Grimsby is a supporting character of Disney's 1989 animated feature film The Little Mermaid. He is the faithful guardian and confident advisor of Prince Eric, who sometimes calls him "Grim" for short.
Background[]
Personality[]
Grimsby is a no-nonsense, strict, gentle, helpful, friendly, slightly clumsy, serious, and practical person. He did not believe in the legends of merpeople and found it to be nonsense until witnessing Ariel revealing herself to be a mermaid and Ursula reverting back into her true form.
Appearances[]
The Little Mermaid[]
In the first film, Grimsby is shown sailing with Eric and his crew, apparently suffering from seasickness. He overhears the crew talking about King Triton and the merpeople and dismisses the talk as nonsense, advising Eric to do the same. They, however, insist that merpeople really exist.
Later in the film, the crew is celebrating Eric's birthday on board the ship. As a birthday present, Grimsby presents Eric with a large statue of him, though Grimsby remarks that he wished it could have been a wedding present and expresses disappointment in Eric's recent refusal to marrying a princess arranged for him. Grimsby remarks that the entire kingdom, himself included, wishes to see Eric happily married. He responds that he will marry when he finds the right girl.
Later, the ship is caught in a storm, with Grimsby, Eric, and the crew all thrown overboard when the ship crashes into a gaggle of rocks. Grimsby and the crew are able to reach a lifeboat, but Eric returns to the ship to save his dog, Max, who is still trapped on board. Max is able to safely get to the lifeboat, but the ship explodes due to fire that reaches into the barrel of gunpowder, and Eric is thrown overboard. Grimsby later finds Eric safely on shore, where he reveals that a girl (actually Ariel, unknown to either) saved his life and sang with her beautiful voice. Grimsby is skeptical of Eric's claims and believes he was merely hallucinating from seawater consumption and returns to the palace with Eric and Max.
When Eric discovers a mute Ariel, who had just been transformed into a human by Ursula, Grimsby notes that she is beautiful, but still has his doubts about whether she is the girl who rescued Eric, who later finds her and brings her to his castle, where she is invited to dinner and Grimsby tells the prince how absurd it sounds that nice young women just show up in the ocean rescuing people then disappear, but Eric insists that what he saw was real. Ariel takes Grimsby's pipe (thinking it will play music, and remembering Scuttle's poetic description) and blows its contents into his face (though she does give him an apologetic look afterward), making him wipe the smoke off his face in slight amusement. He says that Eric should take her on a tour of the kingdom to which he agrees and does so. As time goes on, Grimsby notices that Eric is falling for Ariel, and feels encouraged to further it. He councils him to forget his dream girl (he wished to marry the one who saved him, not realizing it was Ariel), and to accept the real one he has. Eric considers this, throwing his flute into the ocean as he does so, but then a disguised Ursula walks along the beach below the prince and hypnotizes Eric into forgetting all about Ariel.
Later, Ursula, disguised as Vanessa, arrives and uses Ariel's voice to enchant Eric into marrying her. Grimsby is surprised at this turn of events, but agrees to arrange for a wedding at sea. During it, Grimsby holds Max on his leash while Scuttle and other birds and sea creatures swarm in and stop it, which ends with Ursula's Necklace breaking which frees Eric from her hypnosis and returns Ariel's voice to her. Ursula changes back into her normal form and kidnaps Ariel. Eric follows them in a rowboat not wanting to lose Ariel again, causing Grimsby to question his actions. In the end, after Ursula is destroyed and Ariel is transformed back into a human, she and Eric are married. At the wedding, Carlotta grabs Grimsby's necktie and cries happily in it.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea[]
Grimsby returns in the sequel, but has a smaller role than in the previous film. He is present at the celebration of Melody's birth. When Ursula's sister, Morgana, arrives, she grabs him and asks him if their prior actions towards Ursula were fair. He is later present at Melody's twelfth birthday party, where he formally presents her as she enters. He later watches sadly as she runs away from there.
Grimsby is not seen again until the end of the film. As everyone is celebrating in the water, Eric asks him to come in and join them. He attempts to refuse, but before he can finish, he is knocked into the water by Max.
House of Mouse[]
Grimsby only appears in the episode "Everybody Loves Mickey", where he is seen sitting with Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The Little Mermaid (2023)[]
Grimsby in the live action remake
Grimsby appears in the live-action reimagining of the 1989 film. He is portrayed by British actor Art Malik.
Grimsby is first seen onboard the Royal Ship looking for Prince Eric who on a bowsprit longing to look for a mermaid whom he might fall in love with. As he approaches Eric on the bowsprit, he fears that Eric might fall into the ocean, telling him to get back onboard immediately. Just as Eric tells his crew that there is a Spanish galleon spotted ahead, Grimsby warns Eric that he will return home, telling him to listen to him which Grimsby accidentally knocks Eric's telescope into the ocean.
Later that night during Eric's birthday on his ship, Grimsby tells him to continue to learn to behave in a manner to help him become a future king just before Eric approaches his pet dog Max that he saw a mermaid on one of the boats which is Ariel. However, as a storm approached, Eric began steering his ship to navigate his crew through the stormy sea; however, just as the ship hit a rock, causing a lantern to fall onto the ship to start a fire, Grimsby and the rest of Eric's crew (as well as Eric's pet dog Max) began to evacuate from the burning ship while Ariel later saves Eric who is drowning in the ocean.
As Eric returns home the next day, Grimsby discusses with Queen Selina which he reports to her that there were no casualties during the storm last night and as Eric approaches the Queen, Grimsby replies to her that he could not find a sign of the girl whom Eric is falling in love, just as Selina forbids him from going out to any more voyages on the ocean until he feels better. She then asks Grimsby to know how many shipwrecks have occurred this year, which he replies to the Queen that six shipwrecks have happened, which she prevents Eric from going on any more voyages just before Eric sings the musical number "Wild Uncharted Waters".
When Ariel appears in the castle, Grimsby begins to notice the attraction between her and Prince Eric and does his best to support them. He first secretly fetches a carriage for Eric despite the Queen's order to have Eric remain in the castle. Grimsby later appears talking with Lashana if Eric has been ignoring her orders and as Eric hears Grimsby's conversation and just he hears Eric talking, he recaps to Grimsby that he went out on a rowboat in a lagoon while discussing with him. After Ariel leaves, Grimsby discusses with Eric he was unable to find Ariel (the mermaid he was looking for) just before Eric goes to bed.
On the third day, Grimsby is talking with the Queen, who replies to him that he must have found the girl he was looking for the whole time while planning for a wedding outside upon staring at "Vanessa", Ursula's disguise. When Vanessa shows up and bewitches Eric with Ariel's stolen voice, Grimsby notices his unusual behavior and confronts Eric about his torn feelings for Ariel. However, the wedding was disrupted when Scuttle stalls the wedding upon attacking Vanessa. After Ariel shatters Ursula's necklace to reclaim her voice and Ursula reveals her true form, Grimsby and the rest of the other surviving attendees retreat upon revealing to be the sea witch in disguise. Grimsby's support of Ariel and Eric's relationship runs so deep that he deliberately kicks away the family engagement ring when Scuttle knocked it out of Eric's hands, then stops the Queen from going after Eric when he rushes to the shore to find Ariel.
After Ursula was killed during battle, Grimsby approaches Eric who was worried that he was looking for him all along just before Selina apologizes to him about the misunderstanding, she told him earlier. During the wedding between Eric and Ariel, Grimsby takes them to Selina who is planning them for a send off. After a conversation with the Queen, Grimsby and the rest of the castle staff began to bid Ariel and Eric a farewell as they travel around the world.
Printed media[]
Part of Your World (A Twisted Tale)[]
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Prince of Song & Sea[]
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Grimsby shares the same voice actor as Roger Radcliffe of One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Rama of The Jungle Book. While the late Ben Wright was auditioning for Grimsby, the producers and directors did not know who he was, so he had to end up telling them he provided the voice of Roger in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Coincidentally, Grimsby has a similar nose and smokes a pipe, just like Roger.
- This was Ben Wright's final film role; he died of congestive heart failure four months before The Little Mermaid was released.
- Grimsby was also Wright's final role in a Disney film.
- In the Broadway show, Grimsby was portrayed by Jonathan Freeman, who is more famously known for voicing Jafar of Aladdin.
- Although the films never explicitly state Grimsby's relationship to Eric, some storybooks identify him as Eric's guardian.[1][2] Additionally, there are audiobooks that refer to him as "Eric's advisor"[3] or "adviser",[4] and international translations have used variants such as "consejero" (counsellor, adviser) in Spanish,[5] and "førsteminister" (first minister) in Danish.[6]
References[]
- ↑ The Little Mermaid: Classic Storybook (1997), page 27. ISBN 1-57082-7273 (file)
- ↑ The Little Mermaid: The Story of Ariel (2016). ISBN 978-1-4847-6728-3 (file)
- ↑ The Little Mermaid - Story Read-Along Book and Tape (1990), page 4. ISBN 1-55723-025-0 (file)
- ↑ The Little Mermaid Read-Along Storybook and CD (2013). ISBN 978-1423168898 (file)
- ↑ La Sirenita - colección Los Clásicos Disney (1998; Publisher: Ediciones Gaviota), page 62. ISBN 84-392-0006-4 (file)
- ↑ Den Lille Havfrue (1998; Publisher: Egmont Albatros; Danish translation by Ole Thornye), page 62. ISBN 87-7541-585-2 (file)
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