The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning
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Movie Reviews of The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning
Movie Review: Three and a half
Summary: 4 Stars
My kids love it. I like it. The second Ariel movie was better. (Yes, I loved Return to the Sea.) This has less music, less new music, but it's a fun ride. It also helps explain why Ariel got away with being so stupid and rebellious in the original movie... that lesson was cemented here in the early years. Pout, defy dad, and run away will get what you want in the end! No wonder she tried it again in a few years! But that makes great fodder for conversation with the kids on what she should have done and how she should have done it. We've that that talk plenty after other Disney movies... which is something I happen to like about the Disney movies. My four year old has asked LOTS of questions about death, dying, running away, following rules, sharing etc... all from watching Cars, the Lion King, and the numerous princess movies.
This movie seems to lack some intangible magic that the first two Little Mermaids have, but I can't identify it,. But for kids yearning for more Ariel, this fits the bill!
Movie Review: Nothing new
Summary: 1 Stars
If you liked the part in Bambi where his mom died, you'll love this movie! Why are so many Disney movies about the loss of a parent? There are so few true rated "G" movies out there. My daughter is 4 - too young for this movie - she spent the whole time trying to figure out what happened to the mother, where did she go? Unlike other reviewers, I liked "Return to the Sea." I thought it was beautiful to see Ariel as a mom. She is a great one by the way. Even Ursula's sister tells Ariel's disobedient daughter, "you should have listened to your mom, kid!" If you haven't seen that one, you may want to.
Technically called a prequel rather than a sequel as it "takes place before that of a preexisting work or a sequel", it does a poor job at that. Generally a prequel answers questions about the lives of characters in the original story. These "characters" don't even fit. Why is Flounder such a "guppy" in the origional but so brave in the prequel? Same with Sebastian! It just doesn't fit. I also can't believe Ursula and her sister(from Return to the Sea) are never even mentioned. Most importantly, why does Ariel become so interested in life out of the sea, start her collection, or find her secret cave??? You won't find out in this movie!
If you are looking for a great movie for a young girl, check out the Barbie movies, especially Island Princess, Nutcracker, Rapunzel, and Swan Lake. They are all much better than this movie.
Movie Review: My 4 year old was asking for Barbie's 'Swan Lake'
Summary: 1 Stars
... halfway thru this horrid production. I feel sorry for the folks involved ... Jodi Benson and the rest, they did there usual great job, but they had an absolutely AWFUL story to put across. Slow, boring and, I'm sorry, the banning of music from Atlantica is just too high a concept for conflict. Every movie in this vein has GOT to have some evil... Sally Field's "Marina Del Rey" character AIN'T it... she's just annoying.
I was also quite disappointed we only got to spend three minutes (if that) with Athena, Triton's lovely redheaded wife. No back story, no chance to care about her...just an odd scene with some hapless pirates and bad weather and she's gone. No tears, nothing... just a ban on music in Atlantica because Triton can't stand to hear 'their song' anymore. No laughs, poor music, and ho-hum 'production' numbers. I DID laugh when Sebastian turned out to be the 'star' of the underground music club.
Disney had a real chance to let us get to know Athena, find out where Ursula and Morgana came from and why they've such an ax to grind with Triton... some back story on Sebastian, maybe... but they squandered it. The original and the 'Return to the Sea' sequel are far better than this direct to the bargain bin by Halloween release.
R
Movie Review: AWFUL
Summary: 1 Stars
Being a child of the 1980s, I have fond memories of The Little Mermaid. It was fun, great music, an epic movie of sorts. Looking at the reviews from others and based on what I viewed, we must have seen completely different films because "The Little Mermaid- Ariel's Beginning" was outright dull, boring and horrific. I know, I'm probably not the target audience but even my younger sister said this movie wasn't anything like the first one and even the dreadful second movie which was, like this, a direct-to-dvd release.
Basically, "Ariel's Beginning" is The Little Mermaid mixed with "Footloose". It's forbidden to sing or make music in Atlantis, the kingdom ruled by Ariel's father. But alas, Ariel and company decide to take on the crown and dare to dance and spread the love of music throughout the kingdom! Yet, here's the problem- for a movie about embracing music, the actual music in the film was absolutely horrendous. This franchise, to me, is founded upon music and good songs. Even the second film had a spread of musical numbers but this? No. The few musical numbers are simply horrible and uninspired if even listenable. They even perform one song, best known from being the song featured in the final scene of 'Beetlejuice' a whopping THREE times in the film! Talk about unoriginal.
What a butchering of a great franchise. So what, it's animated. Big whoop, there's nothing groundbreaking about it. Even my younger sister said this, when stacked against the other films, was by far the worse. I wouldn't waste my money on this boring, dull, uninspired drivel. Save it and put it towards the two-disc special release of the first film - it'd be much better spent and used.
Movie Review: A fun prequel to The Little Mermaid!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ariel's Beginning" is a fun animated feature that had my 3.5 year old daughter asking for more. The story is the prequel to The Little Mermaid - it tells the story of how King Triton lost his beloved wife Athena in an accident [back when Ariel and her sisters were little] and thus banned music and all forms of gaiety in his kingdom, living in seclusion and with darkness within his heart. When the pirncesses grow up, they all chafe against the restrictions imposed by King Triton, especially Ariel who, like her mother, loves music and singing. Ariel starts to dabble in music secretly, much to her father's anger and finally runs away with Sebastian in tow, until Triton realises his folly.
It is in this movie that we find out how Ariel meets and befriends Flounder, and how Sebastian becomes the music conductor in Triton's court. There is also a villain in the form of nanny, Marina del Rey, though she is not as scary or menacing as Ursula, the sea witch in The Little Mermaid.
Ok, it is not as enchanting as The Little Mermaid, but all in all, I thought it was a decent effort by Disney, considering some of the other animated features out there.
The songs in this feature are not as catchy as in The Little Mermaid, but they are still pleasing and fun. The songs here are: I Remember, I Will Sing, Athena's Song,Just One Mistake,Jump In The Line [Shake, Senora], and Man Smart, Woman Smarter.
The extras include Deleted Scenes, Music and More [the Disney Song Selection option allows the words of the songs to appear on screen, making it easy for sing-alongs], Games and Activities [Mermaid Discovery Vanity Game- allows viewers to unearth secrets about the princesses by clicking on their personal scrapbooks, or compare which of King Triton's daughters you are most like with the Personality Profile Game]. There is also a Backstage Disney feature [a behind the scenes featurette centring on animation director Peggy Holmes].
I watched this with my little one, and we were both entertained - so much so that we watched it again! Having been long-time Little Mermaid fans [me longer than my little one of course:)], this was a delightful addition to our collection of Disney features.