Since the original story by Andersen decrives not the appearance of the sea witch's, the The Little Mermaid authors have taken a lot of freedom in design, inspired by the singer and actor transvestite Divine. He was Harris Glenn Milstead an american actor, singer and drag queen of the last century. But originally the animators wanted to create as Ursula a simple fat mermaid, or maybe a race, a hybrid creature. That's all.