The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008) (V)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Peggy Holmes

Writers:

Robert Reece (writer)
Evan Spiliotopoulos (writer)

Release Date:

26 August 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

Every Story Has a Beginning, But Only One Begins Under the Sea

Plot:

The plot explores the story of Athena, Ariel's mother, through the narration of Ariel. |

Plot Keywords:

Direct To Video Sequel To Theatrical Movie | Apostrophe In Title | No Opening Credits | Music Box | Prequel

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Jodi Benson	...	Ariel (voice)
Samuel E. Wright	...	Sebastian (voice)
Jim Cummings	...	King Triton / Shelbow (voice)
Sally Field	...	Marina Del Ray (voice)
Parker Goris	...	Flounder (voice)
Tara Strong	...	Adella / Andrina (voice)
Jennifer Hale	...	Alana (voice)
Grey DeLisle	...	Aquata / Arista (voice)
Jeff Bennett	...	Benjamin / Guards (voice)
Kari Wahlgren	...	Attina (voice)
Lorelei Hill Butters	...	Queen Athena (voice)
Kevin Michael Richardson	...	Cheeks / Ray Ray (voice)
Rob Paulsen	...	Ink Spot / Swifty (voice)

Directed by
Peggy Holmes

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Reece		writer
Evan Spiliotopoulos		writer

Produced by
Kendra Halland	....	producer
Mary Thorne	....	unit producer

Original Music by
James Dooley

Film Editing by
John Royer

Art Direction by
Tony Pulham

Production Management
Bill Bloom	....	production manager
Peiyu H. Foley	....	post-production supervisor
Kip Lewis	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pieter Lommerse	....	unit director

Art Department
Peter J. DeLuca	....	workbook artist
Nicholas Filippi	....	storyboard artist
Holly Forsyth	....	storyboard artist
Michael Gorospe	....	background supervisor
Chris Hubbard	....	storyboard artist
Dana Landsberg	....	characters designer
Stephen G. Lumley	....	workbook supervisor (as Stephen Lumley)
Tron Mai	....	storyboard artist
Armen Melkonian	....	workbook artist
David Prince	....	storyboard artist
Donald Reich	....	workbook artist
Tom Shannon	....	workbook artist
Ray Shenusay	....	storyboard artist
Robert Souza	....	storyboard artist
Colette Van Mierlo	....	location designer
Marty Warner	....	prop designer

Sound Department
James Ashwill	....	foley mixer
John T. Cucci	....	foley artist
Mark D. Fleming	....	sound re-recording mixer
Ryan Heiferman	....	dialogue recordist
Nancy MacLeod	....	foley editor
Donald J. Malouf	....	supervising sound editor
Dan O'Connell	....	foley artist

Visual Effects by
William Allen Blyth	....	animator
Noe Garcia	....	animator
Dan Lund	....	effects designer
David 'Joey' Mildenberger	....	animation supervisor
Mark Myer	....	animator
Amanda Normington	....	effects assistant (as Amanda J. Talbot)
Masa Oshiro	....	animator
Marvin Petilla	....	effects director
Philip Pignotti	....	animator
Van Shirvanian	....	effects assistant
Phillip Vigil	....	animator

Animation Department
Carol Berke	....	digital ink & paint
Jamie Kezlarian Bolio	....	character design cleanup
Brook Bonus	....	animator
Omar Cinco	....	animator
Dan Haskett	....	character designer
Cynthia Javier	....	animator
Chris Keene	....	cg modeler
Dana Landsberg	....	character designer
Christina Long	....	color stylist
Gabriel Mase	....	animator
Armen Melkonian	....	layout artist
Jenny North	....	supervising color stylist
Scott T. Petersen	....	animator
Donna Prince	....	background artist
Eugene Salandra	....	character designer
Steven K. Thompson	....	character designer
Noel Villano	....	animator
Andreas Wessel-Therhorn	....	animation co-supervisor
Theresa Wiseman	....	timing director

Casting Department
Jason Henkel	....	manager of talent casting
Benjamin G. Malbrough	....	casting assistant
Jamie Thomason	....	voice casting
Ned Lott	....	additional casting (uncredited)

Editorial Department
John Currin	....	assistant editor
Karen Hathaway	....	second editor
Timothy Vila	....	assistant editor (as Tim Vila)
Jim Passon	....	color timer (uncredited)

Music Department
Kevin Babuder	....	orchestrator
Dominick Certo	....	music editor
Rossano Galante	....	orchestrator
Steven Gizicki	....	music supervisor
Kevin Globerman	....	digital score recordist
Greg Hayes	....	assistant music engineer
Andy Kay	....	assistant to composer
Andrew Kinney	....	orchestrator
Matthew Margeson	....	additional music arranger
Matthew Margeson	....	composer: additional music
Dana Niu	....	supervising orchestrator
Jason Poss	....	music transcription
Peter Rotter	....	music contractor
Dennis S. Sands	....	music scoring mixer
Brad Warnaar	....	orchestrator
Nathan Whitehead	....	assistant to composer

Other crew
Carla Arcuri	....	production coordinator
Kirk Bailey	....	adr loop group
Ranjani Brow	....	adr loop group
Lorelei Hill Butters	....	production secretary
Kristen Combs	....	adr loop group
Jim Cotton	....	production accountant
David Cowgill	....	adr loop group (as Dave Cowgill)
Dee DeLeon	....	production associate
Erin Donovan	....	adr loop group
Kerris Dorsey	....	adr loop group
Eddie Frierson	....	adr loop group
Spencer Lacey Ganus	....	adr loop group (as Spencer Ganus)
Jackie Gonneau	....	adr loop group
Bridget Hoffman	....	adr loop group
Wendy Hoffman	....	adr loop group
Janette Hulett	....	continuity checker
Charles Luce	....	technical director
Asia Mechikoff	....	production coordinator
Scott Menville	....	adr loop group
Kristina Pace	....	technical director
Sean Reed	....	story coordinator
Cecilie Stuart	....	choreographer
William Sy	....	production assistant
Hans Tester	....	adr loop group
Jamie Thomason	....	dialogue director
Lenlen Tolentino	....	production coordinator
Ariel Winter	....	adr loop group

Production Companies

• DisneyToon Studios
• Toon City Animation

Distributors

• Audio Visual Enterprises (2008) (Greece) (DVD)
• Buena Vista International (2008) (Argentina) (all media)
• Gativideo (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (UK) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

The Little Mermaid III (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

Argentina:70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:G | Argentina:Atp | South Korea:All | Singapore:G

Company:

DisneyToon Studios

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene where Swifty asks Triton to raise his right hand for the oath, Triton raises his left hand instead of his right.

Quotes:

Marina Del Ray: Can you feel it, Benjamin? The sweet taste of power! Filling, yet oddly minty!

Movie Connections:

References The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Soundtrack:

Part of Your World

Wonderful and beautiful animation, not so interesting story

Ever since Disney's "sequels" department has been under new management, there has been a HUGE upgrade in quality. There have only been two animated releases so far, Cinderella III and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. I am not sure if any more sequels are in production.

Consistent between both films is the very high quality animation. TLM:AB keeps CGI to a minimum and much effort has been made to keep the characters close to the original character models (and in many cases, character models have heavily improved over the original). This is probably as good as it will get without the original team of animators.

What saves this film is the fantastic hand-drawn animation in the age of ugly CGI and lazy flash-drawn cartoons. I would go as far as to say that the animation here is on-par or higher than the original 1989 release (the original was plagued with off-model animation). Unfortunately, the story is only so-so. The plot is very weak but effort has been made to develop all of the sisters' personalities, which I really appreciate (they are believable sister to sister relationships). I think Disney recognised that without Alan Menken, the music for TLM would not have charm or beauty. Disney did the right thing for this film by keeping songs short and to a minimum.

This film highly deserves a chance to be seen by many, unlike the rushed and horrible Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea.