The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

I first heard of this prequel at the time of its release and I was intrigued to find out what had happened before Ariel met Eric. 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. Further to Marina and Athena, I found Marina a flamboyant villain whose purple colour scheme was pleasing to the eye and she was meaner than Morgana but not as sinister as Ursula while Athena reminded me very much of Ariel and I got an insight of how she looked before a pirate ship unfortunately crushed her to death, thus leading Triton to ban music from the kingdom much to Ariel's dismay. Speaking of Ariel, it was cute to see her and her sisters as little girls and their arguments as they grew older reminded me of arguing with my own sister when we were younger. The best argument between Ariel's sisters involves their possessions such as a hairbrush and an eye mask having the letter A on them since all their names begin with that letter. 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. Jim Cummings does his best to recreate Triton's voice the same way as the late Kenneth Mars did. As for the music the background music was upbeat, charming and tense while the songs were pretty good, especially 'Jump in the Line' (sounds like a follow-up to 'Under the Sea') and 'I Remember,' although Marina's song 'Just One Mistake' is rather tuneless despite being accompanied by colourful shots of her wigs and outfits. Another shot of Marina I liked was that of her leaning on a rock with the waves crashing behind her (an obvious reference to Ariel's iconic scene at the end of the 'Part of Your World' reprise) and Scuttle flying near her to which she snarls, "Don't touch me!" Aside the CGI-like elements, the other flaws include the story being predictable after Athena's death, Benjamin being too gentle for Marina's assistant and Triton being stricter than he was in the first two films. 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. 7.5/10 to round up to IMDb's 8/10 rating.

This is terrible and it follows in line of terrible Disney sequels and prequels. 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? The only good part I would say about it is the beginning when they show the mermaids having fun when suddenly pirates attack (Captain Hook?). 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. First of all the new villain seems really boring and just seems whiny and annoying and not really threatening. This next complain doesn't tick me off but it's just weird, why does Ariel ask why they don't have music and Triton throws a temper tantrum, wouldn't Ariel kind of guess because of the fact that her mother died? (in case anyone tries to fight against that, wouldn't Trition tell her because of the mother dying? It just doesn't make sense to me.).The villain doesn't even appear in the next film so why is she in this film? I hate that when they think that we don't catch that. What happens in jail? Does she become a good person, die, what? Now for the moment that angered me the most, when near the end...(Spoilers!!! just in case you didn't see it before.) When Ariel "dies" and it turns out she was just knocked out for a little bit. Was this supposed to be tension? Why would you do that if we know that in the next movie she's all better and singing with fish(and sleeping with the fish?). 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. Again I am not feeding the troll because I liked the first film but skip this one and watch the first one.

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 also liked that is showed us the different sides of the sisters because in the first and second ones we didn't really hear much about them only for brief moments but in this one we get to see their personalities. I also liked the music in the movie it was really great. Some of my favorites was Athena's song, Jump in the line, i remember, and i will sing. The only song i did not like was the one mistake because it didn't seem like a song to me just kind of a poem that Sally Fields talked through with background music. It was so cool to see Jodi Benson and Sameuel E. Wright returning as Ariel and Sebastion. I don't think you can have a Little Mermaid movie without them as the characters. All around good movie and i will watch it over and over again like i did the first 2.

Everyone's lovable red-head we all know and loved is back in a new adventure. 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). The entirety of the underwater kingdom of Atlantica is filled with joy, music and laughter. The merfolk are shown relaxing in a lagoon above water, and Triton gives Athena a small music box. A pirate ship approaches and they attack, stealing the merpeople's possessions. Everyone escapes except Queen Athena, who is crushed by the pirate ship. Devastated by Athena's death, Triton throws the music box away and bans music from the kingdom. 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. Marina hates her job and longs for Sebastian's, who is the king's attache. Ariel is frustrated by their current lifestyle, which brings her into conflict with her strict father. During their morning "walk", Ariel tickles her sister Adella with kelp, and she is given the punishment of cleaning barnacles. While carrying out her punishment, Ariel encounters Flounder, a fish, who is making music. That night, Ariel sees Flounder outside the window, and follows him to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music, and is shocked when she learns that Sebastian performs at the club. 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. That's all I am telling you. 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. And her eyes I think are green. 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).