The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
Tags: good versus evil

Plot synopsis:
King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, rule over the underwater kingdom of Atlantica, filled with music and laughter. They have seven young daughters: Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, Alana, and the youngest of whom is Ariel. One day, the merpeople relax in a lagoon above water, and Triton gives Athena a music box. However, a pirate ship approaches. Everyone escapes except Athena, who is crushed to death by the ship when she tries to rescue the music box. Devastated by the death of his wife, Triton throws the music box away, and music is banned from Atlantica.
Ten years later, Ariel and her sisters live under a strict routine maintained by their governess, Marina Del Rey and her assistant, Benjamin. Marina dislikes being the girls' governess and longs to be Triton's attaché, a job currently filled by Sebastian the crab. Ariel hates their current lifestyle, which brings her into arguments with her father. Ariel encounters Flounder, whom she later follows to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music, and is shocked when she sees Sebastian performing there. When her presence is revealed, the entire band stops playing and hides, believing Ariel will tell her father about them. Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music and the remembrance of her mother, and she joins the club with an oath.
Ariel returns to the palace, and her sisters confront her over her disappearance. She explains where she was, and the following night the girls go to the club to have fun. Marina finds them, she later reports their activities to Triton, who destroys the club with his trident. Sebastian, Flounder, and the band are sent to prison, while Marina gets the job she wants. Triton punishes his daughters inside the palace, resulting in Ariel asking him why music is forbidden, but he refuses to answer and angrily shouts, "I will not have music in my kingdom!" Distraught, Ariel argues that her mother wouldn't have wanted music forbidden. She swims to the bedroom, with her sisters following. That night, she leaves Atlantica, and frees her friends. Sebastian leads them to a deserted place far from the palace where Ariel finds Athena's music box, as Sebastian hoped. Ariel and Sebastian decide to return to Atlantica to bring the music box to Triton, hoping that it will change his mind, as he has not remembered how to be happy after Athena died.
On the way back, they are confronted by Marina and her electric eels. Marina wants to stop them so she will retain her position of power, and a struggle ensues. Marina barrels towards Sebastian, but Ariel pushes her away, getting hit in the process. Triton arrives in time to witness this, and blames himself. He sings the lyrics of "Athena's Song," and Ariel recovers. Triton restores music to Atlantica, and appoints Sebastian as Atlantica's first official court composer, much to everyone's delight. Everyone rejoices except Marina and Benjamin, who are sent to jail.

Review: There have only been two animated releases so far, Cinderella III and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning.
Disney did the right thing for this film by keeping songs short and to a minimum.This film highly deserves a chance to be seen by many, unlike the rushed and horrible Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea..
I don't think it isn't as good as the classic first film or the series(a childhood favourite of mine), but I do think it is an improvement over the rather average Little Mermaid 2:Return to the Sea. Here, the animation is breathtaking, beautifully fluid and colourful, and fairly true in terms of style to the original.
And the voice acting is great, Jim Cummings is a worthy replacement of Kenneth Mars as Triton, and Jodi Benson(who also voiced Thumbelina in the Don Bluth movie, Ariel isn't the only role she's done, it's just the role she's best remembered by) is just amazing as Ariel, with a fantastic singing voice that makes me want to sing with her.
Marina-marvellously voiced by Sally Field- is an improvement over the bland Morgana, Sebastian is hilarious, there is nice character development and Benjamin is so cute.
However, the film is too short, the plot while a wonderful idea is rather so-so in execution and takes time to get going, and Flounder's voice was more teenage than innocent-sounding, the latter suited the character more.
I really enjoyed the character design and animation; the film was very true to the original designs portrayed in the first Little Mermaid, and included just enough of modern 3d animation techniques to give additional depth to the 2d creations without spoiling its 2d nature.
The story had a solid plot that supported other Little Mermaid films, as well as giving the viewer a touching glimpse of Ariel's mother and a deeper understanding of King Triton's character.
The songs, while not as moving or masterful as Menken and Ashman's work on the first Little Mermaid film, were decent and fit in well with the overall theme of the movie.
You know who I am talking about - it's Ariel and starring in the first Disney prequel, 'cause I wouldn't call it a sequel.
Set before she walked on land and married her Prince.Under the narration of Sebastian, the story starts with King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, have seven young daughters (the youngest of whom is Ariel).
Ten years later, Triton's daughters live under a strict schedule maintained by their governess, Marina Del Rey an original villainess voiced by Sally Field; no relations to the two witches what so ever.
When her presence is revealed, at first all the club patrons flee, but Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music, and she joins the club with an oath.
You will have see it for yourself.It's great to finally see Ariel's mother Queen Athena, who looks like Ariel.
But I can see some differences between mother and daughter: Athena's hair is a different shade of red compare to Ariel and done up almost like a ponytail.
Overall, Ariel's Beginning is another excellent Disney OAV (original animated video),and prefect to go with the original film and "Return to the Sea." I love out of Ariel's sisters Alana (pink fin), Arista (red fin) and Attina (orange fin)..
I am a huge little mermaid fan since i can remember and i was definitely not disappointed it in this movie.
It tells us how Ariel came to be and answered a lot of the questions we had in the first one like what happened to Ariel's mother and why King Triton hates humans.
It also tells us how flounder and Ariel met but the one thing i did not like about flounder is that he beat boxed and was kind of out of character because he was a lot braver in this one which in the other ones flounder was always scared.
I don't think you can have a Little Mermaid movie without them as the characters.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008) ** 1/2 (out of 4)This prequel starts off with Ariel as a child and we get to see what happened to her mother, which leads her father King Triton to ban all music in Atlantica.
We then flash-forward to Ariel as a teenager when she learns the power of music and wants to bring it back.This third film in the series is certainly a major step up from the second one but then again the second movie was so poor that it wouldn't be that hard to be better.
This film here was obviously done on a low-budget and there's no question that the animation is far off from the original movie but, then again, it's at least better than the second film.One certainly shouldn't go into this movie expecting some sort of masterpiece but at the same time I thought it was mildly entertaining and worth watching.
The story itself wasn't all that original but it too was at least entertaining.The music wasn't the greatest thing from Disney but the sequences were at least fun.
As you can tell, there's really nothing ground-breaking with THE LITTLE MERMAID: ARIEL'S BEGINNING but it's at least mildly entertaining and worth watching once..
The Little Mermaid is one of Disney's most lovable classics, it's one of my personal favorites, so I did want to see the sequel, which was pretty average.
The Little Mermaid is one of Disney's most lovable classics, it's one of my personal favorites, so I did want to see the sequel, which was pretty average.
Normally most Disney sequels are lame or a waste of time, but it seems as if Disney is finally getting something right because The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a very sweet movie and was a nice prequel for Ariel to see what her life was like before she met Prince Eric and we learn a little bit about her family and how she came to meet Flounder.
Normally most Disney sequels are lame or a waste of time, but it seems as if Disney is finally getting something right because The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a very sweet movie and was a nice prequel for Ariel to see what her life was like before she met Prince Eric and we learn a little bit about her family and how she came to meet Flounder.
This is definitely a must see for the kids, it has fun music, cute characters, and a charming story that anyone could fall in love with.
This is definitely a must see for the kids, it has fun music, cute characters, and a charming story that anyone could fall in love with.
I liked that they chose a different story rather than continuing her life with Eric, I just like the "they lived happily ever after" and that's it, so this was a nice idea to get to know Ariel's sisters and mother.In this Disney prequel, we explore Ariel's life before she became human, met Eric, met Ursela.
I liked that they chose a different story rather than continuing her life with Eric, I just like the "they lived happily ever after" and that's it, so this was a nice idea to get to know Ariel's sisters and mother.In this Disney prequel, we explore Ariel's life before she became human, met Eric, met Ursela.
But a mermaid named Marina is trying to take over the girls and their lives so she can eventually control the kingdom.The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a fun Disney sequel and was a pleasure to watch.
But a mermaid named Marina is trying to take over the girls and their lives so she can eventually control the kingdom.The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a fun Disney sequel and was a pleasure to watch.
This isn't my favorite Disney sequel, but it was a huge improvement over the second Little Mermaid.
This isn't my favorite Disney sequel, but it was a huge improvement over the second Little Mermaid.
A job we don't know if she wanted.The whole film is about the death of Ariel's mother and the subsequent return to music to the underwater kingdom.
As a child i loved the first Little Mermaid, as well as the second movie...Until this movie came out.The WORST things from this movie : Marina Del Ray and Flounder.
He is so annoying, his voice is cringe worthy and is nothing more of a stalker.I liked the concept of Athena though, but for the rest of the movie, just no..
Ariel's got six headstrong sisters, how they slept in the same room, it almost appeared as a sea-dormitory, and her father, Triton look so cute when he was younger.
Even her mother, Athena, looked much like an older Ariel.
Don't get me wrong, I maybe a guy but I like the old movie with likable characters, catchy music, and an actually complex villain but did they really need to do this?
And it shows how Ariel's mom was killed {at least they keep the whole killing mom thing that Disney likes to do} and why Triton banned music but when the movie starts it is all over.I won't bore you with details so I will just show you the things that tick me off about it.
They do this once in a while in prequels and it irritates me to no end because they think that they are being clever by adding unneeded tension.So in conclusion this movie is a bomb, granted the voice work is solid and the animation looks nice but the predictable ending and boring plot don't make it worth it.
This was a prequel but there was an animated Little Mermaid cartoon that did a better job as that.The best part is easily the beginning of the film where we finally get to see Ariel's mother!
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is the prequel to Disney's The Little Mermaid as well as the final direct-to-video sequel made by DisneyToon Studios.To critique, I will start with the bad and say the good afterwards to redeem the bad.The Bad: 1.
Fairly inconsistent continuity, with Ariel's sisters arranged a little differently by age compared to the original film.
2. Flounder was really annoying, unlike in the original film where he was a likable and awesome character.
3. Marina Del Rey is a very hypocritical villain, therefore making her weak, because she was singing a song twice during the time music was banned in Atlantica, where she was as well.The Mixed: 1.
4. I Remember, since we get to hear Ariel's beautiful voice and it made me feel genuinely emotional during the course of the song, becoming the next Part of Your World, the best song in the original The Little Mermaid.
But I still think the original The Little Mermaid soundtrack is superior.The Good: 1.
The animation, especially by the standards of direct to video Disney sequels, is really good.
2. It also has a deep and enthralling story about Ariel's past, especially with her mother, Athena, involved, which we did not see in the original film, has a lot of heartwarming and genuinely sad moments, as well as a fresh story.
3. We get to know a little more about Ariel's sisters, since they did not have a lot of screen time in the original The Little Mermaid.
Wright reprising Sebastian, which are the only stars from the original to return to this film with other voices include Sally Field (Marina Del Rey), Jim Cummings (King Triton and Shellbow), Kari Wahlgren (Attina), Jennifer Hale (Alana), Grey DeLisle (Aquata and Arista), Tara Strong (Adella and Adrina), Jeff Bennett (Benjamin and swordfish guards), Andrea Robinson and Lorelei Hill Butters (Queen Athena, singing and speaking voice respectively), Rob Paulsen (Ink Spot and Swifty) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Cheeks and Ray-Ray), all do a pretty good job in this film, except Parker Goris, who voiced Flounder, who has a really annoying voice.
5. We get to reunite with the main protagonist we all know and love called Ariel, which is why this film is superior to The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, since Melody was a terrible character, as well as a highly infantilised version of Ariel, both in terms of appearance and personality.Now, since I reviewed a direct-to-video Disney sequel, some people might think I am beating a dead horse on the subject.
Story: King Triton bands music from Atlantica (is that really the best name you could come up with?) because it reminds him of his dead wife and brings him bitterness and grief.
He never shuts up, he is always making music sounds when he knows it's forbidden, he talks modern ("Oh yeah, I'm hot", "Torpedo Tube", "Cork Screw", "We love you, Flounder"), he plays spy kids, he's not the "guppy" we know and love, the Little Mermaid TV series gave a better backstory on how he and Ariel became best friends, and he and Ariel have little to no time together alone, pouring their hearts out with each other, or exploring.
2) I won't falter - it's so nice to hear Ariel sing 3) Compared to other Disney sequels, this has some nicer animation - it's not as overwhelming as the first movie.
I was on the edge of comparing this movie the the awful Fox and the Hound 2 film, but Ariel's Beginning got a better premise.
The TV stories gave us a backstory already, the first movie had nothing to do with banned music, and the sequel moved on with her life.
While I do like The Little Mermaid, it was never one of my favourite movies - it's first sequel made me gag, but this one (while definitely not as good as the original) was not only enjoyable, but something that I would honestly watch again with a smile on my face.The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is (obviously, from the title) a prequel, telling the story of everybody's favourite red-headed mermaid approximately one year before the events chronicled in the original film.
We are told through a sad little prologue about the death of Athena, wife of King Triton and mother to Ariel and her sisters.
She has an awful, garish taste in clothes that makes her fun to watch, and her voice has real personality, which makes her lines fun to hear.Although not as well animated as the original (it's wonderful animation, don't get me wrong - just not as good), and definitely not as well developed, Ariel's Beginning will have me coming back for more - if you hated Return to the Sea but love the original Little Mermaid, I guarantee you'll like it, if not love it.
Now, the original Little Mermaid is a great Disney film and it even informed audiences of the characters' current situations due to events we heard about, but never actually saw on screen (like how Ursula mentioned that she was kicked out of the palace for God knows what).
But, unfortunately, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning does none of that.
It's just an extremely awkward story with terrible songs (except "I Remember" was decent enough), a lame villain, and annoying slang and dialogue.The good - The animation and art are beautiful.
- I really liked the first couple of minutes where Ariel's mother, Athena, is shown.
One minute, Athena saves one of her daughters from an approaching pirate ship and that's good, but then the next she goes after a music box that she could have just left behind, right?
My question is...what happened to the pirates after this?The bad - I really hated Triton's character in this movie.
"I Remember" was decent enough though.So, in conclusion, while this movie wasn't the worst of the Disney direct-to-video sequels (that would be Hunchback II), it's definitely not nearly as good as The Little Mermaid.3/10.
However; upon purchasing this in a triple pack with the first two DVDs, it didn't live up to all of my expectations.The animation is mostly fluid and the colours are not overly bright like they were in 'The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea,' but some elements look a little too CGI-ish within a 2D animated environment such as the music box, Marina Del Rey's gigantic hook and the statue of Athena.
Like 'TLMII:RTTS,' Jodi Benson and Samuel E Wright reprise their roles as Ariel and Sebastian respectively and they sound exactly as they did in the other two films and TV series.
I also found the shot of Ariel and her sisters being shown in Marina's eyes confusing because I didn't know if she was watching them from her lair or at the underground club, although I can see why her report of the girls in the club to Triton was brief.
The scene where Ariel appears to have died towards the end may be confusing for those who haven't seen the other two films because they may think she has actually died but she regains consciousness upon hearing the music box.
The moments of Athena's death and Ariel having a flashback of happier times after having retrieved the music box had just the right amount of poignancy.To conclude, it was an adequate idea of Disney to make a prequel but it wasn't quite as enjoyable as the other two films.
You see Ariel's mother died by humans and since that day Triton cannot stand humans.Overall the animation was great but this movie is all over the place as like I said before its out of sequence.There's NO Eric and there's not much to say about it its just not as good as the 1st movie.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008).
For a direct to video film, and compared to the sequel, it's pretty darn good.