DISNEY The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning [DVD]

All sealed up, not watched yet.

King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, rule over the underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which is filled with music and laughter. They have seven young daughters, the youngest of whom is Ariel. The merfolk are shown relaxing in a lagoon above water, and Triton gives Athena a music box. Suddenly a pirate ship approaches. Everyone escapes except Athena, who is crushed by the ship when she tries to save the music box. Devastated by Athena's death, Triton throws the music box into the ocean and bans music from the kingdom.Ten years later, Triton's daughters live under a strict routine maintained by their governess, Marina Del Rey and her assistant Benjamin. Marina hates her job and longs to be Triton's attaché, a job currently filled by Sebastian the crab. Ariel is frustrated by their current lifestyle, which brings her into conflict with Triton. One day, Ariel encounters Flounder, a fish, whom she later follows to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music, and is shocked when she sees Sebastian performing there. When her presence is revealed, the entire band stops playing and hides, believing Ariel will tell her father about them. Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music and the remembrance of her mother and she joins the club with an oath.Ariel returns to the palace, and her sisters confront her over her disappearance. She explains where she was, and the following night all seven sisters go to the club to have fun. Marina secretly finds them, and she later reports their activities to Triton. Sebastian, Flounder and the band are sent to jail, while Marina gets the job she wants.Ariel sneaks into the prison and frees the jailbirds. Sebastian leads them to a deserted place far from the palace where Ariel finds the music box. Ariel and Sebastian decide to return to Atlantica to show the music box to Triton, hoping that it will change his mind.On the way back, they are confronted by Marina and her electric eels. Marina wants to stop them so she will retain her position of "power", and a struggle ensues. It ends when Marina barrels towards Sebastian, and Ariel pushes him out of the way, getting hit in the process. Triton arrives in time to witness this, and he is remorseful for his actions. He sings the lyrics of "Athena's Song", and Ariel is revived. The film ends with music being restored to Atlantica. Everyone rejoices except Marina, who is sent to jail.

After disappearing down a rabbit hole on YouTube, my nine-year-old wanted to watch this! Found it on Amazon and bought it and have it delivered so she could “understand Ariel’s backstory properly” (!!!)

Brilliant!

A really fun prequel with the original voices

Great book

brought for my little girl who is in love with disney princess. can't complain it's a DVD came quickly

Great condition, and value for money. brought as a present, great for any disney or little mermaid fan

wir lieben ihn! Dazu kam die schnelle Lieferung - Perfekt.

Ricevuto velocemente Senza alcun problema

Très bonne qualité

If you compare this film to The Little Mermaid, it's almost the polar opposite. The Little Mermaid had very thin characters, sketchy animation, a thin plot, a very high budget, and outstanding music with award-winning songs. On the other hand, this film has gorgeous animation that is very solid looking, very well-developed characters, a plot that's a bit of stretch but more developed, a lower budget, and songs that are almost an after-thought.I still like it better.I've always thought the world of The Little Mermaid was an interesting one, and the music is enchanting. That said, I've always hated the sea witch, and found the romance awkward and the actual portrayal of the world to be very, very, thin. After re-watching The Little Mermaid much older than my first viewings in the theater, I kept wondering about Ariel's sisters, what life was supposed to actually be like in the kingdom, why her father was such a grouch, how she got to be friends with Flounder, etc, etc. This film nicely fills in all the details.The aspect of the film I like the very most is that each of Ariel's sisters actually has a personality and interaction with each other, unlike the placeholders that were her sisters in the Feature Film. I was also quite glad to ditch the annoying comic relief of the seagull and instead have every character exist to tell the story rather than to be purely goofball distraction. There's no epic stakes in this film, no horrific battle between good and evil or whatever, but then again, I never liked that in the first film.Instead there's a simple Footloose-style story about a kingdom where music is outlawed, a jealous social-climber, and a very sincerely, beautiful,and musically gifted protagonist. As opposed to the headstrong over-emotionalism of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, she a much more balanced person here, and a lot more likable. Likewise, while her father is a bit of an overbearing tyrant, at least he isn't a clueless menacing authority figure who seems to exist only to yell at his kids and terrify his subjects like in the TLM.Yeah, there's no oscar-worthy songs to be had here, but there is a nice little Aria for Ariel to sing (Jodie Benson, you are one of my heroes), and plenty of style of music that was EVERYWHERE after The Little Mermaid came out (come on, you guys claim to be Little Mermaid fans and don't remember the MASSIVE wave of coverage that Sebastian's steel-drum fueled island rhythms sent around the world?). Yeah, the villain can't sing, and more full-blown musical numbers in the style of the first-film would have been great, but the songs here are far fro terrible. I'd say they are about on the level of the excellent Lion King sequels.If you have an open mind and a thirst for traditional animation assisted by computers, this film is light and fluffy, and gorgeous to behold. And yeah, I can't get enough of Jodie Benson as Ariel either. I don't own The Little Mermaid, but I own this film. It's very enjoyable, even though the plot does jump around a bit and is on the silly/flimsy side. It's more than made up for by the great characters and animation. Five stars.

Everyone's lovable red-head we all know and loved is back in a new adventure (you know who I am talking about) it's Ariel and starring in the first Disney prequel ('cause I wouldn't call it a sequel), setted before she walked on land and married her Prince. Under the narration of Sebastian, the story starts with King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, have seven young daughters, the youngest of whom is Ariel. The entirety of the underwater kingdom of Atlantica is filled with joy, music and laughter. The merfolk are shown relaxing in a lagoon above water, and Triton gives Athena a small music box. A pirate ship approaches and they attack, stealing the merpeople's possessions. Everyone escapes except Queen Athena, who is crushed by the pirate ship. Devastated by Athena's death, Triton throws the music box away and bans music from the kingdom. Ten years later, Triton's daughters live under a strict schedule maintained by their governess, Marina Del Rey (an original villianess voiced by Sally Field; and no relations to the two witches what so ever). Marina hates her job and longs for Sebastian's, who is the king's attache. Ariel is frustrated by their current lifestyle, which brings her into conflict with the strict King Triton. During their morning "walk", Ariel tickles her sister Adella with kelp, and she is given the punishment of cleaning barnacles. While carrying out her punishment, Ariel encounters Flounder, a fish, who is making music. That night, Ariel sees Flounder outside the window, and follows him to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music, and is shocked when she learns that Sebastian performs at the club. When her presence is revealed, at first all the club patrons flee, but Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music, and she joins the club with an oath...that's all I am telling you all,you will have see it for yourself. It's great to finally see Ariel's mother Queen Athena, who looks like Ariel; but I can see some differences between mother and daughter: Athena's hair is a different shade of red compare to Ariel, and done up almost like a ponytail. And her eyes I think are green. Overall, Ariel's Beginning is another excellent Disney OAV (original animated video),and prefect to go with the original Little Mermaid film and "Return to the Sea." I love out of Ariel's sisters Alana (pink fin),Arista (red fin),and Attina (orange fin).