Big Splash on the Small Screen—A DVD Review of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning

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Ariel returns once again to make a big splash on the small screen in The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning. This brand new film, as the title suggests, is a prequel to the Little Mermaid franchise and brings together some of the beloved characters from the original film.

If you’re looking to experience this story for yourself, spoiler free, stop reading now and jump ahead!

*START SPOILER ALERT* It’s a different Atlantica in this film. Ariel and her sisters are but young toddlers and there’s no hint of any mischievous sea-witches in sight. In this film we meet Queen Athena, Ariel’s mother, who bears a striking resemblance to the familiar fire-haired mermaid that we’ve come to love for the past two decades. It’s clear to see why Ariel is Triton’s favorite daughter, she looks much like her mother and shares the same love of music and singing. On an ironically bright idyllic day in a mermaid lagoon near the shore, a ship run amok crashes into the rocky waters where Queen Athena does not manage to escape. Sebastian narrates the story and tells us that after the death of the Queen that Triton’s heart grew dark and he bans music throughout all of the kingdom. Jump ahead ten years to a very somber Atlantica where music is cause for imprisonment and we find a restless Ariel tired with the dull monotony of a dreary existence. She longs for freedom. Her search for happiness is further squashed by Marina del Rey who is the royal governess in charge of taking after the kings daughters. She is mean and power-hungry and yearns for Sebastian’s title as the king’s right hand. On one of her misadventures, Ariel encounters a little yellow fish named Flounder who unknowingly leads her to the secret musical Catfish Club run by Sebastian himself. Amazed by the experience, Ariel awakens her long-forgotten love of music and subsequently takes her sisters along to enjoy in the experience. The plan does not last very long, however, as Triton discovers the secret club and destroys it with his trident. He imprisons the music-makers—including Sebastian—and gives Sebastian’s job to Marina. Preview: Clip of “I Remember” Ariel breaks Sebastian and the others free and they come to the decision that their only possible course of action is to leave Atlantica forever. Ariel, now knowing of her love of music which she would never be able to express, agrees to follow. Sebastian tells them all that he knows where they can go and leads them across the ocean to a “special” place where Ariel discovers the music box that Triton gave Ariel’s mother on the day she died. Thinking the music box would help Triton remember Athena and the joy that music brought to the kingdom, they make the trek back to Atlantica. By this time, however, Triton has already sent out his guards to scour the kingdom and find Ariel. At the same time, Marina has her own plans to find Sebastian first and destroy him so that she never has to worry about him again. After her electric eels are foiled, Marina makes her last ditch effort to kill Sebastian but Ariel swims in front to protect him and in the process is taken out by Marina. Triton sees this and finds his motionless daughter on the floor. She is revived in his hands which sparks Triton to realize the error of his ways and what his ban on music and done. He decrees music forever unbanned in Atlantica and names Sebastian the official court composer. Marina, we discover in the credits, ends up in prison and the movie is over. *END SPOILER ALERT*

With so much anticipation and secrecy leading up to this Tuesday’s release of the third film of the Little Mermaid franchise, we’re left with the question: Does it live up to all the hype? Well, it depends on who you are. To be certain, this film is far superior to the sequel which took almost ridiculous plot turns in the advancement of the story. Yes, this third installment is much better however, I would have really loved to see more depth and character development in the story. I also would have liked to see more tie-ins to the original movie to highlight the fact that this is “Ariel’s beginning.”



We do get to know a bit more about Ariel’s sisters—especially Attina, the oldest—which was nice to have in the film. Unfortunately, though, we don’t get much insight into the friendship of Flounder and Ariel (not even a cute little reference to her ever calling him a guppy) and overall this doesn’t feel so much like an epic beginning to the 1989 film that gave the rebirth to Disney animation in the 1990s. In fact, it feels more like a 90-minute version of “The Little Mermaid” television show that used to air on the Disney Channel.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. The film is cute and certainly on par with most of the other sequels Disney has released (definitely on the better half of the list) but this film might not whet the appetites of avid Mermaid fans. As one of those avid fans who grew up with the Little Mermaid when it first came out I was disappointed that we don’t get an answer to the age old question of just who was Ursula and how exactly did she have those “fantastical feasts” in the palace and just why was she banned to begin with?

What we do get in this film, however, is Jodi Benson who returns for this third installment giving the beautiful melodic voice of Ariel. More than 20 years later, she still has a knack for giving Ariel the youthful energetic persona from the first film.

Preview: Clip of “Just One Mistake”


We also get a fun new character with Marina Del Rey voiced by Sally Field and although there’s no explicit mention of her being Ursula there are countless little innuendoes that lead us to believe that she might be or might become the infamous sea-witch. At one point, there’s even a montage of her in different outfits, many of which appeared to be based on concept art pieces for Ursula from the original film. Marina’s assistant Benjamin, a cuddly manatee, does little to move the story along but he’s so so so adorable!

The DVD itself comes with an adequate selection of features and goodies. We start off with our usual favorite, “Backstage Disney.” We get two features here. The first is “Splashdance” which is a special peek into the making of the film with an emphasis on first-time director Peggy Holmes who comes to the table with previous experience in music and dance. It’s nice to know about Peggy Holmes and how much she enjoyed the project but it would have been nice for this to delve deeper into goal and intent with this to show Ariel’s beginnings and how it ties into the original film.

The second item is a really fun featurette, Under the Sea and behind the Scenes on Broadway. It is hosted by Sierra Boggess who originated the role of Ariel on the stage. We get a really nice look overall here at some of the elements of the show including the costumes, the makeup, and most of the cast including Ursula, Flounder, all of Ariel’s sisters and Sebastian. I was surprised at how much they actually showed, it was a fun piece to watch to get you excited about seeing Ariel on the stage.



Surprisingly, we actually get two Deleted Scenes in this set. What I always love with deleted scenes is when the director or someone involved with the film gives insight into why a certain moment is deleted from a movie. Here we get director Peggy Holmes giving nice little explanations of why it was decided to remove the particular scenes.

“Games and Activities” features a little click-and-play game called “Mermaid Discovery Vanity Game” in which you click through the personal scrapbooks of Ariel and her sisters to find out more about their characters. If you find Flounder, you can take the Personality Profile Game which is a quiz to find out which of Ariel’s sisters you are most like. (I was most like Arista) I wish there would have been another game, maybe something more challenging; something relating to music would have been a good fit.



“Music and More” boasts the tried and true formula of letting you sing along with the movie or selecting the songs individually a la carte. Nothing else of special mention here though it might have been nice to have some insight into the new music for the film considering Menken who created the Oscar-winning tunes of the original did not work on this project.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning is a perfectly complete little DVD set including all the usual pieces you’d come to expect from Disney. While the film itself might not catch on a huge following with the 20-somethings who grew up with the film, it certainly should work well among the younger demographics with its bright colors, catchy music, and of course lovable characters.

Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning is available on DVD starting Tuesday, August 26th!

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