The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning sets out to be a Little Mermaid origin story. The question that must surely be asked is – in the great scope of the history of Western culture, amid all the great artworks that exist out there, was the world burning to see a Little Mermaid origin story? Amid all the unseen and undiscovered classics that this reviewer has yet to see, is his time best spent watching and writing up The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning? Well, here I am, so I guess the answer is apparently no.

Like most of the other aforementioned sequels to their classics, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is cheaply produced and coasts by on the sense that audiences loved the original. Ariel's Beginning is at least lively and colourful enough that it doesn’t sink like some of the other Disney direct-to-video sequels do. There are banal songs added over everything – indeed, the entire film could almost be a feature-length expansion of the musical frolics of the first film (albeit minus the romance/fairytale aspects). This is not too surprising in that director Peggy Holmes was previously a dancer and dance choreographer.

Jodi Benson and Samuel E. Wright return to respectively voice Ariel and Sebastian, as they did in the two previous films and the tv series. This time we are introduced to several new characters. We meet Ariel’s sisters who are all played as though they are giggly teenage airheads. The surprise name among the cast is none other than Sally Field, who provides the voice of the villainess of the show. Even though Field rises grandly to the occasion, Marina is still a stock character cast too much in the shadow of the first film’s villainess Ursula.