*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!*
But it all goes downhill just after the introduction. 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). When this movie was announced back in 2008, I was really excited to see if Disney would finally reveal all of these events. 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. The backgrounds of the sea, night club, and Atlantica look amazing. The colors also look less sloppy and rushed like they were in The Little Mermaid II. - Sebastian's character was pretty solid. I liked how even though he was a sour stick-in-the-mud, he still had a rebellious side of going against the ban on music. That was pretty awesome to see. - I really liked the first couple of minutes where Ariel's mother, Athena, is shown. So far, so good. But then the scene where she dies and we're supposed to feel sorry for her is just plain stupid. 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? And then the ship CRASHES RIGHT INTO THE SIDE OF THE COVE, obviously killing her. My question is...what happened to the pirates after this?
The bad - I really hated Triton's character in this movie. Which is a shame because he is actually one of my favorite Disney characters. But in this, he is unable to control his own feelings of loss and this inability causes him to make life miserable for his children by allowing no music in the kingdom. Doesn't this guy know that two wrongs don't make a right? I understand that he lost his wife, but that's no excuse to make the lives of others just as bad by not giving them the choice to do what they want. And what does music have to do with this? It was HUMANS that killed his wife, and they were never mentioned again after Athena's death. - It was dumb how the movie was mostly just Ariel and Triton bickering. They did this in the first movie, but even then they still were shown to have a loving relationship. Here, they don't have one at all. - The villain, Marina Del Rey, was boring. All she wanted was a stupid job while the better villain Ursula wanted to rule the entire ocean. I wanted Ursula as the main villain here, telling the story of why she was thrown out. That would have made more sense. - The dialogue was also very annoying. The band members say things like "Let it happen!" and "Bad little self". The original movie didn't include any of this, so why does this one? - The background music was okay, but the songs were lifeless. Marina's song sounded so rushed and using "Shake Senora" was unnecessary. "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
But it all goes downhill just after the introduction. 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). When this movie was announced back in 2008, I was really excited to see if Disney would finally reveal all of these events. 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. The backgrounds of the sea, night club, and Atlantica look amazing. The colors also look less sloppy and rushed like they were in The Little Mermaid II. - Sebastian's character was pretty solid. I liked how even though he was a sour stick-in-the-mud, he still had a rebellious side of going against the ban on music. That was pretty awesome to see. - I really liked the first couple of minutes where Ariel's mother, Athena, is shown. So far, so good. But then the scene where she dies and we're supposed to feel sorry for her is just plain stupid. 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? And then the ship CRASHES RIGHT INTO THE SIDE OF THE COVE, obviously killing her. My question is...what happened to the pirates after this?
The bad - I really hated Triton's character in this movie. Which is a shame because he is actually one of my favorite Disney characters. But in this, he is unable to control his own feelings of loss and this inability causes him to make life miserable for his children by allowing no music in the kingdom. Doesn't this guy know that two wrongs don't make a right? I understand that he lost his wife, but that's no excuse to make the lives of others just as bad by not giving them the choice to do what they want. And what does music have to do with this? It was HUMANS that killed his wife, and they were never mentioned again after Athena's death. - It was dumb how the movie was mostly just Ariel and Triton bickering. They did this in the first movie, but even then they still were shown to have a loving relationship. Here, they don't have one at all. - The villain, Marina Del Rey, was boring. All she wanted was a stupid job while the better villain Ursula wanted to rule the entire ocean. I wanted Ursula as the main villain here, telling the story of why she was thrown out. That would have made more sense. - The dialogue was also very annoying. The band members say things like "Let it happen!" and "Bad little self". The original movie didn't include any of this, so why does this one? - The background music was okay, but the songs were lifeless. Marina's song sounded so rushed and using "Shake Senora" was unnecessary. "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