Thursday, April 24, 2014

A-Z: Classic Monsters: U is for Ursula

Today's letter for the A-Z Challenge is U.  One of my favorite monsters that Disney created is Ursula, an evil sea witch who's wicked character helped make the The Little Mermaid a classic animated film.

About Ursula

Essentially, Ursula's character was a sea witch.  The original tale of The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Anderson, has the sea witch and a "neutral enabler," who sells her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her voice.  Disney, however, decided to change her role into a "full-fledged antagonist" when they created the animated version of The Little Mermaid, back in 1989.  For information about Ursula see Disney Wiki.

Why I think she's a classic monster


Although, I think the original tale of The Little Mermaid is darker, Disney definitely brought this character to life.  What I like about Ursula is she's memorable, evil and a little bit funny too.  I like that she seeks revenge from King Triton, Ariel's father because he cast her out of the City of Atlantica.  She's also treats her minion eels Flotsam and Jetsam, like her children.  Remember that?  I read how Disney, after watching a documentary on octupi, lead to the eventual creation of the nefarious character.  It you remember, those who sought her help and made a bargain with the powerful witch, always lost and were turned into polyps.  One of my favorite scenes is when she sings Poor Unfortunate Souls.  Do you remember that song?





Sadly, Disney's merchandising department remade this classic animated character last year and released a slim down version of the doll.  What a crime!  See how the butchered her here.  

What other monsters where you thinking about?  I thought about the Undead and Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge.

12 comments:

Anything and Everything Paranormal Blog said...

Lover your choice today. Always found this character so unique.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Would you believe I've never seen the Disney version?

Bob/Sally said...

My 2 year old is addicted to the nightly repeats of the series on Disney Junior, so we've seen plenty of Ursula. :)

My A to Z Challenge

Sophie Duncan said...

This is where I admit I've never seen The Little Mermaid - I have always been unsure of it due to Disney giving it a happy ending, which is so un-Hans Christian Andersen :)
Sophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - A to Z Ghosts
Fantasy Boys XXX - A to Z Drabblerotic

Timothy S. Brannan said...

I love Ursula!

I read a great alternate tale where Ursula took her fight right to the King and didn't bother with Ariel at all. Ursula won.
Course that was the point of this particular anthology, classical fairy tales where the "evil" witch won.

--
Timothy S. Brannan
The Other Side, April Blog Challenge: The A to Z of Witches

S. L. Hennessy said...

Poor Unfortunate Souls remains my favorite Disney villain song!

Anonymous said...

Blog hopping today and happy to spend some time with a fun character, Ursula. Thanks for the hard work i can see you have pored into your offering.

Tasha Duncan-Drake said...

This is where I have to admit I've never seen The Little Mermaid isn't it :). I've seen clips with Ursula though and she's definitely a memorable character.
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings - AtoZ (Vampires)
FB3X - AtoZ (Erotic Drabbles)

Debra said...

I loved the songs in the little Mermaid but the story just made me so angry. It seemed so misogynist that I swore off all Disney movies for a very long time.

Unknown said...

What a cool concept for the A to Z challenge. Love it! I follow! rsmccoy.blogspot.com

djinnia said...

Love Ursula! She's one of my fave baddies. And yes, I am totally hearing the song as I type this!

Suzi said...

I liked he sense of humor too.