‘The Little Mermaid’ did a lot for Disney. After what’s called the Bronze Age AKA the era of Disney movies that struggled to initially find their footing as they were the first to come about after the passing of Walt Disney, some wondered if Disney could still be the animation powerhouse. Those movies would eventually find their place, but at the time…it was rough. Then Disney said, let’s try and do what we did once upon a time but toss a little Broadway razzle-dazzle on it. With that and the end of the ‘80s came a tale from under the sea, and from there…one of my all-time favorite Disney villains, Ursula.
She gets lumped into the villain category because yes, she does take advantage of a young girl in love and comes across as a pretty devious but at her core, Ursula is an entrepreneur, a businesswoman. For that, can we really hate on her? In all honesty though, of all the villains out there in pop culture, Ursula has to be one of the most beloved, and for good reason. First and foremost her aesthetics are some of the most eye-catching. A lavender wonder that’s part octopus…how can you not live for her?
And while Ariel was the first modern-day Disney princess that kickstarted the Renaissance era, Ursula was the initial villain of this chapter and gave all who followed very large shoes to fill. Eight to be exact. “Poor Unfortunate Soul” was a showstopper that I feel could only be matched by Scar’s “Be Prepared” in terms of a Disney villain really delivering something that was on par with the protagonists. She set the bar too high with that performance. Oh, and her turning into a literal sea monster – to this day is one of the scariest villain scenes in animation to me.
Yes, she didn’t concoct a plot to kill her brother like the aforementioned Scar or give off major rape vibes like Frollo from ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ but she’s still a top-tier villain to me and always will be the one that helped give my generation Disney’s best. Yeah, sorry to those princess movies that came before but like…I don’t know her…
Oh, and not to mention that Disney has since given a few characters backstory movies and with no signs of Ursula getting on, it feels criminal. There were more than enough context clues within ‘The Little Mermaid’ to lead us to believe that Ursula once lived in the castle alongside King Triton so like…what’s going on there? Disney really just announced a Mufasa movie when like, why…he was born into a pride, likely had some shit go down with Scar, and become king. We get it. Give us the Ursula story on the big screen. It’d be major if they did.
Ursula is one of my favorite villains and my villain crush, but I’m not the only one with a crush like this. This week author Paige Lavoie is here to talk not only about her December 2022 release, ‘I’m in Love with Mothman,’ but also about her crush on another animated villain. Only not of the Disney variety…
Crushgasm 