The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure (stylized The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure) is a ride attraction based on the 1989 Disney animated film ''

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" (), sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story foll ...

'', located in

Paradise Gardens Park Paradise Gardens Park is a themed land at Disney California Adventure. The area opened as Paradise Pier in 2001 along with the rest of the theme park. In 2010, World of Color and Silly Symphony Swings were added. To complete the Paradise Pie ...

Disney California Adventure Disney California Adventure is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. The park is themed after Disney's interpretation of California ...

and in

Fantasyland Fantasyland is one of the "themed lands" at all of the Disneyland-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world. It is themed after List of Disney animated films based on fairy tales, Disney's animated fairy tale feature films. Ea ...

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...

's Magic Kingdom Park, where it is titled Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid (stylized Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid). The ride opened on June 3, 2011 at

, and on December 6, 2012 at

Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park is a Amusement park, theme park at the Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It opened on October 1, 1971, and is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Disney Experiences, Expe ...

History

In the early-to-mid-1990s,

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...

attempted to develop a ''Little Mermaid'' dark ride for

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France, located about east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, seven Disney-owned hotels, two convention centers, a golf course, an arena, and a shopping, dining and entert ...

and

parks. Early plans for

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual prope ...

and

Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong Disneyland () (abbreviated HKDL; also known as HK Disneyland or Disneyland Hong Kong) is a theme park located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It opened to visitors on Monday, September 12, 2005, at 13:00 H ...

also included this ride. None of these versions were actually built, although a computer-generated ride-through animatic was included on the Platinum Edition DVD of ''The Little Mermaid'' in 2006. Disney later went on to design and build a different version of the attraction for

, as part of an effort to revitalize that park in the 2000s. The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure opened on June 3, 2011 in an area of

Paradise Pier Paradise Gardens Park is a themed land at Disney California Adventure. The area opened as Paradise Pier in 2001 along with the rest of the theme park. In 2010, World of Color and Silly Symphony Swings were added. To complete the Paradise Pie ...

formerly occupied by ''

Golden Dreams ''Golden Dreams'' is a film about the history of California. It was a featured attraction at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opening with the park on February 8, 2001. It starred Whoopi Goldberg as ...

''. In September 2009, Disney announced that

Mickey's Toontown Fair Mickey's Toontown is a themed land at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, two theme parks operated by Disney Experiences and The Oriental Land Company respectively. At Tokyo Disneyland, this land is named Toontown. A similar land existed at the M ...

at the

would be demolished to make room for an expansion of Fantasyland. One of the new elements would be a ''Little Mermaid'' dark ride, much like the one slated for construction in California. Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid opened on December 6, 2012. On March 20, 2014, the attraction at Disney California Adventure closed for maintenance. It reopened May 10, 2014 with several enhancements; new sea creature figures were added throughout the ride, a view of King Triton's castle was added, the "Under the Sea" scene was given a blacklight treatment, and the Ariel and Prince Eric figures' sculpted hair was replaced with realistic hair in the "kiss the girl" and "finale" scenes.

Summary

Exterior and queue

At Disney California Adventure, the building is modeled after a 20th-century

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

, featuring a statue of King Triton at the top. The queue passes beneath a series of canopies and into the building itself. The loading area features a large, hand-painted

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

depicting the story's major characters. The Magic Kingdom attraction has a different exterior and queue, featuring Prince Eric's castle and the surrounding

cliffs In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are com ...

. Guests enter through a

cavern Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock sh ...

at low tide, and part of the queue includes an interactive

scavenger hunt A scavenger hunt is a game in which the organizers prepare a list defining specific items that need to be found, which the participants seek to gather or complete all items on the list, usually without purchasing them. Usually participants work i ...

with Scuttle. The mural in the loading area is also substantially different from the one at Disney California Adventure.

Ride

At both Parks, Guests board one of 105 Omnimover vehicles themed as large, colorful clamshells (Similar to the ones found at

The Seas with Nemo & Friends The Seas with Nemo & Friends (formerly The Living Seas) is a pavilion and aquarium located in the Epcot#World Nature, World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as a ...

at Epcot). These proceed through an opening in the broken hull of Prince Eric's ship. Scuttle greets the Guests and makes a muddled attempt to tell them Ariel's story, while the instrumental version of "Fathoms Below" plays behind him. The clamshells then rotate backwards as they make their way along the

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

and descend "

underwater An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a Water, body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the ...

" (an effect achieved through projections and blasts of cold air). As they continue their descent, the clamshells travel through rocky underwater passages filled with

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

and coral (in Disney California Adventure, clams,

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, seahorses, and

starfish Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

can be seen in the passages as well.) Ariel and Flounder can be seen briefly through an opening overhead. Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid - Magic Kingdom

Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid - Magic Kingdom

The underwater passage opens to reveal Ariel in her grotto, singing "Part of Your World." She is surrounded by her collection of treasures from the human world. Flounder floats along beside her while Sebastian occasionally appears among the bric-à-brac. As he reminds Ariel about the wonders of being under the sea, King Triton's castle can be seen in the distance, and the scene opens up to a large underwater garden where Sebastian conducts dozens of singing, dancing

sea creatures Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

through the song "Under the Sea." The celebration fades as Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula's pet

eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order (biology), order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 Family (biology), families, 164 genus, genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the earl ...

, welcome the Guests to the

sea witch A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections ...

's lair. The clamshells pass into the mouth of an enormous beast's

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

and find Ursula singing "Poor, Unfortunate Souls" inside, standing at her

crystal ball A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in fortune-telling. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying through crystal gazing. Used since Antiquity, crystal balls have had a broad reputation with ...

and surrounded by her collection of lost souls. Ahead, a vortex of light surrounds Ariel as she trades her voice for a pair of human legs. The clamshells ascend among projected bubbles and splash onto the shore of a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

. Sebastian sings "Kiss the Girl" while Eric and Ariel sit together in a boat, leaning in to kiss each other before backing away sheepishly. After leaving the lagoon, the clamshells pass before a doorway to Prince Eric's castle, where silhouettes of Ariel and Eric are seen finally kissing. A golden orb glows from within Ariel's neck, signifying that she has regained her voice. The orb proceeds to encircle the two, creating a heart shape as Ariel and Eric kiss. The smoking silhouette of a giant, defeated Ursula is visible on the horizon. The clamshells proceed into the final scene of the attraction, where King Triton, Sebastian, Flounder, and several sea creatures celebrate the wedding of Ariel and Eric. The couple waves goodbye from a gazebo on the ocean's edge. Fireworks explode in the sky overhead. As the clamshells pass into the unload area, Scuttle finishes his story by exclaiming that he's "not such a bird-brain after all." The attraction offers 103 standard clamshells, as well as two wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAV's) for Guests who are unable to transfer from their wheelchair.

Music

Arranger Danny Troob adapted Alan Menken's original songs for the attraction. He also wrote an orchestral medley for the loading area, several transitional cues, and a new arrangement for the finale. Some of the scenes use the original vocal performances from the film, with

Jodi Benson Jodi Benson (née Marzorati; born October 10, 1961) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for providing the voice of Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Ariel in The Walt Disney Company, Disney's ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Litt ...

providing the voice of Ariel and

Pat Carroll Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She is best known for providing the voice of Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid''. She made guest appearances in many popular television series including '' ...

providing the voice of Ursula. There are also new performances by Phillip Lawrence as Sebastian,

Chris Edgerly Chris Edgerly is an American voice actor. Life and career Edgerly provided the voice of Peter Potamus on the Adult Swim animated series ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'', in addition to several guest voices on the TV series ''Drawn Togeth ...

as Scuttle, and

Corey Burton Corey Burton is an American voice actor. He is the current voice of Captain Hook, Ludwig Von Drake and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave on '' The Transformers'', Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe, Count Dooku and Cad Bane in ...

as Flotsam and Jetsam.

References

External links

Official page at Disneyland Resort's website

Official page at Walt Disney World Resort's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Mermaid Amusement rides introduced in 2011 Amusement rides introduced in 2012 Amusement rides manufactured by Sansei Technologies Audio-Animatronic attractions Dark rides Disney California Adventure Fantasyland Ariel's Undersea Adventure Magic Kingdom Omnimover attractions Paradise Pier Paradise Gardens Park 2011 establishments in California 2012 establishments in Florida Fiction about witchcraft Fish in popular culture Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions