Ursula (The Little Mermaid) a samba set to "Poor Unfortunate Souls". As arguably "the most famous example of a direct tie to the LGBT community," Ursula has also become something of a gay icon, due in part to sharing Divine's appearance and personality. Ursula (The Little Mermaid) Ursula is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 28th animated feature film "The Little Mermaid" (1989). Voiced by American actress Pat Carroll, Ursula is a villainous sea witch who tricks a mermaid princess named Ariel into trading her voice for a pair of human legs, at first appearing to be providing the character with
Ursula (The Little Mermaid) Disney's strongest villain in decades. Meanwhile, Carroll's performance has garnered similar acclaim to the point that the role has eclipsed her previous body of work, ultimately becoming virtually synonymous with the character. At the behest of Disney executives Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, director and screenwriter Ron Clements was among several filmmakers instructed to research new story ideas that could potentially be adapted into the studio's next major animated film release. Clements first discovered Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" at a local bookstore, and began deliberating why Disney had never attempted to adapt the story before.