The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

*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

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. The soundtrack has some pretty bad songs like Jump in the Line (Shake, Shake, Shake, Senora), which is no Under the Sea. 2. Just One Mistake sung by Marina Del Rey, who sung it under the music ban of Atlantica, being physically there while singing it, which makes her a hypocrite. 3. However, the soundtrack has some good songs like Athena's Song, which had a heartwarming feel to it. 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. 4. The voice acting is singular, with Jodi Benson reprising the role of Ariel, and did a good job, as well as Samuel E. 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. This might come as a shock to many of you people, but I think that the voice acting here is much better than the English-language versions of Japanese animation, especially Studio Ghibli. Why? Because since this is an American animated film, where English is the original language, being a direct to video film keeps it true to its identity. Also, dubbed versions are highly institutionalised versions of any movie, which is a bad thing, since the original version, which is true to its identity, with subtitles, gives any movie, theatrical and direct to video, has international cohesion to it, which is a good thing. But I digress. The voice acting in this film is really good, that is the major point. 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. I think that haters who review the sequels are beating a dead horse since they still lambaste them, but DisneyToon Stuidos stopped making them seven years ago.Overall, this is a pretty good prequel. It is not the best prequel I have ever seen, but it is not the worst one either.

I really despise Disney sequels, normally. With the exception of The Lion King 1 1/2 and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, they are all unoriginal and badly animated, riddled with recycled plots and, in the case of the second Cinderella and Tarzan, given the look and feel of a cartoon miniseries *shudder*. 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. After her tragic death, Triton is heartbroken and bans music from the kingdom, as it reminds him too much of his queen and only serves to re-open old wounds. In his sorrow, he grows cold and distant from his daughters, leaving them in the care of Marina Del Ray, their governess, and her assistant Benjamin, who is (presumably) a manatee. But Marina wants the crab Sebastian's position as Chief of Staff, and will do anything to get it. Meanwhile, rebellious Ariel is desperate for a bit of fun and games, and when she encounters Flounder, a little fish with an ear for music, she is drawn into a magical world of musical speakeasies and aquatic bands - determined to bring music back to her kingdom and her family, Ariel will stop at nothing to get her melodious fix.While the plot seems cheesy and juvenile (which it kind of is), Disney manages to pull it off, making it not only cheesy and juvenile, but touching, funny, and moderately smart. Marina Del Ray is a marvel - not encompassing the same sultry, strangely seductive evil as Ursula from the original, she instead channels Morgana from the first sequel, bearing the same manic determination and obvious crazy that makes her endearing as well as hilarious and cruel (while not particularly evil), something Morgana failed to do. 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. If nothing else, it's fun to see the characters come alive again.

I just picked this movie up today, of course wanting to hear Jodi Benson's gorgeous voice yet again. I had to wait a while before I was able to watch it, but it was worth the wait. It became an awesome movie that tells the "tail" of young Ariel. Personally, I love anything with mermaids and music in it. This movie did justice like the other one, "Return to Sea". 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. Flounder himself was awesome, it was neat how both Ariel and Flounder met. This movie hadn't disappoint me at all, loved just about over %100 of fun, laughter, and music in this fine piece of brilliance. I always wondered what happened to Ariel's mother. But seeing a younger adult version of Triton was even just as unique. I also admired how Sebastian was into music heavily himself. I could watch this movie over and over again! Probably going to watch it in a few minutes, because that's how great it was! Awesome work, Disney! Ten stars is what I gave this comment for, it was brilliantly made, and it's a movie that I also recommend to anyone who's in love with the first two "Little Mermaid" & "Little Mermaid: Return to Sea" movies. As said before, you won't be disappointed...