Ariel

Name: Ariel

Species: Mermaid

Family: Daughter of King Triton

Primary setting: The underwater kingdom of Atlantica and the surrounding ocean

Ariel is a young mermaid princess whose defining characteristic is an almost overwhelming fascination with the world beyond her own. She is adventurous, curious, independent-minded, imaginative, impulsive, affectionate, and stubborn. Her entire character revolves around curiosity and the desire to explore.

Ariel is rarely completely still. Her body language is generally:

• Energetic

• Curious

• Expressive

• Fluid

• Playful

• Occasionally impulsive

She tends to lean toward things that interest her, she turns her head quickly, she reaches toward objects, she gestures with her hands, she swims around rather than simply moving from one place to another, and she often physically expresses her excitement before verbalizing it. This creates the impression that her curiosity is constantly pulling her forward.

Ariel's personality can be divided into several major traits:

-Curiosity

-Adventurousness

-Independence

-Stubbornness

-Impulsiveness

-Imaginative

-Playfulness

Humans fascinate her. She wants to know what humans eat, how they live, what their technology does, what their cities look like, what their customs are, and what life on land feels like. The human world is almost mythical from her perspective.

Ariel's secret collection of human artifacts is one of the best physical representations of her personality. She gathers objects from shipwrecks and other encounters with the human world. She examines things intensely and tries to determine their purpose.

King Triton is Ariel's father. Their relationship is complicated because they love each other but fundamentally disagree about the human world.

Triton's perspective is that humans are dangerous and the sea is Ariel's home. He wants to protect her. Ariel's perspective is that humans are fascinating and the surface represents possibility. She wants to explore. Neither side is irrational. That's what makes their conflict effective. Triton's problem is that his protectiveness becomes controlling. Ariel's problem is that her desire for independence can become reckless.

Flounder is Ariel's closest friend. Their personalities complement each other. Their friendship works because Flounder provides caution without extinguishing Ariel's adventurous personality. He's anxious, but loyal. Ariel is reckless, but affectionate. Sebastian functions almost like Ariel's reluctant supervisor. He's frequently tasked with watching over her and keeping her out of trouble. Unfortunately for Sebastian, Ariel is exceptionally good at finding trouble. Their relationship therefore has a comedic quality. They're practically opposites.

Ariel's voice is youthful, expressive, enthusiastic, and emotionally transparent. Her singing voice is especially important to the character. Singing gives Ariel a means of expressing feelings that ordinary conversation can't fully contain. Her songs communicate her curiosity, dreams, frustration, longing, excitement, and desire for independence. Ariel's major strengths are her courage, curiosity, determination, imagination, compassion, enthusiasm, and her adaptability since she can enter unfamiliar environments and learn quickly.

Her strengths can become weaknesses when taken too far. Curiosity to recklessness, determination to stubbornness, independence to defiance, imagination to naivety, and emotional intensity to impulsiveness.

Ariel is simultaneously a princess who belongs to the sea and a girl who desperately wants to leave it. That's the central contradiction of her character. The ocean is beautiful, she has a family, she has friends, she has a home. But Ariel has an enormous curiosity that her existing world cannot completely satisfy.

Appearance: Ariel has the highly stylized facial proportions characteristic of traditional Disney animation. Her face features:

• Large, expressive blue eyes

• Dark pupils

• Long, prominent eyelashes

• Thin, expressive eyebrows

• A small nose

• A small, rounded chin

• Full, expressive lips

• A youthful facial structure

• Smooth, warm-toned skin

Her eyes are particularly important to her appearance. They're large enough that relatively subtle changes in her expression become extremely obvious. Curiosity, surprise, fear, excitement, confusion, and affection can all be communicated through her eyes before she says anything. Her eyebrows are similarly expressive. They frequently rise when she discovers something interesting, lower when she's suspicious or frustrated, and move dramatically when she's excited. Ariel's hair is arguably her single most recognizable physical feature. It is:

• Extremely long

• Thick and voluminous

• Bright red

• Wavy

• Highly stylized

• Extremely mobile in underwater scenes

The red isn't a subtle natural auburn. It's a vivid, saturated crimson-red that makes her immediately recognizable against the predominantly blue and green environment of the ocean. Her hair becomes particularly distinctive underwater. Rather than hanging straight down, it floats and spreads around her head and shoulders. It can billow behind her, sweep around her face, or form a huge flowing mass around her upper body. Ariel's hair is also part of her body language.

Ariel's eyes are large, bright blue, and extremely expressive. Their exaggerated size gives her a youthful appearance. Her wide-eyed expressions reinforce her sense of wonder. She frequently looks at unfamiliar objects with intense concentration. It's usually very easy to tell what she's thinking or feeling since Ariel isn't particularly good at hiding her emotions.

If she's fascinated, excited, or worried, you can see it.

Ariel has a human-like upper body that transitions into a large fish tail. Her mermaid design consists primarily of:

• Human-like torso

• Two arms

• Two hands

• Human-like face and neck

• Long green fish tail

• Large tail fin

Her tail is predominantly green, creating a strong contrast with both her red hair and purple top. The tail is highly flexible and expressive in animation. It isn't simply a static appendage. It functions as her primary method of propulsion underwater and contributes substantially to her silhouette and physical acting.

Ariel's most recognizable underwater outfit consists of a lavender/purple seashell-style top.