You’ll never see The Little Mermaid the same way again. It’s a beloved story, as with all Disney classics, but even if you’ve seen it several times, what you might not know is that Ursula is based on the legendary drag queen Divine. The nefarious sea witch played by Melissa McCarthy in the new film was originally inspired by Baltimore drag queen Divine. As numerous Twitter users have pointed out, Ursula was inspired by the white drag queen Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead). The whole story is a fascinating read about queerness, performance, and pop culture - read it here. None worked, until an animator named Rob Minkoff drew a vampy overweight matron who everyone agreed looked a lot like Divine. Another was a “beautiful but deadly” scorpion fish, recalled director John Musker. Drag queen Divine at the premiere of 'Female Trouble' on February 12, 1975, in New York City. One was a manta ray inspired by Joan Collins. One of those Disney Facts you didnt know that you probably actually DO know by now is that Disney used the famous Drag Queen from Baltimore, MD - Divine. The original 1989 Disney animator said he sought inspiration for Ursula in the late drag queen performer, Divine. And when it came time to create a villain for the studio’s next animated film, Ashman’s input was invaluable:Įarly on, The Little Mermaid’s directors and animators created several iterations of Ursula. “Like so many creative people who’d grown up in Baltimore during the 1950s and 1960s, the intersection of raunchy drag queens and fairy tales was Howard Ashman’s sweet spot,” Hazlitt notes. The Divine-Ursula connection can be traced back to Howard Ashman, a playwright from Baltimore who was hired by Disney to serve as an executive producer.
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