Under The Sea Lyrics

Under the Sea Trivia

• Under the Sea won an Oscar for Best Original Song.
• This is a big song in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid. It is performed by Sebastian the crab, who is trying to convince Ariel the mermaid that instead of joining the human world, she should enjoy the wonderful life they lead underwater.
• The song is done in a Calypso style typical of the Caribbean, as the undersea creatures are, after all, tropical. In the movie, the song is performed by Samuel E. Wright, who was the singing voice of Sebastian. Alan Menken wrote the music with lyrics by Howard Ashman.
• The song was released as a 12″ single in 1990 by Walt Disney Pictures / Hollywood Records.
• In 2002, the song was featured in the Square Enix action RPG as the background music for the Atlantica world.
• In 2006, the song also appeared in Kingdom Hearts The song is present throughout all the Walt Disney parks and resorts and the Disney Cruise Line.
• In 2015, the song makes an appearance on the Disney Cruise Line shows “Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic” and Disney Magic, as well as in “The Golden Mickeys”.

“The Little Mermaid” movie trivia

• The first Disney fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty (1959).
• This was the first Disney film to receive an Academy Award since Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), though other films had been nominated.
• The film’s Oscar wins for Best Original Song and Best Original Score would be repeated for their next four films – Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994) and Pocahontas (1995).
• This was the last Disney animated feature to use hand-painted cels and analog camera and film work. 1,000 different colors were used on 1,100 backgrounds. Over one million drawings were done in total.
• In the opening scene when King Triton arrives at the arena, you can briefly see Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Kermit the Frog in the crowd of sea-people as mermen when he passes over them.
• There are several shots of Ariel, sitting on a rock, in a pose reminiscent of the “Little Mermaid” statue that sits in Copenhagen harbor.
• Alan Menken is the all-time Oscar-winning champ alive with eight trophies to his name, and the first two came for his work on 1989’s “The Little Mermaid,” including the Harry Belafonte-inspired original song Under the Sea. Menken has said that he and then writing partner Howard Ashman was interested in something between reggae and calypso, but a riff that would roll back onto itself. What they conjured was one of the most delightful and identifying elements not just of the film, but of the new direction for Disney, which was then hit a stride into a new golden age for the animation studio. “We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea!”
• Originally, Sebastian was to have an English accent. It was lyricist/producer Howard Ashman who suggested he be Jamaican. This opened the door to calypso-style numbers like Under the Sea, which won the Academy Award.
• Ariel was quite deliberately made a redhead in order to distinguish her from Daryl Hannah’s character in Splash (1984).
• It’s possible that Prince Eric could be related to Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (1959). In the dining room in Eric’s castle on Ariel’s first evening on land, there is a painting hanging on the wall. The couple bears a striking resemblance to Aurora and Phillip.
• HIDDEN MICKEY: In the scroll that Ursula gets Ariel to sign. It is in the middle of the words when it pans over the scroll from top to bottom. Also, in the scene where the animals are trying to break up the wedding, right as the seals are jumping onto the deck of the boat from the ocean, there is a woman with black hair in a red gown with her back to the camera. The shape of her hair clearly outlines Mickey’s head until she turns sideways.
• The character of Ursula was based on drag performer and John Waters regular Divine. Her personality and some of her actions were also largely inspired by a previous Disney villain, Madame Medusa from Disney’s The Rescuers (1977).
• Christopher Daniel Barnes was only 16 years old when he recorded his voice for Prince Eric – the producers felt his voice sounded much older than he really was.
• The dress Ariel wears during her dinner with Eric is actually a combination of different dresses worn by every Disney princess prior to her. The puffy sleeves with the diamond designs are similar to the sleeves on Snow White’s iconic dress. The light pink color comes from Cinderella’s mother’s dress (the one the stepsisters rip apart). The full skirt and draping are from Cinderella’s famous ball gown. Finally, the off-the-shoulder neckline and long, pointed sleeves were inspired by Aurora’s royal dress.
• Ben Wright’s final film, was released 4 months after he died of Brain Cancer. When he got the part of Grimsby, Prince Eric’s butler, the erstwhile Disney folks had no idea that he had been the voice of Roger in 101 Dalmatians (1961) and Rama in The Jungle Book (1967). He had to tell them.
• Ariel and her sisters’ tails consist of the colors of the rainbow. Attina orange, Alana violet, Aquata blue, Arista red, Adella yellow, Andrina indigo, and Ariel green.

Misheard Under the Sea Lyrics

Misheard Lyric: Under the seaweed after or cup

Real Lyric: Under the sea we off the hook