Ursula’s design was explicitly inspired by Divine, the Baltimore-born drag icon and underground film star who rose to fame through John Waters’ cult movies. During the development of The Little Mermaid, Disney animators openly referenced Divine’s larger-than-life persona as a visual and emotional blueprint, pulling directly from a performer who had already become a symbol of transgression, excess, and unapologetic self-expression in American counterculture.

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Divine was known throughout the 1970s and 80s for exaggerated makeup, towering wigs, body-hugging gowns, and a confrontational stage presence that actively rejected respectability politics. At a time when drag was still pushed to underground clubs, midnight screenings, and fringe cinema, Divine weaponised shock, humour, and glamour — deliberately challenging norms around beauty, gender, and power long before drag entered mainstream pop culture or television.

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Disney animators studied Divine’s facial expressions, posture, and movement in detail, translating drag performance into animation frame by frame. This included how Divine occupied space, used her hands, tilted her head, and delivered expressions that balanced menace with theatricality — elements rarely seen in animated villains of the era, especially female-coded ones.

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Ursula’s arched brows, exaggerated makeup, dramatic gestures, and commanding presence directly echo Divine’s performances — a rare moment where queer subculture shaped a major studio character at a time when LGBTQ+ representation was largely invisible. In the late 1980s, explicit queer characters were still absent from family animation, making Ursula a coded figure whose power and camp resonated strongly with queer audiences, whether consciously acknowledged or not.

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Divine, who died in 1988 just before the film’s release, is now remembered as a foundational figure in queer history and drag performance. Her legacy is preserved through film retrospectives, museum exhibitions, academic studies, and continued reverence within drag culture, where she is widely recognised as one of the genre’s most influential pioneers.

Together, they represent how queer culture has quietly shaped some of the most enduring icons in mainstream pop culture — often uncredited, often coded, but undeniably present. Ursula stands as proof that even within corporate, family-friendly storytelling, queer creativity has always found ways to leave its mark.

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Ursula from The Little Mermaid was based off an 80’s Drag Queen

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