Yesterday (December 16th), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released THE LITTLE MERMAID II: Return to the Sea Special Edition.
As an adult I actually enjoyed the movie. I liked the way it started and ended with music. The kids always seem to enjoy that. There was a great storyline that definitely has some continuity with the original movie. It even brings back some of the old characters. At first my 3 yr old son resisted seeing it (as a “Princess” movie, but whenever the crab (Sebastian) …and sometimes even the shark (Undertow) spoke, both kids would laugh. They love the accent of the crab. The good thing is that the Disney movies always show the good guy winning and the the bad guy losing at the end. That is always a great lesson to the kids. Ariel and Melody appears to have some real to life mother/daughter family issues that we go through in today’s world………..while Melody herself also experience her own personal challenges just growing up on land and loving the sea so much. The credibility of the movie really pulls you into it and my 4 year old daughter was riveted in front of the screen until the movie ended. The movie finally ends with a victory for the family, even though at some points in the movie, there were hard times where the future really looked dim. These hard times however, really kept you at the edge of your seat while you hopefully wait for the victories. Overall both kids enjoyed the movie; however, at times Morgana (Ursela’s sister) scared my 3 year old son.
Bonus (After the Movie) Features:
1) Deleted Song – This was a great song, but it wasn’t missed from the movie. It would have probably been a bit too drawn out if they had kept the song in the movie.
2) Merbabies- The kids loved watching this short film. It has music playing the whole time with different sounds from different instruments. My son said this was his favorite as the Merbabies had funny little scenes going along with the music.
4) Games and Activities
a) Under the Mer-venture Challenge game
This involved three different challenges where you win a pearl at the end. The first one had someone hiding behind the seaweed, and then it was imitating the beat of the music we heard and finally learning to swim safely as a Mermaid. All 3 challenges were good and interesting to the child, except the last one seemed a bit weird where it would say “you are doing well” even when you did not press the remote to complete the challenge.
b) The Little Mermaid ll Trivia game
This consisted of questions about the actual story itself, which was a good game. It reminds me of being in school and learning to understand what you just read like “reading comprehension”.
c) The story narrated – I loved listening to this as a story and listening to it made some things a bit more explicit when narrated.
d) “What am I?” Game
Questions/Answers about things under the sea. This was also good for the child to learn and understand the story, similar to “b”
Bonus clips for you!:
Q: How many merpeople are swimming in Morgana’s magic bubble?
Q: According to the penguin, what is Melody probably allergic to?
