"The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" on DVD August 26th

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:55pm

In case you were curious as to how it all started.

And yes, Jodi Benson returns as the voice of Ariel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD3GL_i4g5k

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Mermaid-Ariels-Beginning/dp/B000XUOIQO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218743681&sr=1-1

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:59pm

If only this had a remote chance of being even close to the quality of the original. The never do.

(I'll probably watch it anyway.)

Updated On: 8/14/08 at 03:59 PM

[Weez]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:05pm

It can't be as bad as the sequel. I may have to give it a watch...

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:08pm

I won't be watching this.

I'm a grownup for Chrissakes.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:09pm

Interesting. When Bob Iger became CEO of Disney, he swore there would be no more direct to DVD sequels of classic films.

I guess this falls outside that realm, since it's a "prequel"??

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:11pm

Yay! So excited to add another Disney animated feature to my collection.

[Craig]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 6:49pm

Tesori wrote 4 songs which apparently are pretty good and have good "choreography" in the animated feature

[sally1112]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 8:02pm

Yeah! Maybe this will make its way to Broadway too!!

[zepka102]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 8:04pm

I wonder if it will include their mother... probably not.

[Mood_Indigo]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 8:49pm

Actually it does include her mother, they have a bunch of sneak peak trailers on the Internet Movie Database.
Updated On: 8/14/08 at 08:49 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 9:00pm

Will we get Ursula's back story?

[zepka102]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 9:17pm

5 minutes of sneak peeks are on youtube... interesting. I don't think Ursula is involved, but I think she should be!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/15/08 at 12:11am

What is she beginning?

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 8/15/08 at 12:17am

Hell, Triton married her off at 16, she could be starting anything.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 8/15/08 at 12:59am

I was at the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen yesterday. I also want to see this DVD, even though there's a 90% chance that Disney will screw it up, and why has the full synopsis been on Wikipedia for a while?

[Mood_Indigo]

Posted: 8/15/08 at 8:42am

I was just on Wikipedia and there is no synopsis, other than a sentence saying it's a prequel.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 7:38pm

There was an advance screening at Comic Con that Jim Hill was a part of. He seemed to enjoy it well enough, but lamented its lack of a strong villain. He also revealed the following:

Mind you, this prequel's storyline does answer a certain number of questions that TLM fans have asked over the years (i.e. What became of Ariel's mother? And why does King Triton hate humans so much?). And "Ariel's Beginning" does give lots of screen time to the Little Mermaid's six sisters: Aquatta, Attina, Adrina, Alana, Arista, and Adella. Which should please the 4-to-8-year-old girls in the audience.

And, apparently, they brought Pat Carroll back, but she was voicing a sister of Ursula:

Okay. I know. It would be damned near impossible to top Ursula the sea witch. Which is why DisneyToon brought back Pat Carroll to voice Morgana, Ursula's sister in "Return to the Sea." But Marina Del Rey, Ariel's ambitious governess? That's the best that Disney could come up with for a villain in "Ariel's Beginning" ?
Toon Thursday: "Ariel's Beginning" is a polished, professional & perfectly pleasant prequel to "The Little Mermaid." But ...

[EVIE]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 2:10pm

One of the trailers on YouTube hints at what happens to Ariel's mother...typical Disney sadly.