Sebastian

Sebastian is a red Jamaican crab and major character in Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid. He is the "distinguished" court composer for King Triton, and is regularly tasked with watching over his youngest daughter, Princess Ariel.

The Little Mermaid
Sebastian is first introduced during the start of a royal concert occurring within King Triton's palace. The performance is a failure, however, as the star of the musical, Ariel, is nowhere to be found. Sebastian is subsequently faced with humiliation throughout the kingdom and berates Ariel for this upon her return to Atlantica. King Triton does the same, and further adds to the argument once he learns Ariel missed the performance due to traveling to the surface again. After the princess storms off in despair, Sebastian shows no remorse, feeling teenagers to be too trouble-making for their own good, and should be given constant supervision. This comment gives Triton the idea to assign Sebastian as Ariel's supervisor, tasked with keeping her out of trouble and under close watch at all times.

Sebastian angered over the new position, heads out of the throne room to find Ariel, eventually doing so and discovering a hidden grotto owned by the princess and used to store various human objects that have sunk into the sea. Sebastian scolds Ariel on the obsession with the human world and tries to take her home, only to be interrupted by a passing ship carrying the handsome Prince Eric. The ship is soon caught within a hurricane, and Eric falls into the sea, nearly drowning. He is rescued and swam to shore by Ariel, with Sebastian and Ariel's best friend, Flounder, following behind. Horrified by Ariel interacting with the then unconscious Eric, the prawn suggests keeping the entire situation a secret, and simply return home and act as if nothing's happened. Unfortunately for Sebastian, Ariel has fallen in love with Eric, and obsessively focuses on him from that moment forward. Sebastian tries to convince the princess that the human world is undesirable through the musical number "Under the Sea", but once again, his attempts are futile.

Just then, Sebastian is summoned to the palace by King Triton, who has leaned Ariel has fallen in love (though he believes it to be a merman, as opposed to a human). Triton playfully confronts Sebastian on the matter, wanting to know the identity of Ariel's crush, but Sebastian's anxiety blinds the obvious joy Triton feels, resulting in the former revealing Ariel's act of saving and falling in love with a human. Sebastian is then forced to reveal Ariel's grotto, where Triton destroys most of the artifacts in hopes of getting his message across to his daughter. Sebastian shows remorse for accidentally revealing Ariel's secrets to Triton, and is told to leave the grotto by the princess, which he sadly obliges to. As he tries to explain himself to Flounder, Sebastian spots Ariel leaving the grotto with Flotsam and Jetsam, minions of Ursula, the Sea Witch. Though Sebastian and Flounder try to prevent it, Ariel makes a deal with Ursula to become human for three days; in during which, she must have Eric fall in love with her and bestow a kiss of true love. Otherwise, Ariel will belong to Ursula for eternity.

After the transformation, Sebastian and Flounder aid Ariel to shore, where the former has a nervous breakdown over the situation, making an attempt to return to Atlantica to inform King Triton of what's happened. However, Ariel begs for Sebastian's sympathy, which wins the prawn over as he knows Ariel's life would return to misery should she become a mermaid once more. Sebastian then vows to help find Eric, delighting the princess and setting the stage for further events. Eventually, Eric comes across Ariel, and she is taken to his seaside castle with Sebastian tagging along. Sebastian is soon separated from Ariel and comes across the manic Chef Louiswho tries to cook the former. Sebastian manages to escape and returns to Ariel, expressing his exasperation over the entire ordeal, only to soften once he sees Ariel's happiness and satisfaction over living above the surface. Over the course of the following days, Sebastian works with Flounder and Ariel's seagull friend, Scuttle, to form a romantic relationship between the princess and Eric, hopefully leading to a kiss. The morning of the third day, however, Sebastian and Ariel learn Eric has found his "true love", and has assembled a wedding to take place that afternoon.

However, Scuttle discovers this new woman is actually Ursula in disguise, urging Sebastian to rush off to Atlantica to finally alert Triton. By the time they find Ursula, she has now taken Ariel (once again a mermaid) as prisoner and offers her freedom in exchange for Triton's soul. Triton agrees and is turned into a polyp, much to Sebastian's sorrow. Just then, Prince Eric arrives to battle Ursula, though Flotsam and Jetsam are sent to capture him. Sebastian and Flounder intervene to free him, while Ariel deals with Ursula, in a scuffle that results in the deaths of Flotsam and Jetsam. An enraged Ursula then turns to a monstrous size to kill Ariel out of revenge, horrifying Sebastian, who can only watch alongside Flounder as Ursula ultimately meets her end at the hands of Eric, reviving Triton.

Afterward, Triton finally sees the goodness in humanity as a result of Eric's bravery and genuinely selfless love for Ariel, expressing his softened feelings towards Ariel's situation to Sebastian. Triton then magically transforms Ariel back into a human to be with Eric, and the two have a wedding sometime following this event. Sebastian is present at the ceremony, crying tears of joy as he watches the newlyweds side by side. The moment is short-lived as Chef Louis returns for revenge, only to be foiled and humiliated by Sebastian's quick-thinking, allowing the prawn to triumphantly return to the sea alongside Scuttle, Flounder, and Triton, who sees the happily married Ariel and Eric off.

The Little Mermaid: The Series
Sebastian appears in every episode of the prequel television series, which follows the adventures of Ariel when she is still a mermaid. In the series, Sebastian's occupation is King Triton's assistant, adviser and confidante, just as he was during Ariel's Beginning. Sebastian is shown as being a good friend of Ariel and Flounder, as well as Urchin, a new character unique to the television series. He is sometimes strict and often critical of Ariel's adventurous ways but often ends up going on her adventures with her.

In one adventure, in the episode "Island of Fear," he accompanies Ariel as she tries to find the source of a pollutant that is sickening the fish. He befriends a human boy named Daniel and helps the boy to escape from the evil scientist the boy is forced to work for. This makes it one of the few times in the series that a character directly interacts with a human.

Throughout the series, Sebastian's character is further developed via dialogue and entire episodes dedicated to him. In the series, Sebastian is said to have come from a large Jamaican family. In "King Crab" his parents visit him, and it is revealed that he had lied and told them he was the King of Atlantica. In the episode "Tail of Two Crabs", Sebastian has a rivalry with another prawn named Zeus, and they both try to one-up the other. According to dialogue in this episode, Sebastian was born off the coast of Jamaica ("hence the accent") and went to Music Academy in Trinidad (sometime around the time of "the great typhoon of '43" according to a statement of his made in the episode "Stormy") prior to joining King Triton's staff as his assistant. "T'ank You for Dat, Ariel" reveals that he is somewhat insecure regarding his small size.

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Sebastian is tasked by King Triton to watch over Ariel's daughter, Princess Melody, repeating his role from the original film. Sebastian disapproves of Melody's obsession over the sea, knowing the dangers that lie within them (namely the witch Morgana, who seeks to unleash her wrath upon Melody and her family), but the headstrong princess fails to listen, finding herself completely captivated by the world of the ocean. One evening, during a ball, Sebastian accidentally finds himself in the ballroom, amongst the crowd of royals, and more importantly, the psychotic Chef Louis, who tries to murder the crab out of spite. Sebastian manages to escape, but unintentionally embarrasses Melody in the process, reinforcing her fear of being an outcast amongst her fellow royals. Later that night, Sebastian tries to cheer up the child, but it results in her leaving into the sea. Sebastian quickly informs Ariel and Eric, and a search breaks through. King Triton is informed of this and, after turning Ariel back into a mermaid, the team takes the search into the waters. Eventually, the family finds themselves battling Morgana at the sea witch's lair. She soon meets her defeat at the hands of Melody, and with her out of the way, peace can be restored to land and sea.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
In the 2008 prequel, Sebastian is King Triton's attache and is initially shown as being a strict enforcer of the sea king's rules. All music has been banned from Atlantica, but it is later revealed that Sebastian has been secretly performing music as the leader of The Catfish Club Band, which performs in an underground club. Technically this makes Sebastian the first character in The Little Mermaid universe to break a major law of Triton's.

When the underground club is revealed to Triton, Sebastian is placed in jail with the rest of his band. Thanks to Ariel, they manage to escape. As part of a premeditated plan, Sebastian leads them far away from Atlantica to a specific spot where Ariel finds her mother's discarded music box. Sebastian wants music to return to Atlantica, and he returns with Ariel to convince Triton to change his mind. When the film ends, music is restored to Atlantica, and Sebastian becomes the "royal court composer", setting up his role in the opening of the original film.

According to this film, Sebastian is the oldest of Ariel's friends, having been present since she was a small child all the way to her own parenthood in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. There is also evidence in the second film about this; by the time Melody is 12 years old, Sebastian has already become an elderly prawn in terms of age.