Scuttle, the bird character from Disney's The Little Mermaid , was originally depicted as a seagull in the 1989 animated film. However, in the 2023 live-action remake, director Rob Marshall changed Scuttle's species to a Northern gannet, a large diving seabird. This change was made to enhance the storytelling by emphasizing that Ariel has never been to the surface before and that Scuttle, as a diving bird, can meet Ariel underwater and provide information about the surface world. The Northern gannet is capable of diving deep underwater, unlike seagulls, which aligns better with the new narrative approach