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"Poor Unfortunate Souls" is the fifth song in Disney's 1989 animated feature film The Little Mermaid, played in a style that combines Broadway theater with burlesque. The song is performed by Ursula (Pat Carroll). In addition to its musical sequence, the song serves as Ursula's leitmotif throughout the film.
Ursula used the song to seduce Ariel into trading her voice for the chance to temporarily become human and be with Prince Eric. There was dialogue interruption, in which Ursula told the mermaid about her full plan.
A short melodic reprise of the song was featured later in the original Disney movie in which it is sung by Vanessa, Ursula's alter ego, who is voiced by Jodi Benson (as she had stolen Ariel's voice). In it, she sang about how she was going to control the ocean and capture Ariel. This reprise was the final song in the film (not counting the finale for "Part of Your World"), and serves as a reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls".
•Howard Ashman recorded a version of the song with himself in the role of Ursula, to send to Carroll to convince her to take the role, which it did. This version was released in the four-CD set The Music Behind the Magic. Carroll admits that she borrowed some of the inflections she used in the song from Ashman's performance, and that he had been delighted she had done so.
•Carroll's original rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was included on a 1995 compilation CD of songs performed by or about various Disney villains called Rascal Songs. The CD was released as part of a four-disc Disney song series as a McDonald's promotional item.
•During the song, Ursula pulls out a contract, laying out the terms of the deal. The movie spares a moment to glance over the words of the contract, but speeds from the top of the scroll to the bottom at fast speed. If one were to slow down the movie at this part, they would notice that the contract is made up of garbled words, and a Hidden Mickey can be seen as well.
•"Poor Unfortunate Souls" underwent little changes from storyboard to the final cut. One segment in the beginning of the scene was cut out from the final film, when Ursula beckoned Ariel to come in. She toyed with her hair for a bit and then explained to Ariel how she's been banished for attempting to, "elevate" her station in life. Which Ariel claimed, was attempting to overthrow her father.
•There's another change that was made, in that an entire segment of the song was completely omitted from the final version of the scene which was meant to convince Ariel that going with Eric was the right thing, despite having to leave her family behind. At this point, the storyboarded version of the film cut off to Ursula explaining her price to Ariel, however, there was another version that went just a little further. It was Howard Ashman's demo version, which drastically lengthened "Poor Unfortunate Souls"' length.
•In the official comic book, Vanessa sang her reprise of the song, but with a new set of lyrics for the moment. Instead of dancing around her room in this version, Vanessa was sitting on a chair and brushing her hair while using a hand mirror instead of the large one in the film.
- 2 min
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"Poor Unfortunate Souls" is a song from the Walt Disney Pictures animated film The Little Mermaid. Written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken and performed by Pat Carroll , "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is sung to Ariel by Ursula the Sea Witch (the film's villainess).
- 1988
- Walt Disney Records
- 1989
[URSULA, spoken] My dear, sweet child--it's what I live for: to help unfortunate merfolk like yourself. Poor souls with no one else to turn to. . . I admit that in the past I've been a nasty. They weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch. But you'll find that nowadays. I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light, and made a switch.
Nov 13, 2023 · It was the theme song for the character of Ursula, which was voiced by actress Pat Carroll. The road to “Poor Unfortunate Souls” wasn’t easy. Disney animation creators Alan Menken and...
