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Eric first appears while on an extensive sea voyage. It is never mentioned where Prince Eric was sailing from or what royalty he descends from. During the first scene of his appearance, Eric hears from working sailors on the deck that because their voyage day is peaceful, that King Triton was in a favorable mood. Upon further questioning, Eric learns that Triton is the ruler of the merpeople under the sea.
Later while still at sea, Eric talks about his search for love. His confidant and oldest friend Grimsby gave him counsel on the subject. While Eric was virtually attentive of the advice, he was determined to find love on his own terms. Coincidentally, Ariel, the youngest of King Triton's beautiful daughters also was searching for love among other goals in her life. She spotted Eric from the vantage point of the ship deck she climbed to one night during a party among the sailors. She admired the handsome prince as he played and made music with his best friend Max the dog.
The next time Ariel saw Eric was during a terrible storm at sea. Eric's heroics aboard the ship, included saving his dog Max and getting other sailors to safety, was ended when an explosion occurred, sending him off the ship, unconscious. Ariel retrieved his unconscious body from the depths of the sea and swam him to shore during the night. Eric slept until morning, waking to the sound of Ariel's beautiful singing for him, professing her love for Eric. At the sound of Max and Grimsby arriving, Eric was left alone with the lingering vision of a girl singing to him.
Prince Eric rescued Ariel after she became human and was being chased by Max on the same beach she carried Eric to. Although unable to full determine where he had seen Ariel's strikingly familiar face before, Eric took her into his home. Adding further intrigue was the fact that Ariel could not speak. As part of her contract with Ursula the Sea Witch to become human, she could only rely on sign, body language and her looks, all of which even the scheming Ursula admitted were in high marks in Ariel's favor. Eric would spend considerable time taking Ariel around the kingdom in carriage rides and visiting different places in town. One fateful evening, the two enjoyed a splendid boat ride amidst willows trees and lily pads, and fireflies. The mood was accompanied by Sebastian's own lyrical contributions, encouraging Eric to kiss Ariel—a goal of Ariel's to accomplish before a time limit expired on her human transformation as per the agreement she made with Ursula. Literally lips-length apart, this nearly came true until Ursula's eels Flotsam and Jetsam intervened, upturning their boat.
Eric later fell into a melancholy, unable to settle on what was waiting for him: the love of his life. During a night out on the balcony, Eric heard mysterious singing coming from the beach. It came in the form of a beautiful brunette girl named Vanessa. Her voice sounded exactly as Ariel's (unknown to Eric was the fact that Ursula took Ariel's voice as payment and later used it in her guise as Vanessa to seduce Eric), instantly hypnotizing Eric into falling in love with her. By the next morning, Ariel awoke to the heartbreaking news that Eric and Vanessa were going to marry by sunset that same day which also was the last day of Ariel's human enchantment.
On a ceremonial ship, decorated for the wedding, Eric was rescued from marrying Vanessa after Ariel and her sea friends Flounder, Sebastian and Scuttle along with Max, crashed the wedding. Ursula's disguise was revealed after the shell necklace she wore containing Ariel's voice was broken. Ariel's voice returned just in time to reveal her love for Eric and that she was the one Eric loved all along. Before they could consummate their love with a kiss, Ariel fell upon the ship deck with no use of her legs as they returned to fins, revealing her true species as a mermaid. Ursula also turned to her octopus-legged self again and kidnapped Ariel, taking her back under the sea with her. Eric took a row boat out and followed as far as he could before diving beneath the turbulent waves to help his endangered love.
Ursula had taken Ariel as her prisoner until King Triton and Sebastian arrived to confront her. Ursula revealed the binding contract she and Ariel drew and made a counterproposal to release Ariel in exchange for Triton's surrender of his crown, trident and kingdom. Triton's parental instincts gave in and agreed to her terms. After Ariel's father was turned into a member of her ghoulish garden, Ariel attempted to fight Ursula but was overpowered. Before Ursula could harm Ariel, Eric made the save with a harpoon to her arm. He swam up to his boat before being dragged back down and get tied up by Flotsam and Jetsam. After Sebastian and Flounder helped free him, Ursula attempted to kill Eric with the trident's powers. Ariel struggled with Ursula again, causing her to misfire and thus the trident killed Flotsam and Jetsam instead, infuriating p her. Eric and Ariel reunited briefly before Ursula grew to gigantic size, emerging from the sea depths.
Ursula caused a monstrous maelstrom that trapped Ariel in the dry center, allowing Ursula to play a cruel game of target practice with the use of the trident, firing lightning at Ariel. In the maelstrom, Eric swam aboard a wrecked ship that had an extremely sharp broken bow sailing mast. He steered the ship towards Ursula on a collision course resulting in Ursula being impaled on the broken mast. Eric then barely swam back to shore after his endangered love was rescued and Ursula's dark magic spells died along with her, freeing the garden of damned merfolk and the King, all restored to their true forms. Eric passed out once more on the beach.
Ariel stayed once more at Eric's side until he regained consciousness. King Triton also stayed and watched this with Sebastian, gradually realizing how much his daughter truly loved the prince. Sebastian suggested an allegedly constant quotation of his stating that children must be let free to lead their own lives. After a brief chuckle between the two, the King stated how much he was going to miss his daughter and then turned his trident into the water and granted Ariel her humanity. By the closing minutes of the first adventure, Eric and Ariel married and shared their first official kiss.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea[]
In the second film, Eric retains his status as royalty while balancing his role as a husband. Eric and Ariel eventually welcomed their first child whom they named Melody. When Melody's life is threatened by Ursula's vengeful sister Morgana, Eric and Ariel decide that until Morgana is dealt with, Melody must no nothing about the sea or her mermaid heritage.
12 years later, after Melody goes out to sea following an argument with Ariel, Eric personally directed his royal fleet to search for her. He also persuaded Ariel to become a mermaid again in order to search the sea for Melody as she knew the sea and Melody better than anyone. Eric also commanded the fleet to engage Morgana during the all-out battle that later followed upon rescuing Melody.
Along with his wife Ariel, the Prince is very loving and caring towards their daughter and both he and Ariel have demonstrated the depths of their love for their family as they would go to extremes to protect their daughter.
House of Mouse[]
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Sofia the First: The Floating Palace[]
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Live-action appearances[]
Let's Go to Disneyland Paris[]
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Printed material[]
Kingdom Keepers[]
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A Twisted Tale[]
Part of Your World[]
Main article: Eric (Part of Your World)
A Twisted Tale Anthology:[]
The Secret Exchange[]
The Little Mermaid Musical[]
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Kingdom Hearts[]
Prince Eric first appears in Kingdom Hearts II as prince on the surface land of Atlantica.
Kingdom Hearts II[]
Following most of the plot of the original 1989 film, Eric is first seen being rescued by Ariel after surviving a shipwreck caused by a storm that sank his ship. After Ariel helps him to shore and sings "Part of Your World" to him before fleeing as he came to, he wonders who that girl was who rescued him.
Later, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, are able to recover the statue of him that survived intact after his ship was sunk by the storm, bringing it to show Ariel in her grotto. Nevertheless, even after Sora, Donald, and Goofy join Sebastian in singing "Under the Sea" to Ariel, she refuses to give up on wanting a life on land with Eric, even flat out refusing to sing in Sebastian's musical if he won't support her dream. She later shows Eric to Sora, Donald, and Goofy on a trip to the surface, and they recover a pendant that Eric dropped in the water to give to her. Unfortunately, Triton, having learned of Ariel being in love with a human from overhearing Sebastian say it out loud to himself, confronts her, and in a fit of anger due to his prejudice against humans, destroys the statue of Eric with his trident. As a result, Ariel is confronted by Ursula, who offers her the chance to be with Eric, but for a price: Her beautiful voice for legs. Despite some hesitation on her part, Ariel signs Ursula's contract reluctantly, and Ursula takes her voice while giving her legs in place of her mermaid tail.
(For censorship reasons, when Ariel is turned human, she's already wearing the sail dress Scuttle fashioned for her when she first got on land, rather than only her seashell bra as in the original film.)
Sora quickly helps a drowning Ariel to the surface using his own merman dolphin tail to help her, and Eric finds Ariel lying on the beach that night. As Ariel comes to, she tries to talk to Eric, but then remembers she doesn't have her voice anymore, yet she does return his pendant to him that Sora recovered previously. From there, Eric takes Ariel on a tour of his kingdom, but on the second night, while Ariel is being watched over by Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Flounder in between looking for Ursula, Ariel and Eric nearly kiss, but Flotsam and Jetsam ruin the moment to prevent Ariel from fulfilling the terms of the contract. The third day, there's still no sign of Ursula, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive to find Flounder comforting a crying Ariel. Soon, they hear Ariel's singing voice, and spot Eric with Vanessa walking on the beach. When Flounder points out Ursula's necklace on Vanessa's neck, an enraged Sora shoots it off with his Keyblade, shattering it and restoring Ariel's voice to her, breaking the spell Ursula cast on Eric as well, allowing Eric to reunite with Ariel, but before they can kiss, Ursula, reverting back to her true self, reveals that Ariel's time has run out, and grabs her before diving back into the ocean. Eric arrives just after Triton overwrote Ariel's signature on the contract with his own and sacrificed himself to save her, wounding Ursula on the arm with a harpoon before heading back to the surface with Ariel as Sora, Donald, and Goofy block Flotsam and Jetsam from pursuing them, before Ursula makes herself giant to attack everyone using the trident. Sora, Donald, and Goofy come to Eric's aid with protecting Ariel from Ursula, culminating in Sora making a heroic leap into the air and disarming Ursula of the trident with his Keyblade, which lands in Eric's boat. When Ursula demands it back, Eric lets her have it by thrusting the trident so it pierces clean through Ursula, mortally wounding her (which was meant to happen in the original script for the film before it was changed to him impaling her on the splintered bowsprit of one of the shipwrecks she brought to the surface right before she could kill Ariel with the trident).
After Ursula's death, Eric asks Ariel to climb back into his rowboat, but Ariel instead leaps out of the water to reveal to Eric she's a mermaid again and can no longer be with him. Despite his shock at seeing she's really a mermaid, Eric takes it in stride and admits he still loves her no matter what. Jumping into the water and swimming over to join her, Eric asks if she can help him work on his swimming skills, and Ariel happily accepts, the two sharing a joyful, heartwarming hug as Sora, Donald, and Goofy look on.
During the closing credits of the game, Ariel and Eric celebrate their marriage on the wedding ship like at the end of the original film, waving goodbye to Triton, Sebastian, and Flounder, before sharing a kiss. Whether or not Eric and Ariel will appear in a future Kingdom Hearts title after this, and possibly with their daughter Melody as well, is currently unknown.
Trivia[]
Prince Eric is the first official Disney Prince not to sing in his film; however, he does sing in the musical and at Melody's christening in the sequel.
Eric however will sing in the remake just as the Beast did on his own.
Eric is the first Disney Prince to be saved by a Princess.
Eric is the first Disney Prince to become a parent, a father to his first child, his daughter Melody.
Prince Eric speaks the first non-musical line of The Little Mermaid being "Isn't this great? The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face!"
Prince Eric is the second Disney Prince to kill the film's villain, the first being Prince Phillip and the third being Aladdin (or fourth if you count Beast defeating Gaston).
Eric is the first Disney Prince to have a dog as a pet. The Beast/Prince Adam is the second.
Eric is one of the only two Disney Princes to be hypnotized. (Prince Charming is hypnotized in Cinderella III.).
Eric is the first Disney Prince to be featured being able to play a musical instrument. Prince Naveen is the second.
Eric is the only character in the Official Disney Prince lineup to be a father.
Prince Eric is the first Disney Prince to be seen bare foot. The second being Prince Adam/Beast, the third Aladdin, and the fourth Flynn Rider.
Prince Eric is the first Disney Hero to have his life saved by his love interest. Ariel saved him from drowning and from being destroyed by Ursula when she obtained the Trident. The second Disney Hero to be saved by his love interest is Li Shang in the movie Mulan.
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