Poca and John's love is much more serious, and it doesn't have a traditional happy ending.

The Englishmen and the Natives actually had a feud (like the Capulets and the Montagues) and this gave Pocahontas and John Smith difficulty (like Romeo and Juliet).

Only Triton seemed to hold a grudge against humans, where as the humans hated neither him nor the rest of the merfolk.

Why would Ariel and Eric's love be forbidden? Oh yeah, King Triton hates humans. Also Belle and Beast's would be if she's dating an animal.

because they had to sneak around to meet each other and stuff like that

Romeo and Juliet did not fall in love, only lust. Same as Ariel and Eric. The love came after the story was over for them. Did you know that Romeo and Juliet was not written to be looked at as a beautiful tragedy but as a warning to not do precisely what they did. Shakespeare was just so good that people thought it was a true love story.link
This is the link to Arthur Brook's original story of Romeus and Juliet, which was written years before Shakespeare was even born. Sorry this was so long.

Definitely! <3 <3 <3

no doubt

They come to mind when I think "tragic love story". And even though their endings are much different (Romeo & Juliet both commiting suicide), neither couple ends up together and it's sad.

They are way more star-crossed than Ariel & Eric are! Eric had no roadblocks in his life against him loving her. Ariel was the only one who had to fight anything really. Pocahontas and John's respective peoples really hated each other in a murderous way. Plus, no real happy ending! ;(

In Romeo and Juliet, there was hate from both sides of the family. Just like in Pocahontas, both races hated each other.

In the little mermaid, humans didn't know mermaids existed, how could they hate them?