This sequel to The Little Mermaid (1989) comes with a sense of creative futility. Children’s films play upon simple, plaintive emotions – that a story is absolute and ever after. A sequel to a fairytale cheats – it can only tell a lesser tale, one that by implication means the purity of the mythic arc and innocence in the original were less than they were painted to be, and one that is clearly cynically exploiting the love of young children for the characters with the sole intention of milking more money out of them. The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea imitates its original in banal ways – the new mermaid is a carbon copy of her mother; the sole difference between the new villainness Morgana and her mother Ursula is a name change; and the same supporting characters are back. The songbook no longer has Alan Menken and Howard Ashman writing and is only a series of trite show tunes belted out without any feeling.

On the other hand, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea is often hard to dislike. While the lead characters (the heroine and villainness) are bland, the supporting characters are a good deal of fun. The returning characters of Scuttle and Sebastian are a delight and the film adds an appealing new line-up of characters including the villainness’s bumbling sidekick who is a miniaturized shark and the characters of two explorers, a penguin and a walrus. It is these characters that eventually allow the latter half of The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea to emerge in a balance of adventure and comedy that never outwears its welcome.

This was followed by a direct-to-dvd prequel The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (2008). Both of these were preceded by a tv series The Little Mermaid (1992-4).