The Little Mermaid

To be honest I don't know if many people would watch this cartoon almost 30 years after the release, but in case you do (like me) I don't think you will regret it. It's a prequel to one of the best animated movies Disney has ever made and it's not too long, only 31 episodes.

This series never pretended to go down in history as they were a mere spin-off of the original movie but that doesn't mean it's bad. Some chapters are bad but most of them are very fun and entertaining, children will for sure enjoy it more. There are some new characters apart from the ones we know from the movie which is good and offers variety, and also some good songs. The wonderful voice of Jodi Benson is one of the best features about The Little Mermaid TV series.

Animation isn't as good as Disney movies but it's understandable as most of the budget of the company was focused on the big screen movies yet it's decent, the colors are a bit more bland but still pretty good.

I would recommend it to parents with children who like Disney or fans of The Little Mermaid movie who want to see more of Ariel and all their friends. It's much better than the sequel!

Being a fan of the Disney movie it was natural for me to see how Disney would do on translating it to a weekly TV series. And I was pretty happy with the results. Throughout it's three season life it managed to bring out more of the characters that I loved from the movie, while bringing new characters to enjoy.

In the series Ariel was maybe three or four years younger than in the movie and still headstrong about seeing the world above her. Flounder is still a yellow guppie scared of everything and best pals with Ariel. Sebastion is still the babysitter of Ariel but less stricter. (I don't recall him ever ratting out Ariel throughout the course) The rest of the cast are still pretty much the same too.

Of the new characters the best recurring ones have to be the Lobster Mobster and his sidekick the Shrimp. Two spoofs on Al Capone and one of his goons. They always showed up trying to take over things but in the end ended up doing more damage to themselves than to other. There was also Urchin, an orphan who through the Lobster Mobster eventually became another friend with Ariel, even hinting as a love interest in the future.

The show even threw in references to the movie, with an occasional visit from Ursula and even Erik the prince, who commented on one day meeting that mermaid he saw in that certain episode.

The show ended with an episode dedicated to Hans Christian Anderson, telling it through an animated Hans reading his classic story to a group of children, the story involving Ariel and Flounder and the entire gang. The last image was perhaps the best of the show, a painted image of Ariel lying on a rock by the sea, smiling, looking out at the distance.

I'm glad that Disney still shows this cartoon on their channel even after many years, and I still look forward to seeing each episode. I only hope that the new sequel will provide Disney with the motivation to continue once again with the series.

This show like Aladdin is an excellent show made after the fantastic original. It isn't as good as the film, which is an animated classic, but this is a childhood favourite of mine, that I am still very fond of. When I was little, I wanted to be like Ariel, and I loved everything about the show and the film, the animation, the songs and the characters. Standout episodes are "Whale of a Tale", "Wish Upon a Starfish" and "The Evil Manta"(or in Harmony).The songs in the show are amazing, with catchy lyrics. Can I also say that the theme tune is based on the songs in the original? Ariel is a beautiful, headstrong character, and Jodi Benson voiced her beautifully. I also loved the fact that Ariel is a little more resourceful and sympathetic in this series. Sebastian and Flounder provide excellent comic relief especially Sebastian who made me collapse in giggles more than once sometimes even in the same episode, and King Triton is an inspired father- figure. And where would we be without the villains? Lets see, Ursula (who scared the life out of me), Lobster Mobster(he is funny), and of course my favourite-Tim Curry's The Evil Manta, who like Ursula frightened me when I was little. Excellent show, with good education. 9/10 Bethany Cox

No Wonder this show is on Playhouse Disney it is educational. Ariel and her sister Arista never seem to get along. Triton must combat the bad guys with his magic trident to save his daughter. Sebastin is still the babysitter of Airel. Flounder is a coward. Ursula still has her two pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam. My grandmother and I used to watch videos of this series when I was 3 years old my sister used to watch this with me too. Sebastin is hilarious.

I watched this program quite a bit a few weeks back until they started playing repeats. I haven't seen them all but they are all very good. All I'm missing is the third season and the first episode which they unfortunately don't play down here yet. It seems just like shorter versions of the movie with different stories. It's very well done with most of the episodes with very original plots. There are some great new characters which is a pity that they weren't included in the movie. The series like the movie also features songs (although they aren't in every episode) which are very good and seem as if they are written by the same people. All the cast from the movie has returned to do the series except for Flounder but you would have never noticed if you hadn't read this. In the series you find out a lot of question that was never answered in the movie like things about Ariel's mother, there are other kingdoms besides Atlantica & other creatures that live down there. The animation, backgrounds and voice acting is just as amazing as in the movie. The series is also very educational like another review said. I'm sixteen and going on seventeen in a few more days and I've learnt a few things from this series. That something I hadn't expected. The series also guest stars Tim Curry who is best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It also has Nancy Cartwright who is best known as Bart in The Simpsons and Danny Cooksey who played the part of John's friend, Tim in Terminator 2. The series is quite additive too. After seeing a few episodes, I started watching the 3:30AM airing of it too. Well if you could rate this I would give this series a 10/10 and not many cartoons deserve that rating these days. I recommend anyone who saw the movie to watch this series too. It's a pity that there weren't many episodes thought. I think that this series is better then the Aladdin series but just by a small bit.