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The Little Mermaid 2 - Return to the Sea

The Little Mermaid 2 - Return to the Sea

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Rare Disney Film
Review: This is a pleasant sequel to "The Little Mermaid", but when my wife and I talked about the film after watching it, we realized something: It ultimately shows a POSITIVE mother/daughter relationship.

How many other Disney animated films show this? Actually, how many Disney animated films show a mother that is still ALIVE?

Not many. Good for them, for finally showing this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Oh, the Magic of Direct-to-Video...
Review: Ever since "Return of Jafar" became a bestselling video, Disney has delighted fans and upset critics by releasing direct-to-video sequels of most of its recent theatrical features. After eleven years, The Little Mermaid gets its own treatment...but this one is actually pretty good. Disney has come a long way from "Jafar" to here, stopping along the way to create the excellent "Simba's Pride". This movie starts awkwardly, and the first few minutes are both cheesy and a complete rip-off of the opening of "Sleeping Beauty". But, if you stay with it, it really does get better. There's actually excitement and at least one or two decent songs. The animation, however, is still very direct-to-video, produced by the Disney TV team rather than the feature film department...but even the characters are looking more three dimensional than previous "cheapies". This one is worth seeing...besides, does it really matter? A true Disney fan would not be without a sequel, even if it was bad. Fortunatly, here, it's not...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Littlest Mermaid
Review: The Little Mermaid revisited more than 10 years later....Ariel has a daughter, Melody, who has no knowledge of her mom's mermaid ancestry. Melody yearns for the sea in the same way that her mom longed for land. This eventually leads to a new flip side version of the original "Little Mermaid" when Morgana (the just as evil but thinner sister of Ursula - both voiced by the deliciously whiskey voiced Pat Carroll) hatches a sheme to enchant Melody into a mermaid as revenge against Ariel....

Surprisingly, this made for video sequel is not too bad. It helps that many pf the original actors came back to reprise their roles. A good sequel, especially for the younger set.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ariel's back, more than ten years later
Review: It was 1989 when Disney Pictures reinvented, once again and quite succesfuly, the animation motion pictures. The storyline, the technique and the music made "The Little Mermaid" an enjoyable film for both young and adult. Everything that has come since then is obviuously modeled after that (Disney and non-Disney). In this follow up, produced especifically for Video and DVD, the much beloved characters are back (and not in the much inferior TV-Show version), many of them with their original voices: Jodi Benson as Ariel and Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian. The DVD version is obviously the best option, considering the high quality of earlier Disney animated DVD releases such as "Tarzan" or "A Bug's Life". Four new songs and a new version of "Part of Your World", that will play homage to the original music composed by Alan Menken and late Howard Ashman.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The great movie
Review: I loved this movie! It was perfectly directed and beautifully acted by ariel (she is as hot as ever) I give it 3 enthusiastic thumbs up.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sequel
Review: Obviously, the sequel isn't going to be as good as the first. They never are. This is no different, the storyline is similar with all the characters resembling each other as well. Basically, Melody is Ariel, only in a much younger perspective wanting to be a mermaid (just like Ariel wanted to be a human in the first), Morgana is Ursula, only skinnier with her pet shark who is the eels. Tip and Dash are basically Flounder and Sebastian. I enjoyed Tip and Dash a lot, especially compared to the annoying Flounder. All the original characters make appearances, Sebastian is the crap that used to look after Ariel for King Tritan but now he's supposed to look over Melody for Ariel and Eric. Flounder is still around, yet fatter and his voice is more annoying, King Triton is now the worried grandfather instead of just the worried father. The real downfall here is Prince Eric, who is rarely in the movie but his voice is different and for the worst. He looks a bit different too, he has like blue eyes in this one which makes him look strange.
The storyline as I said is similar. Melody wants to explore the sea, she's an OUTCAST on land and SNEAKS out by going under the wall between the castle and the ocean. She meets Morgana, an EVIL OCTOPUS who has the POWER to TRANSFORM her into a mermaid (hint: with help from Ursula) and she can REMAIN a MERMAID if she STEALS the "pitchfork" (sorry I forget its name) from her grandfather, yet she doesn't know he's her grandfather. Melody captures it with the help of Tip and Dash and returns to Morgana. All the while Ariel has transformed back into a mermaid in hope to find Melody in the sea while Eric looks on land. Morgana TURNS on Melody and transforms her back into a human and keeps her underwater until she drowns. The shark crashes into the ice barrier and Melody is free, Ariel and Melody chat then realize that Eric and the rest of them are in trouble. Melody saves the day. That is basically the whole storyline.
Though very similar to the first one, this is still a good watch and would be a nice movie to show your little kids, especially since they probably wouldn't care if the first one is the original. It's a fun movie, not as romantic or as funny as the first but still fun. If you collect Disney movies or really enjoyed this one if you saw it, buy it. Other than that I'd just suggest you rent this one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rent it, Dont buy it.
Review: I was ten years old when the Little Mermaid came out, and I loved it. I seriously wanted to be Ariel, I just loved the songs and the color.

Recently, I rented both the Little Mermaid and its sequel, the Little Mermaid II. WHile I am pleased that there is at least something out there for little kids these days, I was disappointed with the movie. I did not connect with Melody, and Ariel was like nothing I remembered. The only thing pleasing (and, I must say, humorous) was the presence of Sebastian. He alone retained the charm of the first film.

Of course, maybe the reason I didnt like this movie is that I am now an adult. But I gotta tell you, when I re-watched the original, it was still the magical movie that it was for me 15 years ago.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I wish I could give this one a billion stars!
Review: I for one loved this movie and didn't compare it to the original. I loved the Lion King 2 (Simba's Pride) and didn't compare that one to the first one. I adore the Rescuers Down Under, but its not the same as the first one. And the sequel to Lady and the Tramp? I liked that one too. Yes, there are going to be changes when one waits years to make a sequel. I love the sequels for being movies in their own right. By the way, I am almost 22 years old and remember the first Little Mermaid very well. I've grown up on Disney, and out of the forty dvds I own, 80% of them are Disney.

Anyway, the Little Mermaid 2 is a great movie. The animation is even clearer and more beautiful than the first one, due to the changes in technology over the last decade, and the songs are just as catchy and fun. In fact, I watched it a few days ago and still have "Tip and Dash" stuck in my head. In my opinion, Disney did a great job with the story itself, making it believable and moving. The actors and actresses all give their best and it shows in the emotion the characters display. Melody is exactly what you would expect a lonely preteen princess to be--tortured by her secret desires and her need to fit in, yet her seeming inability to do so. And like all kids that age, she is convinced that she is the only one who could possibly feel this way and brushes off her mother's attempts to cheer her up with edited stories of her own childhood. She creates a situation and has to deal with the repercussions, and does so very well.

Jodi Benson proves once again that she is the only woman who could play the part of Ariel. Reprising her role from so many years ago, she now plays the part of the older, wiser, more mature mermaid-turned human, and does it perfectly. In addition to dealing with Melody's preteen anxieties, Ariel has to contend with her own feelings of loneliness and helplessness, as her years as a human and the wall that separates the castle from the sea also separates her from her family. There is a very poignant scene in which Ariel wades in the water behind the wall, just to feel the water again and to remember her life before. It moves me every time.

Eric gets a lot of screen time in this one, but he doesn't speak as much and really just stands off to the side, silently offering encouragement. He doesn't act as a prince, but a father concerned with the well-being of his only daughter and a husband worried about his wife's happiness. I don't think his voice actor is the same as in the first one. Triton's either.

I've rambled on long enough. I just want everyone to watch this movie and decide for yourselves if you like it or not. But please, don't compare it to the original. Just as younger siblings hate being compared to their older brothers and sisters, and children dislike being forced to follow in the path of their parents, so too are sequels not meant to be the exact replicas of the original films. Give the Little Mermaid 2 a chance to stand on its own.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disney Trades Integrity for Easy Money.
Review: O Disney, what's happened to you? You used to produce enchanting, heart-warming animated films that were loved by both children AND adults. They had beautiful musical scores, wonderful songs, great characters, and the best animation quality and style in the world. And then something strange happened. You started to make less impressive animated films that still had brilliant animation, but lacked both interesting characters and good music, and possessed storylines of a more politically correct nature. I'm talking about films like Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear. None of these films are bad by any means, but this is not the same "Disney Magic" I saw in movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Disney's last few animated movies seem more like big apologies for putting so many white people in their fairy tales, rather than good stories that deserve to be told.

Then there's stuff like Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea, which is a cash grab by Disney and nothing more (just like the sequels to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc). There is absolutely no reason for this movie to have been made other than to make parents part with some of their hard-earned money because their kids succumbed to the advertising. The animation is straight-to-video quality, the songs are uninspired, and the story is almost a complete copy of the original! Please, please, DON'T buy this movie! Turning out sequel after sequel to a beloved movie to make some easy money is a terrible way for a studio to operate, and the fact that the studio is Disney in this case just goes to prove that somebody in a high-level position at Disney has no idea what made their company so loved and admired in the first place!

A few months ago Disney announced that they were closing their feature-length animation studios. This is truly sad. If Disney had ignored the shrill naysayers of the world and kept on making high-quality animated films that people actually wanted to see and could care about, instead of pouring money into lame, preachy movies like Brother Bear, this wouldn't have happened. Poor Walt must be turning over in his grave...


Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Return is a typical fairy tale
Review: This was a gift for my 7-year-old daughter. She really enjoys watching it but it is not her favorite. I watched it with her once and it wasn't bad but it didn't have the appeal that the first one displayed. The story centers around Arial's daughter going to the sea. Same idea as the first movie's plot, only reversed. Don't purchase this video expecting magic, but it is good entertainment for a young child. Our neighbor has two boys, ages 5 and 2, who also enjoy it.


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