The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

In The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, Ariel and Eric have a beautiful young daughter named Melody.  Bad tidings have hit the good times forcing the humans to build a wall separating them and the mer-folks. The secret of Ariel’s mermaid heritage is silent for many years. The sea is forbidden for Melody. Melody has an adventurous spirit and sneaks out beyond the castle walls unknown to her parents. One day Melody finds more than just shells but a locket bearing her name. She brings it to her mother but Ariel is hesitant to explain in order to keep the secret and safe from the evil Morgana. Morgana is the sister of Ursula who wants to power to control the seas.  Melody very upset runs away beyond castle walls to the sea. Just to be found by Morgana who has been waiting for years for the opportunity to capture the girl. Morgana builds trust with Melody and tells her she can make her into a mermaid with a short spell but to make it permanent she would have to steal King Triton’s trident. What Melody does not know is that only a descendent of the throne could remove the trident.  Melody who is so upset that Ariel deceived her all these years about her mermaid history, that without though gets the trident for Morgana. Immediately upon handing over the trident she knew her mistake. Now even King Triton cannot stop Morgana. Ariel, King Trident and all try to recover the trident from Morgana but attempts fails. Bravely Melody tricks Morgana and takes the trident away and gives it to her grandfather, King Triton. Trion cast a spell on Morgana imprisoning her into a ice block which sinks to the depths of the seas. Now all the all the humans and mer-folk can live in peace together again.

The Little Mermaid II, Return to the Sea brings back some favorite characters including Sebastian the Crab and the flounder.  Sebastian is in the service of King Triton who is the watchful guardian of Melody.  We also have some new friends in this animation, Tip the Penguin and Dash the Walrus.  What is it about penguins, we all love them. Penguins have been the beloved characters in recent animations.

Some of the bonus features in this movie include a deleted song by the evil Morgana, children’s game, Disney’s shorts from the past title Merbabies and my favorite bonus feature the The Little Mermaid II Storybook. Merbabies shows how far we have come creatively and technologically at bringing animation to the screen. The story book in my family was a hit; the children loved reading along as much as watching the movie. I am glad to see the read along story book.

What I found confusing about some of the promoted features was the Fast Play.  To me, the fast play feature was more annoying. The stop programming command was not implemented but you still had to sit there and either 1, go through all the new previews or 2, pressing down on the forward button on the remote.  I thought going straight to the menu and pressing play took you directly to the movie. That was faster and easier then going through the fast play feature. In addition one did not have to deal with the aggravation of up selling upcoming releases.