Skip to content

Nights and Weekends

Reviews of movies, books, music, and board games

Primary Menu
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Pin Posts
  • Privacy
  • Home
  • Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning

Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning

kdk September 1, 2008
0 0
Read Time:2 Minute, 27 Second

Nearly two decades ago, girls everywhere (myself included) fell in love with Disney’s The Little Mermaid—the story of a headstrong young mermaid named Ariel (Jodi Benson), who longed for life on land. Now, the third Little Mermaid movie, Ariel’s Beginning, tells the story of Ariel’s life before she met her prince.



When Ariel and her six sisters were young, their lives were filled with love, happiness, and music. But after their mother, Queen Athena (Lorelei Hill Butters), died while saving her daughters from a passing ship, their heartbroken father, King Triton (Jim Cummings), banned music from the kingdom of Atlantica forever.



Ten years later, already headstrong young Ariel meets Flounder (Parker Goris), a mischievous little fish. One night, Ariel sneaks out of the palace and follows her new friend to a secret underground club, where she rediscovers her love of music. But when her governess, Marina (Sally Field), tracks Ariel to the club—and finds her arch nemesis, Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright), performing there—she sees it as her big chance to get Sebastian out of the picture and take over his job as the king’s right-hand, er, crab.



Since I’m a long-time fan of The Little Mermaid, I was a bit nervous about watching Ariel’s Beginning. After all, sequels are rarely as magical as the original—and that’s certainly the case here. The music isn’t as memorable as it was in the original, and some of the characters and subplots seem out of place. For instance, Marina, the unstable nanny, makes a pretty weak villain. And her devoted sidekick, Benjamin—who appears to be a puffy, green mix of Barney the dinosaur and Dr. Phil—has the personality of oatmeal (and not the yummy brown sugar and cinnamon kind, either). Their entire storyline, in fact, seems rather unnecessary—almost like an afterthought—since the real story is about Ariel and her defiant love of music.



At the same time, though, there’s still plenty to love about Ariel’s Beginning. Many of the old characters (and a few of the original voices) are back—and they’re still the same adorable characters from the original movie. Ariel is still lovably stubborn, Flounder is still fun and flighty, and Sebastian is still nervous and high-strung. There are a few fun new characters, too—like the high-spirited band from the Catfish Club. And though the story is often quite sad (it is, after all, a story about overcoming grief), there’s still plenty of music (as well as plenty of laughs) to keep things light.



So while The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning isn’t quite as magical or as delightful as Ariel’s first adventure, it’s still an enjoyable prequel. If nothing else, at least it provides a chance for fans to revisit some old friends and make a return trip to the kingdom under the sea.

Share

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn

About Post Author

kdk

Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it. Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course. As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com). Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
kdk@nightsandweekends.com
http://www.NightsAndWeekends.com
Happy
Happy
0 0 %
Sad
Sad
0 0 %
Excited
Excited
0 0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 0 %
Angry
Angry
0 0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 0 %

kdk

Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.

Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.

As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).

Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.

See author's posts

Categories

Archives

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

You may have missed

Road to Perth
  • Melodrama
  • ON FILM

Road to Perth

January 7, 2022
American Siege
  • Cardiac Corner
  • Melodrama
  • ON FILM

American Siege

January 7, 2022
Good as Gold (Whatever After #14)
  • COVER TO COVER
  • Kiddie Lit
  • Listen In...

Good as Gold (Whatever After #14)

January 4, 2022
Just Haven’t Met You Yet
  • Chick Lit
  • COVER TO COVER

Just Haven’t Met You Yet

December 28, 2021

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Pin Posts
  • Privacy
Copyright © All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.