| “ | Ursula: Poor child, I can help you. You can't live in that world unless you become a human yourself. Ariel: Is that even possible? Ursula (chuckling briefly): It's what I live for. |
„ |
| ~ Ursula offering her services to her niece Princess Ariel. |
| “ | You belong to me. | „ |
| ~ Ursula stealing Ariel's voice - her most famous quote. |
Ursula, also known as The Sea Witch or Vanessa in her human disguise, is the main antagonist of the 2023 musical fantasy film The Little Mermaid, the live-action remake of the 1989 animated feature film of the same name. She is the live-action incarnation of the mainstream version of Ursula.
She is a cecaelia sea witch and the sister of King Triton. Her hunger for power led Triton to banish her from the aquatic kingdom of Atlantica. Upon finding out that Princess Ariel, Triton's youngest daughter and her niece, is in love with a human prince named Eric, Ursula sees this as an opportunity to trick her niece into signing a deal with her to start a chain of events to overthrow Triton and take over the Seven Seas, putting everything Ariel knows in jeopardy.
She was portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, While in her human form Vanessa, she was portrayed by Jessica Alexander.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Unlike in the original movie where she turns the mermaids who make deals with her into polyps when they failed to achieve the goals she set for them (which she again rigged in her favor), she straight up kills them here as her lair is littered with the corpses of her victims. While the polyp thing was considered a fate worse than death, killing them is still very bad.
- However the polyp thing is still implied to happen in this version .
- She pushes Ariel (who is her niece in this version) into accepting the deal when the mermaid refuses (and Ariel did in fact say no here from hearing all the terms as opposed to just being hesitant from having to give up her voice).
- After turning Ariel into a human, she is shown to take enjoyment in seeing Ariel struggle for air.
- She slips in a spell to make Ariel unable to remember that she needs to kiss Eric in order to further ensure that Ariel can't fulfill the terms of the deal.
- She uses Ariel's siren voice to allure Eric and those close to him into thinking she was the one who rescued him, using them as tools to capture Ariel and upon failure, she used her deal with Ariel to get Triton to give up his Trident.
- When Triton hands her the trident, she has Flotsam and Jetsam electrocute him into nothingness. It's important to note that they are actually related in this version, so this counts as fratricide.
- She tries to kill Ariel and Eric when they oppose her.
- Much like in the original, her death of being impaled by a ship (this time done by Ariel) is seen as deserved for her actions.
- An important detail is that this movie only shows Triton being brought back to life with none of Ursula's other victims getting even a hint of being restored after her defeat.
- Though she has many comedic moments, she's still played completely seriously in-universe.
What Prevents Her from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite how much worse she is shown to be in this live-action remake compared to her animated counterpart, she is shown to still very much care for Flotsam and Jetsam as she screams "my babies" when Ariel makes her kill them. In fact, her horror of doing this feels a lot more convincing of how remorseful she is for killing them by accident.
External Links[]
- Ursula on the Villains Wiki
- Ursula on the Disney Wiki
- Ursula on the Wikipedia
