Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid has inspired countless adaptations since its publication in 1837, with creators drawn to its powerful themes of love, sacrifice, and transformation. Among these retellings is Disney’s 1989 animated film, which reimagined the tragic fairy tale as an optimistic story about true love’s triumph. The original fairy tale has also influenced Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story “A Little Sacrifice,” which is now being turned into Netflix’s new animated film The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. However, rather than embracing Sapkowski’s grim tone, the movie frequently abandons its source material in favor of recreating iconic moments from Disney’s beloved animated classic.
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WARNING: Spoilers below for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep
The influence of Disney’s The Little Mermaid becomes particularly evident when examining Sirens of the Deep‘s key scenes and story beats. This, in addition to the darker elements of Andersen’s original, shines through in Studio Mir’s new animated Witcher film. Though some similarities between mermaid stories are inevitable, given their shared inspiration from Andersen’s tale, Netflix’s film goes beyond common elements to directly mirror specific moments that made Disney’s version a cultural phenomenon. Here are three of the most striking examples:
The Sea Witch’s Musical Number
Nothing highlights Sirens of the Deep‘s debt to Disney more clearly than Melussina’s (voiced by Mallory Jansen) musical showcase. The character of a sea witch offering dangerous deals traces back to Andersen’s original story. Still, Netflix’s film recreates Ursula’s iconic “Poor Unfortunate Souls” scene, an original addition from the House of Mouse.
The sequence unfolds in Melussina’s underwater laboratory, where the witch circles her collection of magical artifacts while persuading the princess to accept a transformation potion. Even her performance style mirrors Ursula’s theatrical manipulation, alternating between false maternal concern and barely concealed malice. This parallel is especially notable because Sapkowski’s original story doesn’t include a sea witch character.
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The Transformation Potion’s Role
The magical potion serves radically different purposes across various mermaid adaptations. In Andersen’s tale, it represents sacrifice, causing constant pain while offering a chance at an immortal soul, the ultimate religious goal. Disney reimagined it as the catalyst for a romantic transformation, though still maintaining some of the original’s consequences. Sapkowski took a different approach. In “A Little Sacrifice,” the potion becomes a diplomatic tool used by the siren princess to appease the ego of her human lover and prevent a war between merfolk and humans.
Even if The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep keeps the political intrigue of Sapkowski’s story, the potion ultimately symbolizes love in the spinoff movie, just like in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Fortunately, Sirens of the Deep does subvert the trope a little by making Prince Agloval (voiced by Camrus Johnson) drink it and turn into a merperson instead of forcing Princess Sh’eenaz (voiced by Emily Carey) to become human. Still, both Sapkowski’s and Andersen’s take on the potion are darker than in Sirens of the Deep, which underlines the spinoff actively chose to stick closer to Disney’s version.
The Climactic Ship Battle
The finale of Sirens of the Deep transforms Melussina into a gigantic kraken, leading to an epic confrontation aboard a ship. This sequence feels lifted directly from The Little Mermaid‘s climactic battle. The similarities are even more noticeable since neither Andersen’s original story nor Sapkowski’s adaptation features such a bombastic conclusion. Andersen’s tale ends with the mermaid dissolving into sea foam after choosing death over killing her beloved prince, while Sapkowski concludes with delicate negotiations preventing war between two peoples.
Disney revolutionized the ending with Ursula’s metamorphosis into a towering sea monster threatening both land and sea, creating a template that Sirens of the Deep follows closely. Geralt’s presence in Sirens of the Deep adds unique combat elements and more intense action sequences, but the basic framework remains remarkably similar. From the antagonist’s monstrous transformation to the nautical setting, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep doesn’t hide its direct inspiration by recreating a familiar moment from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
