Where is The Little Mermaid set?

luke85 · February 06, 2010, 03:55:07 PM

As Tiana from the Princess and the Frog is the first American Disney princess, I was going through the princesses and thinking about their nationalities. Where is Ariel from? Obviously under the sea, but which sea? I had thought maybe the Caribbean, but I only really guessed that because of Sebastian! There seems to be no reference to where Eric's kingdom is, unless I've missed something all these years!

Snow White - German
Cinderella - French
Aurora - French
Ariel - ?
Belle - French
Jasmine - Middle Eastern
Pocahontas - Native American
Mulan - Chinese
Tiana - American

dagobert · February 06, 2010, 05:14:16 PM

I thought Aurora is German?

luke85 · February 06, 2010, 05:21:09 PM

Yeah I wasn't sure about Aurora to be honest, I was just going on the nationality of Charles Perrault, whose novel the film is based on.

Aveen2008 · February 06, 2010, 06:20:53 PM

Somewhere In the atlantic ocean - hence kingdom being called atlantica?

Columbiad · February 06, 2010, 07:46:18 PM

I always thought of The Sleeping Beauty being more English, consdiering the medieval setting, and Cinderells being Austrian, purely on the architechure and costume.

Aveen2008 · February 06, 2010, 07:49:59 PM

To be honest it's not something I ever took much notice of unless it was a noticably different cultural thing like mulan. I would almost forget Beauty and the Beast was set in France. For Aurora, cinders and snow white i never thought of them as being anything other than american/english.

Pete's Dragon · February 06, 2010, 08:47:38 PM

Well poet and author Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, so I always assumed Ariel was from around there too.

luke85 · February 06, 2010, 10:33:19 PM

Quote from: "Pete's Dragon"Well poet and author Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, so I always assumed Ariel was from around there too.

I had thought that too, but I don't think the scenery in the film is Denmark. I suppose not knowing exactly where it's set adds to the mystery of the film?!

Anthony · February 07, 2010, 01:11:13 AM

The film is set somewhere vaguely Mediterranean. You can see it in Prince Eric's castle and confirmed by where they were going to put the dark ride in DLP's Fantasyland (opposite Pizzeria Bella Notte). Probably not the same as Hans Christian Andersen imagined, but the setting would be the least of his complaints. :wink:

TowMater · February 10, 2010, 09:06:49 AM

I got told by a cast member at one of my visits to WDW that Ariel is a fitonal lanaguage called 'Atlatain'.

ToadWithPinkEyes · February 12, 2010, 05:51:28 PM

That lanuage is refered to in CS Lewis' The Magician's Newphew. I think Ariel is of her own species nationality. I.E: She's not human!

pussinboots · February 14, 2010, 10:33:26 PM

I think it simply isn't set anywhere specifically. Which gave them the freedom to keep Eric Danish-ish with that name of his, add various tropical fish and put in a Mediterranean-looking castle simply because it works better in the story. "A mermaid who has been stuck in the cold water all her life would be attracted to a warm-looking castle like that," I believe the quote was.

So it's set in Fantasyland.

Oh, and to whomever said Sleeping Beauty must be set in England because it looked so medieval; I think it's worth noting that the Middle Ages occurred in other places too.

TheDuck · November 30, 2010, 04:35:19 AM

After reading this post I watched the movie a couple times and can't come up with a concrete answer to this question. I agree with pussnboots, they didn't specifically designate a location which gave them more freedom in telling the story. But I am sure there is some back story to it somewhere that might get told on a Blu-Ray or Dvd bonus feature that will be release in the future.