The Little Mermaid live-action has already made it to the surface and out in theaters now!
The Disney live remake featured a lot of twists and turns, and one of those twists is who ends up killing Ursula in 2023’s The Little Mermaid.
WARNING: This part of the article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for 2023’s The Little Mermaid. So read at your own risk!
How Does Ursula Die in The Little Mermaid (2023)?
If you can recall, the original animated film showed Ursula the Sea Witch transforming into her gigantic form, cursing the storms in the sea as she held the trident tight in her hands.
In the 1989 version, it was Prince Eric who drove one of the lifting shipwrecks that ended up stabbing Ursula, causing her imminent death as she sunk into the sea along with the shipwreck.
However, The Little Mermaid live-action tweaked things up a bit.
Now, The Little Mermaid remake changed a few things in live-action and one of them is highlighting how much alike Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and Ariel (Halle Bailey) are.
Apart from being hoarders of having their own ‘treasure troves’ where Eric keeps his collection of different maps and shells with Ariel on trinkets from the human world, they both share one other common goal.
They both want to lead their own destiny.
In this case, The Little Mermaid live-action featured Ariel steering the wheel of the shipwreck on her own as a way to save Eric from Ursula.
Even though Ursula’s target was still Ariel in the live-action, this did not stop her from driving the death boat to kill the Sea Witch herself, leaving Eric to swim to safety on shore.
Why Did They Change The Ending of The Little Mermaid (2023)?
Despite many fans growing tired of Disney creating live-action remakes of our childhood favorites, the Mouse House is always right on one thing: changing the storyline.
Take the Aladdin live-action (2019), for example. Instead of Jasmine (Naomi Scott) simply being the princess of Agrabah, or in her animated counterpart’s words ‘a price to be won’, the remake made her shine more.
She had her own song about feeling ‘Speechless’, rendering her goal to be the exact opposite of that and lead her own destiny.
In the case of The Little Mermaid live-action, Ariel steered the shipwreck into Ursula, a metaphor for not only killing the Sea Witch to avenge her father King Triton's death, but also to take control of her life, take it into her own hands.
This, in addition, drove Ariel to swim down and prioritize seeing if King Triton comes back alive once the trident is back in his hands. Surely enough, it does, rekindling the bond between father and daughter in the process.
A simple change, yet an impactful storyline that balanced both Ariel and Eric’s heroism and bravery in The Little Mermaid live-action.
So what are you waiting for? Grab your tickets and go see The Little Mermaid live-action in theaters now!
ALSO READ: The Ending of The Little Mermaid Explained
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