The_Light_Triton Back in June 2005, I reviewed this movie and basically just slammed it repeatedly without really giving it a chance. Of course, when you're 14 and a troll, slamming movies that don't appeal to your age group or tastes is easy. So after a 9 year old review, it's time to give this movie a much better review.First of all, This is a direct sequel to the 1989 classic that revitalized Disney as a serious movie making company. The original 1989 classic is loved for it's portrayal of a curious young mermaid who longs to discover what life is like on land. Now skip ahead 12 years. The sequel is a mirror image, with a young girl who dreams of life in the sea.So the story begins a year or so after the events of the first movie. by this time, Ariel and Eric are now parents of their infant Melody. During the celebration of the newborn child, The sister of Ursula appears and threatens Melody's safety, but is driven back into the sea and into hiding. But as long as she's still at large, Ariel refuses to let young melody know about her true history, which eventually comes to bite Ariel on the tail 12 years later, as the rebellious Melody sneaks underneath a wall constructed to keep her out of the sea. She soon discovers a seashell pendant with her name on it, and longs to discover why, leading her on a fun adventure with some interesting characters.For what it's worth, this movie isn't what one would call "mass appeal" like the movie that came before it. However, the character of Melody, whose voice belongs to the legendary voice actress Tara Strong, seems to have a cult following among girls, whereas other extra characters (Tip & Dash, Undertow, Cloak & Dagger) didn't seem to be accepted as well, even if they had some fun moments at points. Personally, I thought Tip & Dash were fun and Undertow was funny, but Cloak and Dagger were just hacks. they didn't say anything and didn't really have the same demonic effect as their predecessors, Flotsam & Jetsam did.As for the returning characters, Ariel is a bit more mature and mother-like, but lacks the strength she had in the original movie. Luckily, Jodi Benson came back to do the voice again. Flounder is more or less the same. Triton is more or less the same guy but more trusting of his daughter. Sebastian is still the fun crab but with less musical routines. Scuttle is more one-dimensional and lacks the humor he had from the first movie. The only person I felt was an improvement was Prince Eric, because his original voice actor didn't return. I'm not saying the original prince Eric was bad, i'm saying the greatest voice actor of all time, Rob Paulsen, took over the role. And Paulsen makes any movie, TV show, or video game better with his voice.Overall, This one's a fair sequel. It's aimed at girls in the tween range, but the supporting characters just might keep their older brothers entertained for the hour and a half.6/10

ohsta62 Love 'em or hate 'em, most of the Disney direct to video films which are often sequels are worse than the originals. Beginning in Aladdin's sequel, The Return of Jafar, lots of them are poor quality and are made to cash in. Ironic as Walt Disney didn't like sequels with this quote he once said, 'I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.' Then would he be disappointed with this string of supposedly sequels? Of course.One of the worst sequels Disney has ever made is The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. This is a low quality sequel to the beloved and high quality 1989 film, The Little Mermaid. Not only was the original a commercial success in the box office and met with critical acclaim from critics and audiences but also saved the animation industry which had been in a decline for some while sometime after W.Disney's death in 1966.The film's narrative is almost the opposite of the original. Instead of Ariel wanting to come to the human world as a mermaid, in here, Melody wants to come the the mer-world as a human. Ariel is a dull hollow shell of herself here. Yes, she is no longer the main character but there was no need to suck out her personality and put it to an irregular fashion to her daughter.Eric sounds different and has little dialogue in the film. Melody is not that likable. Sebastian is not quite the same he was in the original, in fact, he doesn't appear as regularly now. Why is Flounder, now a father, even fatter now? Being overweight does NOT make you look older. Scuttle rarely appears as well.The new characters included are not very good. Morgana is rubbish at magic unlike her dead, skilled at magic sister Ursula, in fact, she even 'takes' a potion of Ursula's magic. She copies her; She does wriggles her tentacles while everything except her eyes fade to black, the same her obese sibling did in the original film. Besides, she is not a very practical villain. You don't immediately go and threaten to have a beloved person dead for something important. That's like if you held someone at gunpoint for the bank's money in real life. Morgana then realizes she needs to manipulate an idea for the trident like Ursula did.It's like she wants to be like her sister. Despite envying her as she was their mother's favourite. Morgana is determined to be only be her mother's favourite by having her hands on the trident. The final battle from her evil doings i.e. making an ice fortress with anyone bowing down before her wasn't very comfortable but hardly that scary. Ursula's final battle was possibly the darkest Disney ever produced. The enormous, powerful Ursula controlling the ocean like a sinister god with the menacingly dark colours at night scared the living daylights of quite some people and they also feared the obese cecaelia alone. Her much thinner sister is only a faint trace of her wickedness.A penguin and walrus named Tip and Dash seemed Artic equivalents to Timon and Pumbaa in both appearance and personality. Undertow is not needed especially as a grumbling piranha. Morgana's minions which are manta rays Cloak and Dagger are silent but not intimidating. Ursula's minions which are eels Flotsam and Jetsam who are also dead, were possibly intimidating by their irregular voices and hideous look like their master. The French Chef, Louis was his name? Still wants to cook Sebastian. Man, really. As he said, he's old(er) and too small for a meal.Grimsby and Carlotta never(if not rarely) speak as well as barely them appearing in the whole film. Triton looks younger and why did he did nothing when Morgana kissed Melody? The animation is poor quality. It's bright,garish and quite a rough frame rate. I don't like it when there's that smooth visual thing by rough frames that is also probably present in The Return of Jafar. The original was much better, possibly one thing that built its success. Compared to the labour of hand drawn and painted cels, this is merely digitally coloured ink and coloured done with little effort. Although the film's animation is not as bad as the 1992 TV series with the same name which is indeed poor at times.The songs are childish and possibly forgettable. I can't sit more than 6 seconds on one continuously. The original film had a good variety of songs as well as better ones. From a Calypso music themed 'Under the Sea' which won an Oscar to a spirited music like one 'Part of Your World' particularly the last reprise of the latter.Fortunately, most of the original cast reprised here. This was also Buddy Hackett's final voice-over for a film, who plays the often absent Scuttle here and in the original, d.2003. Eric's original voice-over hasn't reprised and he sounds embarrassingly different. The others are fine though Ariel sounds deeper as she is now grown up and all. Morgana sounds like Ursula as it was the same voice-over as both the cecaelia sisters, Pat Carroll.Another sad thing is this was released on my birthday. I got good news and bad news about the Disney's direct to video films. The good news is Disney will finally end production to them. The bad news is some more will be made i.e. Tinkerbell prequels. Why is it CGI whereas Peter Pan is traditional yet set after them?Well, that's about what I could say. This is not a good film. It is indeed better off never made and is needless like most of Disney's DtV films Watch if you're a die hard TLM fan and rent it instead of buying it unless you want it to fill your collection.

rumblinglove I'm not saying that this is a very bad movie, but it's closely to being one. This movie is a much of a remake for the original than being a sequel and it's true that remaking is not always a curse but apparently this sequel is semi to be a curse. I found the events of this movie to be semi interesting but I didn't find any event not even remotely interesting for real; this movie had my interests in it's events killed by just every second when first I watched it and I was about to give up but hey why should I be so harsh? let's handle the events and see what's the end with the story. All I'm saying is that this movie needs to improve itself over 600,000 time to at least be as good as the original. You may say I'm totally overreacting but that's how I see it. My preschool brother and 2nd grader sister at the time didn't like this movie at all. Both of them actually borrowed this movie for movie time at school and guess what, the both reported us of how everybody were bored from the events and their teachers eventually ended up replacing another movie instead of this just when it wasn't even close to the middle. If you want to watch this movie just go to youtube or download it but my advice to you: never pay a penny over this for even rent cause you might cry from believing that you've waisted your money over this.

FastFan Well, most of these great movies from childhood managed to make amazing sequels to them. I grew up most of my childhood life watching "The Little Mermaid" and it still is my favorite movie. When I heard they were going to release the sequel to it, I thought it was going to be a total mess. But when I did get the movie, I wasn't disappointed at all. I was really looking forward to hearing Jodi Benson (Ariel) voice, because she's really got a gorgeous voice. But it's like Ariel is all grown up, she's got a child, Eric still sounds cute, Sebastian still so comical, Melody is much like her mother, King Triton has a gentle side. It was actually almost unique that they put Pat Carroll who previously done the voice of Ursula, and was the voice for Morgana, Ursula's sister. I wasn't ever disappointed, and I love mermaids too, so this movie made my day, when I was having a rough one, and I fell in love with it. So I'd really recommend this movie to all those who like sequels, and that you won't get disappointed.I rated this movie with 8 stars, because it was genuinely made, the cast was awesome, and I love Jodi Benson. There were some scenes that didn't make sense, but it still is worth a look...