My authority for saying this is a lifelong obsession with The Little Mermaid and Ariel herself, and countless hours spent in beaches and swimming pools trying to recreate the iconic hair flip.

Ariel has always been a plucky, badass heroine, but the 2023 movie really drives that point home by having her do some of the things that other characters did in the original cartoon. It might be the best overall change between the two versions.

–She tricks the shark that attacks her and Flounder with a mirror so that they can escape. In the cartoon the shark gets stuck in the ring of an anchor by accident.

–During “Kiss the Girl,” she figures out how to tell Eric her name without anyone’s help. Sebastian just whispers it to Eric in the original.

–She physically fights Vanessa/Ursula to get her voice back. As in, Ariel runs up to her, tackles her, yanks her necklace off, and throws it on the ground. In the cartoon, the necklace falls off Vanessa thanks to Scuttle.

–And finally, the movie reverses Eric and Ariel’s positions during the final fight against Ursula. This time, Ariel steers the boat that skewers Ursula.

Bad news for those of us who had a massive crush on 1989 Eric: You will have an even bigger crush on 2023 Eric (and Jonah Hauer-King). New Eric is an orphan who was adopted by Queen Selina after a shipwreck killed his parents and, like Ariel, feels out of place in his own life. Also like Ariel, he argues with his overprotective parent and has a neat collection of items he picks up on his high-sea adventures.

The original movie doesn’t explicitly state how Ariel’s mother died, but in the reboot she was killed by a human and it’s part of the reason why Triton hates humans. Triton and Ursula are also siblings, and it’s implied that Ursula’s banishment happened around the time Ariel’s mother died. 

I’ll admit that I was…puzzled, to say the least, when the trailers showed that Scuttle would be able to pe and speak underwater. But this Scuttle is a gannet, and gannets do indeed pe and hold their breath underwater. This might seem like a random change, but it actually serves a greater story purpose: Since she’s not popping up to the surface all the time to see Scuttle, Ariel’s first trip above water is on the night she saves Eric from the shipwreck.

They bond over Eric’s collection of stuff and his many maps, and Ariel teaches him what some of his sea artifacts do. The scene where she uses the constellations to tell him her name?? ADORABLE. The original movie saw Eric be amused by Ariel’s curiosity, but in this version he encourages it because it matches his own. Soulmates! Romance is not dead!

This was always the case! She sang “Part of Your World” before ever laying eyes on Eric! But in the reboot she’s slightly less obsessed with Eric based on physical attraction. Cartoon Ariel was very into that statue of Eric.

In the 1989 version, Ariel signs her name on a literal contract with Ursula, which lets us know she can write and begs the question: Why wouldn’t she just write Eric a note to tell him who she was? Well, director Rob Marshall resolved this in the reboot by having Ariel “sign” her contract with a drop of blood and a scale from her tail.

Another small change is that Ursula holds up a bunch of skulls when she sings about those who “couldn’t pay the price,” implying that she just kills anyone who breaks a deal with her instead of keeping their souls in her garden. There’s also a full merperson skeleton at the bottom of her lair. Fun!

I always thought Ursula was trying to convince Ariel to take the deal, not that she was espousing the values young girls should live by. This is Ursula we’re talking about. She was lying and being manipulative! Plus, it’s the best verse in the song. Melissa McCarthy was the perfect Ursula, so it’s a shame we don’t get to hear her sing those lines.

“Wild Uncharted Waters” is sung by Prince Eric as he’s obsessively searching for Ariel. It’s soulful, angsty, and evocative of “Bet On It” from High School Musical 2. This is the highest compliment I can afford.

“For the First Time” is sung by Ariel during her first day on land, but it’s an inner monologue since she’s already lost her voice. It’s not just another chance to hear Halle Bailey’s angelic voice, but also a lovely window into Ariel’s excitement and anxiety as she takes her first steps as a human.

Ariel also sings a second reprise of “Part of Your World” after she learns that Eric and Vanessa are engaged. It will make you sad.

It’s probably an understatement to say that “The Scuttlebutt” has gotten a mixed reception. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s signature style of musical theater rap just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the songs in the movie, and it also seems totally out of place within the plot. It gets points for the clever wordplay, but the two minutes spent here should have gone somewhere else.

There is nothing wrong with “Daughters of Triton,” but cutting it means that the first song we hear is Ariel’s “Part of Your World,” which is way more impactful.

As for “Les Poissons,” if Disney insists on making the CGI animals in these reboots so realistic, it’s probably for the best that the song about how fun it is to kill fish got the axe. 

Ariel’s sisters didn’t have a big role in the original movie, but at least they had a song! The reboot teased us with the possibility that the Daughters of Triton would have a more screen time when it was announced that they’d have different names and ethnicities from their animated counterparts—Princess Indira is even played by Bridgerton‘s Simone Ashley. The mersisters in this version are also Triton’s emissaries across the ocean and report back to him once a year, which is very cool! It’s just a shame that it got so little attention to make time for Scuttle rapping.

You might remember that “Vanessa” is Ursula’s human alter ego who uses Ariel’s voice to bewitch Eric. That’s still the case in the reboot — Jessica Alexander nails her scenes as Vanessa and Halle Bailey sings her ~evil siren song~ perfectly. Eric is completely hypnotized by Vanessa in the cartoon, but the spell barely works in the reboot because he’s already so in love with Ariel. He spends the whole time he’s with Vanessa asking Grimsby where Ariel went because 2023’s Eric is a simp.

When Ursula turns Ariel into a human, she also throws a little bit of amnesia into the spell so Ariel won’t remember that she only has three days to kiss Eric. The writer/director probably added this so that Ariel wouldn’t have any hidden agenda during her interactions with Eric and their connection would be even more organic. And you can see the good intentions there…but it honestly just made things confusing. It’s never clear what Ariel does and does not remember from her visit to Ursula. 

Ultimately, this little detail doesn’t change anything about Eric and Ariel’s relationship anyway, so it feels kinda unnecessary.

Yes, after their (super emotional) reunion post-Ursula battle, Ariel and Eric still get married. But we don’t actually see it this time! Instead, the movie skips ahead some time see Ariel and Eric leaving the kingdom to do what they’ve always wanted: travel the world and learn about other cultures with the blessing of both their families.