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Little Mermaid Part 3: Honestly Ever After · Revisionist History

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin exterior ocean the ship Magic Hour, Ariel grabs onto
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a portal window. She hoists herself out of the seas
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: scales the side of the ship toward the deck. The
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: final bars of cannon ind float down from above as
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Ariel ascends.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Do you, Prince Eric, take Ursula to have and to
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: hold in sickness and in health for as long as
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: you both shall live.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Ariel throws one leg over the starboard railing. The guests,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: enraptured by the perfection of the bride and groom, don't even.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Notice her arrival.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Eric looks deep into Ursula's eyes, hypnotized.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History,
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. This episode is
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: the third and final part of our investigation into the
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: Walt Disney Companies nineteen eighty nine princess blockbuster The Little Mermaid.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: In parts one and two, we told you what was wrong.
• 1:33
  Speaker 6: With the movie.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: In this part three, Revisionist History brings you our production
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: of The Little Mermaid, a version finally fit for your children.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: Allow me to reintroduce you to the creative force behind
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: our version of the Little Mermaid the actor and screenwriter
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: britt Marling. We met her in the previous episode where
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: I asked her to reimagine a better ending for The
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: Little Mermaid, to identify precisely where Disney went wrong and
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: fix it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 7: Look, there's something very true at the center of The
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: Little Mermaid, and that's what makes it sticky, both the Hans'
• 2:20
  Speaker 7: version and the animated version that came from Disney. And
• 2:24
  Speaker 7: the sticky thing at the center is that women do
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: often lose their voices at around that age, and so
• 2:34
  Speaker 7: any myth that doesn't have something true at the center,
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: you just fades away. It doesn't really last the test
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: of time. But a myth that gets something right will
• 2:41
  Speaker 7: stick around.
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: In both the original Hans Christian Anderson version of The
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Little Mermaid and in the Disney version, the Little Mermaid
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: must surrender her voice to the Sea Witch in order
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: to participate in the real world.
• 2:55
  Speaker 7: To get to a true, happy ending, you have to
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: acknowledge that the tear in the story is maybe correct right,
• 3:02
  Speaker 7: that it functions as a cautionary tale. Young women sometimes
• 3:06
  Speaker 7: do lose their voices, and that or that point of
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: no return promises an obligatory scene and the obligatory scene is, well,
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: how does she get her voice back? Does she get
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: her voice back? What does she say when she has
• 3:19
  Speaker 7: her voice back? And on those counts, the Disney version
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: really fails to inspire a genuine happy ending about how
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: a young woman might get her voice back and then
• 3:31
  Speaker 7: what she.
• 3:32
  Speaker 8: Might do with it.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: Someone just randomly gives her voice back, Like did she
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: go to the loss and found that it happened to
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: be there? I mean, it's it's about as unsatisfying as that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 8: I mean I went back and rewatched it, Malcolm because
• 3:44
  Speaker 8: I was like, I can't be as bad as I
• 3:46
  Speaker 8: think it is, but it's worse. She's standing on the
• 3:51
  Speaker 8: dock watching the wedding ship go out into the sunset,
• 3:55
  Speaker 8: knowing that Eric is about to marry this princess and
• 3:58
  Speaker 8: when the sunsets, she'll be turned into this algae creature
• 4:01
  Speaker 8: that's a lost soul in like Ursula's Garden of lost
• 4:04
  Speaker 8: Souls under the sea. So she's crestfallen and she's standing
• 4:07
  Speaker 8: there and then skull the seagull comes flapping and he's like,
• 4:12
  Speaker 8: oh my gosh, I look through the portal window.
• 4:14
  Speaker 7: And it's Ursula who's marrying Prince Eric and Jeriel flings
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: herself off the dock, lands in the water and she
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: can't swim.
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: So then like, not.
• 4:24
  Speaker 7: Only does Flounder have to drag her to the boat
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: on the back of a barrel, but then when she
• 4:28
  Speaker 7: gets up onto the deck, she's standing there and it's Scuttle,
• 4:32
  Speaker 7: the seagull that goes.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: And gets the shell off Ursula's neck, throws it on
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: the floor and it just happens to land where she's standing,
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: and she just happens to reabsorb her her voice through
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: literally no agency of her own.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: Brit believed that the Little Mermaid could only be saved
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: with a completely new kind of aerial But who could
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: play her? I called up Avy Kaufman, one of the
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: top casting directors in Hollywood. I sent her Brit script
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: and I asked her to find as someone to body
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: the spirit of a teenager, a mermaid teenager, but one
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: with a certain amount of moxie edge.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: So, you know, in thinking about child actors and Jody
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: and people we love, I think Jody could have done that.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: Jody being Jody Foster. Jody Foster, who famously played an
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: FBI agent in Silence of the Lambs, and long before that,
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: a child prostitute in Martin Scossese's taxi driver. Why do
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: you want me to go back to my parents?
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: I mean they hate me.
• 5:48
  Speaker 9: Why do you think I split in the first place?
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: There ain't nothing there.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you can't live like this.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: It's a hell the girls.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: You'll live at home.
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: Did you ever hear of Women's Live?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: That Jody Foster. That's where we're going with this. We're
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: thinking that the young Jody Foster ought to play a
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: Disney princess.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Jody could have done that believably, believably, and Jody's
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: kind of like that. She's got that toughness inside that's
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: surrounded by the big heart.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: And the intelligence you're talking about. We would believe that
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: she could make that leap.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Jody could do it.
• 6:31
  Speaker 8: There you go.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: The young Jody Foster could not have been well Disney's aerial,
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: not in a million years. No, back her eyelashes and
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: let someone else save her. Are you kidding me?
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Like, she wouldn't have taken the role because she wouldn't
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: have had a clue what to do with that.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: She would have said, are you sure you're not looking
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: for another Jay Foster?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: No?
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Did we ask Jody Foster to play our aerial to
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: join the Pushkin players? Did she say yes? Let me
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: answer that with another question, have we hit Revision's history ever?
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: Let you down? While in England, I grew up hearing
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: the BBC program Listen with Mother, every episode of which opened.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: With are you sitting comfortably?
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: Then I'll begin.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: You've all been patient, all of you. You have listened
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: as we have taken swing after swing at the bloated
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: pinata that is the original Little Mermaid. It's time to
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: raise the curtain. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: We're in the story's final act. Ariel had hoped to
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: win the heart of the handsome Prince Eric. Marrying him
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: was the only way she could stay a human. But
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: the prince is chosen to marry another woman who is
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: actually the sea witch Ursula in disguise. The soon to
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: be newlyweds are on a boat. There are guests, music,
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: dancing all manner of merriment, and into this spectacle comes
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: our badass, Ariel. So with that, may I present The
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: Little Mermaid two point zero, Written and narrated by Britt Marling.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Ariel grabs onto a portal window.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: She hoists herself out of the sea, scales the side
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of the ship toward the deck. The final bars of
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: cannon ind float down from above as Ariel ascends.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Do you, Prince Eric, take ursela to have and to
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: hold in sickness and in health for as long as
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: you both shall live.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Ariel throws one leg over the starboard, railing The guests,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: enraptured by the perfection of the bride and groom, don't
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: even notice her arrival. Eric looks deep into Ursula's eyes, hypnotized.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I do and do you Ursula? Take Prince Eric.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Ariel, soaking wet, wreathed, and seaweed red in the face,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: charges forward, leaps onto the stage head's right for the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: couple to be like a charging bull. The guests gasp
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: at this invasion, A scorned woman come to sabotage the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: wedding to throw Eric's fiance overboard. Ariel barrels forward, arms outstretched,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and just when it seems like Aeryl might strike Ursula,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: who she collides with her in an embrace full of feeling.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: The guest's jaws drop God in heaven.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Ursula, shocked, disgusted, lets the mask of perfect bride slip,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: her true voice laced with bitterness.
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: Get get off me, you fool.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Ursula tries to extricate herself from Ariel's arms, but Ariel
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: holds on with a strength of heart, impossible to unravel.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Ursula strong, Oh, Ariel, what are you doing?
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Everyone looks on in a shock at this truly bizarre scene.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: One woman cugging another woman who wriggles, squirms.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Fights to escape this embrace, but cannot break it. Seems
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: to not really want to. The force of.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Ariela's kindness gains the power of actual magic, and the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: shell around Ursula's neck that holds Ariel's voice begins to glow.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Hum tog away from.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Ursula as if possessed, and move toward Ariel.
• 10:28
  Speaker 9: Stop stop, stop, I say, but.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Ariel doesn't stop. By the heat of Ariel's love.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Ursula begins to transform back into her original form. Her
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: slender limbs morphed into thick, barnacled covered tentacles, her wedding
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: dress verse that that seems to reveal her sea slick
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: octopus body.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: A woman in the audience screams, shrilly, good, God, disgust.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: What is she? Children cower under their seats grown men
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: back away in horror. Eric stumbles and nearly falls over.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Oh oh, I almost married an octopus.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: But Ariel doesn't stop hugging this creature that everyone else
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: is so revolted by the force of Ariel's feeling, compels
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: her own voice out of the shell around Ursula's neck.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: The light of that voice slips its prism and hovers
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in mid air a moment the audience gasps, the priest faints,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: The light floats into Ariel's open mouth, and then she sings,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: in a voice as radiant as a song that breaks
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a summer storm. Eric, realizing it was in fact Ariel
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: who rescued him, rushes forward to her.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Ariel, it was you.
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: It was you all along.
• 11:54
  Speaker 9: Duh.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Too little, too late, Eric, And honestly, Eric was not
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: really the point and never has been.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Aril's arms still rap Ursula, who, in spite of herself,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: leans into the embrace. Aril turns back to her Ursula
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and says softly into her ear.
• 12:11
  Speaker 9: You hurt me, but I understand why you hurt me.
• 12:16
  Speaker 9: What do you know, you idiotic?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Do I teenager?
• 12:22
  Speaker 9: I know that you are kicked out of the kingdom
• 12:24
  Speaker 9: by my family. I know you were left in the
• 12:27
  Speaker 9: dark part of the ocean to die alone. And I
• 12:30
  Speaker 9: know you have suffered greatly. I know you made me
• 12:34
  Speaker 9: and many others suffer greatly. All I have is the
• 12:38
  Speaker 9: art of cruelty.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: All I have is.
• 12:41
  Speaker 9: Your hate, everyone's hate. I don't hate you, Ursula.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Ursula scoffs at this, but her eyes go wide with feeling.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: No one has said a kind word to Ursula in years.
• 12:57
  Speaker 9: And in time. Understanding you better and why you've done
• 13:01
  Speaker 9: the things you've done, I could maybe even love you.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Ah, Ursula cries out, as if bitten by the words.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: For a moment in Ariel's embrace, we see Ursula as
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the magic of Ariel's empathy allows Ariel to see her.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Ursula at Ariel's age sixteen, the age before Ursula's heart
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: was broken. She's open, full of vigor and young magic,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: curious and alive like Ariel is. Had they met at
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: this age, they they might have been best friends.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: They might even have been lovers. The two young women
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: regard each other a moment.
• 13:39
  Speaker 9: You've taught me the power of my voice. I could
• 13:43
  Speaker 9: actually even thank you for that.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Ursula weeps now like the teenager she is in Ariel's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: eyes unbidden, unstoppable tears. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Ariel
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: looks to Ursula, now still holding Ursula's hands.
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: It's okay. Someone hurt you, just like you hurt me,
• 14:09
  Speaker 9: and I think I know who it was.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: The sky has darkened and the sea froths now in anger.
• 14:21
  Speaker 9: Waves rock the craft.
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: The guests pulled onto their hats in a sudden fierce wind.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Eric grabs a sword off a nearby guard in fear.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Ariel let's go of Ursula's hands in surprise, and Ursula
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: becomes her true age again. Just as King Triton emerges
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: from the ocean, huge bearing his trident and riding an
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: enormous wave toward the ship, an army of spear wielding
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: merman behind him. His voice booms like thunder, Stay away
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: from my daughter. Lightning cracks the skuy from the force
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of his rage. Triton wounds over the ship now like
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a giant.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: I was too kind when I banished you from the kingdom.
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: I shook have destroyed.
• 15:09
  Speaker 9: And lifts his tried and high.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: It sparks with electricity drawn from the sky. He aims
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that laser beam of death toward Ursula, who suffused with love,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: has no ready counterattack.
• 15:21
  Speaker 7: No, Ariel shouts powerfully.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: She throws herself in harm's way to protect Ursula.
• 15:27
  Speaker 9: You kept me and my sister's prisoner in the castle.
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: You exiled Ursula from family, friends safety because she dared
• 15:37
  Speaker 9: to practice in magic, and you want it to be
• 15:40
  Speaker 9: the only one with such power. That I have magic too, father,
• 15:46
  Speaker 9: we all have magic.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And then Ariol begins to use the power of her voice,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: which is real magic, to sing. It's so hypnotic and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: so true that the sea begins to calm under her spell,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and the anger surging in the bodies of the Merman
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: soldiers begins to dissipate. Ursula looks to Ariel in wonder
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and joins her song a lower note in perfect harmony.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: As Ursula sings, the lost souls of her garden shake
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: free from the terrible purgatory of her old spells. They
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: swim to the surface as Murr people once again, and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: sing with the passion of the newly freed.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: Citizen.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Mr People, drawn to the sound of real freedom, break
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the surface of the sea and sing too, sebastian and floundering.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Even Scuttle sings a little off key, but committed altogether,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: they make the most beautiful music humaneers have ever heard.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Eric weeps from the sound.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Beautiful. So do many of his wedding guests, who have
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: not allowed their hearts to become too hardened to life.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Some of them, the brave ones, begin to sing too.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: The music travels so far and so wide that even
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: townspeople on land begin unconsciously humming this melody they've never
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: heard before, but.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Feel they have no always.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: The cloud's part, the setting sun is round, and pink
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: birds land happily on the shoulder of Triton, And this big, proud,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: vain old king cannot help but be moved by his
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: young daughter and her magic to unite.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Across genders, across.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Generations, across species. Triton looks at Ariel with tears of
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: humiliation mixed with tears of all Aril stands on the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: edge of the balcony level within.
• 17:39
  Speaker 9: Dad, you don't need to be the most powerful to
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: be the most loved.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Triton's eyes widened at the wisdom of her youth.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: The tear, too, falls from his eyes.
• 17:53
  Speaker 9: I'm sorry, Area, I've not been a very good listener.
• 17:59
  Speaker 8: Cat'n we begin again.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Ariel nods and embraces her dad over the railing and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: now the sun. Finally, sex Ursula's old spell wears off.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Ariel transforms into a mermaid once more. The guests have
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: no reaction at this point, they've really seen it all.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Ariel laughs as her legs morphed into a powerful bit.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Eric drops down to her side.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Hey, I mean thank you.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: Your look saved my life.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Ariel smiles at him.
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: Don't mention it.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: All she really wanted was a thank you. It may
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: be all any of us ever really want.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Ariel turns to.
• 18:40
  Speaker 9: Ursula, Hey, shall we go home?
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Ursula nods, Yes, let's go. They take each other's hands
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and jump.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Let's take a moment to discuss our revised and greatly
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: improved ending to The Little Mermaid. First of all, to
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: any executives of the Walt Disney Company who happened to
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: be listening, please feel free to use our ending in
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: the remake of The Little Mermaid that I understand you're
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: working on. Go right ahead. Ariel and Ursula deserve a
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: better fate than you have given them for the past
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: thirty years. Speaking of Ursula, did you recognize that voice?
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Did you figure out who we got to play this
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: most critical of roles.
• 19:43
  Speaker 9: Get get off me, you fool.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: We couldn't use just anyone in the role, because Ursula
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: is not a two dimensional villain anymore. We're not murdering
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: her off, we're redeeming her. BRIT's point was, why is
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: she even the villain in the first place.
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: It's just that who do young women lose their voices to?
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: Not really wise old women living on the edge of right, Like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: that's not the culprit of who takes women's voices from them.
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: And so I think that's the problem you're contending with
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: at the end, which is like the idea of a
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: witch is a kind of smoke screen that prevents us
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: from thinking about where the forces of antagonism against women
• 20:30
  Speaker 7: actually lie.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: So Ursula has to be played by someone who can
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: do more than a garden variety witch.
• 20:37
  Speaker 9: So how old is Ursula? Right, you'll get off me.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: No, I think you get off me.
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: What I think you could play her older for sure,
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: because that's sort of the trope, the older witch on
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: the edge of town kind of thing.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: Okay, all right, that's Brit directing Glenn close. We got
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: Glenn close, of course we did. It was only right
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: to have Disney's nineteen ninety six Cruella Deville returning as
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: revisionist Histories twenty twenty one. Ursula, Now, what about Prince Eric?
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: Britt and I had a long planning session on the
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: Eric problem.
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: He is a.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: Completely cardboard figure who only is allowed to have any
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: kind of meaningful role when he kills somebody.
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: Oh, oh, Malcolm, I love that. Yes, I love that.
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: We're doing a lot of talking right now about the
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: ways in which we need to liberate women through stories,
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: but we should also do a lot of talking about
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: the ways in which we need to liberate men.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: We didn't need a murderous vigilante anymore. We needed a
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: liberated man.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Hi, I almost married an octopus.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: Did you recognize that voice? The embodiment of male liberation?
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: The actor, comedian podcaster extraordinaire Dak Shepherd. Here he is
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: during our taping, taking direction from our producer mim and Gistu.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, I kind of wanted you to do it, kind
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: of like a clueless himbo.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Tell me what a himbo is?
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: And himbo was the male version of exactly exactly.
• 22:19
  Speaker 9: Male version of a what bimba?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, Bimbo.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, Ariel, what what are you doing?
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: Oh?
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Ariel, what are you doing?
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 22:36
  Speaker 9: That was great?
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: As for King Triton, the King is played by Ethan Herschenfeld,
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: stand up comic actor and former opera singer, which was
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: a delight for our in house musical genius Louis Kara.
• 22:50
  Speaker 9: It's a little more urban feeling, you know what I mean.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Urban I can kind of do because I grew up
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: in the Bronx, but it was Riverdale, so you're hearing
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the Riverdale the Bronx.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: It sounds awesome, So Dak Shepherd, Jody Foster, Glenn Close,
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: Ethan Herschenfeld, I mean all star asked.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Triton lifts his tried and tie. It sparks with electricity
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: drawn from the sky. He aims that laser beam of
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: death towards Ursula, who suffused with love, has no ready counterattack.
• 23:25
  Speaker 7: Ariel shouts powerfully.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: To me.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: The most beautiful moment in your new ending is when
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: Ariel throws her body in the line of her father's
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: trident to save Ursula. Right, she will sacrifice herself on
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: the behalf of someone who has hitherto in the plot
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: being seen as irredeemable, that somebody would sacrifice, someone in
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: good standing.
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: Would sacrifice themselves.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: For someone who is conceived of is irredeemable. The princess,
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: the heir to the throne, the beautiful whatever, would sacrifice
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: everything for the sake of a witch, of an outcast.
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: Which feels so right because the witch has been miscast
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: from the beginning, right. I mean, I think cruelty was
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: done to Ursula, and it made her cruel and I
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: believe that Ursula could actually be redeemed, and that all
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: it really takes is one person in an act of
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: tremendous bravery and kindness. I mean, that's the thing that
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: I keep thinking about these days, is how can you
• 24:37
  Speaker 7: dramatize the strength of kindness? Like we just don't really
• 24:42
  Speaker 7: believe in kindness as a culture anymore. We think it's soft,
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: we think it's weak, we think it's not serious. But
• 24:49
  Speaker 7: that just doesn't feel right to me. I mean, it
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: feels like there has to be a way to dramatize
• 24:54
  Speaker 7: it as actually this incredibly sharp, pointed, powerful thing.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: Disney's Little Mermaid instructs little girls to think about themselves.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: Brit Marlin wants little girls to think about someone other
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: than themselves, the outcast living at the bottom of the sea,
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: who also deserves a chance at happiness. One last thing,
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: the most amazing gift of all. Britt Marlin wrote a
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: final scene. She said we didn't have to use it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: I disagree. Here it is Ariel's coda.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: X Dear Shipwreck, Kingdom under the Sea. Ariel swims through
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a shipwreck, joined by flounder and other Martines. They dart
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: in and out of the wreckage, digging into old trunks,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: rooting out human treasure.
• 25:59
  Speaker 9: So that's the story of the only wedding I ever crashed.
• 26:03
  Speaker 9: I still go on land, but not for eric exterior.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Countryside day, Ariel gallops across an open field on the back.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Of a horse. They leap a fence together.
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: By day, I explore distant lands, far off kingdoms, ancient forests.
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: I learn so much from the people I meet and
• 26:26
  Speaker 9: the gazelle's, the trees, the sunflowers, the rainstorms.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Ariel scales a five hundred year old tree with two
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: other teenagers.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: They laugh as they race to the top.
• 26:39
  Speaker 9: By night, by my own magic, I return to the sea.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Ariel walks into the ocean under the light of a
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: full yellow moon, Her legs morph into a fin. As
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: she reaches the first big wave, she dives under fish.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Her people, crabs occupy all manner of sea life, gather
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: around a warm, bubbling sea vent. Ariel sings to them
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of her travels, while Sebastian conducts a small orchestra in accompaniment.
• 27:09
  Speaker 9: I sing stories of the places I've been, the kindness
• 27:12
  Speaker 9: I've encountered, the danger I've defied, the times I've had
• 27:17
  Speaker 9: to apologize, the times I've been apologized too. And there
• 27:22
  Speaker 9: was finally a wedding that went off without a hitch.
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: It just wasn't my wedding.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Into your great hall, palace, kingdom under the sea, all
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the miror people decked out in their finest pearls and
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: corals for a lavish wedding.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: But it's Triton standing before the pulpit.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: He lifts the veil of his bride to be it's Ursula.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: There's still a sharp look in Ursula's eye, but the sharp.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Of wisdom, not of cunning.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: She smiles, shocked to be met late in life by
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: such happiness. Ariel, a bridesmaid amongst her sisters, beams.
• 28:02
  Speaker 9: It turns out that most of Ursula's bitter potions had
• 28:06
  Speaker 9: come from an early heartbreak.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Father, do you Ursula take King Triton to have and
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: to hold?
• 28:16
  Speaker 7: I do, I do?
• 28:17
  Speaker 9: I do?
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: I do.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: King Triton and Queen Ursula kiss.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And Eric.
• 28:25
  Speaker 9: Eric's married too, and happily.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Eric walks down the palace steps, arms slung around his
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: husband Tom, the town veterinarian. Twelve enormous fluffy sheep dogs
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: e race around at their feet. I know they're not
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: like us. They don't get it.
• 28:42
  Speaker 9: Eric says it's too weird to eat fish after a
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: fish woman saved his life and he almost married a
• 28:48
  Speaker 9: giant octopus. So the kingdom has gone vegetarian.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: I don't care if they bake it, steam it, or
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: fry it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 8: I'd rather die.
• 28:57
  Speaker 9: Eric and Tom are encouraging other kingdoms to do the
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: same in the face of the climate emergency.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: It will make you die and the planet.
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: I think he's gonna make a fine king. One day.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Aerol sits at a round table with Eric, Tom, and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a bunch.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Of other townspeople.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It is not a posh, silent meal at a ridiculously
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: long table for almost no one.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: It's a feast for many.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: They pass bowls of food and break off chunks of bread.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: They eat with their hands and sometimes talk with their
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: mouths full. The hall is filled with rowdy laughter and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: sometimes tears, as people tell each other what's on their
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: minds and in their hearts, and what they hope for
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the future.
• 29:38
  Speaker 9: And so we lived, not always happily, but certainly more
• 29:45
  Speaker 9: honestly than we ever had before.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: The end.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: The Vision's history is produced by Mei La Belle, Lee
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: Mengistu and Jacob Smith, with Eloise Linton and Annayim. Our
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: editor is Julia Bardon, mastering by Flon Williams and engineering
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: by Martin Gonzalez. Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Special thanks
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: to all those who lent their voice to The Little
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: Mermaid two point zero. Our actors Zolbatmanglitch, Glenn Close, Jody Foster,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: Ethan Hershenfeld, Britt Marlin, Kate Parkinson, Morgan Dak Shephard and
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: Malcolm Gladwow and our singers Devin Guthrie, Luis Gerra, Littalia Gera,
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Ethan Herschhenfeld, Khalil Sabah, Samayah Sabah and Ginger Smith. And
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: an especially warm thanks to two people. First, our composer
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: extraordinaire Luis Gerra, who are by himself matched and actually
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: exceeded the armies of sound people in multimillion dollar orchestral
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: halls at Walt Disney Headquarters. And second, my old friend
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: Britt Marlin, who stormed the walls of the Disney Fortress
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: and liberated Ariel and Ursula from thirty years of wrongful imprisonment.
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: Special thanks also to the Pushkin crew had a fame.
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: Carli Miglioroi, Maya Knig, Danielle Lakhan, Maggie Taylor, Eric Sander,
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: Nicol Morano, Jason Gambrel, and of course Al Hafe our.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Very young King Triton.
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: Jacob Westberg. I'm Martin Bako. Don't forget my latest book,
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: The Bomber Mafia, which is an expansion of several episodes
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: from the last season of Revisionist History. You can find
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: it wherever books are sold, but by the audiobook at
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: Bombermafia dot com and you'll get a bonus listener's guide
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: and you can listen in the podcast app you're using now.