Eric Stevenson This is one of the highest ranked direct to video Disney sequels I've ever come across and I'm completely confused as to why! This movie had one of the most shallow villains I have seen in a long time. It's very anti-climatic and it seems silly that King Trident would outlaw music. I will admit I liked some parts. The villain's manatee henchman was pretty entertaining. I felt bad he got put in jail with her at the end. This was a prequel but there was an animated Little Mermaid cartoon that did a better job as that.The best part is easily the beginning of the film where we finally get to see Ariel's mother! Now that was a treat and probably the part everyone likes the most. They don't get that graphic by showing her dying or anything but it's very implied. The animation is actually pretty good for a direct to video sequel. Of course I recognized Jim Cummings' voice. I feel so glad I met that guy. There may have been no celebrity voices, but this was still dull. **

Riley Nelson *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

daves_train 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.

freakfire-1 Jodi Benson, we hardly want to know you anymore. Can you do any movie role EXCEPT Little Mermaid? One is just very curious if you just can't let go. Or maybe Disney Studios can't let go. Whatever the case, this needs to stop.Ariel is back with a prequel. OK, first I don't really care where Ariel comes from anymore. This should have been covered in the original classic Little Mermaid. But no, we have to wait 15 years later just to give Jodi Benson another job. A job we don't know if she wanted.The whole film is about the death of Ariel's mother and the subsequent return to music to the underwater kingdom. You can fill in the rest. No conflict, no character development. And nobody really cares anymore.I want 80 minutes of my life back. "F"