Little Mermaid's Island



Little Mermaid's Island was a show proposed by Jim Henson during his short time in talks with The Walt Disney Company. A pilot (called Sebastian's Birthday) and a second episode Tell The Truth was shot, intended for the Disney Channel, with puppets against blue screen and human characters interacting. Filming took place in a very old studio (once owned by Mary Pickford) in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles.

The show was a spin-off of Disney's animated film The Little Mermaid, with a human actress playing the role of Ariel, and puppet versions of Sebastian the crab, Scuttle the seagull, Flotsum and Jetsom and Flounder the fish and new character, Flounders twin sister, Fin. A new human character, The Admiral (Star Wars voice actor Clive Revell), would have lived on an island nearby to Ariel. Ambrosius from Labyrinth was used as Max the sheepdog. There was also a full body puppet called Scales the Dragon.

For scenes of Ariel swimming, a rod puppet was used to simulate her movements underwater.

Jim Henson died within two months after the pilot was shot. A Disney animated series of The Little Mermaid, unrelated to Henson's production, ran on CBS from 1992 to 1994.