Disney’s fantasy remake Arielle the Mermaid has many viewers concerned right now with what at first glance seems like a logic flaw – but may not be.
As a Disney live-action remake, the new adaptation of Arielle the Mermaid is just taking its fantasy characters to a more “real” level. As a live-action film, Arielle thus also has to face some questions of logic, and one of them is particularly preoccupying viewers at the moment: Why can Scuttle, as a bird, talk and breathe under water?
Arielle mistake? The audience is currently discussing birds under water
In an early scene of Arielle, the titular mermaid swims upward. Having been forbidden to surface by her father, she meets her feathered friend Scuttle just below the water’s surface, where they discuss dingelhoppers (aka forks). What bothers some viewers is the question of what the bird is doing under water for so long. In the original, the conversation with the seagull takes place (more logically for a bird) on a rock in the air.
The best part of the new LittleMermaid is the scene right at the beginning where the filmmakers apparently forgot that Scuttle isn’t a fish, so they just show a bird talking and breathing underwater for several minutes. pic.twitter.com/uxQT1C16gN
– William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) May 25, 2023
“The best part of the new movie Ariel the Mermaid is the scene at the beginning where the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that Scuttle is not a fish. And so they show the bird talking and breathing underwater for minutes. “
Now Arielle fans are arguing the pros and cons of this scene and whether Scuttle’s underwater sojourn is realistic. At least one explanation makes the problem, in the process, far less serious.
Arielle explanation: Scuttle is no longer a seagull, but a gannet
When comparing the figures of the Arielle remake with the original, it is noticeable that the design of the seagull Scuttle has changed. Not only is the white bird now a female: The new Scuttle is a completely different kind of bird: a gannet (English: Gannet ).
The special feature of these birds is that they are shock divers. This means that they can dive deep into the water and stay there longer than other birds, emptying their air sacs. With their wide webbed feet and streamlined wings, they can navigate underwater. Which was in fact the reason why the seagull became the gannet in the Ariel remake: So that the character could appear in more underwater scenes.
