The Interesting Reason Ariel Had Red Hair

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From Inside The Magic:

The REAL Reason Behind Princess Ariel’s Iconic Red Hair!

If you were made in the ‘90s, The Little Mermaid is probably one of the first animated Disney movies you remember watching. Released in 1989, the film has become a classic, with Ariel’s famous red hair almost as well-known as the feature itself!

What you might not know is that the color of the mermaid’s locks wasn’t a random decision. In 1984, the film Splash was released. The story followed a blonde mermaid named Madison (Daryl Hannah) who fell in love with Allen (Tom Hanks), a human.

Splash was such a hit that the Social Security Administration credits it with popularizing the name “Madison” for baby girls! Hannah’s character had long blonde hair, which became instantly synonymous with “mermaid hair.” So, when Disney’s animation team began working on The Little Mermaid, the logical choice was to give Ariel the mermaid blonde hair. Ultimately, though, Ariel’s red hair was selected

However, as Oh My Disney reports, “While they originally wanted Ariel to be a blonde, some thought it was too similar to Hannah’s character. Since red is a complementary color to Ariel’s green tail, the choice was made.” Without Splash, the Ariel character we know and love today might look completely different!

A live action remake of The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey is currently in the works, but production has been suspended amid coronavirus concerns. The film was set to start shooting in London this week. Walt Disney Studios has also paused the pre-production process on Peter Pan & Wendy and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel, Shrunk.

A Disney spokesperson stated, “While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time.”

This comes on the heels of Disney choosing to close all six of their theme parks, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland, in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Disney Studios and Disney Parks will resume normal operations as soon as possible.

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From Cosmopolitan:

Hair
The Interesting Reason Ariel Of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' Had Red Hair
They originally wanted her to be blonde.
by Ira Nopuente | 2 hours ago

Disney's hit 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid had little girls back then (myself included) fantasize about having red hair and brushing it with a dinglehopper. Who could ever forget Ariel's long auburn locks?

Disney revealed that animators back then had a major reason to Ariel being a redhead. In 1984, mermaid film Splash was such a big hit, which starred blonde actress, Daryl Hannah opposite Tom Hanks. The team decided that if Ariel also had blonde locks, it would be too similar to Daryl's iconic character, Madison. Plus, red was complimentary to Ariel's green tail.

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From Popsugar:

The Sneaky Reason Disney Animators Gave Ariel the Mermaid Red Hair
Author picture of Alaina Demopoulos
1 August 2018
by Alaina Demopoulos

Let's play some word association. If you grew up in the '90s, when you think "mermaid," you probably think of Ariel. And when you think of Ariel, you probably think red hair. (And when you think about red hair, you probably think about brushing it with a fork.) The Little Mermaid is considered a classic by both millennials and Gen Zers alike, but the titular character's ubiquitous red hair actually has a direct correlation to an older mermaid.

In 1984, Daryl Hannah starred in the live-action film Splash as a mermaid named Madison who falls in love with a human man, alongside Tom Hanks. The movie was a huge success — it was so massively popular, in fact, that the Social Security Administration credits Hannah's character for popularizing Madison as a baby name. Five years after the release of Splash, it was still so well-known that it was on Disney animators' minds when they made The Little Mermaid.

According to Oh My Disney, "The colour of Ariel's hair was a point of contention among the team." While they originally wanted Ariel to be a blonde, some thought it was too similar to Hannah's character. Since red is a complimentary colour to Ariel's green tail, the choice was made.

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Actually, the reason was the colorists on the movie found it too difficult to come up with a color to represent blonde hair in shadow and the dark, so Ariel was switched to red because it was easier to come up with a suitable shade for those scenes.
Since it was known Ariel would spend significant amounts of time onscreen in low illumination, they knew they'd have this problem in advance.