La Petite Sirène 2 : Retour à l'océan

This direct to video (those were the days) sequel to the mega hit that was 'The Little Mermaid' is not that bad really, though it does rehash a lot of the themes/plot from the original, only now with Ariel's daughter.

With a lot of the original voice cast returning, and some nice songs/moments, this certainly is worth a watch, and not worthy of the bashing it is getting by other reviewers.

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. :'(

Very few Disney sequels ever come close to the quality of the original, and this is probably why so many of them come directly to video. This film is no exception. The story is okay, but the characters are boring, and you learn to hate Melody after a few really, really stupid moves on her part.

It's not as bad as The Return of the Jafar, but not close to as good as The Lion King II: Simba's Pride or Aladdin and the King of Thieves or even Pocahontas II. Of course, none of these compare to the quality of Toy Story 2, which notably went to theaters and is actually better than the first one.

You can really afford to miss this film.

I LOVE how bad this movie is.

Ariel's all grown up. She has a daughter. So far so good.

But then Ursula's wonky sister MORGANA shoots up like a jack-in-the-box and whizzes back and forth across the screen while Sebastian declares: "OH NO! IT'S URSULA'S CRAZY SISTER MORGANA!" Cute little Flounder has been replaced with an obese, nasal lump of lubber. A walrus and a penguin follow Melody around.

It's basically the first film all over again. Only two differences: it's her wanting to go from human to mermaid.

Oh, and it's total rubbish. Don't miss it!

I highly recommend the stunning original, and the inspirational TV series, but I don't recommend this, I'm sorry.

The animation was a lot of the time very flat and too garish, especially in the scenes with Morgana. Speaking of Morgana, never have I seen such a bland villainess. Ursula scared me so much, as I repeatedly watched the Little Mermaid. Morgana was just a wannabe, which is always ill-advised Disney. Why didn't they recreate the Evil Manta, who after Ursula, was the most convincing of the villains in the TV series? The characters were a mixed bag. Ariel was alright, though rather childish,but Melody was annoying at times. (I did think the story, on a parallel with the original, was rather unoriginal and rushed despite some effective scenes) Sebastian was the best character here, but he was also ruined to some extent. So was Scuttle and Flounder. Scuttle wasn't funny, whereas Flounder put me off with his nasal tone, since when did Flounder have a nasal tone of voice? Tip and Dash were also uninspired, and Undertow wasn't mean enough. And the flying bat creatures? They weren't even scary, they were nothing like flotsam and Jetsam, who were scary! Even the chef wasn't funny. Him chasing Sebastian was badly underplayed, really unfunny.

However, there were some positives. Kenneth Mars does a great job as King Triton, the only character I cared for completely, but you don't see him that much. The songs weren't bad but nowhere near as good as the original, and I love Jodi Benson's voice, though "For a moment" sounded a little like the song featured in the episode "wish upon a starfish" or the beginning of it did anyway. The beginning wasn't bad either, in fact the beginning was one of the better scenes of the movie. Some aspects of the story worked nicely, but I wish they showed less of Tip and Dash. The climax with Morgana was the highlight of the film, with some really colourful segments.

In conclusion, a sometimes colourful, but hugely disappointing sequel to one of Disney's finest. Mind you, the Cinderella and Jungle Book sequels were worse. My sister will probably hate me when she reads this. 5/10, maybe too harsh? Bethany Cox