The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning

Set well before Ariel ever meets Prince Eric, this animated family film explores her life as one of seven daughters of King Triton in the underwater kingdom of Atlantica. After the death of Queen Athena, Triton bans music throughout the realm, leaving his youngest daughter torn between her duty to her family and her love of singing. With help from her sisters and her friends Sebastian and Flounder, Ariel sets out to uncover what lies behind her mother's loss and to bring music back to the kingdom.

Peggy Holmes directed the film, her second feature after Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Robert Reece and Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the screenplay, and Jodi Benson returns as the voice of Ariel, with Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Jim Cummings as King Triton, Sally Field as Marina Del Ray, and Tara Strong and Jennifer Hale among the voices of Ariel's sisters. The film runs 77 minutes and was released in 2008 by DisneyToon Studios, a direct-to-video follow-up to Disney's earlier animated series about the character.

Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from around 13,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 1,100 votes. A small sample of critics rated it 5 out of 10, below the audience scores.