Ariel (The Little Mermaid) some publications such as "Time" criticize her for being too devoted to Eric whereas others, such as "Empire", praise the character for her rebellious personality, a departure from previous Disney Princesses. Ariel was based on the title character of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", but co-director and writer Ron Clements felt that the mermaid in the original story was too tragic and rewrote the character, resulting in Ariel. Jodi Benson, who was predominantly a stage actress, was chosen to voice Ariel because the directors felt "it was really important to have the same person doing the singing and speaking
Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) Sebastian is an animated anthropomorphic crab in "The Little Mermaid" film series from the Caribbean island of Jamaica, and is a servant of King Triton. Apart from his role in the film trilogy, Sebastian features in the animated series, in the "Kingdom Hearts" series of video games, and even has music albums based on him. The character was developed solely for the film, and is not derived from the original Hans Christian Andersen story. Early on in the writing and development of "The Little Mermaid", the character that would later become Sebastian was originally an English-butler