The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning

Director: Peggy Holmes

Starring: Jodie Benson, Loreli Hill Butters, Jim Cummings, Sally Field, Parker Goris and Samuel E. Wright

DVD Release: August 26, 2008

Rating: “Not Rated”

Every story has a beginning but only one begins under the sea now for the first time ever discover the story you never knew in The Little Mermaid: Ariel s Beginning an all-new motion picture only on Disney DVD. Long ago in a kingdom where music is outlawed King Triton s youngest daughter Ariel discovers her love for music in a secret underground music club. Torn with the choice of whether to hide her passion or share it with her father and risk losing everything Ariel sets off on a daring adventure to restore music to Atlantica.

This movie features new songs written by Jeanine Tesori. Composer Jim Dooley wrote the arrangements and recorded the instrumentals with a large orchestra and big band. True to form, Jodi Benson does an outstanding job as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid: Ariel s Beginning”. As usual with most Disney movies, tragedy ends with triumph and music. By using 2D animation the movie has a throw back feel to it. At times it felt as if we were watching the original Little Mermaid. The creators were able to keep   the same feeling in looks and sound. From beginning to end the movie was colorful, lively and full of underwater dance, even though King Triton does his best to outlaw music. Many of the characters are from the original cast, and they have only gotten better with time. One slight difference is Founder was a little more hip in this movie “beat boxing” his way through the film. The film tries and succeeds in grasping the look and nostalgia of the original Little Mermaid little girls and parents alike will enjoy this fun little dance party.

Bonus features included on the DVD are:

Deleted Scenes

The Deleted scenes give a very interesting look at how animation begins and looks in the early stages of development. The director gives a great introduction to the scenes and why they were not included. I agree with the director that they are better left out.

Music and More:

This Selection gives you the opportunity to have the lyrics on the screen during the movie so you can sing along, and to jump straight to the songs and play them like little music videos.

Games and activities:

In this selection, you can get a deeper understanding of all of the mermaid sisters. You can also take a personality quiz to see which mermaid you are more like.

Backstage Disney:

Here you can see the cast of the Disney show on Broadway with tons of backstage action.

All in all a great DVD with fun extra’s to entertain the whole family.

3 out 4 stars for the family!