra push to get him to choose Vanessa over Ariel, and I think it makes sense that using the voice that Eric is infatuated with helps facilitate the spell, but yeah, they could have explained that better.
6. I think it makes sense that Ariel would have more trouble swimming with legs, when she's used to swimming with a tail, so the earlier moments where she's swimming just fine make less sense; but at the same time, if she gets used to walking so quickly, she should probably get used to swimming with her legs just as quickly.
7. I'm sure there's at least one fine print on that contract. The real question...HOW is it legal? I feel like a broader understanding of the world's magic system would be necessary to explain this.
I'm sure there's someone else who might have wrote this or may have thought of this Ariel's contract was for legs. She's come to the surface numerous times without any the bends issues. So unless Ursula turned her completely into human I don't think Ariel in general would have trouble with going from water to land.
When Ursula/Vanessa puts a spell on Eric, we see that she's using the seashell in her necklace, in other words, she uses Ariel's voice to put a spell on him; this leads me to believe that Ariel is, in fact, a siren, wich also gives new context to Ursula taking her voice, she wants to ensure Ariel doesen't cheat. Also, this explains why Eric was so obsessed with finding her, he was under her spell from the beggining.
On another note, even if Ariel had gotten Eric to kiss her within the three days, I still don't think it would have worked, since they haven't had the chance to genuinly get to know eachother and are, at best, infatuated, no true love here.
So Jay at what point do/should parents move from “because I said so” to discussion with your children?
I think we like Ursula as the best villain ever in part because she plays a good game. She stayed true to her word about the deal. Ariel gets a kiss, Ariel is free, Ursula is "curses! Foiled again!" Ursula was surprised at how good Ariel was that she sent Flotsom and Jetsom to play dirty.
I think that's even more of a real why we love her so much. She will play dirty. Dirty but fair.
I always assumed Ursula got banished for making deals for people’s souls. My theory is she’s syphoning power from them to power her own spells. This is also why they revert back upon her death, the only reason they stayed small was that their magic was being continuously syphoned off and when that stopped they inflated back to normal size like a squished down sponge that’s dropped into water. Alteori has a theory that Ariel’s siren song put Eric under her spell when she sang to him on the beach and Ursula isn’t so much enchanting her song as enhancing the power and control it already possessed.
Some of this goes back to the original short story: the merfolk turned into corals are there because the mermaid swims past strange corals that try to grab her as she swims past and frighten her on the way to visit the sea witch. Ursula asks for her voice as payment because the most valuable thing a mermaid possesses is her voice. Ursula tries to marry Eric because the book’s version of the contract was if the mermaid could make the prince marry her she would become truly human, while if he married another she would turn into sea foam and die, there wasn’t a time limit. In the book she fails with the prince marrying another woman who he mistakes for his rescuer.
I always understood the boat scene to mean Eric doesn't consciously hear/understand Sebastian; the crab manages to plant the correct name in his mind but as far as Eric is concerned, he thought of Ariel himself. Still makes no sense that she doesn't write!
I think it would have been cool if they dropped the 3 days limit entirely, at that point it makes sense for Ursula to try and steal Eric's love, like a "Swan Lake" evil twin situation... only for Eric to realise that even if Vanessa has "the voice", she's kinda mean and he likes Ariel better.
Watched this film recently and had the exact same questions!
Also "Why didn't Ariel just steal the trident and avoid legal contracts alltogether?" Is basically the plot of the Atlantica segment of Kingdom Hearts
Doesn't that whole "for all eternity" part of Ursula's contract violate the Rule Against Perpetuities? She could have just made it last as long as the life of the last living descendant of King Charles III.
I see someone else is a Legal Eagle fan! 😂
@@MatthewCaunsfield LOL yes!
Well, permant transfer of ownership (as opposed to renting or leasing) is a thing.
I'd argue it just meant that Ursla's ownership of Ariel's soul doesn't expire, and doesn't prevent trades or sales later on.
As a kid, we read the original book version by H.C.Andresen where Ariel dies at the end a somewhat 'heroic' death, after she betrayed everyone, behaved selfishly, and didn't even think about the consequences of her actions. The Disney version obviously filtered some of the less PG-friendly things, but still basically the same character and ZERO consequences. The entire point of the story is to teach kids that bad behavior = bad things might happen to you or the people you love.
I can't wait for the new version I hope they fix this to at least some extent.
I always thought that while writing isn’t speaking, writing a message would be sharing hear voice, just not literally. Ariel can’t write to Eric because the contract gives up her voice.
I also always assumed that the contract is in English for the viewers sake, and Ariel and Eric may still speak and write different languages from each other
In the prequel it was because of a pirate ship hitting Athena when she was on the surface playing with a music box or some s*** but honestly I think the sequel was better because Ariel got to see kind of what her dad was dealing with because her daughter desperately wanted to go to the ocean which Ariel was like. It's dangerous because there was another sea which that has been trying to kill Melody since she was born so they basically outlawed the sea there's also a theory that since Melody wanted to live in her grandfather's kingdom under the ocean that they needed a new heir for Eric's kingdom an ariel died in labor of their son The Prince from Cinderella that theory being that in Cinderella 3. A twist in time we see his mother is a redhead who can't dance and in the first Little mermaid we see the Eric's father looks almost identical to the prince's father in Cinderella. So it is to say that he is that princess father and Ariel is the deceased mother there's a bunch of theories about how other Disney princesses are connected through family trees kind of makes me want to write a fanfiction based on the Dcom princess protection program
Here are a few of my explanations for some of the questions.
Why not write? Ariel can't read or write English instead of what we see on the contract is actually a translation for our benefits. Like localizing an anime.
Why marry the guy even though he is under a spell? The spell could need some feedback. Basically if Ursala wants to maintain it long enough she would need to display some affection herself to keep him hooked or at least oblivious to the fact. Also rule land and sea.
Why does she want the trident despite having something just as good? Short version the trident is more convenient. Her contracts require consent to take effect, she can't impose her contracts on others like how the trident can just destroy everything by it's user's will. The king didn't need Ariel's permission to destroy her treasures.
I have been conditioned by Arrested Development to expect to hear “You’re a crook, Captain Hook” every time J talked about “sea law”
As someone who was just in the musical, THE STAGE VERSION OF THIS STORY MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE!!!
How did they fix plotholes there?
@@Weronika_24_ I was in the musical a few years ago so I can explain!
First Triton and Ursula are the children of Posidoen with Ursula's shell being a gift from her father. The original had then rule the sea together but the revamp (the one I was in) gave them six older sisters that Ursula killed. Triton is also significantly younger than Ursula in this verison thus when he came of age took the throne from her and prompt banished her for her acts. The concert in the musical is actually a celebration for said defeat of Ursula.
Ariel's mom is also later killed by Ursula but Triton blames humans. In the musical the mom went out for a swim and was found dead. Ariel even voches for humans which helps Triton be convinced to turn her human again
On the Disney Wish, they had a live action Little Mermaid play, and I absolutely loved the changes they made. Ariel becomes the victor over Ursula, Triton is still traded for the Trident, but apparently the Trident only responds to the most powerful creature in the sea, which becomes Ariel, which was such a good twist and way for her to overthrow Ursula. I hope it took inspiration from their plans for the new live action remake!
How can Ariel be the most powerful creature in the sea when she has 6 older sisters and Ursula is pretty powerful with her magic if that counts for anything.
@@leebulger7112 probably because shes one of the daughters of the strongest being in the ocean (Triton) and shes a main character in a movie cmon
Ursula is one of my favorite Villains. Curious as to whether in the remake she will be Ariel's Aunt.
I read she will, JW.
@@shiradaniel Her being Triton's sister checks out. Or she's his wife's sister and blames him for her death, which would be interesting.
@@coolnerdlll6053 OK.
If I were Ariel, I would have haggled with Ursula. I would have offered my voice only if I became human full-time, or do the three day gamble, but keep my voice.
Disney took some liberties with The Little Mermaid. In H.C. Andersen's story Ursula's contract says that she'll die and become foam on the ocean since she is a mermaid and has no soul. The spell makes Ariel not only human, but every step feels like she is walking on glass. Eric meets a princess that he thinks is Ariel, and fell in love at once with her. They wind upp getting engaged while Ariel and Eric bonds as friends. Ariel's sister's also made a deal with Ursula to get Ariel back if they lost their hair, and Ariel killed the prince before sundown (or something). Ariel refused to kill him since she loved him, and became foam on the ocean.
I feel like it may be closer to the musical/Play version, where King triton does think that the humans killed his wife. And it turn out it was Ursula (who also has more back story)
Ok this video is beautiful! J just spends 16 minutes and 43 seconds ranting about The Little Mermaid. I didn’t know I needed to see that but I did. It was beautiful
Wow…..Just wow. How does someone misunderstand a movie this much? Did these guys go to the CinemaSins School of Media Criticism?
Their review for the Mario movie exposed how utterly incompetent they are.
@@RockyRZ I’m not surprised.
There was a lot of unknowns going on during the story. Like nobody knew that the Trident could turn Ariel into a human. Or that by killing Ursula she could have made the curses stay permanent or something like that. Also Ariel was just trying to get away we don't know if it was just her legs just flailing from ascending to the surface.
"the disney remakes are often hit and miss"
when was the last hit again? :/
If you don't think anyone would have minded renaming Aladdin to Jasmine, you haven't been on the internet for awhile, hehe.
When I was little my family rented this movie and I was just old enough to realize that it wasn’t real. Instead of paying attention to what was actually happening, I just kept wondering how they did it. My parents said it was movie magic and I was like “there’s no such thing as magic.” Fast forward to today and I’m a film major.
The fork/trident thing will forever bug me now 😂. I never really thought about it. I am excited to see how they transform this one though. Maybe some of these questions will be clarified.
I love the original Little Mermaid and I’m excited to see the new live action! I feel like whichever way you look at it nothing is going to make sense because it’s FICTIONAL. Also if you watch the second and third Little Mermaid movies it explains a lot of what you’re confused about, lol.
I think you're the first person I've seen who is actually excited about the new Little Mermaid movie. Personally I'm kind of done with Disney right now because of the woke political messages they try to push on kids. I wouldn't be surprised if they made Flounder bisexual or something like that. Although I will say that the actress' singing in the trailer was by far my favorite part.
I second that
14:44 Disney sucks at making good movie contracts. It’s a fact. Every movie/TV show they make that involves a contract has the biggest plot holes and loop holes.
There is actually an animated prequel-sequel where we literally see Ariel's mother die to a ship because she tried to get a music box Triton made for her back, and Triton banned music forever because hearing music reminded him of Ariel's Mother's death. So yeah, the prequel-sequel already confirmed that's probably why Triton hates humans.
do we really need an example for why fish people dont like humans? I mean we hunt like crazy almost killing off many types of whales multiple times and we pollute the oceans. You definitely dont need a personal incident.
Yes!!!! She could have written everything she wanted to say and explain everything to Eric!!!!
That listening part is something I feel a lot of parents forget to do especially ones who are more outdated in their parenting methology. Especially if they are authoritative parents rather than ones that are able to keep a civil discourse with a child and understand them learning why they are doing x thing that seems like they are just disobeying to disobey. There’s also the fact that a punishment and rewards system as a form of teaching and parenting is very flawed and doesn’t work.
This feels like one of those "How do i monatize my suffering?" videos since his kid wont stop watching it.
You guys gonna do a vid on The Mandalorian finale?
Still got to watch it soooo Maybe!
12:00 I love to imagine that Ursula would’ve won just by the voice, but JUST IN CASE, she pulls a spell so Eric will NOT change his mind, because she’s starting to doubt herself instead of Ariel
Aw i love that your son was so happy about ariel!😊 Wholesome to see that even boys like mermaids, even though a lot of people will say its not masculine enough. 😑
Ursela steals Ariel's voice to get revenge on King Triton and his Kingdom and she marries Eric to gain his Kingdom and get control of the sea there.
What super important to remember here is that the movie would make much more sense if you were looking at it through the Greek tragedy lens. In Greek mythology this all makes sense. Sirens and triton being a son of Poseidon.
As for not being able to swim to the ship, but could rise from the bottom to surface, because of her legs: project herself straight up by pushing off the ground and kicking allowed propulsion and less drag in fluid state. When she was fighting against the waves, she is now at surface with more movement of water - resistance. Go to the bottom of a pool and push yourself up from the bottom. kick hard. Now go to a wave, pool and tread water while the waves are crashing on you. No, human being with newly acquired legs, would have been able to swim as a Siren can. All she could do is keep her head up.
I was a 16 year old when this came out. Our Generation was expanding our horizons and young women were in need of better modelling than the ME Generation gave us. I think you’re all expecting way too much from a movie that patronizes young women, and stereotypes her to being a flaky, greedy, subservient creature. Disney has an opportunity here to depict Ariel as a strong woman with clarity of mind. If the live action remake continues with the plot device of the animation, they’ll have further shown they continue as nothing more than a capitalist nightmare. They can profit and still DO BETTER.
The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie. I watched it all the time as a child. It's a comfort movie as an adult. It makes me happy. Ariel is the reason I love mermaids.
Fascinating and interesting video on Disney Version of The Mermaid 🧜♀️ the Original Book 📖 written by Hans Christen Anderson
Before I get in to the video, this was a topic I thought of last time I saw it. While SOME plot points are in the original novel and we HAVE to carry them over, there are a few plot points I thought of that could change every thing
1. Give Ariel a pen and paper
2. Turn the prince in to a merman
3. Have the King confront Ursala sooner she took many victims did that not bother you?
4. There are characters and musical numbers in this film n o on e remembers
5. Does it have to be a kiss on the lips? does it have to be a love kiss?
6. Humans can't hear animals talk so actually "Kiss the Girl" means nothing
7. rather then follow Ariel all over, tell the king sooner what happened
8. How did Flounder move the statue?
9. The Sequel and prepull movies don't impress me and don't answer my questions about character motivations but of the 2 the sequel was better
10. which of the movies many controversies is still worth talking about and what ones really aren't?
I always thought the Eric statue just fell into her grotto by coincidence.
@@leebulger7112 I seem to recall Flounder saying he "Brought the statue there" if it feel it was very lucky to have just landed in that spot and upright.
@@sasamichan I guess I just missed that line but still how could he do that?
In the original story The Witch had a beef with the princes' father and when the Mermaid failed to win the prince, the Witch promised to change her back if she killed the man. Which of course she didn't.
In original story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Mermaids do not have souls. Her love for human things actually was shown before she met the Prince. A Mermaid age of majority is 15, which when they turn, they were allowed to go on land, and also, Mermaids can't cry. She also falls in love more with Prince after months of observing and learning about him. Mermaids can live up to 300 years too but have no after life but humans do. Only when a man falls in love with a Mermaid more than his own parents and proves the love by a priest marrying the Mermaid, after professing eternal love can she "get a soul" by the man’s own soul "flowing into" the Mermaid. But this never happens because men do not fall in love with Mermaids. Also, when on land with two feet, she walks on bleeding feet that feels like she walks on knives.
I really hope that the live action establishes more rules for Ursula’s magic.
One simple change could be to just make it so that she technically _has_ a lot of abilities and powers but is only able to use them by way of contracts with others. Maybe this could even be part of her banishment? Like way back in the day Triton banished her and restricted her powers so that she could only use them on people who actively agreed to it and signed a contract. She wants her hands on the trident only to undo this banishment/curse and get her old self back.
Then, instead of actually turning herself into Vanessa, Vanessa could just be one of the souls Ursula has collected in the past and since she legally owns her she is able to make her do whatever she wants.
I just feel like something as simple as that could help make the story and the character make a lot more sense because it gives her a lot more restrictions in terms of powers which makes it so much more believable and it makes her even more terrifying in my opinion.
Ariel is the 4th Disney Princess that is a mother of Melody and a wife of Prince Eric.
Ariel, Carlotta and Melody are my favorite characters.
3 things,
1) in recent years Ive realized something, Ariel is the Bella Swan of Disney movies. I still love this movie, but cant love her as much as when I was little
2) in a prequel (i dont remember its name) Ariels mother was revealed to be killed by pirates.
3) in Fairy tales theres the rule of 3. 3 is an important number in fairytales. 3 little pigs, 3 wishes for aladin, 3 nights of the princes festival in the original cinderella. feel like thats why Ariel had 3 days to get eric to kiss her
Considering the source material was the modern equivalent of short stories, I'm not surprised that there were plot holes! I mean it was an adaptation not a revamping! When you take into consideration how much they had to clean it up for kids from the original source material that adds more complications to the story 🙄. Don't even get me started on how many versions there were of the original 🙄. I know of at least three. I mean it's not like it was Edgar Rice Burroughs doing the script. With original content and an idea of the world being built.
You destroyed my childhood and I loved every minute of it 😂
Well, it's a common convention with magical contracts that excessive interference (positive or negative) by involved parties in regards to the other side is prohibited. It's not that they can't negatively influence the outcome necessarily (though that convention is expressed more or less strictly depending on magical universe), but there is often a built-in 'allowance of possibility' on the part of the enforcing party (in this case, Ursula). So, sending her minions or even going so far as to compete and attack directly in the final moments is one thing, but outright stopping her from even being able to try (by locking her up so she can't even look for her target), especially in a way that would guarantee death (like sealing her underwater so she drowned) would either make such a contract null and void, and might even cause a negative backlash on the party violating the agreement in this way.
Also, the notion that she can't perform a substitution with a willing party isn't necessarily true. Ariel became her property (yes, for eternity), but possessions can generally be sold or traded. Again, it's a common convention that the contract holder can trade or sell the property referred to within the contract, or even release it from obligation if they so wish. Substitutions are often allowed if the contract holder agrees, though it varies whether such substitutions will be enforced if made under duress (which isn't relevant in this case regardless).
Contracts that can't be destroyed by force is also a common trope. They're often established to stop powerful beings from reneging on their agreements when they get what they want, so it makes sense that mere force (magical or physical) isn't enough to destroy them. Pretty sure Ursula herself couldn't destroy that contract when it was in its active state, though again I'm pretty sure once she had 'won' she could have nullified it if she wanted to. It's a pretty common trope for magical contracts like this to backfire on the beings that wrote them, usually because they agreed to fulfill conditions on the off chance the contractee fulfilled the terms of the contract, and were unable to do so for one reason or other, in spite of all their negative interference or just a generally unfair contract (see: Hades' contracts with Hercules in Disney's Hercules movie for examples; Herc's power gets restored because Meg got hurt saving Herc, and Herc was able to rescue Meg's soul and got out of the substitution clause because it was conditional on him being a mortal), or because they agree to a change that seems beneficial but backfires.
Of course, these conventions aren't established in this universe, and Ursula definitely interferes a LOT by the end, so 'whatever the movie shows as being allowed, is' I guess. Most likely it's just arrogance; she was certain Ariel would fail, so it amused her to watch the naive lass set out with expectations of success. I mean, the terms of the contract are already rather unfair. Find some 'random' human she met once within 3 days, in a literal new land she has never been to, have him fall for her, and kiss or whatever on top of that, all whilst being unable to communicate verbally? Even by Disney universe standards that's rather absurd.
Wow! My moment of realisation, great video, guys!
How is the animated Little mermaid sexist?
It's about a mermaid seeing a human and falling in love, and she does what she has to do to win his love in return. Throw in another female that is jelious and tries to win over the other woman's man, and you have basically things that happen in every day life.
If anything you can call the animed little mermaid a bit racist because Ariel's father doesn't like humans and says he refuses to allow his daughter to marry one, but it's far from sexist.
Then again you can blame Captain Hook for how King Triton feels about humans, since he killed Ariel's mom and King Triton's wife.
You really need to be using scuba-diving equipment to get the bends. You don't have enough nitrogen in your bloodstream usually to get it from free diving. So she might have suffocated definitely, but getting the bends? Eeh probably not