"Determination"

This cel first appeared on eBay a few months back for $1695 and I didn't have the money to buy it.

Then about two months ago Leslie Combemale from ArtInsights contacted me and showed me this cel, which I still wanted. I had a bit more money, but not quite enough, so Leslie made a deal with me and I paid $1000 up front and the rest ($695) within a month.

Anyway, the cel:

A beautiful, emotional expression on her face and a full body! Also, the lighting of the scene gives her a greeny-blue tail instead of an outright green tail, which I like!

The quirky thing about this cel setup is that the cels do not actually go together (i.e. Not a key setup). If you break down the cels into their original frames you get three separate images:

1. Flotsam and Jetsam

2. Ariel

3. Bubbles

 

As you can see, Ariel and the eels aren't supposed to have quite as much crossover. Of course, in such a mismatched setup, Ariel gets full priority and is placed on top of Flotsam and Jetsam, despite them actually being on top of her during the film. As for the bubbles, they were made by her tail. I'm thinking I may shift the bubble layer back behind Ariel so that they don't occupy her face.

Being mismatched, I'm not sure how this affects the value. $1695 is far better than $2300, which is how much this cel was offered by Animation Sensations (a.k.a Georgetown Frame Shoppe). Incidentally, they still have it on their site marked as "SOLD", as if they were the ones who sold it. Don't believe it!

This piece cost $US1695. Photographic background. Unframed. The authentication seal is in the bottom-right corner.

"Watch For Sharks"

At around the same time that a very popular Kiss The Girl cel appeared on eBay, Leslie Combermale from ArtInsights offered me a selection of cels from a private collector. I liked almost all of them, but some stood out from others.

In the end it came down to two: one of a large Ariel with an almost full tail, looking uncomfortable as she explain her collection to Sebastian (not in the shot). The fact that she gets into a better position later in the sequence, plus the fact that Flounder, who comes in about three quarters through the sequence, is absent, led me to pass it up for this one:

The smiles on both characters are fantastic. The dialogue I imagine between them is:
Ariel: "We totally going to get grounded for this. Are you okay with that?"
Flounder: "Hell yeah!"

Even though I know that's not actually the case, the though makes me smile :D

Really, the scene is where Ariel is telling Flounder he can sit out the adventure and "watch for sharks". Flounder smiles for a few seconds before realising what Ariel has just said.

I was momentarily concerned about the shape of Flounder's face, as he is in transition to smiling a bit wider, but I find that it's not really a problem after all. Not a full body shot of Ariel, but the tail is highly visible and the full set of Ariel's colours, plus the coupling of the two contrasting characters, makes this a terrific piece! This being from the shipwreck scene at the beginning, it is currently the earliest appearing cel in my collection.

The collection that I bought this from was apparently not made available exclusively to ArtInsights. Animation Sensations (a.k.a Georgetown Frame Shoppe) has listed many of the pieces shown to me by Leslie on their gallery's site. Considering they still list this piece on their site as available when it is safely in Leslie's physical possession on my behalf, I'm wondering just how many cels on their site are actually still available.

They have it listed at Animation Sensations for $200 more than what I paid for it. Looks like ArtInsights gives a better deal this time!

This piece cost $US2200. Photographic background. Unframed. The authentication seal is in the bottom-right corner.

Update:
As requested by one reader, and since I have the image anyway, here is the cel with the numbers at the bottom. I'll save you the trouble: they match!

I also discovered that this cel was sold a few months before I bought it on an auction site for $881.00. The price inflation would be due primarily to the additional costs of buying through a gallery, since they do need to make some money through the transaction. Even taking that into account, however, I'd guess the buyer/seller made several hundred dollars profit in the three months he had it for. Good for him.

"You Monster!"

This was my first cel ever. I bought it on eBay in May, 2010. It turns out that I actually purchased from a gallery, Animation Sensations (a.k.a Georgetown Frame Shoppe), who use eBay as a tool for offering some of their products at discounted prices.

It wasn't what I would call a "HAVE to have" moment, but I am happy with it all the same, and feel excited to look at it and have it displayed. It's an excellent moment in the film, one of the few times that Ariel is genuinely full of hatred. It's a full body shot (so head-to-tail; none of the rest of my current collection is like that) with a clear, emotional expression.

It's funny, because soon after I acquired this one I managed to find Leslie Combemale and started talking to her about cels from this film. I mentioned a cel of her cowering under Ursula, which she said was a "Lady in a Muzzle" shot (referencing Lady and the Tramp, a shot undesired by most collectors because it shows their beloved heroine in distress). She then added "But that's not the worst in this movie. There's this one shot of King Triton as a plant creature. That goes beyond a Muzzle shot. That's just... ewww!" My response was to show her this piece XD.

There is a small problem in the framing: apparently the Disney Store used to use a certain type of sticky tape to bind the cel to the background. This tape has been found to pose a threat to the cel over a period of time. As far as I know this hasn't been corrected and so I'll need to get it fixed sooner rather than later!

This piece cost me $1100, not including postage and handling. It was a little annoying, because the seller advertised the item with a $50 postage charge for international postage, and then found out that it was actually $150. They asked me to meet them half-way ($75). I obliged, but reminded them that it was their responsibility to make sure their listing was accurate.

It's on a photographic background with silver Disney Store framing. The authentication seal is in the bottom right-hand corner. Two cels: one for Ariel and one for the Polyp.