The Little Mermaid’s ending slightly alters the end of the animated version — enough that the sequel, Return to the Sea, can (and should) never happen.
The line that gets me every damn time I watch the 1989 animated version of The Little Mermaid isn’t one of the famous ones — a lyric from “Part of Your World,” Ariel’s defiant “But Daddy, I love him,” or even one of Sebastian’s quippy asides. It comes toward the end of the movie, when Triton finally realizes that Ariel will be happier on land, and uses his magical trident to give her legs. Afterward, he turns to Sebastian and says, “I guess there’s just one problem left — how much I’m going to miss her.”
That moment has more impact than any other line in the movie, because it disrupts the conventional “happily ever after” narrative. Unlike other Disney fairy-tale endings, the end of The Little Mermaid is deeply bittersweet. True love saves the day, and there’s a big wedding. But unlike Cinderella escaping from her abusive stepmother or Beauty and the Beast’s Belle reuniting with her father, Ariel leaves behind her loving family for a new life — and she can never return to the way things were.
The new 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid keeps that line intact, but shifts the ending around it a bit in a way that overwrites the original movie’s sequel, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. But as it turns out, that isn’t a bad thing.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the 2023 Little Mermaid, and also for Return to the Sea.]
Triton is a strict, overprotective parent, but like many parents, he does what he does because he believes he’s keeping his daughter safe.
