Little Mermaid, The: Ariel's Beginning (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Though the production design looks more small- than big-screen, it's a colorful and rich-looking tapestry of undersea critters and backgrounds-nothing skimpy or minimalist about the artwork-that nicely complements the music. The only standout, design-wise, is a new creature called Benjamin (Jeff Bennett), a sea cow of some sort (dugong, perhaps?) who looks disproportionately larger and rounder than the way the other sea creatures are rendered--kind of like an undersea Barney. Every villain needs a toady, but this dugong, like Marina herself, isn't as evil as you'd expect. He seems nice, actually, much nicer than King Triton's swordfish squad. So if parents are looking for a mild animated feature, one that won't make the kids' hair stand on end, apart from that opening off-camera death there's nothing too menacing here. And there are some occasionally funny lines, too, as when Flounder quips, "I can't make it in the slammer" or one of Ariel's least intelligent sisters accuses the other of taking her hairbrush because it has her initial on it. "All of our names start with A, Aquata," one of the other sisters says drolly.

Girls will like this because of the focus on Ariel and her sisters Adella, Adrina (Tara Strong), Alana (Jennifer Hale), Aquata, Arista (Grey Delisle), and Attina (Kaki Wahlgren). Boys will like it because of the proliferation of undersea creatures and comedy. And parents will like it because that easy calypso music that washes over this prequel makes you relax and think, No problems, mon.

Video:
Disney has always done a good job with direct-to-home-video production values, and "Ariel's Beginning" is no exception. The picture (1.78:1 aspect ratio) looks sharp, and the colors are so bright and saturated that they'd bleed if you squeezed them. This is "enhanced" for 16x9 televisions, meaning it fills the entire screen.

Audio:
Surprisingly, there's a kick-ahem DTS 5.1 Digital Surround option. It's not the default, so be sure to select it if your amplifier supports it, because it's more dynamic than the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround that's the other option in English. There are also French and Spanish tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1. No subtitles. But the sound is pure, the bass driving without vibrating the floor (more bass, actually, than we usually see in a Disney release), and the treble is bright and cheery without sounding metallic.

Extras:
Disney has figured out that you can offer pared-down bonus features if you do them well, and you get two extended deleted scenes (Sebastian waking the girls, Ariel following flounder) along with a sing-along option for watching the feature. There's only one game and two Backstage Disney features that run roughly seven minutes apiece, but all three are well done.

The game is a multi-functional Mermaid Discovery Vanity Game that encourages your little ones to click on objects on adjacent vanities. Click on a musical score and you see the instrument that the sister likes to play; click on another object and you get a sound or quote from the sister; click on their diary and you get a page of likes and dislikes, followed by an entry for the day, with the voice of Ariel reading it aloud to you. If you click on an object and find Flounder hiding, you can navigate to a "reward" that's a Personality Game. Kids can click on a series of questions (read aloud) and see which sister they're most like. There's a lot here for kids to do, in other words, though the target age range is probably 3-8.

Adults and kids will both like seeing a glimpse of the Broadway production of "The Little Mermaid" on a tour guided by Sierra Boggess, who plays Ariel in the stage version. You'll go into wardrobe and see her costumes, meet the women who play her sisters and the man who plays Sebastian, and catch clips of the performance onstage. In the other engaging feature, "Splashdance," we get a warm and likeable Holmes talking about her dance background and we see clips of her using that dance behind the scenes in order to direct this feature. More than most short making-of features it's really engaging, perhaps because Holmes is and the idea of a dancer being given the reins of a production like this is an interesting one. In other words, the extras that are included are good ones, but they will make you wish there were more.

For a DVD TOWN exclusive "bonus feature," check out this interview with the voice of Ariel, Jodi Benson.

Bottom Line:
It's not as strong as "The Little Mermaid," but that should come as no surprise. For a direct-to-home-video release, "Ariel's Beginning" is entertaining and well-crafted. It's a tuneful, colorful, under-the-sea adventure that should appeal to boys as well as girls. But for if you ask me, there was just one dugong too many.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---