Since the fall of 2024, posts have been appearing on the RuNet, according to which the Disney fairy tale takes place in the Caspian Sea, and one of the main characters may be a native of Makhachkala. We checked the consistency of the arguments given in support of this hypothesis.
This theory is mainly presented in two versions. In a short one, which is given, for example, in Telegram channels “Dvach"(321,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and "Leprosy"(116,000), it only says that Prince Eric from Disney's The Little Mermaid is Dagestani. A more detailed version clarifies: “This theory was put forward by Twitter. The logic is simple: the cartoon mentions the Caspian Sea, and Makhachkala is one of the five large harbors of this body of water.” Similar posts can be found in Telegram channels “Ax+"(1.9 million views),"Trending today"(184,000), "Broadcast 18+"(137,000), "Voice of Dagestan" (128,000), "Mousetrap"(123,000), "Knockout × zoomer"(111,000), MDK (87,000), etc., as well as “Peekaboo"(343,000), Reddit and on VKontakte (examples for 2024 And 2025 year).
Many of the publications analyzed provide a screenshot of the same tweet, which on October 31, 2024 posted user @alta1r (although in some posts his username and nickname changed), who wrote: “We watched The Little Mermaid yesterday, and I noticed the following: in the cartoon it is said that the action takes place in the Caspian Sea → there are five large harbors in the Caspian Sea → with a probability of one in five, Prince Eric is a dag from Makhachkala. Live with it." This post, which appears to be the basis of the theory, has received 439,000 views.
“Verified” studied the cartoon and found out that the Caspian Sea is actually mentioned there. In the middle of the film, the main villain of the film, the witch Ursula, sings a song that contains magic words designed to take away the voice of the protagonist, the mermaid Ariel. In the official Russian dubbing from the Pythagoras studio, the beginning of the spell transferred like this: “Beluga, stellate sturgeon, the wind plays over the Caspian Sea.” Beluga And stellate sturgeon - These are fish of the sturgeon family, which also live in the Caspian Sea basin. Based on this Russian localization of the song, some viewers may get the impression that the film takes place in the waters of the Caspian Sea.
The author of the original tweet in which the theory was stated, as evidence in the comments brought the same words of Ursula, but in English. You can find several on the Internet official Disney materials in which is given wording of the spell (version in the 2023 film remake is also different). All differences, however, are associated only with the second half, where Latin words are used, one way or another connected with the voice, and the first lines there are unchanged: “Beluga, stellate sturgeon. Come, winds of the Caspian Sea." “Verified” also studied several versions in other languages. For example, in the Polish version these lines adapted without mentioning the Caspian Sea at all: “Let the winds blow here from the east.”
That is, in the original version of the cartoon it was not stated that its action takes place in the Caspian Sea. According to the song, Ursula only summoned the winds from this reservoir, and the Polish version indicates that the Caspian Sea, relative to the heroes, may be located somewhere in the east.
"Little Mermaid» 1989 is a free adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. At the same time, the exact location of the action was never named in the cartoon. According to its plot, Ariel's father is the sea king Triton, whose kingdom is the ocean. After the success of the first part, the studio released other projects within this franchise: games, comics, books and new cartoons. And from them it became known that Triton rules the Atlantic. For example, this name is used in the animated series “Little Mermaid", which ran from 1992 to 1994, and in the sequel "The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea"(2000).
As for the country of which Eric was the prince, it is also not mentioned either in the cartoon or in its sequels. Most likely, this state (quite possibly fictional, as is often the case in Disney films) is located somewhere on the Atlantic coast. In The Disney Princess: A Celebration of Art and Creativity approved: “Disney artists moved the story from the cold Baltic shores of Andersen’s native Denmark to the warmer and sunnier Mediterranean—probably the shores of Southern Italy.” Mediterranean theme with Italian notes were confirmed by the cartoon's co-director John Musker and the artist Michael Peraza Jr.. In addition, in video on the official Disney Princess YouTube channel, the young presenters also said that the little mermaid grew up in the Mediterranean, and then asked the audience: “Did you know that Prince Eric’s palace is located somewhere in Italy?” However, in the book Part of Your World, which within the series A Twisted Tale published by Disney, Eric's kingdom was named Tirulia (the story took place in an alternative world in which Ariel was unable to defeat Ursula).
Thus, in the cartoon "The Little Mermaid" from the Disney studio it was not stated that the plot takes place in the Caspian Sea. This body of water was mentioned only as a certain distant place, the winds from which the villain called in her spell. Therefore, the likelihood that Prince Eric is Dagestani tends to zero.
Cover photo: frame from the cartoon / Walt Disney Pictures
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