In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The Little Mermaid is one of Disney's most lovable classics, it's one of my personal favorites, so I did want to see the sequel, which was pretty average. Normally most Disney sequels are lame or a waste of time, but it seems as if Disney is finally getting something right because The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a very sweet movie and was a nice prequel for Ariel to see what her life was like before she met Prince Eric and we learn a little bit about her family and how she came to meet Flounder. This is definitely a must see for the kids, it has fun music, cute characters, and a charming story that anyone could fall in love with. I liked that they chose a different story rather than continuing her life with Eric, I just like the "they lived happily ever after" and that's it, so this was a nice idea to get to know Ariel's sisters and mother.In this Disney prequel, we explore Ariel's life before she became human, met Eric, met Ursela. Her father is heart broken after her mother is killed by a ship, he forbids music since it reminds him of her and her beautiful voice. Ariel and her sisters grow up in a very boring world with no music or life at all, but Ariel is thirsty for fun, to spice up her life. She comes along with friends who are also trying to make life a little more fun. But a mermaid named Marina is trying to take over the girls and their lives so she can eventually control the kingdom.The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a fun Disney sequel and was a pleasure to watch. The songs are a lot of fun and the story just charms it's way into your heart. This isn't my favorite Disney sequel, but it was a huge improvement over the second Little Mermaid. I would recommend this for the family or kids, it's a charming film and of course who could resist Sebastian and his fun crazy life under the sea? He, Ariel, and Flounder bring life to this story and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well.9/10

I first heard of this prequel at the time of its release and I was intrigued to find out what had happened before Ariel met Eric. However; upon purchasing this in a triple pack with the first two DVDs, it didn't live up to all of my expectations.The animation is mostly fluid and the colours are not overly bright like they were in 'The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea,' but some elements look a little too CGI-ish within a 2D animated environment such as the music box, Marina Del Rey's gigantic hook and the statue of Athena. Further to Marina and Athena, I found Marina a flamboyant villain whose purple colour scheme was pleasing to the eye and she was meaner than Morgana but not as sinister as Ursula while Athena reminded me very much of Ariel and I got an insight of how she looked before a pirate ship unfortunately crushed her to death, thus leading Triton to ban music from the kingdom much to Ariel's dismay. Speaking of Ariel, it was cute to see her and her sisters as little girls and their arguments as they grew older reminded me of arguing with my own sister when we were younger. The best argument between Ariel's sisters involves their possessions such as a hairbrush and an eye mask having the letter A on them since all their names begin with that letter. Like 'TLMII:RTTS,' Jodi Benson and Samuel E Wright reprise their roles as Ariel and Sebastian respectively and they sound exactly as they did in the other two films and TV series. Jim Cummings does his best to recreate Triton's voice the same way as the late Kenneth Mars did. As for the music the background music was upbeat, charming and tense while the songs were pretty good, especially 'Jump in the Line' (sounds like a follow-up to 'Under the Sea') and 'I Remember,' although Marina's song 'Just One Mistake' is rather tuneless despite being accompanied by colourful shots of her wigs and outfits. Another shot of Marina I liked was that of her leaning on a rock with the waves crashing behind her (an obvious reference to Ariel's iconic scene at the end of the 'Part of Your World' reprise) and Scuttle flying near her to which she snarls, "Don't touch me!" Aside the CGI-like elements, the other flaws include the story being predictable after Athena's death, Benjamin being too gentle for Marina's assistant and Triton being stricter than he was in the first two films. I also found the shot of Ariel and her sisters being shown in Marina's eyes confusing because I didn't know if she was watching them from her lair or at the underground club, although I can see why her report of the girls in the club to Triton was brief. The scene where Ariel appears to have died towards the end may be confusing for those who haven't seen the other two films because they may think she has actually died but she regains consciousness upon hearing the music box. The moments of Athena's death and Ariel having a flashback of happier times after having retrieved the music box had just the right amount of poignancy.To conclude, it was an adequate idea of Disney to make a prequel but it wasn't quite as enjoyable as the other two films. 7.5/10 to round up to IMDb's 8/10 rating.

The Little Mermaid is one of Disney's most lovable classics, it's one of my personal favorites, so I did want to see the sequel, which was pretty average. Normally most Disney sequels are lame or a waste of time, but it seems as if Disney is finally getting something right because The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a very sweet movie and was a nice prequel for Ariel to see what her life was like before she met Prince Eric and we learn a little bit about her family and how she came to meet Flounder. This is definitely a must see for the kids, it has fun music, cute characters, and a charming story that anyone could fall in love with. I liked that they chose a different story rather than continuing her life with Eric, I just like the "they lived happily ever after" and that's it, so this was a nice idea to get to know Ariel's sisters and mother.In this Disney prequel, we explore Ariel's life before she became human, met Eric, met Ursela. Her father is heart broken after her mother is killed by a ship, he forbids music since it reminds him of her and her beautiful voice. Ariel and her sisters grow up in a very boring world with no music or life at all, but Ariel is thirsty for fun, to spice up her life. She comes along with friends who are also trying to make life a little more fun. But a mermaid named Marina is trying to take over the girls and their lives so she can eventually control the kingdom.The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a fun Disney sequel and was a pleasure to watch. The songs are a lot of fun and the story just charms it's way into your heart. This isn't my favorite Disney sequel, but it was a huge improvement over the second Little Mermaid. I would recommend this for the family or kids, it's a charming film and of course who could resist Sebastian and his fun crazy life under the sea? He, Ariel, and Flounder bring life to this story and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well.6/10

I am a huge little mermaid fan since i can remember and i was definitely not disappointed it in this movie. It tells us how Ariel came to be and answered a lot of the questions we had in the first one like what happened to Ariel's mother and why King Triton hates humans. It also tells us how flounder and Ariel met but the one thing i did not like about flounder is that he beat boxed and was kind of out of character because he was a lot braver in this one which in the other ones flounder was always scared. I also liked that is showed us the different sides of the sisters because in the first and second ones we didn't really hear much about them only for brief moments but in this one we get to see their personalities. I also liked the music in the movie it was really great. Some of my favorites was Athena's song, Jump in the line, i remember, and i will sing. The only song i did not like was the one mistake because it didn't seem like a song to me just kind of a poem that Sally Fields talked through with background music. It was so cool to see Jodi Benson and Sameuel E. Wright returning as Ariel and Sebastion. I don't think you can have a Little Mermaid movie without them as the characters. All around good movie and i will watch it over and over again like i did the first 2.