- “Les poissons, les poissons! How I love les poissons! Love to chop and to serve little fish.”
- ―Chef Louis singing how he loves to cook fish
Chef Louis is a minor character in Disney's 1989 animated feature film The Little Mermaid. He is the French-accented chef of Prince Eric's Castle who loves ’les poissons’ to an almost unhealthy extent. He is Sebastian's arch-enemy, and is infamous for trying to cook the crab, but his attempts always end in humiliation.
Background
Personality
An eccentric chef with a French accent, he is obsessed with cooking and clearly takes great pleasure in it, dancing and spinning around his kitchen while singing about the things he's cooking while doing things that make the hidden Sebastian want to throw up--but that's probably just because all the dishes involve fish or other sea creatures. He's got a hair-trigger temper, which flares up and causes him to get in trouble with Carlotta when he destroys the kitchen while chasing Sebastian. If the sequel is any evidence, his relationships with Sebastian and Carlotta have not improved, though he's still in the royal family's employ anyway and is seen preparing a massive cake for Melody's birthday.
Appearances
The Little Mermaid
Chef Louis only appears in two scenes of the film. He first appears in a kitchen of Prince Eric's Castle, singing Les Poissons and cooking fish dinners for Ariel, Prince Eric, and Grimsby. Sebastian the crab comes into the kitchen to hide from the maids, but Louis eventually spots him after removing a leaf from the counter and attempts to cook him. Assuming the crab was dead, he puts Sebastian into a sauce, dabs him with flour, stuffs his mouth with bread, and tosses him into a pot of boiling water. As Sebastian manages to escape being boiled alive, Louis sees the crab and attempts to take a closer look, only to get pinched in the nose (causing him to develop a lifelong grudge against Sebastian). Louis attacks him and chases him around the kitchen, causing a big mess in the process (Louis gets his hand burned on a hot stove, a large pot falls on his foot, and Sebastian drops the sauce bowl on his head). Eric's maid Carlotta, who has heard loud, crashing sounds coming from the kitchen, goes over to investigate to find Louis trashing the kitchen. Carlotta angrily demands to know what Louis is doing, to which he sheepishly apologizes, smiling nervously. Carlotta then takes the platter of fish and leaves the kitchen.
He reappears at the film's finale, onboard the wedding ship for Prince Eric and Princess Ariel, where he spots Sebastian on top of the wedding cake, and resumes pursuing the crab. But Sebastian uses his claws to cut a rope to stop Louis, who gets whacked in the face by a wood beam, causing all but two of his teeth to break and fall out of his mouth. Louis then faints as Sebastian jumps off the ship and celebrates his victory over the relentless chef.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Louis appears in three scenes in the direct-to-video sequel. He is first seen preparing a cake for Melody's birthday party. When Ariel peers into the kitchen to ask him if he's seen Melody, Louis replies "No, Your Highness", before showing off Melody's birthday cake, the 12 candles he placed on top, and declaring it one of his masterpieces with saying in French, C'est manifique, before nearly ruining it when he causes his ladder to wobble from being thrown off-balance, but he recovers while looking slightly embarrassed, while Ariel leaves with a warm, amused smile on her face. The cake gets accidentally ruined by Sebastian, embarrassing Melody in the process. Realizing what just happened, Louis angrily chases Sebastian with a cleaver, threatening to kill him for ruining the cake. As Sebastian escapes, Louis unstably expresses his desire to kill Sebastian, causing Carlotta to splash him with water and scold him for his behavior, much to his embarrassment.
At the end of the film, he is grabbed by Carlotta and they both jump into the sea.
The Little Mermaid: The Series
Occasionally, his rivalry with Sebastian comes up for comedy, but his appearance will always be very brief and usually not really relative to the plot. In the episode "Ariel's Treasures", Chef Louis steps on a whisk which lands in the water, which Ariel finds and calls it a "Whirly twirly".
Marsupilami: The Series
In Marsupilami, Chef Louis appears in multiple episodes: in one he is an angry hotel guest who discovers that the hotel manager is none other than Sebastian.
Aladdin: The Series
While Chef Louis doesn't actually appear in the Aladdin TV series, Genie transforms into him in many episodes. Genie first transforms into him in "Raiders of the Lost Shark", where he tries to prepare "turkey surprise" for Aladdin (using live ingredients, including Iago for the "turkey") but is politely turned down. Like Chef Louis, Genie tries to cook a living animal, being Iago while Chef Louis tries to cook Sebastian.
House of Mouse
He appears in the episode "Goofy's Menu Magic", where he does a short onstage act in which he tries to cook Sebastian again. He is later asked by Mickey Mouse to take over in the kitchen since their cook, Gus Goose, has eaten all the food for that night, but he tells Mickey "This cook is booked!"
Disney Parks
Tokyo Disney Resort
Chef Louis makes occasional appearances as a walkaround character in Tokyo DisneySea near Mermaid Lagoon.
Gallery
Trivia
- Chef Louis' name is pronounced as "Loo-ee".
- Louis sort of serves as an example of why King Triton's distrust of humans isn't unwarranted as he proudly kills fish to make into meals.
- Louis is one of the original animated characters not to appear or be mentioned or replaced in the 2023 live-action remake, The Little Mermaid.
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