The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea Special Edition does what a lot of Disney Movies do, and keeps most of the voice actors... and most of the same visual shots, musical scores (with the lyrics altered), and adds an annoying child to the mix. This rendition of her royal fishiness features Ariel and Eric all grown up (yikes!) with a newborn baby girl - Melody. When King Triton gifts his newborn baby granddaughter with a golden locket, Ursula's skinny sister, Morgana, pops out of the see and snatches Melody. She threatens to feed the giggling ball of goo to her beefy shark if Ariel's father doesn't pass over his trident. Ariel saves the day and knocks the anorexic Ursula wanna-be away from her bitey companion, while Eric dives in to snatch his daughter. Morgana vows never to rest until she has snagged Melody for herself. Ariel makes the decision to never allow herself or her daughter into the ocean until Morgana is caught. Triton tosses Melody's locket into the ocean and swims off with the knowledge that he won't see his daughter or granddaughter for years.
Of course, this is exactly what happened in the first movie, save in reverse! This is one of those moments where you go, "oh, crap... I have become my parent." Melody feels awkward and out of place on land, and hates that her mother will not allow her in the ocean. Granted, Melody does take after her mother and sneaks out to the ocean at all possible moments. On one expedition, she finds her locket and takes it back to her room, but she doesn't have a chance to look at it because she is late for a ball (sound familiar?).
Melody soon learns that something is amiss and decides that she will somehow find the truth by taking a row boat out into the ocean all by herself. Only a twelve-year-old would think that this is a good method for finding one's self. Morgana finds the little two-legs and changes her into a mermaid. Melody is ecstatic, and never wants to go back on land again. Morgana fills Melody's brain with lies about Triton stealing the trident from her. She convinces Melody that the only way the newly-made mermaid can remain a mermaid is by taking the trident back.
In the meantime, Ariel changes back into a mermaid, and the whole of Atlantica goes searching for the little runaway. In a myriad of "almost!" misses, Melody misses her mother in mermaid form, and seeing her grandfather with a picture of her as a baby. She steals the trident (though she feels guilty about it) and brings the weapon back to Morgana's lair. Ariel stops Melody from handing the trident over, and they both realize they they are breathing underwater at the same time. In a fit of pique, Melody tosses the powerful fork over to the skinny, eight-legged witch and realizes what a brat she has been when Morgana begins gloating like she only has thirty seconds to live.
Melody gets locked in a jail of ice (with only moments left as a mermaid), and Ariel gets snatched by Morgana. In another parallel with the original, Melody almost dies by turning into a human five miles under the water, and Morgana starts screaming and yelling about how she is going to eat faces with her trident. I think Ursula and Morgana must have had a very rough upbringing. I also think Melody should be grounded until she is twenty.
Through Melody learning that having legs isn't really a bad thing, and Ariel learning that lying to your child for twelve years is a bad thing... the movie resolves itself, Morgana is encased in ice (personally, I would have made sushi out of her), and the two parts of Melody's life are united.
While, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea Special Edition isn't the most creative movie Disney has ever come up with, it was really cute. Some of the goofy happenings had me cracking up. I especially liked then Morgana's huge shark was transformed into a tiny guppy for twelve years. He was so not amused. The art was on par with the original movie, but the scores were nowhere near as good. Maybe that is nostalgia talking, however. Any little girl will love this movie, but the original is definitely better... granted at nine years old, I'm not sure if they will know the difference.
