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. In the Japanese versions, he is voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue.

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 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. According to the Disney novelization of the movie by A. L. Singer, Eric was celebrating his eighteenth birthday when Grimbsy presented him with the statue of the prince that Ariel ultimately ends up with. It is at Eric's birthday celebration that Ariel first sees the prince. When Ariel sees Eric on a ship she 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 up to the surface and as Ursula creates a whirlpool, Eric boards the wrecked ship he boarded earlier. 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 returns to 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, Melody. It is unclear if Eric is a King or still has the title of Prince.

At the beginning of the film, Ariel and Eric are celebrating the birth of their daughter, Princess Melody, with a gathering on the deck of a ship. Both kingdoms, land and sea, turn up for Melody's presentation to the public, but the villainess of the movie shows up to interrupt things. Morgana dangles Melody above the maw of her pet shark, Undertow, and holds the tiny child in ransom for King Triton's Trident. However, Eric saves the day with some excellent teamwork with Ariel by use of the rigging on this ship. He swings out over the water to catch his daughter and bring her to safety on the deck.

Later, he supports Ariel in her decision to keep her father's kingdom a closely guarded secret from Melody, and it appears, the rest of the kingdom. He authorizes the construction of a huge sea wall that blocks the palace from the sea, save for a small pool of water in one area.

In the first film, Eric's confidante was Sir Grimsby, but in this sequel, Eric steps into the role of confidante for Ariel, his wife, who struggles with her life of two different worlds. When Ariel is distraught at the disappearance of Melody, Eric supports her decision to search for her, even if it means that Ariel must rejoin the sea kingdom with fins for awhile. He searches for Melody on land and Ariel searches the sea with her father and childhood friends.

At the climax of the film, Eric is knocked out early on, but when Ariel is freed from Morgana's magic, she holds him until he revives. As Ariel is still a mermaid, Eric gets to his feet to find Melody, who we last saw caught by Tip from her fall. He cradles her until she wakes up, and then Ariel apologizes to Melody for keeping such important history about her family from her, and Eric, once again, quietly lends support.

[edit] The Little Mermaid III

Information coming soon.

[edit] Trivia

• Eric & Aladdin are the most vocal Disney Princes, surpassed only by Sleeping Beauty's Prince Phillip, who also has singing lines.
• He also appeared in Kingdom Hearts II in which the storyline centers around himself and Ariel in the Atlantica world.
• The original storyboard idea for the battle with Ursula included Prince Eric using the Trident to defeat the villainess. This is finally used in Kingdom Hearts II's storyline.