Prince Eric

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Prince Eric is a fictional character who first appeared in the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. He was voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, while in other future incarations, he is voiced by Rob Paulsen.

Contents 1 The Little Mermaid TV series 2 The Little Mermaid 3 The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea 4 The Little Mermaid III 5 Trivia

[edit] The Little Mermaid TV series

Eric had some cameo appearances in the 1992 TV series, set before the events of the first film. In the episode Scuttle, he is rescued by Ariel and her friends from some notorious pirates. They are not entirely aware of each other yet at that time; Ariel doesn't see Eric, and Eric only spots Ariel from a distance, but assumes it to be his imagination.

[edit] The Little Mermaid

Eric is a handsome prince in his early twenties, who lives along the seashore. He has a pet sheep dog called Max, a faithful butler called Grimsby, a head servant called Carlotta and many servants. He appears in the beginning of the film sailing at sea. The sailors on the ship says that merpeople live under the sea, but Grimsby dismisses the matter as nonsense. However, Eric has no idea that his fate would be linked with the merpeople.

Deep under the sea, 16-year-old Princess Ariel is fascinated by the human world. She often goes above the sea to look at humans. One fateful night, Ariel sees Eric on a ship celebrating his birthday, and immediately falls in love with the handsome and dashing prince. However, a storm arrives, and the ship blows up and sinks. Eric gets lost at sea but is rescued by Ariel. Not knowing who rescued him as he was unconscious at the time, Eric determines to find out who rescued him. He did hear Ariel's voice singing to him so he acted on that bit of proof to help him.

Eric later finds Ariel on the shore and takes her with him. However, Eric doesn't know she was the girl who saved her as she couldn't speak.

Almost 3 days later, Ursula is afraid that Ariel would finally be able to kiss Eric and become human forever. She then transforms herself into a beautiful dark-haired girl named Vanessa and hypnotizes Eric into marrying her. During their wedding, Ariel's animal friends attack Vanessa, successfully restoring Ariel's voice and ridding Eric from the hypnosis. They try to kiss each other, but the sun sets before they can, and Ariel turns back into a mermaid.

Eric, deeply in love with Ariel, dives into the sea to save her and wounds Ursula with a spear. Ursula commands her eels Flotsam and Jetsam to get rid of Eric, but Ariel's friends Flounder and Sebastian saves Eric by attacking the eels. Eric is thrown out into the sea but manages to grab on the wrecked ship he boarded earlier. Ursula's whirlpool rises the ship and Eric steers the ship towards Ursula. Just as the sea witch is about to kill Ariel with her trident, Eric charges the ship towards her, plunging a big, sharp splinter of wood at the tip of the ship into her belly. Ursula is destroyed and everything turns into normal.

Eric manages to reach shore and lies on the beach, exhausted, while a sad Ariel looks at him. King Triton, realizing that her daughter is deeply in love with Eric, changes Ariel into human again. Ariel and Eric have their wedding on a ship and live happily ever after.

[edit] The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

In the 2000 direct-to-video sequel, Eric had little screen-time but participated in rescuing his daughter.

[edit] The Little Mermaid III

Information coming soon.

[edit] Trivia

• Eric is the one of the most vocal Disney Princes, surpassed only by Sleeping Beauty's Prince Phillip, who also has singing lines.