The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning and Samuel E. Wright reprise their roles as Ariel and Sebastian respectively, while Sally Field voices the film's new villain, Marina Del Rey, and Jim Cummings replaces Kenneth Mars as King Triton, as Mars had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was unable to reprise the role. The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on August 26, 2008. The film contradicts certain events of the television series, implying that it is an independent installment of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" franchise. King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, rule over the underwater kingdom of Atlantica, filled with music
The Little Mermaid a human being. I'm sure that's wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn't it? I won't accept that sort of thing in this world. I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path." LGBT historian and writer Rictor Norton and others have described "The Little Mermaid" as an allegory for Andersen's life, based on his love letters to another man. Andersen also sent the original story to his love. A statue of "The Little Mermaid" sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbor in Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon