In Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, Sebastian conducts the palace concert with a baton.
The opening concert introduces Sebastian as the musical leader responsible for directing the royal performance for King Triton. He holds a small conductor’s baton and tries to keep the musicians and singers organized while waiting for Ariel to appear. The sequence quickly becomes chaotic when Ariel is absent.
A baton is a slender stick traditionally used by a conductor to mark tempo and coordinate an ensemble. The joke works because Sebastian takes the formal concert seriously, while the underwater performers and Triton’s impatient reaction create comic disorder. The visual also establishes Sebastian’s role as both composer-like authority and nervous court servant.
The baton is not King Triton’s trident, which is his symbol of royal power. Nor is it one of the objects associated with Ariel’s human collection. Those distinctions help separate the concert’s musical setting from the film’s other recurring props.