The Little Mermaid:Ariel's Beginning Discussion Thread Vol.3

[Ariel'sprince]

Keep talking about Ariel's Beginning.
You know? I think this film was made escpacilly for Ariel fans,it explain thing Ariel fans were also wondering for years (What happened to Ariel's mother,why Triton hate humans so much,how Sebastian got his job,how Ariel and Flounder first met and etc.),it shows the sisters,it even show us Ariel when she was little who's really adorable and more cuter then those Princesses as babies/little girls dolls.
I read the review and the plot is like Sound Of Music and Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses.

[PeterPanfan]

Why would you make a new thread when the other one hasn't even been locked yet? And please. Learn to spell. "3th" isn't a word. It should be "3rd."

[Super Aurora]

Why would you make a new thread when the other one hasn't even been locked yet? And please. Learn to spell. "3th" isn't a word. It should be "3rd."

LOL . OWNED!

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, the first "volume" was closed around the fiftieth mark (same with the first TLM Platinum thread), so it's really not that bad of an idea to make a new one at this point. Because the movie is coming out in a week and a half, the new "volume" could be dedicated to forumers' reviews.

[Flanger-Hanger]

I just can't believe we have 3 FORUMS for 1 direct to video sequel. Then again if there is one thing this site needs it's more Little Mermaid related threads right?

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, the first thread was made around the time the confirmation of a sequel was first made (at least, I think it was). And it's not like most of the talk wasn't about the original movie anyway. I don't understand why people on this forum get so bitter that other people like to talk about TLM. I thought it was common knowledge that you talk about what you like?

[PeterPanfan]

So you're saying most of the members here like cheap DTV sequels?

[Disney's Divinity]

And it's not like most of the talk wasn't about the original movie anyway.

It's nice to see you read what I wrote before giving a response.

[Disney Live On]

Well I'd like to thank you Disney Divinity for thinking ahead and posting this new thread. So lets stop being critical and discuss what we are here to discuss: The Little Mermaid- Ariels Beginning.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this title. I adore Athena's song that we got a preview of on amazon. Also the reviews all seem very positive. I think the simplicity of the story is not an issue at all. It will make it one of those sit back and enjoy titles that just lets you watch and relax rather then trying to figure out what just happened. The music to me is also top notch and the new characters are very engaging.

I will say though if you read the last review you may want to skip when the reviewer starts discussing the death of Athena as it is a spoiler I didnt want to read. Other then that I really enjoyed reading what the reviewer had to say

[Poody]

Well, the first thread was made around the time the confirmation of a sequel was first made (at least, I think it was). And it's not like most of the talk wasn't about the original movie anyway. I don't understand why people on this forum get so bitter that other people like to talk about TLM. I thought it was common knowledge that you talk about what you like?

Seriously.... calm down folks!

[CJ]

For future reference, volume two of this discussion:
Click Here

[Vermin Friends]

Why would you make a new thread when the other one hasn't even been locked yet? And please. Learn to spell. "3th" isn't a word. It should be "3rd."

lmao!

Anyway, I'm reading the review posted by Old Fish Tale, and I was stopped in my tracks-

But parents be warned: you might have a little explaining to do ("Is she dead?"), because while it happens off-camera and nothing graphic is shown, "Ariel's Beginning" begins with a "Bambi" moment, as we watch the idyllic world of merpeople literally dashed when a marauding pirate ship slams into their beloved Queen Athena, Ariel's mom.

Oh my god.

[Poody]

But parents be warned: you might have a little explaining to do ("Is she dead?"), because while it happens off-camera and nothing graphic is shown, "Ariel's Beginning" begins with a "Bambi" moment, as we watch the idyllic world of merpeople literally dashed when a marauding pirate ship slams into their beloved Queen Athena, Ariel's mom.

Oh my god.

I don't remember the ship actually "slamming" into her.... From what I remember, it just showed the ship coming.... very close to her....

[Vermin Friends]

Oh my god.

I don't remember the ship actually "slamming" into her.... From what I remember, it just showed the ship coming.... very close to her....

Is it like shots go back and forth faster, and faster, and faster until Triton shouts "NO!" If so, I still don't like it. I mean, I know she's going to die and all, but I just... don't. Plus, in the clip from Amazon.com, Athena is such a likable person, loving mother, very beautiful (of course), and for her to be killed off within the first what, ten minutes? It just doesn't seem fair.

I guess that's Hollywood for ya.

[Disney Duster]

All I can say to Chernabog_Rocks is he's awesome and I internet forum without knowing him in person love him.

Thanks also jeremy88 for your claps and praise. You get some love too.

I’m re-posting The Little Merman's, Siren's and my plots for how this The Little Mermaid prequel should have happened. I’m posting them in the order they were posted, but just so you know Siren thought about hers way before I wrote mine, or The Little Merman wrote his. But The Little Merman posted his actual plot for this prequel first, and it's good.

The Little Merman's Plot:

NOTE: This was written October 9th, 2006, long before we knew about the music plot or Athena, or the second trailer came out. It was after the first trailer came out, and people were talking about if Ariel's mother has been named Melody, and that's why the locket in the first teaser trailer said Melody and she named her daughter Melody. I also did slight editing, changing "Ariel then, strangely had a mysterious longing for the sea" to "longing for the land" since I believe that's what he meant. His plot follows the first teaser trailer a lot. So here it is.

Hm..maybe Ariel's mother was a human named Melody who was on a ship which was wrecked. Both she and her locket (engraved with her name) were flung into the ocean. Triton, a younger merman at the time, was swimming around and picked up the locket and then seeing Melody drowning saved her. When she woke up she saw him, a beautiful merman. She was both baffled and lovestruck. He then turned her into a mermaid and they conceived Ariel. Ursula then heard about Melody who was longing to be back with her former human-brethren, so she coaxed her into selling her voice to get legs, and then, seeing as she had no small crustacean or fish friends to help her swim up to the surface, she drowned. Ursula then transformed herself, using Melody's stolen voice into Melody and she tried to steal the trident from Triton and then Sebastian accidentally broke her "new" necklace, in which then Melody's voice was regained (even though she was..dead and all) and Ursula was banished from the kingdom for eternity. Ariel then, strangely had a mysterious longing for the land-- inherited from her mother --but Triton, seeing as how his loving wife was killed by her yearning to go back to the land, forbid her of ever going up to human world.

And then, you know a little edit here and there and you've got...

The Little Mermaid III
Coming Soon to Disney DVD

*tlm

I asked questions about some things I thought wouldn't work like how the locket got enchanted with a bubble showing Atlantica (Triton could have easily done it), and his reply was "Honestly, I can't really explain what I wrote because I was just flinging out ideas on the subject of Ariel's mother being named "Melody". Guess I just got a bit too carried away."

But personally, I would LOVE to see that have been the movie.

Disney Duster’s (My) Plot:

Ursula made who knows how many similar deals with other merpeople before Ariel. What if Athena wanted to see the human world, and Ursula decides to grant her wish if she signs a contract trading her right to the throne. EDIT: Well, she wouldn't give up being queen, maybe just trade the ability to use the trident, whatever power Athena has to use the trident. Read on, you'll see why. Athena makes Ursula make her contract give her the power to use the trident back when she returns from her trip above the sea. So Ursula takes Athena to the surface when a ship comes by, and in a spell full of magical light flashes that looks just like a lightning storm to the humans, Athena is transformed into a rare fish. The humans capture it, and it is so rare they intend to keep it alive in a bowl, and Athena gets to see the human world in a way she never wanted. Ursula goes back to tell the kingdom Athena was captured by the humans, skipping the turning into a fish part, and they don't know what the humans would do with a mermaid, so they believe it. Ursula can't just take the throne, but the trident, which is needed to control the sea, can't work without a king and a queen (you’ll see how Triton works it himself later). She convinces Triton to let her be queen, perhaps by demonstrating only she is able to work the trident with him (as in Triton chose Athena partly because she had some ability to work the trident...sort of like fitting the glass slipper. Let's call it "her love of the sea", which makes sense, since she would give up love of the sea to be with humans.). She casts spells on Triton to let her use the trident and rule the kingdom however she wants. The kingdom is unhappy under her rule, but then Ariel sets out to prove her father doesn't have to keep Ursula, and should remember her mother, and not be emotionless, and eventually Triton learns to remember and let his emotions out over his wife, and keeping his wife in his heart lets him control the trident from then on, because it's like the queen's still with him, and Ursula is banished, especially since they discover she used spells on him (and she was mostly only able to because he was vulnerable). Also, Ursula can no longer use the trident because Athena has returned to the sea…in Triton’s mind/heart.

And of course Ariel could spend a good deal remembering her mother, then discovering more about her and what happened to her, before she tries to get her father to do the same. Maybe she finds out her mother secretly loved human things, which makes her think that's how she got to the surface to get killed, but her mother writes in a secret diary (I know, I know...) that one time a child fishing caught her tail with a hook, and she realized humans aren't bad, they're just like us, but they could accidentally harm merpeople (maybe she tries to tell Triton, but once he hears she got "snared by a fish-eaters hook", he starts getting too emotional, angry or sad or both). So Ariel realizes her mother could have accidentally gotten killed by humans, and starts liking and getting interested in humans. She tries to tell her dad, but he refuses to talk about how Athena died, just how she lived, the happy memories. So that's why they don't talk about it afterward.

If Athena being a fish in a bowl or tank until she dies doesn't sit well, consider Ursula turns her into a wooden mermaid on the prow of the ship, so she can "see" the human world. It's like the sleeping death, dead but still alive. The movie flashes forward to after Ariel and Eric are married (and after Melody I guess), and Triton recognizes the mermaid on the bow of one of Eric's ships. With a wave of his trident, she's Athena again. Everyone rejoices at her return. It's a very tearful reunion for Triton, Ariel, and her sisters. The movie is a prequel with a little sequel, and comes full circle. It could even be the mermaid on the bow of the ship in the original movie, fitting in even more with the original classic.

Siren’s Plot:

NOTE: Siren thought of hers ever since TLM came out, and before The Lion King came out, though she wrote it out for the first time (?) on this forum.

Triton and Ursula live in the palace. Triton as king and Ursula perhaps as his adviser. Sebastian is there, but is the court composer, not the adviser. Ursula wants power, to get power over the kingdom she tries to get the king to marry her. But he only has eyes for Athena. They fall in love and marry. She has his daughters, over those years, angering Ursula more and more. Finally one day, Ursula hatches a plan. She gets Athena away from the safety of the kingdom, gets her to the surface. Perhaps in the same way Scar got Mufasa to the gorge. Placing her youngest daughter in harms way at the surface. (BTW, this was my backstory idea before TLK ever came out). Athena goes to save her daughter, but instead is killed by the humans (one idea is the humans mistake Athena for a dolphin or some other big sea crreature, and harpoon her, because sailors were known to get rid of their “competition” for catches of the day). Ursula returns to the grieving king and tries to weasel her way in. Triton discovers what he thinks was her irresponsibility (he never knows she was directly at fault, if he did, he likely would have done worse than banish her), and he exiles Ursula. From that day on, Triton outlaws both his children and subjects from the surface and Ursula. Perhaps Sebastian is the one who finds out Ursula had some involvement and Triton is so impressed by him, he appoints Sebastian as his adviser. We still need something else to end happily on, but I never got that far.

Siren: Thanks for re-posting mine, that was unbelievably kind, and thank you for what you said about it. Yours and mine are really similar, don't you think? Yours I think got more attention, so thanks for the little help you gave me. Also, I think yours sounds less fan-fictiony than mine, but I'd say Cinderella III was fan-fictiony! Time-traveling? People thought it was crazy but it turned out cool.

By the way, before you read it, I edited my plot to add the part with Ariel discovering Athena’s human love and experiences, inspired by your comments on how to fit Ariel more into the story, since Ariel’s the biggest character and the one most people want to see, who you need to have in a TLM movie. She’s tlm! After you read it, I also thought it would be bad for Athena to let Ursula have the power of the trident, even if she was still queen. So I added a part where Athena makes the contract say Ursula must give the power to use the trident back when she gets back from the human world. Ursula agrees…because she doesn’t plan on Athena coming back from the human world! Also, when re-reading your plot, I edited it to add the part about how humans could have killed Athena. Tell me if you mind that and how you want it changed.

Oh, and Siren, Ursula was going to kill Eric, that’s how Ariel made her kill her pets, the beam didn’t shoot itself. But it was only after he harpooned her, so it was when she was goaded. And also, like I said, she would do certain things to certain things that are in her way, like Athena, who she took care off, but actually didn’t kill directly, in both our stories. And uh, just because I've been saying it to a lot of people I like, I want you to know I really like you on here. We're bound to disagree and perhaps even accidentally hurt each other from time to time on the internet, but I really do like you...I want to be honest, so please know that I didn't think positively of you initially, but that goes for almost everyone because I tend to disagree with everyone at some point.

Disney's Divinity: The reason I'm comparing the two sequels is because some have brought CIII up, even Poody in his review after seeing the whole thing, and yes, everyone talking about AB related to all the other sequels. And I will reserve final judgement until I see the whole thing, I'm even hoping for secret, preferably Ursula-related stuff added in just for the DVD. But many in here have also been judging the film to be good (or amazing! or wonderful!) before they see the whole thing, I think you can agree.

As for Ursula, I don't think she's not pure evil, but she does what she has to to get what she wants. Almost like some people reason survival of the fittest...roughly. Anyway, I only had her get rid of Athena because that was the only way. She didn't even kill her, though Athena could have been killed by the humans unknowingly.

As for your apology about that thing you didn't intend to do, don't worry. I bet I sound aggresive on here, but I don't mean harm, just honesty. And just so you know, I really like you on this forum, especially because we like a lot of the same things, even if we don't agree on everything about those things.

And to everyone about the whole Marina being a big enough, bad enough villain. Yea, she's okay for this music ban plot...but the music plan plot is as weak, silly, and lame as she is!

[PeterPanfan]

I agree, Mike! It seems there's this huge dramatic beginning, and then the rest is this..almost naive plot. It's like, the beginning is too deep for kids, and the middle/ending is too childish for teenagers/adults.

[Siren]

Ah, I forgot about Ursula trying to kill Eric. But still, he pushed her buttons and took first blood when he threw the harpoon at her. So she still kinda didn't seem the murdering type till then.

And I know I posted my idea here on UD a LONG time ago. Couldn't tell you when or where. More than likely on a TLM thread. I think when people were discussing Ursula's past of living in the castle. And this was before the DVD, when they revealed the idea that Ursula and Triton were siblings in the original story treatment. I just know I posted it before here. But because I've never planned to write it, I don't discuss it much. Unless like recently, it was on topic.

[Poody]

Is it like shots go back and forth faster, and faster, and faster until Triton shouts "NO!" If so, I still don't like it. I mean, I know she's going to die and all, but I just... don't. Plus, in the clip from Amazon.com, Athena is such a likable person, loving mother, very beautiful (of course), and for her to be killed off within the first what, ten minutes? It just doesn't seem fair.

I guess that's Hollywood for ya.

No quite.... At least, what I got out of it was more of.... The pirates killed her, yes. But it was more like they "captured" her in a net or something. Kinda like how Triton says in the original film "Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some fish eaters hook?" - I thought this was a reference to how her mother was killed....

[Vermin Friends]

Is it like shots go back and forth faster, and faster, and faster until Triton shouts "NO!" If so, I still don't like it. I mean, I know she's going to die and all, but I just... don't. Plus, in the clip from Amazon.com, Athena is such a likable person, loving mother, very beautiful (of course), and for her to be killed off within the first what, ten minutes? It just doesn't seem fair.

I guess that's Hollywood for ya.

No quite.... At least, what I got out of it was more of.... The pirates killed her, yes. But it was more like they "captured" her in a net or something. Kinda like how Triton says in the original film "Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some fish eaters hook?" - I thought this was a reference to how her mother was killed....

Ahh, I see. Well thanks so much again for all this information you've been giving us!

Last night, I saw the full promo for TLM3, and I noticed that the very last shot of Ariel opening the music box is almost exactly the same as the shot of Melody being enchanted by the locket in TLM2- Man, I can't wait.

[Ariel'sprince]

You know,maybe some of you can start THINKING and then realize there's 4 pages left until the thread will be locked but I guess you"re so whiney you that don't have a topic to fill a whole page .