Ursula, the fictional character in the famous Disney movie "The Little Mermaid," can be seen as an embodiment of divine power. She is a sea witch with a sinister agenda, using her knowledge and magic to manipulate others for her own gain. Ursula's actions and characteristics parallel those of divinity in various ways. Firstly, Ursula possesses a vast amount of knowledge, similar to how divine entities are often depicted as all-knowing. She uses her knowledge of magic and the sea to exert control over the lives of the mer-people. With her extensive understanding of spells and potions, she is able to grant wishes and make deals that seem appealing to her victims.

The Little Known Drag Origins of The Little Mermaid’s Ursula

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in Disney's live-action THE LITTLE MERMAID. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There are many reasons—beyond the lack of original IP—for a studio to reinvent a classic film: updating it to better reflect our diverse world, introducing it to a whole new audience, invoking the nostalgia of those who love the original. But such revisions, as seen in the current iteration of The Little Mermaid, also pose a challenge: The new mechanisms—look at those hyper-realistic CGI animals—run the risk of falling ironically flat when juxtaposed against the elegant creations of the original. And what to do with a character who is so fully formed in the original, there can seem little room for reinterpretation? Such a challenge is posed with The Little Mermaid’s Ursula—a character who not only occupies prime position as one of the most thrillingly evil Disney characters, but who brings with her a lesser known history directly related to the rich and colorful drag tradition.

According to animator Rob Minkoff, Ursula was originally described in the script as a Joan Collins–like figure, resulting in character designs that depicted a thin, bony woman with lionfish- or manta ray–inspired features. But Minkoff, who would later go on to co-direct The Lion King, drew a much more voluptuous take on the character based on the drag queen Divine, who dominated counterculture as a fixture of John Waters’s filmography.

“Pink Flamingos was on an endless loop at the Bijou [Theater] at CalArts when I was a student there,” Minkoff says of the classic John Waters film. “Divine seemed like such a great, larger than life character, and it just seemed like a funny and quirky idea to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen.”

That character sketch, which has also been described as a “Miami Beach Matron,” caught producer and lyricist Howard Ashman’s attention and took the character in a totally new direction. Like John Waters and Divine, Ashman was a gay man from Baltimore, and, as the writer of Little Shop of Horrors, shared a similar edgy sensibility. He came to Disney following that success in musical theater alongside his songwriting partner Alan Menken, where they helped resuscitate the studio’s ailing animation department. The success of The Little Mermaid ushered in a new wave of Disney animated musicals, including Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, which the pair also worked on until Ashman’s death in 1991.

In the documentary Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid, Waters calls his unlikely role in inspiring a Disney character “the ultimate irony.” “I’m sure that if you went to the Disney executives before they made this movie and said we’re gonna have a very big character in the movie, and we’re gonna base it on Divine…on Dopey Lane that ain’t flying.” (Dopey Drive is situated within Walt Disney Studios.)

But before the character could make it onto acetate, Minkoff needed to find and shoot a live-action character reference for Ursula. He tapped his CalArts roommate Max Kirby from the acting program, who donned a muumuu to take on the role. “Because it was based on Divine, it made sense that it would be a man, not a woman,” Minkoff says. “There is footage that shows us behind the scenes with Howard Ashman, and directors John Musker and Ron Clements, setting up to do ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’”—a showpiece for Ursula in both the original and the remake.

Not only was Ursula played by a man in that early reference footage, but Ashman himself took on the role to perform a demo of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” at the request of Pat Carroll, who voices the character in the film. In Treasures Untold, she recounts how she asked Ashman to perform while waiting together for a music rehearsal: “Well he put on the cloak immediately, sang the song…he was brilliant. And I watched every move of his, I watched everything, I watched his face, I watched his hands, I ate him up!”

It was from that performance that some of Ursula’s most famous lines were born. “I stole ‘innit’ from Howard,” Carroll confesses, referring to Ursula’s iconic remark. And I said, Howard, is it alright if I steal those? He said, I was hoping you would.” The result is a brilliant performance from Carroll, informed by Ashman’s own take on the character.

Now, with Melissa McCarthy’s live-action take hitting screens, the lasting impact of Ursula’s drag origins are as clear as ever. Throughout the film’s promotion, McCarthy has touted her love of the artform as inspiration, telling Deadline that she wants to give Divine her due. In addition to being a devoted fan of drag, McCarthy herself has a past as a drag performer. In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about performing comedy as the drag persona Miss Y in Hell’s Kitchen in the early ’90s.

“It was me there with my lovely gay guy friends and I was dressed like a big old drag queen. I went by Miss Y,” she said in the Rolling Stone interview, presumably a play on her nickname Missy. “I had a gold lamé swing coat on, a huge wig, big eyelashes. I talked about being incredibly wealthy and beautiful and living extravagantly.”

McCarthy cites the confidence that that outlandish performance gave her, so it’s no surprise that she would lean heavily into that passion for drag when it came time to create her Ursula. It was a task undertaken alongside Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood and Oscar-winning makeup designer Peter Swords King, who says that McCarthy insisted there was no such thing as “too much.”

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in Disney's live-action THE LITTLE MERMAID. Photo: courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

With a character as storied as Ursula, creating a new iteration was no easy feat. The team had to strike a balance between paying tribute to the original, while also creating something fresh, exciting, and distinct to McCarthy and her talents. The Ursula they decided on had a 1950s Peggy Lee vibe combined with an octopus-inspired fashion sense.

“I’ve never been to so many aquariums in my life,” Atwood says of studying the eight-tentacled creatures that inspired her design. “Instead of going with a smooth surface like the animated film did, I really wanted to have the dimension of the texture of a real octopus.” To achieve that, she used a sequin fabric base with a laser cut leather on top — and in another divergence from the animation, added a dramatic collar. The collar, illuminating Ursula’s face with angler-fish-esque lights, not only gave her a “showbiz vibe” but also helped separate her from the dark environment around her.

King had intended to have someone else execute his vision but ultimately he decided to handle McCarthy’s makeup himself, and the pair instantly bonded over their mutual love of drag. He insists that his initial ideas weren’t based on drag queens, instead saying that he simply set out to create an “outrageous” face without losing McCarthy under it.

But sure enough, when it came time to create the dramatic look, King “went straight online and watched drag artists get rid of their eyebrows. So thank you all drag queens out there, because it was down to you,” King says, referring to the drag technique of gluing down eyebrows to then draw on new, more dramatic ones. “We have a white version of the purple [glue] stick they use, and I used that on her.” He also went through two Pat McGrath palettes for her metallic green eyeshadow, countless press on nails, and a new set of false eyelashes everyday — all of which are now framed in King’s study. Wary of the makeup feeling too paint-by-numbers, King says they even dabbled with the idea of leaving the look deliberately imperfect. “We weren't too particular about being pristine, which I think is important because it makes it look like she could have done it herself.”

That concept, of Ursula putting on her own glamorous battle armor is one that Atwood echoes. “I like the idea that drag artists make their own costumes, so it’s really part of them. Ursula kind of created her own costumes,” Atwood says. “She’s a vulnerable character. She's shielding herself from the rejection that she’s suffered, and having that layer of artifice, as opposed to literal armor, is a metaphor for all that.”

How Drag Queen Icon Divine Inspired The Little Mermaid's Ursula

With her extensive understanding of spells and potions, she is able to grant wishes and make deals that seem appealing to her victims. This echoes the idea of a divine being having access to hidden wisdom and being able to offer guidance and assistance. Furthermore, Ursula's ability to alter her appearance and deceive others aligns with the concept of divine transformation.

Take a deep dive into the origin story of Disney's most fabulous villain, Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

There's no conspira-sea here, The Little Mermaid's Ursula has a fabulous origin story.

The treacherous sea-witch—played by Melissa McCarthy in Disney's new live-action remake of the 1989 animated classic—is known for her over-the-top persona, dagger-sharp manicure and bold makeup. Think: Exaggerated eyebrows, overdrawn red lips and fanned-out lashes.

It turns out, the villain's trademark look was inspired by none other than drag queen legend Divine (née Harris Glenn Milstead).

"Pink Flamingos was on an endless loop at the Bijou [Theater] at CalArts when I was a student there," director Rob Minkoff, who worked as a character animator on the OG Little Mermaid, recalled to Vogue about the John Waters film. "Divine seemed like such a great, larger than life character."

Ursula was initially going to resemble Joan Collins, however, basing the character on Divine made much more sense. "It just seemed like a funny and quirky idea," Minkoff added, "to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen."

Plus, producer and songwriter Howard Ashman could relate to Divine and Waters on a more personal level, Vogue noted. Growing up as a gay man from Baltimore, he often ran in the same social circles as both entertainers.

Moreover, Ashman himself took on the role of Ursula, demonstrating her famous "Poor Unfortunate Souls" song at the request of the late Pat Carroll, who voiced the villain in the original movie.

"He put on the cloak immediately, sang the song," the actress recalled in the 2006 documentary Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid, "and I watched every move of his. I watched everything, I watched his face, I watched his hands, I ate him up!"

In the same documentary, Waters, who often cast Divine in his films and credited her as his muse, explained the trailblazing nature of Ursula's origins.

"I thought it was great, it was the ultimate irony," the filmmaker said. "I'm sure that if you went to the Disney executives before they made this movie and said, 'We're going to have a very big character in the movie, it's not some tiny, little ingénue part, and we're going to base it on Divine.'"

Referencing the famed drive on the Walt Disney studio lot, he joked, "On Dopey Lane, that ain't flying!"

So, how does McCarthy's version of the sea witch compare to the animated movie? Well, she's giving credit where credit is due.

"My inner Divine is always with me," she told Yahoo. "I'm a huge John Waters fan. [His films were] on loop for me all through high school and college. And I always knew when I watched the original one, like I didn't have any facts to back it up, but I was like, 'I am convinced that's based on Divine.' She looks like Divine. The bodiness is there."

Although the Bridesmaids star created a fresh version of Ursula, she believes her performance holds true to Divine's essence.

"I think I totally brought that in," she shared. "That humor, that self-deprecation. The homage to what you love and also poking fun at it is what makes drag so entertaining and fantastic. So that certainly played a big part in this for me. I'm a huge fan of drag."

Moreover, McCarthy pulled inspiration from her own experience as a drag performer in the 1990s, in which she used the stage name Miss Y and played at various New York venues.

"I had a gold lamé swing coat on, a huge wig, big eyelashes," she recalled to Rolling Stone in 2014 of her costume. "I talked about being incredibly wealthy and beautiful and living extravagantly."

Another aspect of Ursula that was drawn from the drag queen community? Their beauty techniques. Makeup designer Peter Swords King admitted that he and McCarthy watched videos of drag artists to learn how to remove her eyebrows.

"So, thank you all drag queens out there, because it was down to you," he told Vogue about gluing the eyebrows down to then create a more exaggerated shape. "We have a white version of the purple [glue] stick they use, and I used that on her."

When it came down to the actual makeup application, King took a more imaginative approach, noting, "We weren't too particular about being pristine, which I think is important because it makes it look like she could have done it herself."

Now that you know Ursula's glamorous history, you can swim on over to theaters on May 26 to see the new live-action version of The Little Mermaid.

Read This: How Divine inspired Ursula The Sea Witch

If you’ve ever re-watched Disney’s The Little Mermaid as an adult, you’ve probably had that feeling that the movie’s villain, Ursula The Sea Witch, reminds you of someone. As it turns out, that’s not a coincidence. Ursula is inspired, in both appearance and demeanor, by drag legend and John Waters muse Divine.

This revelation begs the question, how does a character based on a poo-eating, ultra-profane cult movie star wind up in a Disney movie? The missing link, according to a new article in Hazlitt , was Howard Ashman. Ashman was the playwright and lyricist responsible for Little Shop Of Horrors. He also came up in the same Baltimore-D.C. gay scene as Divine. After the failure of Smile, his post-Little Shop broadway debut, Ashman and his writing partner decided to take a job with Disney.

Depressed and dejected, he and Menken accepted an offer from Disney executives Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner to move across the country and write the lyrics for an animated feature. The studio was reeling from its own expensive bomb . With a budget of $45 million in 1985, The Black Cauldron was one of the most ambitious animated films that had ever been made. It earned only $23 million at the box office. Bringing Ashman and Menken to work on an adaptation of The Little Mermaid felt like the studio’s last chance at a blockbuster.

Ashman saw that animated films could be like musicals—with songs furthering the plot rather than just adding color. In working on the film he drew on his Children’s Theater training and his West Village attitude.

Ashman wound up working as a producer on the project, as well as writing both music and dialogue.

During the early stages of the film, animators tried several versions of Ursula, until finally Ashman saw one that inspired him.

Early on, The Little Mermaid’s directors and animators created several iterations of Ursula. One was a manta ray inspired by Joan Collins. Another was a “beautiful but deadly” scorpion fish, recalled director John Musker. None worked, until an animator named Rob Minkoff drew a vampy overweight matron who everyone agreed looked a lot like Divine.

She had the eye makeup, the jewelry, the body type, and the glamour. But instead of tentacles, Minkoff gave her a shark tail and a pink Mohawk. The sketches were almost there. Musker, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenburg, and Ashman could all feel it.

“She looks like a Miami Beach matron,” Ashman had cackled when he first saw the drawings. He told Musker and Minkoff he could imagine the sea witch “playing Mah Jong by the pool.”

Sadly, Divine, real name Glenn Milstead, didn’t actually get to bring Ursula to life. He died shortly after the release of Hairspray in 1988. That said, everyone who knew him said he would have loved the character.

But, had he known about Ursula, “he would have wanted to play the part himself,” said Jeffrey Schwarz, the documentarian who chronicled Milstead’s life. John Waters agreed. What filthy anti-hero wouldn’t relish such a plum role? “When I was young, all I wanted to be was a Disney villain,” Waters told me. “My idol was the stepmother in Cinderella.”

Ursula is a plum role because as Glenn Milstead, Howard Ashman, John Waters, and generations of queers and drag queens know, being ostracized, fat, and sick can bring its own strength and power. Jeffrey Schwarz doesn’t think it’s strange that Divine, a delightfully filthy drag legend, inspired a children’s movie. He thinks, rather, The Little Mermaid is a pretty queer film. “You have these people that named their little girls Ariel because of this romantic view of that girl, and people who look at this movie and say, ‘this is totally subversive,’” Ashman Gillespie said.

In many mythologies, gods and goddesses are known to shape-shift or take on different forms to interact with humans. Similarly, Ursula transforms herself into a beautiful human woman named Vanessa to deceive Prince Eric and prevent him from choosing Ariel. This ability to change her appearance showcases her divine power and her manipulation of mortal beings. Moreover, Ursula is portrayed as a formidable and intimidating figure, much like how divinities are often depicted as powerful and sometimes menacing. Her deep, raspy voice, dramatic gestures, and commanding presence make her a force to be reckoned with. Ursula's imposing nature adds to her portrayal as a divine figure who wields immense power and possesses the authority to influence the lives of others. Finally, Ursula's downfall can be seen as a reflection of divine justice. Despite her initial success in tricking Ariel and achieving her goals, Ursula ultimately meets her demise as her own treachery is exposed. This serves as a reminder that even the most powerful entities will face consequences for their actions, emphasizing the concept of divine justice prevailing in the end. Overall, Ursula's character in "The Little Mermaid" exhibits traits and actions that align with the notion of divinity. Her knowledge, transformative abilities, commanding presence, and eventual downfall all contribute to her portrayal as a character based on the divine..

Reviews for "Divine Justice: Uncovering Ursula's Motivations for Seeking Vengeance"

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Divine Temptress: Unraveling the Dangerous Allure of Ursula's Personality