The Little Mermaid Gives Ursula a Real Story, for Better or Worse

This detail is, if you allow me, a bit tedious.

Yes, it looks like Ursula and King Triton (Javier Bardem) are siblings and he ascended the throne instead of Ursula in some sort of unseen rivalry for the crown. Part of being ruler of the seas is having access to a magical trident that grants its possessor access to a great deal of power. Ursula feels she has been cheated out of this power and has retreated to a cave to sulk and practice dark magic. When she discovers that Triton's daughter, Ariel (Halle Bailey), has fallen in love with a man, she sees an opportunity. If she can deliberately put the little mermaid in danger, she will have a bargaining chip with Triton. The real plot of the film has more to do with Triton and Ursula, in fact, than with Ariel.

We might see the film's screenwriter, David Magee ("Lady Chatterly's Lover," "Finding Neverland"), trying to add to the fable. In this quest, he could have turned to the 1989 feature film, where she had been Triton's sister in the first drafts of the film's script. The connection, however, was eventually written, though it survived in novelization and in the play's adaptation. Magee reestablishing that connection was also repeating a common trope seen throughout Disney's recent run of remakes, in that villainous characters are built to be as likable as possible. Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast", for example, was now a victim of PTSD.

While the motivation undoubtedly enriches the character and makes her villainy more understandable, it unfortunately perhaps robs Ursula of her central appeal. We don't want to feel any sympathy for the sea witch. She's more fun to watch when she's just plain evil.