The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning

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Product Description
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/16/2008 Run time: 77 minutes

Amazon.com
A prequel to The Little Mermaid, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is good family entertainment that deserves a spot in every Disney collection--even if the film isn't quite as striking as the original. It's hard to imagine the underwater world of Atlantica without music, but following the death of Ariel's mother Queen Athena, King Triton (Jim Cummings) outlaws music because of the painful memories it evokes. Ariel (Jodi Benson) and her six sisters are unhappy with their boring daily routine, unfeeling governess Marina Del Ray (Sally Field), and superficial relationship with their father; but only Ariel has the courage to confront their father with a desire for a more fulfilling life. A chance meeting with Flounder (Parker Goris) leads Ariel to the underground Catfish music club where the Caribbean jazz is hot and the starred soloist is none other the King's Chief of Staff Sebastian (Samuel Wright). Suddenly, a whole new world full of promise and excitement opens up for Ariel and her sisters, but things get ugly when Marina tells King Triton about the club and his fury erupts. Can the power of music, combined with Ariel's heartfelt pleas, convince King Triton to pardon all the underground music lovers and reconsider his ban on music? Ariel's Beginning is a wholesome story about love, family, and the power of music that's nicely animated and features a host of good music--the only things missing from the first movie are Ariel's innocent sense of wonder and the extreme catchiness of the original songs. Bonus features include two deleted scenes, four sing-along songs with on-screen lyrics; a mermaid discovery game in which viewers learn about Ariel and her six sisters; a quiz that matches viewers with the character most like themselves; an interview with director Peggy Holmes, and a look at the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid Under the Sea. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning - Review of the DVD! August 18, 2008
38 out of 38 found this review helpful

I'm not sure why a number of people have chosen to review or bash a movie that they've never seen, but I for one found this movie to be very well done. Is it worthy of a big screen release? Not necessarily; it is a low-key story, but nonetheless, a VAST improvement over some of Disney's previous direct-to-dvd movies. The story is a prequel to "The Little Mermaid (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)," and explains how King Triton banned music in his kingdom when his wife was killed. We learn how Sebastian became the music conductor for King Triton, and how Ariel & Flounder met. Naturally, it is the full-of-life Ariel who helps bring music back to her father's life. Although the villain is not as fun and nasty as the legendary Ursula, Marina Del Rey (ably voiced by Sally Field) is plenty of fun as the evil governess for King Triton's daughter. Not content to be a governess, she plots to usurp Sebastian's position, even if it means getting rid of Ariel. The one odd character in the movie is Marina's sidekick, Benjamin. His style of animation looks like something out of Barney. It is particularly jarring since the animation on this film is SOOOO good! It does not look like your typical straight-to-dvd release; in fact, I would go so far as to say that it is on par with the original feature. Jodi Benson returns as the voice of Ariel. In both singing and acting, she is fantastic and totally believeable as the songstress under the sea. As Sebastian, Samuel E. Wright returns...who else could voice this classic animated character? There are seven musical numbers in the film, and the fact that it was directed by a choreographer (Peggy Holmes) is a plus. The movement of the characters in the film AND the dance numbers is fantastic.

Extras are also great. 2 backstage Disney featurettes: "Splashdance" is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie, hosted by director Peggy Holmes. "The Little Mermaid: Under the Sea and Behind The Scenes On Broadway" gives a backstage look at the Broadway musical production, featuring interviews with the cast. There are 2 deleted scenes (shown in storyboard form), "Music & More" (where viewers can directly access the musical numbers AND watch them karaoke-style with the words on the screen), and the game "Mermaid Discovery Vanity Game," where you can learn about each of King Triton's daughters by clicking on the personal items on their vanity/makeup tables.

Overall, a wonderful DVD for children of all ages. Definitely a quality production!

5 out of 5 stars

Give it a chance! May 11, 2008
16 out of 40 found this review helpful

This DVD received a terrible review before it even came out. Disney usually does a great job with their straight to DVD movies. Give it a chance before you rate it.

1 out of 5 stars

AWFUL August 30, 2008
16 out of 25 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

Sounds great to me! July 3, 2008
11 out of 24 found this review helpful

"The Little Mermaid" was a classic and got me (at the age of 28) hooked on Disney anew. The sequel, "The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea" has been bashed time and time again, and I simply don't understand why! It was very good and Tara Charendoff (now known as Tara Strong) was wonderful as Melody, Ariel's daughter. Jodi Benson (Ariel) and Tara harmonized beautifully on "For A Moment." Tara returns as some of Ariel's sisters in "The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" and that makes me hope for a new song performed by all the mermaid sisters! It is also nice to finally see Ariel's mother and to find out why King Triton has such a soft spot for his youngest daughter. I do think the villainess has a corny name (Marina Del Ray), but since she is being voiced by Sally Field (TV's Gidget and The Flying Nun), I am hopeful she will be well-performed. This DVD will be something new for the kiddies and something nostalgic for us older folks who still sing along with Disney movies. I hope everyone will at least give it a chance before bashing it unseen.

1 out of 5 stars

Please August 27, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

I've watched this movie and I think it was awful. Disney's magic is gone! The movie begins okay, laughter, happiness, but then it takes a turn for the worst; first of all, King Triton would never ban music (the whole kingdom must have hated him AND he made his daughters sad (which he would try to avoid at any cost since he loves them)). There is NO character development (and Ariel is only little in the beginning, so I was hugely disapointed when she was 14-15 through out the movie), Flounder is SHY (and in the disney-series Ariel and flounder go way back, not just a year or two) and he shouldn't be so strait forward as he is in this movie. There's 1 original song in this movie, the rest is bad covers of already known hits! Please, The little Mermaid won Oscars for the music! This only proves that Disney should not make sequals to already great movies! And where did Ursula go? She clearly said in the first movie that she'd lived in the palace, was that *15* yrs earlier, before Ariel was born?

And that purple haired mermaid, in her song they showed her wearing train clothes and other outfits that probably didn't exist during The little mermaid, same goes for her military clotes (Disney, come on, don't mix up the time line!)

I would give this movie -5 if I could, it's plain horrible.

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