Weak, inconsistent, rushed, and lazy are the words I have to describe this poorly done sequel. What's the plot? Basically it's about Ariel's daughter, Melody, who wants to become a mermaid.The story could have had great potential, but they spoiled it. Where do I start? Melody: she's got no character compared to Ariel in the first film, all we know is that she's headstrong and loves the sea, whereas Ariel was headstrong, loved the land, a hopeless romantic, determined, and had a better written character development. It's like the writers were trying to make Melody just like her mother, just without a character development - which is what they did. In fact almost nobody in this story has real character development other than from annoying to obnoxious. Sebastian, what have they done to you? He had better laughs, a truly defined personality, and a guardian protectiveness in the first film, whereas in the film he's all laughs (and when I say "all laughs" in his case I mean "smack your head with a mallet unfunny!"). Scuttle also gets a "What have you done with him, Movie?" from me. He was dumb to an extent in the first movie, but was also helpful. Here in this movie, he's a useless blithering idiot, if you cut him from the movie it wouldn't make a difference. King Triton is underwhelming, and Ariel is just...........bland...ish, motherly blandish and a hypocrite. She tries to keep her out of the sea because it's dangerous, and of course it's so not like the original film.The new characters stink as well! Tip and Dash - DON'T REMIND ME OF THEM!!! They're so obnoxious that they make Olaf from Frozen look less annoying and more lovable. It always bothers me when Disney feels like the heroes always need a bumbling sidekick - and that they ALWAYS NEED A SONG!!! But of course we have the biggest flaw of the movie is Ursula - I mean Ursula - I mean Ursula - I mean Morgana. Her motivation is a flip flop: First she wants revenge for her sister's death (you heard right), then she's tired of her late mother favoring Ursula above her, and when she gets the Trident, does she make them pay for Ursula's death? No, she makes them bow to her. What was the point of bringing Ursula into this story - period? If she just wanted power, then fine - that's part of what motivated Ursula (aside from revenge for banishment), but the writers made her character motivation so inconsistent and rushed that not only can I not enjoy her as I did Ursula, but also it makes me beg to see the first movie with Ursula in it!The only good thing I enjoyed was hearing Ariel singing - that's always a pleasure. Also I loved in the beginning before the opening title Ariel's relationship with her baby girl - I could feel the attachment between the two for that first few seconds, but their relationship never develops afterwards. I could spend hours watching that scene (along with For a Moment).The plot and the animation being a replica of the first movie is bad enough, but the writing and story developments are horribly done that it makes me wonder if the better writers were fired and replaced by monkeys who were desperate for money. It not only hurts me to see my favorite Disney Princess go down the tubes, but to see something that was beautifully written, and beautifully animated be flushed down the toilet and resurrected as crud. It could have been a great sequel about a mother daughter relationship (which Brave did a better job on), but instead the monkey writers threw that chance away for reversed plagiarism. Shame for them.

This sequel started quickly with both song and things happening, and it set the rest of the story up with some regrettable decisions made rashly by Ariel and Eric. The thing is, it's at its surface a story about a girl trying to figure out where she belongs (similar to the original film), but really it turns out to be more of a story about adults making ill-considered decisions that have serious consequences. Ariel and Eric have gone from being lovestruck young adults to exactly the kind of insufferable parents that most of us will know: once they marry and pop out a kid, it's used as an excuse to neglect their family and lifelong friends, despite what anyone wants or would think.The fact that no-one seemed to mention how ludicrous they thought Ariel and Eric's decision was does seem regrettable, but at the same time it's also understandable since it ultimately wouldn't have done any good. Instead of sealing Melody off from the ocean, a wiser choice would have been simply informing her of the dangers, accompanying her, teaching her safety in the water and, well, being honest instead of being deceptive. That deception and lack of trust are more or less entirely what put her and indeed everyone into serious danger.Melody is a fine lead, starting to understand that decisions have consequences and that the world is not always as promising as it seems. Tip and Dash are cute and likable, and similarly likable and compelling are Morgana and her minions. In fact, to be honest, I liked Morgana more than anyone else. She may have been the villain, but she had a compelling and understandable reason to do what she did. She was, in many ways, more admirable than most of the other characters for at least her honesty with herself.The songs are fine, and they are not excessive in number. The animation is fine as well. It's a fun enough little adventure. Although I will say that it's completely understandable why Melody isn't too happy on land -- what a bunch of little trolls at her party! And her parents don't act to do anything at all until it's too late. Sheesh. No wonder she ran away. The same can be said of the penguins -- no wonder Tip and Dash didn't want to stick around.The ending was a little too pat, but it was okay and probably the best they could manage with the story. To be quite honest though, I don't see how it was really much of a decision to be made; Melody was deeply unhappy on land. But it left enough open that we can imagine what happened later.Ariel and Eric did realise that what they were doing was wrong and that honestly they were at fault for what happened. That's a pretty amazing thing for films like this. More often, you see condescending parents smugly never admitting their mistakes, or the script making it seem like they were somehow right for what they did. Melody made some bad decisions, but seriously, she is twelve years old and anyone who receives their fondest desire is surely to be more than slightly influenced by that. Realistic character writing made this noteworthy.In summary, this was a perfectly fine film. I think most of the people who lashed out at it were people who saw themselves making those same bad decisions Ariel and Eric did and resented being called out on them. It doesn't make the film bad; maybe you should assess your life choices a bit.

I loved the first Little Mermaid. I know the songs, I love the characters and I love the story. I can't say anything like that about The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. It was terrible. Let's start with the story. The plot was a reversed copy of the first movie. Same situations, except in reverse! Ariel wanted to live on land, her daughter Melody (creative name) wants to live in the sea. Ariel was tricked by Ursula, Melody is tricked by Ursula's sister, Morgana. Ursula had a sister?? Not sure where that came from. Besides being a strange copy of the first movie, this movies plot seemed tired and was uninteresting compared to the first movie. Now the characters: 1. Ariel- What happened to her??!! No longer the spunky, headstrong teenager we all knew and loved from the first movie, she has now "grown up" and her personality went down the drain. Her singing voice wasn't as strong either, due to either Jodi Benson being a lot older, or the songs being so terrible that her talent was wasted. 2. Prince Eric- While he didn't have a lot of personality in the first movie, like all Disney princes, somehow his new voice and his very few lines made him even more robotic. To top it off, he just can't seem to defend himself, and Ariel becomes the tough one of the two. 3. Sebastian- Say goodbye to the lovable crustacean from the first movie, because a whiny, aggravating little crab just took his place. He also had no good songs in this movie. You can almost forget the glory he earned from singing the incredible "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" from the first movie, and it is very sad. 4. Flounder- They destroyed him!! He is not cute anymore, his voice is terrible, and he has kids now?? Who's the mother??? 5. Morgana- She appears to be Ursula's sister out for revenge against her mother, who always picked Ursula over her. So she plans to get King Triton's trident to become the new ruler of the sea. Sound familiar? Anyway, she's a very cliché villain and falls short of Ursula's greatness as a villain. She epically fails at witchcraft, she's not very tough, and not threatening at all. 6.Melody- Ariel and Eric's daughter. Ironic name because she, unlike Ariel, can't sing. Her voice is annoying, her friends (a walrus and a penguin?? Really?!) are not funny or likable, and she's exactly the same as Ariel, in reverse and not as likable. Skip this one. Don't watch any Disney sequel except for Lion King 2. This movie butchered the classic that lives in all our pleasant memories. I will look back at this movie and just laugh.

I highly recommend the stunning original, and the inspirational TV series, but I don't recommend this, I'm sorry.The animation was a lot of the time very flat and too garish, especially in the scenes with Morgana. Speaking of Morgana, never have I seen such a bland villainess. Ursula scared me so much, as I repeatedly watched the Little Mermaid. Morgana was just a wannabe, which is always ill-advised Disney. Why didn't they recreate the Evil Manta, who after Ursula, was the most convincing of the villains in the TV series? The characters were a mixed bag. Ariel was alright, though rather childish,but Melody was annoying at times. (I did think the story, on a parallel with the original, was rather unoriginal and rushed despite some effective scenes) Sebastian was the best character here, but he was also ruined to some extent. So was Scuttle and Flounder. Scuttle wasn't funny, whereas Flounder put me off with his nasal tone, since when did Flounder have a nasal tone of voice? Tip and Dash were also uninspired, and Undertow wasn't mean enough. And the flying bat creatures? They weren't even scary, they were nothing like flotsam and Jetsam, who were scary! Even the chef wasn't funny. Him chasing Sebastian was badly underplayed, really unfunny.However, there were some positives. Kenneth Mars does a great job as King Triton, the only character I cared for completely, but you don't see him that much. The songs weren't bad but nowhere near as good as the original, and I love Jodi Benson's voice, though "For a moment" sounded a little like the song featured in the episode "wish upon a starfish" or the beginning of it did anyway. The beginning wasn't bad either, in fact the beginning was one of the better scenes of the movie. Some aspects of the story worked nicely, but I wish they showed less of Tip and Dash. The climax with Morgana was the highlight of the film, with some really colourful segments.In conclusion, a sometimes colourful, but hugely disappointing sequel to one of Disney's finest. Mind you, the Cinderella and Jungle Book sequels were worse. My sister will probably hate me when she reads this. 5/10, maybe too harsh? Bethany Cox