Please don't spend money on this.

Crappy film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea is in my opinion, one of the worst direct to video sequels ever made.The Bad: 1. The characters are not as likable as they were in the original. Melody is an atrocious character. I think she is an infantilised version of Ariel, in terms of both personality and appearance, also very annoying and unlikable, Ariel plays as a boring and generic mother figure, Morgana is a pale imitation of Ursula, and Eric goes from a fairly likable character to a boring character, Flounder plays as a boring and generic father figure, King Triton served no purpose in the film and Tip and Dash are a blatant rip-off of Timon and Pumbaa, the list goes on. 2. The music, both the score and songs are terrible. Unlike the original, where Alan Menken provides a beautiful film score and some good songs, with Part of Your World being the best song in the original. 3. The story is way too similar to the original, only differences being story told in reverse and being dumbed down for younger audiences.The Good: 1. The only characters in this film I like and am interested in are Sebastian and Undertow. They both give me a chuckle. 2. The animation is at least pretty good, but that is not saying much. Ariel is still very beautiful, just like in the much superior original and prequel and television series, her character design has always got a good balance of youth and maturity, and that is the reason why I think she is gorgeous. Keep in mind that I said "beautiful", not "hot", since "hot" has a sexual connotation to it, which I do not like or condone the use of the word and think it is inappropriate. And this is coming from a male who is a supporter of gender equality. Just because I commented on one female character's appearance does not mean I condone anyone to catcall other women, which I don't, because it's wrong. But I digress. 3. The voice acting is solid, with Jodi Benson reprising as Ariel, Kenneth Mars as King Triton, Edie McClurg as Carlotta, Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Buddy Hackett as Scuttle, Rene Auberjonois as Chef Louis and Pat Carroll as Morgana as returning talents, all do a decent job. New talents include Tara Strong as Melody, which is OK, I guess, Clancy Brown as Undertow is hilarious, Max Casella as Tip, Stephen Furst as Dash, Cam Clarke as Flounder, Rob Paulsen as Eric and Kay E. Outer as Grimsby all do a solid job. Not enough to save the movie, sadly. 4. The best part about this film is that it is much better than any of the English-language dubs of Studio Ghibli, which are highly nationalised versions of Japanese animated films, as well as capitalising on the fame of Hollywood movie stars, the salt in that particular wound. But with The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, being a direct to video film at least keeps it true to its identity, as well as trying to entertain me, even if it fails to do so. Also, watching it in English, the original language, has international cohesion to it, which is a good thing, but that is not enough to save this movie, unfortunately. So overall, watching Studio Ghibli films in the English dubs is much, much worse than watching this movie. This movie still sucks, nonetheless.Overall, this an awful direct to video sequel that I do not recommend to anyone. Watch the original film, prequel or television series. They are much better than this pile of garbage.

This sequel started quickly with both song and things happening, and it set the rest of the story up with some regrettable decisions made rashly by Ariel and Eric. The thing is, it's at its surface a story about a girl trying to figure out where she belongs (similar to the original film), but really it turns out to be more of a story about adults making ill-considered decisions that have serious consequences. Ariel and Eric have gone from being lovestruck young adults to exactly the kind of insufferable parents that most of us will know: once they marry and pop out a kid, it's used as an excuse to neglect their family and lifelong friends, despite what anyone wants or would think.The fact that no-one seemed to mention how ludicrous they thought Ariel and Eric's decision was does seem regrettable, but at the same time it's also understandable since it ultimately wouldn't have done any good. Instead of sealing Melody off from the ocean, a wiser choice would have been simply informing her of the dangers, accompanying her, teaching her safety in the water and, well, being honest instead of being deceptive. That deception and lack of trust are more or less entirely what put her and indeed everyone into serious danger.Melody is a fine lead, starting to understand that decisions have consequences and that the world is not always as promising as it seems. Tip and Dash are cute and likable, and similarly likable and compelling are Morgana and her minions. In fact, to be honest, I liked Morgana more than anyone else. She may have been the villain, but she had a compelling and understandable reason to do what she did. She was, in many ways, more admirable than most of the other characters for at least her honesty with herself.The songs are fine, and they are not excessive in number. The animation is fine as well. It's a fun enough little adventure. Although I will say that it's completely understandable why Melody isn't too happy on land -- what a bunch of little trolls at her party! And her parents don't act to do anything at all until it's too late. Sheesh. No wonder she ran away. The same can be said of the penguins -- no wonder Tip and Dash didn't want to stick around.The ending was a little too pat, but it was okay and probably the best they could manage with the story. To be quite honest though, I don't see how it was really much of a decision to be made; Melody was deeply unhappy on land. But it left enough open that we can imagine what happened later.Ariel and Eric did realise that what they were doing was wrong and that honestly they were at fault for what happened. That's a pretty amazing thing for films like this. More often, you see condescending parents smugly never admitting their mistakes, or the script making it seem like they were somehow right for what they did. Melody made some bad decisions, but seriously, she is twelve years old and anyone who receives their fondest desire is surely to be more than slightly influenced by that. Realistic character writing made this noteworthy.In summary, this was a perfectly fine film. I think most of the people who lashed out at it were people who saw themselves making those same bad decisions Ariel and Eric did and resented being called out on them. It doesn't make the film bad; maybe you should assess your life choices a bit.

I feel unclean after watching that hideous example of how greed can ruin the best things. The original movie was a classic. It had great characters, great voice-acting, great writing, great songs , great animation, and a great villain. This just @$$ rapes the original. The characters? Not as interesting. The voice-acting? Way less effort from the cast. The writing? Awful. The songs? Barely any effort. The animation? Not as revolutionary like the first. The villain? Don't get me started on how much they f*cked up with that. This film is flat out insult. There are a few new characters for this movie. A walrus and penguin that are total copies of Timon and Pumba, and Melody. Melody is Ariel's daughter. She does have the same good looks as her mother (about a 7), and her voice-actor does do a nice job, but she just isn't as interesting as Ariel. Ariel is flat out hot (10 out of 10), is well voice acted, and was very interesting. Melody isn't. Then there is the f*ck up of a villain. Morgona is absolutely nothing compared to Ursula. She isn't as interesting, crazy, or as well voice-acted. As for returning characters they really aren't as interesting the second time around. They also do an unforgivable change to Flounder. As for voice acting nobody gives a great performance. All returning cast really don't try their best, and new people aren't good either. Then there is the songs. Just because this a DVD movie doesn't mean that you put no effort into songs. The songs here are just pathetic. In the first few seconds you are plunged into a song, and it is so horrible compared to the original's songs that you feel like you are getting cancer while watching. The second song is an improvement, but still unimpressive. The next is terrible. Then there is the last song which is just as bad as the first. The animation for the time this came out was only one notch above a Disney TV cartoon. Then there is the terrible writing. Everything from the unfunny jokes to the bad song lyrics are terrible. Just no effort. Shame on you Disney. Just because you keep most of your awful sequels from theaters doesn't mean I can forgive for raping my childhood. It isn't as insulting as a theatrical release, but you are still shoving the bird right in my face with this.0 stars out of 4

It wasn't good. The characters were underdeveloped and the only personality were from the memories I had of the previous movie which contrasted with the 'new' personalities (or lack thereof). I seriously thought the opening scene was a nightmare by Ariel because of how absurd it was. It was serious. It just reminded me of all the annoying characters on the Disney channel-everyone is hyperactive and the story jumps from action to embarrassing scenes without any really connection.The most disappointing part was the horrible songs-not catchy, not amazing. In the original Ariel had an amazing and powerful voice and all the song are catchy and fun. You remember them and want to sing them. But the songs in this movie weren't creative in the least; it's as if they're talking in a annoying sing-song voice-quite weakly, disappointing. I don't have that want-to-sing-them feeling you normally get from a Disney movie.It's as if not one wanted to do this movie, so they barely made an effort . . . this movie would needs a new story line, new catchy songs and more warmth and enthusiasm without the annoying "look at me! look at me! I'm so annoying!" mentality of this generation of Disney. :'(