The character in the script is described as Joan Collins. Minkoff said that most people’s designs were of a slender, dark-haired woman with a broad forehead and high cheekbones. Minkoff said that he used Divine in at least one of his drawings, which was displayed on a storyboard. He went on to direct Disney’s 1994 film “The Lion King”, and directed other Disney films. Howard Ashman, the brilliant lyricist widely recognized for a “Disney Renaissance,” which began in the late 1980s, looked at the designs and that was the design that caught his attention.
Minkoff remembered Musker telling Minkoff at the time that “Howard had looked through the designs and concentrated on that one.” John told me that Howard liked my drawing and we wanted to proceed with it.
Disney had hired Ashman and his partner Alan Menken after the success of “Little Shop of Horrors,” their successful off-Broadway production, in hopes of delivering a hit for the studio.
Ashman, as described in Don Hanh’s documentary “Howard,” gravitated towards the animation division of the studio when he arrived, seeing an opportunity for him to combine his musical theatre background with the offbeat, innovative approach of the illustrators. Ashman did just that with “The Little Mermaid,” the first of a series of animated Disney hits.
Minkoff noted that people have forgotten Walt Disney was an innovator who broke all the rules during his career.
Minkoff, speaking of Disney before Ashman arrived, said that the company had become very conservative with its stories and films. “I believe that all the animators in the 1980s were huge fans of Disney’s earlier classics, and they wanted the new films to reach the same heights. We all knew the only way to achieve this was to push the limits of what we thought acceptable.”
Minkoff’s concept to model Ursula, a take on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” on a drag-queen that embraces the bizarre and grotesque, certainly pushed the boundaries.
Divine was the favorite leading lady of John Waters during his career. Waters referred to her as “the most beautiful women in the world almost”.
Baltimore natives Divine and Michael met in mid-1960s as teenagers. The dialed down version of Divine was featured in their first film, “Roman Candles”, a 1966 homage to Andy Warhol’s “The Chelsea Girls.” As they worked together, Divine, with Waters’ help, evolved into an over-the top persona. She was a shapely drag queen with homicidal traits, a shaved back hairline, and extreme arched eyebrows.
Divine was the one who shocked and angered audiences everywhere for eating dog feces in Waters’ 1972 trash film classic “Pink Flamingos”. Unlike Waters’ 1988 film “Hairspray”, which featured Divine as the mother to Ricki Lake’s Tracy Turnblad, “Pink Flamingos”, dares viewers to keep watching as a deranged bunch of outcasts committed more and more depraved actions to earn the title “the filthiest people alive”
Ashman was drawn to the sketch Minkoff did because of the movie that remained in his mind. The former character artist remembers that “Pink Flamingos,” a Walt Disney-founded film, was playing in a theatre at the California Institute of the Arts where Minkoff once studied, on loop.
Minkoff stated that it was “not the obvious place to find inspiration.” When you have a particular character, especially a villain you want to look for an interesting angle. Disney villains are often the most intriguing characters in films. You want to create a character that is larger than life, with a lot more personality.
Ashman, who is a Baltimore native and spotted Minkoff’s inspiration instantly, seemed to agree that the film needed a supervillain with monstrous proportions. Ashman, the directors, and a small team of animators began to work with live-action models to bring the characters alive, using a method that the studio has relied on since 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Minkoff suggested that his former CalArts classmate Max Kirby be hired to play Ursula in the live-action version. Ashman and the director’s took Minkoff’s suggestion, and Kirby performed Ursula’s signature song, “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” for the group, dressed in drag.
Ursula in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Walt Disney Studios
It took Pat Carroll and many illustrators to bring the villainous “The Little Mermaid” to movie screens across the nation.
The end result was a queer antihero who harkened to the evil witches and queens of Disney films such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and “Sleeping Beauty” from 1959. Their over-the top style, performative gestures and immorality all work to highlight the purity and heteronormative hero and heroine in the film.
The Little Mermaid was a huge success for Disney, thanks in part to the subversive, sinister appeal of cecaelia and her signature song “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, which is laden with meaning. Disney’s animation unit, which had not enjoyed a major hit for decades, saw a dramatic turnaround with the film’s box-office success and two Oscars for the best original song and the best original score.
Sadly, Ashman who died tragically from AIDS in the year 1991 did not see the full impact that he had on the animated musical features he created. Divine, who passed away a year prior to “The Little Mermaid,” did not see himself as the lord of a kingdom full of polyps.
Waters was in 2016, and was quoted by as saying, “When I first started out, I only wanted to be a Disney villain.”
