After the Sea Witch becomes involved, Hans Christian Andersen's version isn't as happy as Disney's version. In the original story by Andersen, the Little Mermaid goes to the shore where she had left the prince to drink the potion which the Sea Witch had given her. This potion makes her experience unbearable pain where she has her tail split into two legs. In the Disney version, the unbearable pain is omitted from the story.

The Prince finds the Little Mermaid and takes her to his castle where he becomes quite impressed with the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid was told that if the prince couldn't love her enough to forget his parents, for her sake, then she would die. The Prince found that he loved her however, not enough to forget about his parents for her sake. Instead, he truly loved the girl who saved him, but they couldn't be together because of her work at the Moneastery. He later decided that if he could not find that girl, he would marry The Little Mermaid instead.

In the Disney version, Eric cannot be with Ariel because he wants the girl with the beautiful singing voice and because Ariel gave her voice to the Sea Witch, Eric doesn't realise who Ariel is.

In the original version, the Prince's parents then asked him to go visit a Kingdom nearby. Meanwhile while on the ship, the Mermaid's sisters visit and tell her that their family is so unhappy without her. When they arrive at the Kingdom, the Prince finds that the girl he is to marry is the one that saved him. The Little Mermaid then has to stand back and watch the Prince marry this other woman.

This does not happen in the Disney version. Instead, Eric finds the girl with the beautiful singing voice who just happens to be the Sea Witch and plans to marry her, however, it doesn't eventuate.

Back to the original, when they are sailing back home, the mermaid's sisters visit once again however this time they are bald. They instruct the Little Mermaid that if she uses the knife they give her to kill the Prince, his blood will give her back her fins and she could return to her family. They then inform her they are bald because they traded their hair for the knife.

The Little Mermaid then goes to kill the Prince while he is asleep but realises she can't do it because she loves him too much. So instead she throws herself, along with the knife into the ocean. Rather than dying, she realies she is being lifted up. The daughters of the air have rescued her and made the Little Mermaid into one of them so that she could earn an eternal soul through the protection of children.

The ending in the Disney version, is of course much happier. The necklace that contains Ariel's voice is stolen back of the Sea Witch and dropped on the deck of the ship. Because it has been released from the shell, the voice retrns to its rightful owner. It is at this point that Eric realises the girl he has been with has been the one he has been looking for all along. But the Sea Witch has not finished yet. Because they had not kissed within the 3 days, Ariel belongs to the Sea Witch and so Ariel was turned back into a mermaid. The Prince vowed not to lose her again and got into a small boat to help rescue her.

The Sea King (Ariel's father), then found out what was happening and went to bargain for his daughter's freedom. It was agreed Ariel was allowed her freedom if he gave the Sea Witch his freedom. The deal was made and Ariel was free again.

It was here where Eric appears with his harpoon and he wounds the Sea Witch with it. He then, went to find one of the dredged up ships where he was able to aim the bowspirit at the Sea Witch's heart. After a successful aim, the Sea Witch disolves into a patch of black ooze.

With the Sea Witch gone, the Sea King was King once again, and he granted his daughter her wish - to be human, and of course Eric and Ariel live happily ever after.