Disney has made several movie adaptations of centuries-old tales, and The Little Mermaid was one of them. The plot borrows many key elements from the original story Hans Christian Andersen wrote. Of course, changes were necessary since children were the target audience. 

The filmmakers had different ideas to filter through when producing the animated classic. They turned toward real people to come up with a couple of their characters. Ariel’s origins derive from a young actor who was popular at the time.