Lou on Instagram: ". Interesting Fact: The Little Mermaid 1989–This film was the movie that revived Disney’s animation era after a long slump. It was the first Disney princess movie to use Broadway style musical storytelling, thanks to composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. Ariel was also animated using a special technique for her underwater hair, which took extra layers of hand drawn animation to make it flow naturally. The character of Ursula was inspired by the drag performer Divine