--- title: A Mistakenly Headless Disneyland Character Spooked Visitors description: Ursula's animatronic head separated from her body at the Little Mermaid ride in Disneyland, frightening visitors. canonical: https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-30T22:58:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:13.404Z og:title: That Time Ursula Lost Her Head on the Ride Spooking Everyone og:description: Ursula reached a whole new level of terrifying og:url: https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: That Time Ursula Lost Her Head on the Ride Spooking Everyone twitter:description: Ursula reached a whole new level of terrifying twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ursula Lost Her Head on the Little Mermaid Ride and Frightened a Bunch of Tourists  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 30, 2018 10:58 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 30, 2018 10:58 PM UTC Visitors to Disneyland’s [Little Mermaid](http://time.com/4797917/little-mermaid-statue-paint-vandalism-copenhagen-denmark/) ride at the California Adventure theme park in Anaheim experienced an unexpected fright over the weekend when the head of the villainous Ursula detached from her animatronic body. In true sorceress fashion, her character continued singing and dancing, arms gesticulating in time to the music, despite the creepy technical mishap, as ride-goers shared on social media. According to the[ _Huffington Post_](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/disney-ursula-head-off%5Fus%5F5a6eacd5e4b01fbbefb33ee7), those who took the ride reported that children were quite upset after the experience. Some were even in tears afterward. “It was a pretty freaky thing to see,” one person [told local news.](http://myfox8.com/2018/01/30/disneyland-ursula-loses-head-terrifies-everyone/) While that response is understandable — no one likes seeing a decapitated figure — let’s be real. Ursula is already a [frankly terrifying](http://time.com/3586569/sexist-little-mermaid/) (and terrifyingly powerful) character, no matter where her head is at. If you want more of her in your life, you won’t have to wait long: Disney is [already working on](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/little-mermaid-reboot-disney-rob-marshall-1202632266/) the live-action remake of the classic animated tale. > [](https://twitter.com/dizzzymissy/status/957760440779522048) > [](https://twitter.com/AshleyLCarter1/status/957842921033732096) > [](https://twitter.com/whatthemelmel/status/957774423448170496) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/"},"headline":"Ursula Lost Her Head on the Little Mermaid Ride and Frightened a Bunch of Tourists","datePublished":"2018-01-30T22:58:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:13.404Z","description":"Ursula's animatronic head separated from her body at the Little Mermaid ride in Disneyland, frightening visitors.","url":"https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Disney"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5125654/disneyland-ursula-accident/","name":"Ursula Lost Her Head on the Little Mermaid Ride and Frightened a Bunch of Tourists"}}]}] ```