The Little Mermaid Franchise

Chief Quimby here, and your assignment is to

listen to Tooncast. Hello and welcome to the

89th episode of Tooncast brought to you by the

GeekCast Radio Network. I am your host, JVJ Mike,

and today I am joined once again by Kevin Optusola

Thompson. Hello, sir. Hello. And the rising star,

Tara. Hello. Hey. Today we will be going back

into the Disney vault and talking about the Little

Mermaid franchise. So, Tara, what's been going

on with you? Not too much, just been back in

school for about a week now and getting back

into things and then driving lessons and getting

prank called, which is really, really fun. You

know what? Seriously, people need to grow up,

like honestly. Like, I'm almost 20 years old,

like, you know, what is this, fifth grade? Like

you don't have to call me and pretend to be one

of my friends like I obviously will know my friend's

voice like I'm not an idiot Like if you can't

do like I'll just use this my friends um He's

Middle Eastern so he has an accent so this person

calls me pretending to have a Middle Eastern

accent And he's doing a really bad job of it

I'm like Okay, obviously you're not who you say

you are. And he's like, I think I know who I

am. And I'm like, obviously you don't because

you're doing the accent wrong. So yeah, that

was my day today. Nice. That's always fun. You

too, Gavin. Oh lordy lordy. Between doing all

the work for you as far as editing scripts and...

What do you mean? Hold on. Hold on. You make

it sound like I'm at your house, standing behind

you with a whip saying, do it now, do it now!

No, not a whip. Besides doing stuff for Geekcast

Radio and getting stuff ready for our epic top

100 list, I've just been adding a lot of shows

over at Behind the Voice Actors. I've been going

on a Hanna -Barbera kick and then I also parlayed

that into adding some of the components of Saturday

Super K like Frogger and Qbert and Donkey Kong

and Donkey Kong Jr. to the site. I've been busy

and shoveling snow. Thank God the snow's gone

here. And apparently I've seen a stoker or a

taxi service for everybody that needs it. I don't

understand how I got roped into that but three

times over the weekend I was giving different

people rides different places. I think someone

owes me a tank of gas. Or a beer. Yeah, or both.

Not at the same time though. What about you Mike?

uh... yeah uh... we're actually uh... finishing

up seaworthiness podcast that's that shows almost

done uh... has already told kevin about this

uh... i'll break it here as well uh... keycast

radio network coming this march will have a brand

-new podcast will be another monthly podcast

like gc r and gamers but uh... it's our first

ever collaboration with other geek network uh...

scottie cash and i started cash from the pop

culture network will be doing an audio version

of his video show called from the command center

where each episode we will take a look at a power

rangers series oh my god nice when i know that

that's uh... sounds during this part what's uh...

power rangers Power Rangers is awesome. I'm gonna

stab myself in the ears. You're so mean, Kev.

He just doesn't get it. I get it. It's just stupid.

He just doesn't get it. Well, I love Power Rangers,

so I'll definitely do Power Rangers. You're younger.

You're allowed to. Mike should know better. He's

older. I was 13 when Mighty Morphin came out.

I was 13. So? You were old enough to know better?

Yes. And young enough not to give a damn, damn

it. I can't blame young people for liking what's

on when they're young. What did you like when

you were young, Kevin? Thank you very much. I

said young people didn't like anything. I'm saying

when you're 13 and 14, that's when you should

be developing a sense of knowing what's stupid

and what's not stupid. Some people are 40 and

don't know what's stupid. That's not true. That's

not true. Salute your shorts is stupid. What'd

you say? You heard me. I'm not saying salute

your shorts is not stupid. I'm not disagreeing

with you on that fact. Trainwreck. Oh, not a

trainwreck. So, anyway. Get into why we're here,

guys. Before we do that, we're gonna go to the

one of the trailers for A Little Mermaid, and

then we're gonna come back with A Little Mermaid,

seeing as how We're going to be doing three movies

in this episode. We're going to do Tooncast just

a little bit differently with breaking it up,

so up next you'll hear the trailer for Little

Mermaid. For over 50 years, Walt Disney has turned

classic stories into classic animated motion

pictures. Now, the tradition continues as one

of the world's greatest stories becomes the newest

Disney motion picture classic. The Little Mermaid.

I wanna be where the people are. I wanna see,

wanna see them dancing. Up where they walk, up

where they run, up where they stay all day in

the sun. It's the story of Ariel. a beautiful

young mermaid who wants to become human. He's

very handsome, isn't he? I don't know, he looks

kind of hairy and slobbery to me. Not that one.

The other one. And she'll strike a bargain with

a powerful sea witch. Have we got a deal? To

make her dream come true. What I want from you

is... Your voice. My voice? You've got it, sweet

case. Barry has been turned into a human. Have

you lost your senses completely? The human world,

it's a myth. Now, the Little Mermaid is exploring

the mysteries of her strange new world. What's

your name? What's wrong? You can't speak? But

to regain her voice, the Sea Witch's spell must

be broken. Move it! We got an emergency here!

Broken by the kiss of true love. It's Walt Disney

Pictures' 28th full -length animated motion picture,

featuring dozens of delightful new Disney characters

and seven magical new songs. This holiday season,

share the wonder and magic of a very special

entertainment event. A fantastic adventure above

the waves and under the sea. Under the sea! Under

the sea! Under the sea! Under the sea! Under

the sea! Under the sea! Under the sea! Under

the sea! Under the sea! Under the sea! Under

the sea! Under the sea! So up first is the 1989

classic The Little Mermaid. Dig it away with

the history lesson. Alrighty then. Is that better?

No, I'm just kidding. The Little Mermaid is a

1989 American animated film, obviously produced

by Walt Disney Feature Animation. And if you

don't know the history of it, it's based on the

Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that is also

named The Little Mermaid. is originally released

at theaters on November 14th, the best month

of the year, 1989, and is actually number 28

in the Walt Disney animated classic series and

the first of a new era that they have labeled

Disney Renaissance. So it starts the Disney Renaissance.

During its initial release, Little Mermaid earned

$111 million in North America and to date has

earned $211 million in total gross. And after

the success of 1988 Disney's Who Framed Roger

Rabbit, Little Mermaid has given credit for breathing

life back into the animated feature film genre

after a string of critical or commercial failures

that dated back to the early 80s. It also marked

the start of a new era of also like Disney movies

that have more of a musical influence and Broadway

type sound. So that's the history for good old

Little Mermaid. What do you remember about it,

Mike? I really liked this movie. It was really,

really fun. I don't have a specific memory of

seeing it. I remember seeing it with my cousins

and over at my aunt and uncle's house a lot,

but I don't have a specific, specific memory

of seeing it. It's not like Robin Hood where

I was at my aunt's house eating Charleston chews,

but I do remember watching this one a lot when

it came out. I don't think I saw it in theaters.

Overall, I really liked it when I first saw it.

Yeah, I think I'm not a hundred percent sure

because I don't remember when I was eight as

much as maybe I should. I'm guessing I didn't

see this one in the theater, but I must have

seen it really soon afterwards. But my biggest

memory as far as the era when this came out was

my sister, who's actually a couple years older

than me. She was in chorus and all that and choir

and whatnot in school. And I remember one time

she must have been in middle school. So I must

have been like fourth grade or something like

that and they did a production where they were

doing songs from all the different Disney movies.

And I remember the concert getting over and we

only lived like two blocks from the high school

and so we walked there because it was during

nice weather and I remember walking home and

just her and I both being like in the middle

of the street singing Little Mermaid songs like

as loud as we could. It's a small town thing,

I guess, but I just remember being like almost

dancing in the street and singing Little Mermaid

songs like I was in the damn movie or something.

It was fun. When I first saw this film, I saw

it at my cousin's house. We watched it together

and I was about, I think, four or five years

old. And it was just, I love this film so much.

I remember Sebastian and of course Ariel and

I loved Ariel because I loved princesses and

I still love princesses So I just remember that

I remember the songs the songs were just amazing

and and memorable and the storyline and Ursula

scared the crap out of me. So She still scares

the crap out of me. But uh, yeah That's basically

what I remember and her dad also kind of scared

me a little bit Just a little bit. King Triton?

Yeah, the one scene where he blows up everything

in her little treasure area. Yeah, that was pretty

intense. I was so mean, I was crying. Traumatized

at an early age. Yeah, it traumatized me. I would

fast -forward that. I don't want to see Ariel's

stuff get blown up. Ursula was, I agree with

you though, Ursula was definitely a very good...

Character as far as being a bad character You

didn't like her very much. I mean, I think they

did a real good job making her so just like unlikeable

Yeah, I hated her She's she's disgusting How

do you really feel Don't like her she's like

my least favorite Disney villain least favorite.

Yeah, like I don't I can see that Like, I don't

like her. Like, I have a favorite villain, but

it's not her. Hm. I'm gonna have to make another

list. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, Mike, what are

some of your favorite or least favorite characters

in this one? I like Sebastian when he's actually

on Ariel's side. I can't stand him when he's

got something stuck up his crab shell. Nice.

Um, you know. He's got an ego. I really couldn't

stand the singing in the very beginning with

all the sisters. Yeah, I just I didn't care for

that I like King Triton I like or Triton I like

Flounder I like scuttle simply for the fact that

it's buddy freaking hack it. Yeah, definitely

a cool person to have voice that character Yes

Yeah, I mean I can see that I don't The sisters

almost to me weren't even in this. I don't even

consider them in this movie. So it's like, whatever.

I agree with you there. But I think it's easily,

you know, the most likable characters in this

one besides the obvious Ariel. For me, I like

Prince Eric in this one more than I do in anything

else he's in, even though he doesn't have that

big of a part. I just kind of thought he was

cool when I was younger. But Sebastian almost

steals the movie on this one. Yeah, that's true.

He just adds something, and the combination of

him and Flounder are just pretty cool. I was

half expecting Prince Eric to sprout web shooters

and go web slinging all over the damn place,

because Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced

Spider -Man in 94, voices Eric. Yeah, and we

haven't mentioned a lot of the other ones, but

Samuel E. Wright is Sebastian, Pat Carroll, Ursula.

Couple other ones that you've probably heard

of Edie McClurg who's done a lot of on -screen

work Carlotta the maid Renee Aberjohn us I don't

have a darn clue how to say that guy's name,

but I remember from Deep Space Nine He's the

chef Patty Edwards is Flossom and Jetsom and

of course Frank Welker plays the dog, but I did

want to bring up Jodie Benson because It's kind

of an interesting story. She actually grew up

About a town away from me and she went to high

school about five minutes from where I live right

now And I actually knew someone that babysat

her when she was a kid So she's kind of like

the little hometown person or whatever I guess

around here, but she's definitely very cool.

Yeah It was extremely Funny to me that she went

from playing Ariel to playing Barbie in Toy Story

2 & 3 Yeah, it's kind of like Michael Keaton

going from Batman to playing a girl's toy Ken

I'm not a girl's toy. Yes, you are. Just deal

with it. You actually are Ken, sorry to braise

you. Of course, she also appeared as Lady in

the second Lady and the Tramp movie. Yeah, already

covered so But yeah, it's a pretty good voice

cast. It's a little different. It's not your

typical disney voices at this point i mean it's

kind of like an all -new start for them with

this movie so you don't really have any of the

old you know classic disney voices in this one

this i have to argue with your history lesson

and i i know it's wikipedia information all that

but technically the film before this which we

covered way back in episode thirty four actually

started the disney renaissance with all new cast

and all you know not normally disney regulars

which was all over in company i disagree because

you had Huh? I disagree. What do you mean you

disagree? I don't think it started because it's

not the same type of movie. It's a different

look. No, no, no. I'm not talking about the same

type of movie. I'm talking about just as far

as the voice cast. Oh, yeah. Maybe for the voice

cast. But as far as the Disney renaissance is

supposed to consist of this specific type of

look and the emphasis back on music and that

type of thing, which Oliver and company was kind

of a test for that. Right. But what I'm saying

is as far as the voice cast and stuff, that was

the film that really launched Disney past the

classic, you know, voice actors of Thorell Ravenscroft

and, you know, people that they used to always

use in the older films. That's what I'm saying

is that technically, it's Oliver and Company.

I tell you what, if you put Oliver and Company

in the same breath as Little Mermaid and Lion

King Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, that's

my problem. Well, because Oliver and Company's

still really good. Well, it's still good, but

it's not like these movies at all. Well, but

it's not bad. It's not, you know, Snow White

and the Seven Midgets. I know to me it's like

Apples and Oranges though. Well, anyway, moving

on. It's not about being bad or being good, it's

just a totally different type of movie. Just

my opinion. I agree that the Disney Renaissance

starts with Little Mermaid. Whatever. It can't

be a podcast without us arguing about something.

No. You guys have to argue or else there's no

comedy. And I don't know if you're, you know,

maybe a very good ear, you might be able to hear

a couple of the The additional voices that show

up, Tim Curry and Mark Hamill and Hamilton Camp

show up as some of the additional voices of not

named characters. I don't know which ones they

are, but you'd think you'd be able to at least

pick out Tim Curry. But I didn't, I never knew

he was, he voiced even the additional voices,

so that's kind of interesting. Yeah. Are you

all right there, Mike? Yeah, I'm fine. Did I

destroy something? No, no. Jamie in the chat

says he loves Snow White and the Seven Midgets.

I was giving him a thumbs down on camera. Snow

White and the Seven Midgets. Yes. Anyways, what

about you Tara? What are your favorite characters?

Favorite characters? Definitely Ariel, Sebastian,

and I love Eric. Those are my top three. I honestly,

but like Sebastian, he adds so much humor. Yeah,

he does. And he just really like, out of all

of the characters, he is like the most memorable

one to me from that film. Like all I remember

watching that film is a crab and that's it. A

red crab. And a cool voice. And I think what

really helps the fact that Sebastian brings a

lot of the humor to it is once we get to the

palace, is it a palace? I forget. No seriously,

it is a palace right? As far as Eric's house,

it's a palace right? Well no, I know he's a prince,

but I'm not saying it would be a shack, but I'm

just saying it was a castle. I couldn't remember

which was which, but anyway, when we get there,

when we get to the setting of being on Eric's

palace and all that stuff, what Sebastian adds

to the humor is the whole thing of the Chef Louis

going after him. Yeah. I can't stand that chef

though. Still mad at him. Let that crab go buddy.

You can only eat things that are not talking

in the movie So Do we have have we already gone

through favorite and least favorites? Yeah, obviously

Ursula Yeah, I didn't really care for the eels

either I I could give it two craps less about

them the eels and I'll go ahead and point this

out now I'm so glad the eels in Ariel's beginning

did not talk. Oh, thank God Although, Patty Edwards

is pretty cool. The voice. Well, no, no, no.

I'm not saying I didn't like the voices. I just...

It didn't even sound like a real voice to me

for both of them. It sounded like, you know,

someone's voice put to Soundwave's vocoder. Seriously.

Yeah, I can get that. No, I didn't like any of

the bad characters, but obviously we're not supposed

to like them, so it's kind of hard. But yeah,

I'm with both of you. I didn't like Ursula or

the eels. Yeah. So getting into some wheels are

just so stupid Yeah, I don't see a point for

them. Okay. Yeah, they're her henchmen. I get

that But they're just they're just you know,

they don't like them If they weren't in the movie

I wouldn't care I wouldn't notice Yeah, you know

like they're they're like the lame version of

pain and panic from Hercules Okay, at least pain

and panic were funny. I know. I don't think Kevin

can comment because I don't think he's seen Hercules.

Nope. I will point out, since we're still on

the cast for this movie, I'll point it out here

that I prefer, like, because... Little Mermaid

2 flounder, you really can't count him as a young

fish because he's grown up in Little Mermaid

2 and it's Cam Clark voicing him there as the

adult type of flounder. But as far as this movie

and the third movie between the two, I would

assume that they are children that are voicing

him. I prefer this one. Jason Maron, yeah. The

other one, it's got a whole different attitude

to him. It's almost like it's not even the same

character. Yeah. As far as the way I see it.

And the guy that does it in the next one, or

in the third one that you're talking about, is

Parker Gores. But yeah, they're both kids. Yeah,

I prefer the Jason Maron voice. Yeah, just seems

like two different characters. I agree with you.

I don't like the Flandre number two at all. No,

no, not number two, number three. Number two

is Cam Clark. Yeah, number three? I felt so disconnected

from that character. Yeah. Just in a way. Like,

I kind of did. Well, that's another thing that's

interesting, obviously, about some of these Disney

ones. I mean, like all the Disney ones, the sequels

usually don't have a majority of the same cast.

Usually they've switched a bunch of people over,

so it always makes it interesting as far as which

versions of the certain characters you like better.

Mm -hmm, but yeah, that's that's pretty interesting

I'm gonna make some more comments about some

of the other characters when we get to the the

second and third movie because I have some problems

with some of the other Replacements and some

of them people might not be happy with me with

but So getting into some behind the voice or

behind the behind the white shit. Go to behindthevoiceactors

.com. Anyway, getting to some behind the scenes

stuff. Darryl, why don't you take that first

little blurb about the story development? Sure

thing. The Little Mermaid was originally planned

as part of one of Walt Disney's earliest feature

films, a proposed package film featuring vignettes

of Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Development

started soon after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

in the late 1930s but was put on hold due to

various circumstances. This movie has a pretty

interesting history actually. It goes all the

way back to the very beginning of Disney and

it took them like basically 50, almost 60 years

before they finally had a finished product. I'm

so glad they did take that. Because I guarantee

you, I guarantee you if it was the Little Mermaid

that came first and it was Snow White that came

60 years later, I guarantee you we would be bashing

on the Little Mermaid. To be honest with you,

Little Mermaid, the Hans Christian Andersen version,

it's so much different than the Disney version.

Yeah, and I think we're going to get into it

a little bit later as far as some of the main

differences, but yeah, it's definitely a darker

tale. Well, a lot of the Grimm's fairy tales

and stuff like that are dark. They're not meant

to entertain children. Right. Basically, we have

it put on hold in the 30s, and then it comes

back up in a discussion in the 80s, around 1985.

They basically presented a two -page draft of

the movie to Michael Eisner, who most people

should be aware of who that guy is. and Jeffrey

Katzenberg and they basically passed on the project

because at the time they had just done the live

action movie Splash and they were working on

the sequel to it. So they figured, you know,

we can't do Little Mermaid because we already

did some mermaid stories. But actually the next

day they changed their mind and greenlit the

idea for the development along with Oliver and

company. So basically that's where it kind of

started gaining a little momentum. as far as

that. They did make some, they came across the

actual original stuff that was done back in the

1930s, kind of some of the ideas there, and they

made the same changes that those people did in

the 30s to Hans Christian Andersen's story. So

they kind of did some of the same ideas that

they had back in the 30s, but obviously with

a completely different area, you're going to

get a lot of different results. So, you know,

after that they expand it and they get a full

script almost, but then it gets shelved again

because Disney wants to focus their attention

on both who framed Roger Rabbit and Oliver and

Company because they want to see if Oliver and

Company can kind of... It's kind of a test to

see if they start putting music back in the Disney

movies, how the audiences will react to it. So

they kind of wanted to get those two out of the

way before they went back to Little Mermaid.

So it's like the second or third time that it's

gotten either shut down or shelved. Poor little

mermaid. Yeah. And then the last thing I'll say

as far as the history goes there, in 1987 that's

when Howard Ashman became involved and he is

the greatest thing to ever happen at Disney maybe.

And he's the one that does the music. So he was

asked to contribute to the music and he actually

decided to change everything. He said, well,

can we change the crab because it was first going

to be an English butler crab named Clarence.

And he said, can we change it to a Jamaican Rastafarian

crab? And can we shift the music style? Instead

of anything British like some of the other Disney

movies, can we change it to more of this Jamaican

feel? And that's kind of, in my opinion, what

made Little Mermaid what it was. Oh, definitely.

I'm sorry. I have to put this in here. Who be

jamming now? You be jamming now. The good old

Rastakarian. The good old Rastakarian from Cars

Tunes. Ashman or Ashman Howard Ashman and brought

in along with him Alan Menken and those that

you know that's obviously the same team that

has done Lion King and Aladdin and you know all

of those movies and they had originally worked

on the little shop of horrors off Broadway stage

musical so that's kind of where they met up so

you know at long last after Oliver finally is

done Disney finally turned its attention a little

mermaid and thank God we finally got one of the

best Disney films of all time There I'm done

with my spiel As far as the character of Ariel,

the character's body type and personality were

based upon that of Alyssa Milano. Wow. And then

starring on TV's Who's the Boss, the effect of

her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally

Ride when she was in space. Yeah. Another interesting

one for Ursula. Oh God the design of the villainous

Ursula the sea witch was based upon the drag

performer Divine that Carol was not Was not Clements

and Muskers first choice to voice Ursula the

original script had been written with Be Arthur

of the Disney owned TV series the golden girls

in mind. Oh, I cannot see I'm sorry I cannot

see Dorothy being Ursula. No, I can see it Maybe

if it was based off her mod character and not

Dorothy. Maybe if it was mod and not the Dorothy

character, but I cannot, oh my god. It's almost

like Ursula went through the same thing the whole

movie did. I mean, you have Bea Arthur and then

she turns it down and then you have all these

other people including Roseanne, but eventually

actually Elaine Stritch is her name, is the person

who gets cast. And then ends up that she doesn't

get along with Ashman, so she gets replaced and

we end up with Pat Carroll. So it's almost like

the same thing as a movie. You get all these

different attempts with the person until you

finally end up with who you get. That's how film

business works. Yep. Oh yeah. Another thing interesting,

at least something I find - Oh yeah. Yes. Oh

wow. We still need to interview her. Oh god,

I know what you're talking about. It's coming

up with this next little bit here because another

interesting thing and why this is kind of a renaissance

for Disney is because for the first time in a

long time they start going off of real actors

and actresses to get the motion reference like

we've talked about in a few previous episodes.

They've gone away from this for a while and they

started doing it again here and that's when you

have Jody Benson coming in to be the motion capture

for Ariel and one of Mike's favorite, Sherri

Stoner. coming in to play some of the live action

where they can do the motion capture off of.

Yeah, they've got Slappy Squirrel as Ariel. Oh

my god. We so need to get an interview with Sherri

Stoner now. And you know just some other behind

-the -scenes stuff, you know the more money and

resources that is dedicated to mermaid than any

other Disney animated film previous to this basically

Or at least you know through the 80s and the

70s when they weren't really caring as much about

their movies and I found it interesting Most

special effects in an animated Disney features

Asia so I thought that was pretty interesting

and Interesting note too that there is some computer

animation in this film, which I did not know

that there were some CG effects in it. I did

not know that until actually like today. And

they say that over a million bubbles were drawn

for this film because they insisted that every

bubble be hand -drawn. Wow. Instead of being

like Xerox or whatever the other methods are.

Not Xerox, but you know what I'm talking about.

So why don't you go into getting into the actual

show? Why don't you give us the five -minute

plot synopsis there Kevin? You know basically

you have Ariel who's a teenager and she's not

satisfied with her life and all the you know

things that she's ordered to do by her father

King Triton and whatnot and she longs to be you

know part of the human world hence the song part

of your world. And then you have Sebastian the

crab introduced and he's supposed to watch over

Ariel and make sure that she doesn't ever surface

again and try to become part of the human world.

But eventually they do see, Ariel does see Prince

Eric when she surfaces, falls in love with him

and just heightens her amount of desire to become

part of that human world. And basically that

Turns into Ariel being the lovesick, you know

desperately in love teenager and willing to do

anything to Become human so that she can pursue

Prince Eric Which making a long story short she

makes a deal with the devil or Ursula so that

she can Become human and the deal is that within

three days Ariel must receive the kiss of true

love from Eric Otherwise, she'll turns transformed

back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula, but

the catch is that in order to become the human

for this time, she has to give up her voice,

her beautiful singing voice, etc., which is stored

in the shell by Ursula. So, the rest of the movie

is basically Ariel trying to get Eric to kiss

her, you know, and fall in love, etc. We get

the kiss the girl song, you know, and all that

nonsense, and eventually you have this all -out

battle on The the ship there where Ursula is

trying to you know Fight so that she can avoid

Ariel kissing Eric she becomes a human at one

point named Vanessa She does you know everything

she can as far as with the eels and other stuff

to try to make sure that the kiss never happens

but eventually skipping a bunch of stuff Ariel

kisses or Eric kisses Ariel and You know it basically

everything turns out alright. I'm skipping the

ending, but we'll get to that My five seconds

is up. I didn't say five seconds. I said five

minutes. I didn't want to go five minutes. Yeah.

So due to her death, Ursula's power breaks, causing

all the polyips in Ursula's carton, including

Triton, who would have regained his reign, to

revert back to their original form. Later, after

seeing Ariel truly loves Eric, and then he also

saves her in the ocean, In the process, Triton

willingly changes her from a mermaid to a human,

permanently using his Triton, where she reconciles

with Eric once more. An unspecified amount of

time later, Ariel and Eric have their wedding

in a ship where both humans and more people could

attend before sailing away afterwards to be happily

married. Yay! Um, alright. Plot -wise... Uh...

But it's not with this one. Well, it's not really

as much in this one, but... Well, actually, it's

something they do a lot better in this one. As

far as humans not being able to breathe for hours

underwater. Because, you know, this one, they

can't. In the sequels, apparently, humans gain

the ability to breathe underwater pretty easily.

I'll bring that up again when we get to the third

one, or the second one, or whatever one it was,

where she's just down there forever, just breathing.

I'm like, really? Where who is Ariel melody?

She got turned back into a mermaid no But at

one point she's human before that and she just

sitting down there with with the bad person and

she's just breathing on no problem Wasn't good.

Well, she's half fish It's in her DNA. Yeah,

but a lot of those there's not very many I don't

have many plot problems with this one. Um, I

don't either I mean, it seems like it flows pretty

well, you know the music's It's not maybe a smooth

transition in the music as in Robin Hood or whatever,

but it doesn't bother me. It doesn't seem like,

like you say in some, that they're breaking into

a musical number. You don't get that feeling

really from it too much. I think it goes pretty

well. I mean, I guess if you're just completely

anti -love stories, you might have problems with

it, but get over it. Like I said, the only thing

I really had a problem with was the first number.

the beginning with all of the sisters because

I mean they don't obviously the story is about

Ariel and they don't really focus on the sisters

but It would have been nice to have gotten a

little bit something extra Even if it was like

a DVD special feature or something like that

just to you know Give us more info on the sisters,

even though I know that the main story here is

about Ariel and all that They didn't because

when they do introduce the sisters later on I

hate them But that's another story Yeah, that's

another story. Yeah, I don't have any problems

with this one either, really. My problem will

come later when we get to some of the legacy

stuff. Mike has a problem. Everybody hold...

I don't have a problem. I just find it very funny.

That's all. Anyways, what about you, Tara? You

know what? This plot, it was so engaging. And

I really got into it. I really just, you know,

I loved the story. It's a great love story. It

had a great plot. And when I first watched it,

I was really drawn to it. And still, even now,

when I watch it, I'm still drawn into that world.

And I really get a sense of who the character

is. I really get a sense of the story and how

she feels. Like, I think Disney did a really

fantastic job with telling the story. You know?

Yeah, and there's so many other stories in there

besides, you know, her wanting to be a human

so she can marry, you know, Eric. But it's more

a tale, I think, to me of growing up and being

independent. Yeah, that's true. Is what I got

from that, because she's 16. Breaking away from

the father's control. Yeah, when I hit 16, I

really understood what she was going through.

You know, almost 20, I still understand it. Well,

I think that's the reason why this one appeals

to so many different age groups, too, is because

you have the fun, like, you know, Sebastian and

Flounder are going to be entertaining for the

younger ages. You know, that's going to fulfill

all the need for your younger audience, and they're

going to think that's funny. You know, the music

is going to entertain just about every... I've

never heard of anybody that doesn't like the

music in this one. Yeah. That's all ages. But

you have this teenage thing. with her breaking

free and you know falling in love for the first

time which should speak to most teenagers but

I think adults can get it too is just like a

reflection back on things or dealing with from

Triton's angle as far as dealing with your kids.

Yeah, being a parent. So I mean I think a lot

of different ages can find something that they

can connect with in this one. What are some of

your guys' favorite or least favorite parts in

the movie? Like I said before I didn't care for

floats and then what I Jetson or whatever I didn't

care for the eels whatsoever They're useless.

I think The favorite part would probably have

to be after she I know this is bad, but after

she loses her voice And she's trying to Get her

to Do all this stuff and guess her name and and

then trying to explain to him. I thought that

was really funny I thought anything that came

out of Sneddle's mouth was funny. Yeah. What

about you, Kevin? I'm going to let Tara go first.

Oh, thank you. All right. Favorite part of the

movie is right after Ursula is killed or whatever,

and she's watching Eric on the beach again. and

her dad grants her wish and turns her into a

human and she comes out of the water and you

know they spin and they kiss like I love that

scene it was so heartwarming to me and I'm a

sucker for like romance so I loved it it was

just oh it was just a great scene least favorite

scene I think I touched on this a little bit

earlier but now since we're talking about least

favorite scenes I can say I hate the scene where

her dad destroys her collection of human things.

Yeah, that's terrible. I could totally relate

to that. It's like having like a prize collection

of something and someone just going in and just

ruining it. I think Mike can relate to that even

better. You know, it's like having his toys taken

away. Yeah, it's like the same thing like today,

you know, even in our society with some kids

having like, you know... come book collection

or whatever collection they're into and people

thinking it's weird or that's not right. Well

yeah, and I think it's something too where it's

like where a parent or an adult does something

where they don't quite get or they don't quite

understand the effects of what they just did.

Like they don't quite understand how much meaning

the stuff had for the person or how traumatic

that whatever they did could be on that person.

They might be able to start understanding it

later, but it was like something where an adult

does something kind of in the heat of the moment,

not realizing what kind of effect it's going

to have on the child. That's exactly true. The

thing what people understand is some people just

don't understand why some people are into what

they're into. Like, you should respect that and

we should praise people for liking things that

are different. We shouldn't be, you know, trying

to make them stop that. We should be encouraging

it if anything. Yeah. I think my, for the first

time ever, I think my favorite part of the movie

is actually going to be completely related to

the music because when she sings part of your

world, like, and I know it's at the beginning

of the movie, but as soon as that song is sung,

I was hooked for the entire movie. Yeah, I guess

soon as part of your world happens. I could relate

to it I loved her voice and I was just like I

got to see the rest of this to see if she sings

again to see You know if it's gonna be as cool

as this and my other favorite part is probably

the kiss the girl scene Where you know, they're

trying to do it, you know, let's you know the

attempts You know what's supposed to be happening

and you just keep seeing things interfere with

it So both my favorite moments are related to

the songs and this one in my least favorite I'm

actually gonna go with the ending From the time

where Ursula becomes Gigantor to the end of the

movie is probably the only part of my experience

that wasn't as magical as the rest of it. Part

of it was just because Ursula scared me, I think,

and she was humongous and ugly. But that's the

one part maybe that I didn't like as much. I

mean, it's not bad. I'm not saying that's a bad

part, but if I had to pick one part that was

my least favorite, I guess it would be that one.

Yeah, oh she oh my god that one scene where she's

like gigantic sea monster That definitely scared

me and left a lasting impression on me Yeah,

you know she I was it was pretty well done though

an animation It was very well done in the animation

of it. Yeah, why don't we get into some trivia

Kevin? All right, like I said before that you

know I find this interesting because I guess

I'm a history person but the insistence that

I mentioned before of them having to basically

hand draw every bubble in the film, which is

millions of bubbles. They actually farmed that

out to a firm in Beijing. It just happened that

this is around the same time where we had the

student uprising in Beijing, the Tiananmen Square,

whatever you want to call it. And basically it

almost delayed the entire production because

one third of the finished cell artwork was in

a building that was a few blocks away from Tiananmen

Square when all the violence broke out. So they

were almost without some of their footage that

they needed for the movie. So it would have been

fitting, I guess, since it had been delayed since

1930 or whatever that it got delayed again. But

luckily it didn't. I still have not seen this,

but I'm going to apparently have to go back and

slow -mo the opening scene where King Triton

arrives in the arena. Because apparently you

can see Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and

Kermit the Frog in the crowd. Oh my god, I had

no idea about that. He says they're in a crowd

of sea people as mermen when he passes over them.

Like I said, I'm going to have to go back because

I want to see that. You should screenshot that

and put it on Twitter or something. There we

go. I'll see if I can find it and screen cap

it. That's just a few of the things. We're going

to get to some more things to look for in a second.

I find this one interesting. Ben Wright, who

I mentioned, was one of the voice actors. This

is his final film. He was the voice of Grimsby.

The butler. Apparently the people involved in

this film from Disney had no idea that he had

been the voice of Roger in 101 Dalmatians. Like,

they cast him for this part not even realizing

that he had worked for them before. Well, why?

Really? Yeah, he had to tell them that he had

been in 101 Dalmatians. They're like, oh, you

were in 101 Dalmatians? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You

already worked for us? Oh. This one has both

Hidden Mickeys and Castle Thunder. Castle Thunder

can be heard a few times during the storm that

wrecks Eric's ship in the beginning. It's also

briefly heard for a second during the middle

of the second storm when Ursula becomes gigantic

and powerful. It's the last Disney movie to have

Castle Thunder. So if you've been one that's

looked out for the different Castle Thunder,

this is the last time you hear it. So that's

kind of sad. I have a huge problem with this

next one. No. as well as being too far over the

heads of the children from whom it was intended.

And at a test screening, the children were restless

during the song. In particular, one child that

sat in front of Katzenberg spilled his popcorn

and apparently was more interested in picking

it up than watching the sequence, so he output

the song from the movie. Thank God he didn't.

Oh, I'm so glad they didn't, because that's...

First of all, we need to mention that this test

screening was without animation. Without finished

animation. Well, it didn't have, yeah, it had

unfinished animation is what I mean, right, yeah.

So, you know, I'm sorry. Anytime I see anything

that's a storyboard or only has a little bit

of music or only has a little bit of voicing,

I get restless too watching that crap. Of course.

I mean, I understand it's part of the process

and I don't mean to say that storyboarding is

crap. I mean, just watching unfinished stuff,

no. Well, yeah, of course that would happen.

Yeah, the part that doesn't fit with me is how

can any human being hear that song and be like,

no, this isn't a good one. Oh, man. You hear

her singing this song, and I don't care what

movie it is, put it in there. Find a way to make

that work. That's a great song. I'm glad they

kept it, because that would have sucked. Yeah.

Our hidden Mickey for this movie, which I always

feel like I'm making some type of drug reference

when I say hidden Mickey or something. Anyway,

there's one in the scroll that Ursula gets Ariel

to sign. It's in the middle of the words when

it pans over the scroll from top to bottom, and

there's also apparently one in the scene where

the animals are trying to break up the wedding.

Right as the seals are jumping onto the deck

of the boat from the ocean, there's a woman with

black hair and a red gown with her back to the

camera, and the shape of her hair clearly outlines

a Mickey head until she turns sideways. So apparently

there's two different Mickeys you can look for.

I don't know if they were both intentional. That

one sounds a little bit rinky -dink, but anyway.

Another interesting cast trivia note that apparently

scheduling conflicts with Star Trek The Next

Generation forced Patrick Stewart to turn down

the role of King Triton. And I'm, I love Patrick

Stewart, don't get me wrong, but I'm so glad

he turned it down. I would have loved him to

this role. I don't think he would have fit because

I'm so used to hearing Kenneth Mars's voice for

King Triton. When I heard, and we'll get to this

later, but when I heard Darkwing Duck, when I

heard Jim Cummings voice for Triton in the prequel

movie, I was like... this doesn't fit with me.

It's not that I think that Cummings' version

was bad of Triton in the prequel, but it just,

it wasn't Triton to me. No, it was terrible.

It was terrible casting. I'm sorry. Jim Cummings

is a great voice actor, but to cast him as King

Triton was one of the worst Disney sequel casting

things I've ever seen. He doesn't even try to

change. He's one of those guys that has a great

voice and he can change it, but He did nothing

to try to change King Triton's voice from his

other voices. I'm sorry. It just did not fit

like you said. Terrible. Yeah. Sorry. The last

thing, basically in the original Hans Christian

Andersen story, Ariel does not turn back into

a mermaid at the end. When the sun rises on the

last day, she turns to foam and dies. I'm sorry.

That's what I was getting to earlier. I'm sorry.

I can't even say that without laughing. I know.

later in later editions including her becoming

a daughter of the air and rising to heaven so

i have that book i have the book where she does

die mike being someone that was uh watching transformers

when when prime dies can you imagine putting

all these kids in 1989 through this entire disney

movie and then having her turn to foam and die

at the end oh my god an outcry and you know what

you know what happened after that you know what

happened after that When they made Lion King,

they would have made Mufasa just have a heart

attack and get better or going to a coma or something

like that. You know what? When I read the story,

like the original story, she's supposed to kill

the prince. Like so she can turn back into a

mermaid because I'm like, you know She makes

the whole deal with the sea witch and she turns

into human blah blah blah and the prince ends

up marrying another girl But uh, like so her

sisters go to the sea which they sell their hair

to the sea witch and get the knife and They say

kill the prince and then you'll turn back into

a mermaid So she doesn't know and she can't do

it So she throws the knife into the sea and then

she throws herself out overboard And then she

doesn't die, she doesn't turn to foam. Because

she did that, she gets to be like what they're

saying, like a daughter of the heir. She gets

to go and be like... That was after they edited

it that she turned into foam the first time.

Yeah, that was another version. But the version

I read was that she does become like a daughter

of the heir and she gets to go and go do good

deeds because she saved someone's life. Do you

know what this does? This just proves that all

the people that think we're more violent these

days than any other time are wrong. Like, kids

are not more violent these days, dangit. Look

at the stories you guys used to write in the

30s and... twenties and forties look at look

at snow white in the seven digits we already

looked at that i want everybody after we finish

this episode of to cast recording whenever you

go over the website look for to cast episode

twenty nine snow white the seven dwarfs listen

to that episode there's so much violence and

so many things wrong with that movie but look

at all the drug references in the violence and

all that stuff that we got in the early disney

movies almost to be the best movies ever and

now we get these things that have none of that

But apparently it's turned us all into a bunch

of violent, like, I don't know. It's so stupid.

Well, only recently did I go back and go see

the origins of these fairy tales and see how

they were really told, how they really happened.

And I was like, hey, no wonder Disney didn't

do this. You don't want to have kids in the audience

crying and having nightmares and suing Disney

for traumatic experiences or whatnot. Getting

into the music segment here, Little Mermaid was

considered by some of the film that brought Broadway

into cartoons. Alan Menken wrote the Academy

Award winning score and collaborated with Howard

Ashman on the songs. For me, I think my favorite

songs are Part of Your World and Under the Sea.

Was the singing voice for Ursula the same as

the The voice actress? I believe so, yeah. I

didn't like that song. Well, yeah, I don't think

you're supposed to. No, no, no, I know, but I

mean, I just, I didn't like the way it was sung.

I didn't like the voice that was singing it,

so... Yeah. I just have a special, I don't know,

Part of Your World's the one that hooked it for

me. I realize that Under the Sea is the one that

gets all the acclaim and all the, you know, wins

all the awards and stuff like that, but Part

of Your World hooked it for me, and I think one

of my favorite songs, I don't know, I just have

a soft spot for Kiss the Girl. That's just a

great song. Just the way it opens up and they're

kind of floating through, you know what I mean?

And Sebastian opens up with the singing. It's

just great. Yeah. What about you, Tara? Oh, definitely

Under the Sea, Part of Your World, and Kiss the

Girl. My least favorite song is Daughters of

Triton. Oh, the opening song? Well, Fathoms Below

is the opening song with the sailors, but then

it goes to Daughters of Triton, and I do not

like hearing them sing. Oh, that song was awful.

I wanted to put cotton in my ears so I didn't

have to listen to the clock. Yeah, but just as

far as the music goes, I mean, this movie is...

I don't know. If you take the music out of this

movie, it's terrible, I think. Definitely. The

music made the film. Yeah, the music made the

film and I'm so glad that it got the reception

that it did so that we could get stuff like Aladdin

and Lion King, et cetera, Beauty and the Beast

to follow it. I did I love this era of Disney

and it's because of the music pure and simple

Yes, so getting into the reception and I'm gonna

take this first little part because Yeah, I've

got a nice little thing to start this off But

yeah, the little room haters see positive reviews

on the rotten tomatoes based on 52 reviews Collected

the film has overall approval rating of 90 %

based on various reviews collected since 1989

release Stop the presses! Roger Ebert, film critic

for the Chicago Sun -Times, was enthusiastic

about the film and wrote that The Little Mermaid

is a jolly and inventive animated fantasy, a

movie that's so creative and so much fun it deserves

comparison with the best Disney work of the past.

Ebert also commented positively on the character

of Ariel, stating, Holy crap, the old man actually

gave something a good review. That you like,

he gives a good review. It's just not some movies

you like. No, but he got that one right. I mean,

this, and this is what I've been saying for a

couple episodes now. These films, not only compared

to the best Disney work of the past, in my opinion,

they're the best Disney work ever. Like this

outshines, and it's kind of going to the whole,

you know, there's the princess. Disney movies

or whatever that you want to call, you know,

Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and

you throw Little Mermaid in there as one of the

modern ones and then there was obviously some

after that. In my opinion, this is the best Disney

princess movie. Like, maybe this one in Beauty

and the Beast would be close. I'm not a huge

fan of the stuff that comes after as far as like

Mulan and Pocahontas, but to me this Little Mermaid

is better than Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or

Snow White in my opinion. Definitely, I agree

with you there. Everything's better than Snow

White. Better than Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,

too. I think this is the best Disney princess

movie of all time. Like we've said so far throughout

this first film, we're reviewing here two totally

completely different eras. I mean, Snow White

aside, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are easily

the best two out of that era, but they're in

that specific era. Yeah, compared to all the

Disney princess movies. Right, yeah. I'll agree.

I did, you know, Susan Beauty did not do it for

me at all. Yeah. Well, and this one, this one

gets good reviews. Better than Snow White and

all that, but yeah. Better than Snow White. Anything's

better than Snow White. Everybody gives us some

good reviews. I, hardly anybody ever gives this

movie a negative review. I mean, we have good

reviews from TV Guide, even though they said

it can't compare to the real Disney classics,

but they're morons. Even IGN said this is almost

a perfect, a perfect achievement. So apparently

they're better at reviewing maybe films than

they are cartoon series, I don't know Yeah, a

little shocked but yeah In April of 2008, almost

20 years after the film's initial release, Yahoo

did a thing where Yahoo users could vote on the

top animated films of all time. And Little Mermaid

came in at number 14 of the top 30 animated films

of all time. They later updated it and it dropped

down to number 20 out of 30. That's still pretty

good. And only three other traditionally animated

Disney films were on the poll above it, and that

was Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King,

of course. So, it gets good reviews. That's the

bottom line. Yup. That's good. And besides getting

good reviews, it was pretty significant too because

this is really what ushered in this new era.

I know Oliver and Company came first, but this

is the one that was the success that let them

to continue doing and focusing on animation because

up to this point, they kind of shied away from

animated films. They were more concerned with

their, you know, like the The theme parks was

the big thing at this point. Live action movies,

they were trying to get into that. They were

kind of shying away from this. So, Little Mermaid

doing good was very important for Disney. Oh

yeah, and I don't argue that. What I'm arguing

is that the Oliver & Company cast, the voice

cast in Oliver & Company, really started Disney

down the path of using newer, not just all of

the older voice actors that they had used on

all the other previous films. Yeah, no, I agree.

And the staff also increased. It says in 1988,

the animated staff was 300 people, and by 99,

it's over 2 ,000. That is crazy. Like, holy crap,

there's so many people. Yeah. And the other thing,

like we said before, it reestablished the musical

film format for Disney animated films, so thank

you for doing that. At least Disney did something

right. Yeah, they finally did something right.

And they get rid of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey

Kazenberg. They have their moments. Anyways,

getting into the awards here. In January 1990,

The Little Mermaid earned three Academy Award

nominations, making it the first Disney animated

film to earn an Academy Award nomination since

The Rescuers in 1977. The Mermaid soundtrack

was certified double platinum by the RIAA in

September 1990 for shipments, two million copies

of the soundtrack album, an unheard of feat for

animated film at the time, and to date the soundtrack

has been certified six times platinum. That's

interesting. Yeah, so it's not just the movie,

the soundtrack did phenomenal. Yes, why don't

you take the awards there, Tara? All right, sure

thing. The Little Mermaid Academy Award -winning

for Best Original Song and Best Original Score

was repeated by Disney's next four films, also

in the same era, and that would be Beauty and

the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas.

And it won a couple of Academy Awards. It won

for Best Music Original Score, for Under the

Sea and nominated for Best Music Original Song

Kiss the Girl, won Golden Globes, nominated for

Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, it won

for Best Original Score, Best Original Song Under

the Sea, and also Kiss the Girl got nominated

for Best Original Song, and it won a Grammy Award

for the best song written specifically for Motion

Picture for Television 4 Under the Sea. Wow.

And cleaned up with the awards that year. Lots

of awards going on here. When two of your songs

are nominated in the best original song category,

you know you did something right. Man, that was

a mouthful right there. Yes, and before we continue

this, I would just like to say... I know we are

an explicit podcast, but if you do not want to

hear about this next section, either turn the

episode off or leave the Ustream chat because

there is controversy. There is controversy. A

close up of the alleged penis. I'm sorry, but

most of the controversial sexual or drug innuendos

that people try to put in the Disney are crap.

Most of them are just big stretches of the imagination.

This one, I'm sorry. Oh my god. That is what

it looks like. In the film. In the film, King

Triton lives in a castle of gold, along with

his daughters. The castle is displayed on the

artwork for the cover of the Classics VHS cassette.

When the film was first released on video, close

examination of the artwork, as well as the film,

shows an oddly shaped structure on the castle,

closely resembling a penis. Disney and the cover

designer insist it was an accident, resulting

from a late rush job to get the finished cover

artwork. The questionable object does not appear

on the cover of the second releasing of the film.

I have the version with the penis. And like I

said before, most of the Disney stuff is crap.

Most of it's people trying to find stuff like

the clouds forming the word sex. Sex, yeah. The

dust does form sex. It is if you want to see

that. If you want to see the word sex. No, it

does. It actually says SFX, which means special

effects. I'm sorry, I do not agree with the theory

that there was some pervert at Disney that was

trying to insert stuff into every movie like

some people say. No. It's Jeffrey Katzenberg.

There's occasional stuff that you could make

perverted if you want to. There might have been...

This could have been a lot of different things,

but unfortunately it does look like a penis.

Oh, I'm hot. South Park was right. Disney is

selling sex to little girls. Thanks, Jamie. The

only shady part about this one is the reasoning

that they gave for it and the fact that then

they do pull all the covers that look like that.

They did get sued actually in 95 for this and

the other scene that we're not going to talk

about because that is complete BS where they're

talking about the bishop and having an erection

during that one. That one was just blown out

of proportion. It's his knee and someone actually

sued Disney in 95 but then they dropped the suit

two months later but they actually had to even

go back and redo that scene so that you couldn't

even see his knee because people are so perverted.

But anyways. Because she's like oh I see an erection.

Oh you know like it couldn't be like his knee

or you know something like the guy has really

stubby knees like. So it's like, the older movies,

you could have people dying and doing drugs.

In Alice in Wonderland, we could have people

smoking a hooker or whatever, and nobody gives

a shit. And now this one, there's some accidental

or weird things that you could take out of context

and be sexual, and that's the end of the world.

And now it's like, oh my god, we gotta cover

my kid's eyes. I gotta censor this. Apparently

you don't show them any of the other Disney movies.

Yeah, apparently. You know, what happened, the

90s had come and it's like, we gotta, you know,

cover up everything. We gotta cover our asses

here. We can't have anything. Or it's lawsuit,

lawsuit, lawsuit. But regardless of the controversy,

it didn't affect the box office. No. No. What

was the box office, Kevin? Well, it was kind

of interesting because, and this is another Katzenberg...

Blooper here, I guess, but he was reminding the

Disney people that mermaid was a girls film So

it wouldn't make as much money as Oliver and

company in those types of films So he was trying

to caution them that this isn't gonna make as

much money as they might hope But By the time

it's all said and done. He actually changed it

a little bit later and said well He thought it

would make about a hundred million total international

box office two hundred and eleven million Oh

sixty four percent more earnings than Oliver

the company And, uh, yeah, it just... Like I

said, apparently he was wrong with his first

initial thing. Oh, it totally kicked Oliver and

company's ass. It kicked everybody's ass. Let's

just say that. Let's just say that. It blew that

one right out of the water. It blew all... And

that's fine. I don't have a problem with that.

I recognize Little Mermaid was what set them

on the path of doing the newer generation of

Disney, but at the same time... Oliver and Company

is one of my favorite films. It always will be

and I don't care what anybody says. It's a good

movie. I'm not saying it's a bad movie. No one's

saying it's a bad movie. Oliver and Company is

fun. Yes. As far as the home video release here...

In a then atypical and controversial move for

a new Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid

was released on VHS and Laserdisc in May 1998,

months after the release of the film. Before

Mermaid, only a select number of Disney animated

films had been released to home video, as the

company was afraid of upsetting its profitable

practice of theatrically reissuing each film

every seven years. Mermaid became that year's

top -selling title on home video with over 10

million units sold, including 7 million units

in its first month. The success led to further

future Disney films to be released soon after

the end of their theatrical runs, rather than

delayed for several years. Obviously, because

we weren't exposed to it, but the fact that we

just take for granted that a movie is out in

the theater and as soon as it's done, within

six, seven, eight months, it's going to be out

on DVD. That's just how it's done nowadays, but

Disney never did that. They re -released the

movie in theater every decade. I don't even think

we can fathom what that would be like, so you

couldn't get it on DVD or VHS or whatever. You

know, once a decade, you could go see it in the

theater again. Well, let's see, the thing is,

with the re -release in theaters and stuff like

that, back then, for me, movie -going experiences

kind of got sour in 1998. But back then, before

the new millennium and all that, You know, movie

going experiences were awesome. They were great.

You know, and it was fun to go go see a Disney

movie or whatever. Whereas now, I would rather

just when a movie gets released, I would rather

just wait six months until it gets on DVD or

iTunes or whatever else. So I mean, I know of

that experience of see because I think I went

to the the I think I went to a reissued or re

-release of one of the Disney films at one point.

I don't remember which one it was, but I know

I went to theaters to see a Disney film when

I was younger, so... I just have to say this.

I agree 100 % with you, Mike. Like, because now

every time, like, a new Disney film comes out,

I don't get excited anymore. Like, I'm not. I

haven't gotten excited since, like... And it's

sad. And I do. I want all the 90s movies to come

back. Like, I want them back. I got excited for

Tangled, but the problem, like I said, it's not

so much for me. It's not so much the movie. It

has nothing to do with the actual content of

a film. But just going to a theater and having

that experience nowadays, it sucks. Yeah, it's

true. I'll say I love doing it, and I'm still,

I don't know, I'm still... Well, and that's fine,

but, you know, then again... I have had some

bad experiences. To me, I guess to me, it's lost

its magic. Until there's someone annoying there,

and then I lose the magic. I'd much rather go

see a really good live film, like I just saw

Black Swan, I'd rather go see that, you know,

than go see the new stuff that Disney's putting

out. Well, and I know it would never happen because

I guess kids, they wouldn't watch it, but I actually

am going to agree with one of our Ustream viewers.

I wish upon wish that I could see cartoons or

movies, just a few of them done in the old animation

style. I don't need to see everything in 3D.

I don't need to see everything in CGI. I'm fine

with a few. Can we get like a retro something?

Can I get a look of the olden days at least?

I'm not asking for like... crappy animation like

we had in some things, but Little Mermaid's not

hard to watch for kids these days, is it? I mean,

Lion King and that type of animation, that's

not hard for people to watch. Well, I mean, that's

Disney classic 2D animation. It's not a 3D animated

film. It's not 3D, yeah. I was just saying, can't

we get just a Disney movie to come out in 2D

again? Princess of the Frog did, even though

I could care less about that film. Tangled did,

and Tangled looks amazing. I mean, in the same

look as the old ones. Oh, you mean as far as

the design aesthetic? I don't think so because

I think Disney will go forward with whatever

obviously will make the money. Yeah, it's too

hard. It costs too much for them to actually

have someone actually paint this. If I can just

interject for one second. Okay, it's okay. What

I want to say is, you know what, I understand

like the whole like, oh, we're in the 21st century,

you know, this is technology, we have to do everything

on the computer. But honestly, it worked. When

you had the hand -painted stuff or whatever they

were doing, it worked. And as one person in our

Ustream chat said, it was warmer. You felt more

of a connection to it. And now you don't feel

that connection. I don't know, maybe it's just

me because I didn't grow up in it. Maybe kids

today have absolutely no problem with it, but

maybe they haven't been exposed to the old stuff.

They haven't. I'm not asking them though. I can

understand that a kid might not be wrapped up

in stuff that was made in like 1930 or 1950 because

it has even a more dated look, but the stuff

that was made in the early 90s doesn't look dated

to me. No, not at all. As far as the DVD releases

for Little Mermaid, there have been a few of

them. The only one that really matters honestly

at this point is the Platinum Edition DVD, which

was released as part of the Little Mermaid Trilogy

box set on December 16th, 2008. Unfortunately,

that has been sunk back in the vault. But I'm

sure you can find it on like Amazon or somewhere

like that so There were several deleted scenes

on this and extended fathoms below sequence in

which it was revealed that Ursula is Triton's

sister Didn't they mention that in the movie?

Didn't they make mention that Ursula was? I've

seen the deleted scene for but I don't remember

seeing it in the actual like uncut or the original

movie Okay, an alternate version of the poor

unfortunate souls explaining why Ursula was banished

by Triton Yeah, a scene just before the concert

in which Sebastian finds out Ariel is missing

Extended scene of Sebastian lost in Eric's castle

that would have been funny. Yeah That was funny.

I remember watching this Sebastian giving additional

advice to Ariel at bedtime and the fight with

Ursula to the ending with no dialogue Oh music

only that would be interesting. Mm -hmm. Yeah,

that'd be interesting to see Very interesting.

I think what we're going to do for this episode

of Tooncast is we're going to save our final

thoughts for the entire franchise till the end.

So up next you're going to hear the trailer for

The Little Mermaid 2 Return to the Sea. It all

began when one Little Mermaid dreamed of life

on the land. Now the incredible tale continues

as Ariel's daughter dreams of life in the sea

you know what sometimes I even pretend Time to

return to the sea. New Special Edition. Experience

a story unlike any other. Melody can't know about

merpeople or Atlantica. Oh, this is delicious.

Return to the mystery. Melody's gone! Melody's

gone! I should have known I couldn't keep Melody

from the sea. It's time I trusted her with the

truth. Return to the magic. Your destiny awaits

you. I'm a mermaid! Return. Up next is the Little

Mermaid 2 Return to the Sea. Take it away with

the history lesson sir. Actually no, Tara you

take the history lesson this time. I'm getting

axed. Sure thing. Oh, he just got axed. The Little

Mermaid 2, Return to the Sea, is a 2000 Disney

animated feature film and direct -to -video sequel

of the 1989 animated film, obviously, The Little

Mermaid. Directed by Jim Comrad and Brian Smith,

the story takes place over a decade after the

original film and focuses on Ariel and Eric's

daughter, Melody, a human princess who longs

to swim in the ocean despite her parents' law

that the sea is forbidden to her. Oh, no. For

any of you that haven't seen this movie, just

watch the first Little Mermaid in Rewind. Yep.

Or reverse. It's the complete opposite. Ariel's

not allowed to go to the surface. None of you

are allowed to go into the sea. Coincidence?

The rest of the movie is the exact same. Coincidence?

I think not. Except minus the cool music. Yeah.

There's not really cool music in this film at

all. Yeah. Why have I seen this movie twice?

I don't know. I admit when I heard Little Mermaid

2 was coming out, I like rushed out to like go

rent it from Blockbuster and I saw it and I was

like, crap did I just waste an hour and a half

of my life watching. I want my money back. My

excuse is one time I watched it to screen cap

all the pictures for Behind the Voice actors

and the second time I watched it for this. So

that's my excuse. Yeah, that's an excuse why

you watched it, yes. Otherwise I would not have

done that. Otherwise you can pass on this because

it's a really bad sequel to Little Mermaid. There

really shouldn't be a Little Mermaid sequel.

Mike, what do you think? I think I've watched

this twice as well. Once for I completely forgot

that Tara Strong was Melody, so when I went back

through her credits prepping for that interview

we did with Tara Strong, I was like, oh, she

was in The Woman We're Made To, I have to watch

that movie now. Because I had had the DVD for

the longest time, but I never watched, I had

both of them, I watched the first one, and I

never watched the second one, I just put it back

on my shelf. And when I got to the research for

the Tara Strong interview that we had done, I

was like, oh, well, I guess I have to watch that

movie now. Yeah. I mean, this one definitely

has the more, like, classic, or not classic,

but the more, like, voice over universe voice

actors. I mean, we don't have as many, like,

celebrity type people, even though it wasn't

really celebrities in the first one. But, you

know, you got Rob Paulson and Tara Strong and

Cam Clark and Tress McNeil and Frank Walker,

of course, again. So, I mean, you have some more

of the... the names you'd expect to see on a

voice acting project, but... I did not expect

to see Clancy Brown, Lex Luthor from Superman

the Animated Series and Justice League as undertow,

though. I did not know that was Clancy Brown.

I didn't know either. The voice acting was one

of the positive things about this movie, actually.

Oh, yeah. I mean, they all do a fairly good job.

I actually don't even mind... I mean, I know

I'm a Rob Paulson fanboy, as you call it, but

I don't actually even mind him as Prince Eric.

And, of course, Kenneth Mars is still doing King

Triton, so that's no big deal. Cam Clark's doing

an older version of Flounder, so that's not a

big deal to me. None of them seem like they're

completely out of place, except for maybe the

insertion of McNeil as the penguins, because

I see it and all I can hear is Gadget from Chippendale

Rescue Rangers. Like, why is Gadget in... I don't

know. I love Tres, but that's... the exact same

gadget voice. As far as the characters though,

I mean we get basically the same characters from

the beginning except instead of the Eels you

get Undertow. Which is a vast improvement, I

think. Yeah, I actually like Undertow. Instead

of Ursula you get Morgana. I don't know, she's

just as good as Ursula, I think. You get the

addition of Melody the Kid, which is fine. She's

the skinny version of Ursula. Yeah. And then

you get the penguins and then you get Tip and

Dash. Yeah. So otherwise it's the same characters,

but which ones did you guys like? Tara, which

characters did you like the best in this one?

I know you said in the first one you liked Ariel

and Eric the best, I think, and Sebastian. What

about this one? You know what? I did like Melody.

Not just because she's the main character, but

I really did like her. Like, I thought she had

a - I thought, like, even though, you know, the

sequel's not that good, but I did like her as

a character, and still Sebastian for me. That

makes sense. Because, ugh, Sebastian. Can't have

a film without Sebastian. What about least favorite

in the sequel? Least favorite? Did I have a least

favorite? I can't even remember. I think my least

favorite was probably, uh, probably Tip and Dash.

Didn't like them. I didn't dislike them, but

I didn't quite understand why they needed to

be in this one I didn't quite get the point of

having them I thought I mean I knew they were

they were trying to be like, you know comic relief,

but I really didn't like them Yeah, Tim and Dash

are the poor man's Tumunpumba in my opinion Yeah,

but it's like why couldn't we have why couldn't

Sebastian and Flounder just fill the same role

and Scuttle? That's that was their role I think

because they were trying to set up that Melody

is a different person from Ariel. It's a generational

gap there. Whereas Sebastian and Flounder were

more of Ariel's friends and have more to do with

Ariel and Eric rather than Melody outside of

the fact that Sebastian is technically in charge

of knowing where Melody is at all times. They

had to give Melody her own friends, I guess you

could say. And for those of you that are unfamiliar

with who Tip and Dash might be, Dash is like

the, what is he, a walrus? Is that a walrus or

a sea lion or some big mammal -like thing? And

Tip is a penguin. I don't remember exactly what

type of animal Dash is supposed to be, but they're

both sea creatures. But yeah, I just didn't understand

why they were in this one. Yeah, I guess I guess

what you're saying makes sense as far as my least

favorite character for the first half. I don't

like Ariel. I don't Yeah, I didn't like her characterizations.

Yeah, I mean once she gets in involved a little

bit more later on I don't mind as much but for

the first half I just don't really care for Ariel

If I had to pick a favorite character, I guess

I'm going with Sebastian in this one. I don't

know I don't really love any of the characters

as they are in this movie. What about you? Don't

know I I Like see for me. It's not more of the

characters Specifically, it's like the older

characters It's not more of whether I like them

or not because I like them in the original movie,

but I like the progression of them like Flounder

I don't almost say cam Clark, but flounder flounder

has grown up, he's got kids of his, so I mean

it's doing the sequel thing of hey, time has

passed, let's show them what would have happened

after that first film. And that's what I liked

about Flounder. I still enjoy Kenneth Mars as

the voice of Triton. I like Triton in this, playing

the grandpa role. I thought that was really cool.

Actually, yeah, he's a good character. I almost

forgot about him. He might be one of my favorites

in this one. Yeah. I like Triton in this one

because he's not... Because you have Ariel and

Eric to be the parents this time. You have Triton

to be the doting grandfather, pretty much. No,

seriously. That's true. I agree with you there.

He is the doting grandfather. He's not... Think

being becoming a grandfather Like it really changed

his personality like he's softer well his personality

changed at the end of the first one as well because

he Realizes what he did to his daughter and he

realizes that he needed to make it right So I

mean King Triton or I always want to call him

Trident King Triton is in yeah King Triton is

he's not He never was really a character that

was a bad father. He's just a very strict father.

And then he realizes in the first film that he

had to, you know, let up a little bit on that

being strictness. Ariel's lame as a human. He's

overprotective. He's just overprotective. Yeah.

Kevin said Ariel is lame as a human. I'm sorry.

She kinda is. She kinda is, I'll be completely

- I'll agree with that 100%. She's kinda - I

need my Ariel to be a mermaid. She needs to be

a mermaid, like when she turns back into the

mermaid in number two to go find her daughter,

like, I'm like, yes! Yeah, she actually became

cooler just by turning back into a mermaid. Like,

go back. Go back to your roots. You're a mermaid.

I was like, is this a new character? Ariel was

in this movie? Yeah. Like Kevin said before,

he is a Rob Paulson fanboy, and I love Rob Paulson

as well, and it was great to talk to Rob, but

I'm sorry. I don't mind him voicing Prince Eric,

but it just, it didn't fit to me. Well, it's

not as good as the original. It's not like the

original, so it's not going to fit perfectly,

but I don't mind this one as much as I would

mind the Jim Cummings one. Well, yeah, but Jim

Cummings was Triton, so... No, that's what I'm

saying. I don't mind this replacement as much

as that one. I agree that it's not quite the

same, but for some reason it didn't bother me

as much as the new voice for King Triton. That's

what happens though in sequels, right? We've

been through this so many times. Sometimes they

get lucky and sometimes it's terrible. Yeah,

sometimes it's neither terrible nor good. It's

in the middle. How will we rate this one overall?

Jerika in the chat says that Ariel's got anxiety

as a human. She's got like, you know, six different

pill bottles for all her human symptoms. She's

paranoid. Yeah. Well, and to get to what, you

know, to what Tara said, as far as how would

we rate this one, I think the second movie here

is kind of in that middle ground where it doesn't,

as far as the casting goes, there's enough of

them that are the same and the ones that are

different don't bother me as much compared to

the third one. The third one just seems all out

of kilter for me. Yeah. Yeah, why don't we get

into the the actual show here Kevin with that

five -minute plot synopsis Five minutes not we

already said it reverse opposite polar opposite

of the first one. It's the same movie I think

I think this one was made during a writer strike.

I Honestly think there was nobody available to

come up with an actual plot for this one So they

just said, like, what if we do the first one

again and then try to disguise it so nobody knows?

But they didn't disguise it very well. I'm serious.

Like, this is the exact same freaking movie.

It's just another, it's just instead of Ariel,

it's her daughter going to be the exact same

thing. Except she's 13. Except she's 13, not

16. Only difference. But she's trying to get

to the sea instead of the land. It's the same

thing. Morgana is Ursula. Melody is Ariel. It's

the same freaking movie. Do we need to go over

the plot? Do we have to go over the plot? We

should at least go over the ending where Ariel

finally comes around. Shouldn't we mention what

Melody does in this film? Morgana basically like

the same thing with like Ursula, you know tricking

Ariel into you know, getting control the kingdom

same thing she gets melody to steal King King

Triton's Trident and She has no idea that that's

even her grandfather Right like she has no clue

that until Morgana is like you stole from your

own grandfather Exactly there in the first one

though another similarity in the first one. There

was the Ursula was keeping the thing in the in

like the shell or whatever, right? Yeah, like

she had like the shell that needed to be broken

so it could release Everything or whatever in

this way. I had voice. Yeah. Yeah had the voice

in it So just replace the shell now for the locket

in this one Yeah, and they're almost serving

the same function there, too The locket has her

milk has the mermaid history in it, right? Right?

So it's like, it's the truth, which is in that

locket, but Melody doesn't figure it out until

Morgana, like, explains it to her. Right. You

know, and it should have been her mom explaining

it to her, not, you know, this evil, for life

better word, bitch. You know, it's like, okay,

thanks, mom, for lying to me about, you know,

being half a mermaid. Yeah. And in this one,

instead of having the marriage or the wedding

to end everything, they tear down the wall that

has kept Melody and all the people from the water

for, you know, this entire time to try to protect

them. Yeah. The stupid seawall. Yeah, the seawall

that gets destroyed by the trident. Yep. And

the people start swimming. And it's like, woo,

everyone jump in the... In the ocean. That would

have been a great time for Jaws to show up. Dun

dun dun dun dun dun dun. Just what I've been

waiting for. It's feeding time. It's like I've

been waiting for that damn wall to come down.

Now I can eat everybody. Yeah, but I mean, you

know, Melody is a new character kind of, but

she really is just Ariel from the first one,

and there are little tiny differences maybe,

but I swear to God, they just didn't spend any

money to hire someone to write a movie. I know.

But you know what, I swear to God, Melody - We're

doing a lot of swearing. Melody looks more like

Eric than Ariel. That's true. Don't you agree?

Like, she has black hair. Yeah. And like, I don't

see Ariel in her. Maybe her eyes, but like -

Eric had all the dominant genes. Mermaid people

don't have dominant genes. Yeah. Except for,

well, going back to when you made the comment

about her being able to be underwater for that

long. Because she has Eric's jeans. And the part

I'm talking about is when Morgana first gets

her down there before she drops a little drop

that turns her into a mermaid. How long is she

down there chatting with her? For like five minutes.

Like it was a long time. Even at the beginning

when she's swimming around, I'm like, this girl

can keep her, she can hold her breath. I know.

She's an athlete. It's exactly like the scene

in Percy Jackson where Percy is sitting down

on the bottom of a pool just thinking. She also

has the ability to jump over walls that are twice

as tall as she is because she does that to get

in her window and she has super drying powers

because none of her clothes that she was swimming

with are wet. Ever. I see that in a lot of cartoons,

to be honest with you. Like, they magically go

in water, come out, and you're dry. Hair dryer.

You're just dry. I wish I had that power in real

life, you know, to come out of the water and

boom. Yes. And another thing, if you've ever

noticed in all the Little Mermaid movies, their

hair is perfectly styled underwater. Yep. Yep.

Yep. They never get wavy hair or frizzy hair

or curly hair after they're wet. That usually

happens to most people. You come out with soaking

wet hair and it's all gross, but in the cartoon

world, that can't happen. That doesn't exist.

No. You don't even leave a puddle where you walk.

You don't have to wipe your shoes off. It's great.

I don't want to live in the cartoon world. But

getting into the... Go ahead. Let's just... Let's

just face it, if the cartoon world existed in

real life, that'd be awesome. Yes. Because then

we would have these magical powers. And we would

be the rulers of everything, anyway. And we'd

never get pneumonia. That's true. The music in

this one, obviously, like we said before, it's

not the same as the movie, the first one, but

it wasn't intended to be, I don't think. But

there was eight songs down to the C. instead

of what the first one had. And we have Tip and

Dash and Octopus Garden for a moment, Give a

Little Love, Hot Hot Hot, Here on the Land and

Sea. There is an actual version of Part of Your

World that's played at the ending credits that's

performed by country singer Shelley Wright. But,

you know, the music's alright, it's not bad,

but it doesn't hold a candle to the first one.

Oh, definitely not. Yeah, only you know what

the only song I can say that I actually enjoyed

listening to is for a moment Mm -hmm. That's

the only one that I loved and maybe down to the

sea Under the sea same thing. Yeah, but yeah,

but for a moment I liked it just cuz it kind

of reminded me a part of your world but like

honestly the Freaking songs in this movie you

like they're nothing compared to number one.

Yeah Not even close. No, they're not. I'm sure

you'd like the next little bit of information

that we're sharing with people, Mike, as far

as your crush on a certain voice actor. I don't

have a crush on her, but anyway, why don't you

take that, Tara? All right. We have a, is it

an Annie nomination? Yeah. Yeah, we have an Annie

nomination for outstanding individual achievement

for a voice acting by a female performer in an

animated feature production goes to Tara Strong

as the voice of Melody. Lucky there. The one

award that they were nominated for as far as

this movie goes. Is the voice acting by Tara

Strong's Melody. Yeah. Go figure. Well, she did

do a good job as Melody. Yeah, she did. She did.

It should be absolutely no surprise that, uh...

As far as the reception goes for this one. Yeah

as all Disney sequels Oh, man reception the film

received a rather mixed to negative response

with many users noting that it was essentially

A retelling of the first film. It currently holds

a 46 % Rodden rating on the user community of

Rodden Tomatoes. No surprise. 90 % for the first

movie. Actually it's up to 56 % now. On the second

one it was 46 a little while ago and it's bumped

up to 56 but still pretty bad. No surprise though.

And of course, the film was released directly

to DVD on September 19th, 2000. The original

DVD release has been discontinued. A special

edition DVD with deleted song, Gonna Get My Wish,

and a new game was released on December 16th,

2008. That, unfortunately, has also gone back

into the vault. Well, the first one was just

completely discontinued. The second one's in

the vault. Maybe the first one had another cock

reference in it. It can stay in the vault. Maybe

you just said that, Mike. Wait, there's another

cock reference, number two? No, I said maybe

the first version of the one that's now discontinued

completely, maybe it had another cock reference

in the package. It means rooster. Oh, God. Yeah,

anyways. Up next, you're going to hear the trailer

for The Little Mermaid, Ariel's Beginning. Walt

Disney Pictures presents The Little Mermaid,

Ariel's Beginning. Discover the story you never

knew. There's more to this place than meets the

eye. How one daring mermaid transformed an entire

kingdom. Come on, Sebastian, let's go. That girl

is working on my last claw. When a friendship

was formed. My name's Flounder. Woohoo! And how

music came alive. The Little Mermaid, Ariel's

Beginning, an all -new movie on Disney DVD, coming

soon. The Little Mermaid, Ariel's Beginning is

the final film in the Little Mermaid franchise

that we'll be talking about today. We will also

be bringing up the animated series a little bit

later after this, probably in the outro when

we do Final Thoughts, so Tara, take it away with

the history lesson. Alright, The Little Mermaid

Ariel's Beginning is a 2008, of course, Disney

animated feature film and direct -to -video prequel

to the 1989 film The Little Mermaid. Directed

by Peggy Holmes, the film's story is set before

the events of the original film, where all the

music has been banned from the underwater kingdom

of Atlantica by King Triton. And his youngest

daughter Ariel attempts to challenge this law.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released

the film on August 26, 2008. The film openly

contradicts certain events of the prequel television

series, implying that it is an independent installment

of the Disney's Little Mermaid franchise. Up

until today, I had never seen this. I kind of

wish I didn't. I had heard of it. I had heard

of it way back when it was still titled as The

Little Mermaid 3. And I thought it was going

to be yet another story of future adventures

of Ariel, Eric, and Melody. And then I found

out that they were doing a prequel movie. And

I'm like, oh, god. That would have been great,

though, kind of in a way, if they would have

continued the whole, you know. Right. That's

what I'm saying. That's why I was excited, is

if it was going to be further adventures of,

you know, Grandpa Triton and Ariel and Eric and

that whole family. Yeah. Whereas now, this is

a pretty cool film. And the only thing that I

actually liked about this film is actually seeing

what happened to Ariel's mother, because it is

never mentioned in any of the previous films.

We just assume that she had a mom, something

happened to her, and Triton is here to raise

her by himself. Or maybe he just manufactured

her out of clay. I don't know. Anybody that gets

that reference gets 500 geek points. I'll stop

it with that. I have no problem with prequels.

I love the idea of prequels. I love the idea

of origin stories and stuff like that. But you

can't just openly contradict things. And not

only are they contradicting things from the television

series, but the characters are not acting as

the same characters in some of these. Mean some

of them are just different like different personalities

all together. It seems like I don't know I just

have too many problems I actually like at least

they tried to write a plot even if it's bad At

least they didn't try to copy the first two and

have like take three on the same story. Like

they attempted to write a story, but it just

has too many problems. There's so many problems

in it. Like I just, I don't like the prequel.

When I heard Little Mermaid 3 was coming out,

I was, you know, I was a little bit pumped. And

then when I, you know, saw, I saw the trailer

and I heard about it and I found out what it

was going to be about. I'm like, no. I'm like

no and then I saw the teaser, you know, they

had a teaser on one of the DVDs I was watching

of the whole scene where Ariel sees Sebastian

singing for the first time And I find out that

music is banned from Atlantica I'm like, what

kind of universe is this? Like really that's

the best you guys could come up with is that

music has been banned I'm like, that's how we're

gonna go back to Ariel's past, you know, before

she meets Eric and Ursula and all this crazy

stuff. Like, you don't even go back and explain

about Ursula. You just, you talk about, you know,

you talk about a whole music and her, like, her

mom, like, yeah, I get why they brought the mom

in. That was a good choice. But instead of, you

know, going and explaining about how Ursula,

you know, why Ursula wanted, you know, to take

over the kingdom, you have this other mermaid

fish person looking after... Ariel and the and

the girls and she kind and she's evil as well

see Disney had set up with the with the release

of the two -disc platinum edition of The Little

Mermaid when they had that deleted scene saying

that Ursula was his was Triton's sister They

had a perfect setup to create a young version

of Ursula to actually show her in the kingdom

and show how she got banished Instead of what

they did introducing this Marina Del Rey bitch,

who is a poor man's Ursula at best, even lower

than that, I think Disney made a huge mistake

in not making her a young Ursula. Yeah, they

made so many mistakes in this one. I wanted to

like it better because I'm like, hey, it's got

an actual plot, but then I'm like, wait a second,

they banned music and that's the plot? like I

don't know and then some of these characters

I mean getting into the characters a little bit

obviously you have King Triton and Ariel and

you have all her sisters who are annoying as

all hell most of them you still get Sebastian

and Flounder and then you get this like band

group of turtles and different octopus and stingrays

and different types of fish and then like we

said Marina Del Rey and this Benjamin character

What I want to know what kind of damn fish he

is Manatee oh my god Manatee Terrible it looks

terrible like the worst personality ever The

only thing I will say positively about this film

Outside of the fact that they replaced Ken Mars

or is it Kenneth Mars? Yeah, Kenneth Mars Outside

of the fact they replaced him with Jim Cummings

as King Triton's voice uh... i will say that

this voice cast stellar i hate it reads like

a who's who between jody benson sally field thank

god samuel you're right reprised as some as in

this would have been a completely different movie

if the sebastian didn't have the same voice actor

and then as in some of the sisters you have uh...

jennifer hale grade a lot of terror strong jeff

bennett was benjamin regardless of how we feel

about benjamin the manatee I think Jeff Bennett

did a fairly good job with what he was given.

Um, Ron Paulson as the ink spot in Octopus and

Swifty the Shrimp, I thought that was hilarious.

Yeah, him and Kevin Michael Richardson as the

band are pretty good together. Yeah. I did find

the sisters annoying. I know it's not the voice

actors fault, but the way they were portrayed

is just so, it was like fingers on a chalkboard

or some fingernails on a chalkboard to me. It's

just, I don't know, it was great and annoying.

I know they were good voices, but, ugh. I don't

ever want to see Ariel's sisters again. I'm with

you there, ugh. Or Benjamin. Benjamin, ugh. Honestly,

just can't believe that character. Yeah. I just

wanna, I wanna, like, he's so, like, I'm trying

to, like, think of the right word to describe

that character, but he's just so blah. He's like

an amoeba. Yeah, he's so blah and, like, he's

just there and he's so monotone, I'm just, okay.

Does anybody see a point for him to be in this

film? He may as well be a brick wall. He might

as well not even be there, just like, I don't

know. The only characters worth anything in this

movie are Ariel and Sebastian and, I guess, Flounder

and... And the band. The band, I guess, is alright.

Even King Triton's worse in this one, like I've

mentioned a couple times. The problem I have

with Triton is that... First of all in the flashback

scenes, it's nice to see the beginning as far

as That he was actually married. He was very

much in love with his wife My main problem with

Triton in this they didn't give him a different

look other than giving him a brown hair and a

brown beard It's the same beard though. It's

the same hairstyle though. It's not like it He

doesn't, the only signs of aging on Triton are

Triton between this movie and the other movies

is the fact that his beard turns white, for Christ's

sake. Yeah. Well, and we're kind of retard bands

of music. Okay, well, as far as that goes, I

can kind of see it because his wife died, it

was this whole connection he had with her and

he was distraught over the loss of his wife.

What? That was a stupid connection to make. I'm

just saying I Don't I don't know someone close

to you dies and it has something to associate.

I don't know he just died I'm not buying it I've

never Had some type of weird connection like

that where I did something completely illogical

out It's just extreme like it's extreme right

there You know and then for so many years to

still be holding on to it even when your own

daughters are You know, wanting to be exposed,

I don't know, it was a terrible plot. It's almost

somehow worse than the retelling of the first

movie. We can just end the episode right here

and be like, crappy, crappy movie, let's not

even bother talking about it. So, I'm assuming

all of us have favorite characters, it's just

Ariel and Sebastian. Sebastian. Yeah. For me,

it's Ariel Sebastian Flounder in the band. Although

I don't care for Flounder's voice actor in this,

I like the kid from the first one. Even Cam Clark

could have come back for this role and put a

younger spin on the voice that he did in the

second movie. But I don't care for the kid that

they got for this one. Please the worst characters

is Marina Del Rey and all the sisters. Yeah.

Oh my god There's a few sisters that aren't as

annoying as the rest, but I can't remember which

ones are which did anybody else want to slap

her or it's just me She's the worst villain out

of the three Princess Atina, I believe is the

oldest one is the one that was in the dark orange.

Yeah type and she was the least one that I wanted

to smack so hard. Are those the same names from

the first movie? Yup. They are? Yup. Wow. It

just goes to show you how much I didn't care

for that first opening scene and paid no attention

to what their names were in the first film. Because

you couldn't even stand listening to the song.

I know exactly. I like the fact that this one

had similar things as the first one as far as

the production goes. It says it was originally

scheduled for 2007 release. But when this one

guy took over Disney Animation, more resources

were spent on completing Cinderella 3 instead,

so it kind of got put on the back burner again.

Hold on now, you can't just say when this one

guy, because that one guy was John Lasseter,

who was the main guy behind, one of the main

guys behind Pixar and Toy Story and all those

films. That's not on my radar, so. Well, Cinderella

3 was more important than the... Apparently,

I don't think they spent it. The thing that cracks

me up is that they said that more resources were

spent on Cinderella 3 than Little Mermaid 3.

I don't think any resources were spent on either

of them. No. You can listen to that and I forget

what episode number it is, but our Cinderella

episode. Like maybe you just enhanced one of

them and just made one of them actually decent.

Yeah, go back and listen to episode 82 and you'll

hear our rant on that. That's ironic. That is

extremely ironic. They spent more money on Cinderella

3, but they both ended up being really crappy.

Well, Cinderella 3 wasn't... It wasn't bad. No,

it wasn't that bad. Yeah, it wasn't that bad.

But again, it wasn't like Disney classic type

of... No. Not at all. Basically, like I said

before, I think I'm just going to cover the plot

really quick, and I'm not really going to read

too much off this, but basically what you have

here is you have a young Ursula with eels that

don't talk, thank God, with this weird manatee

looking thing, Benjamin, who wants to be, she

wants Sebastian's job. So, like I said before,

Disney missed out on making this character, Marina

Del Rey, a young Ursula. And I wouldn't mind

if Sally Field had voiced a young version of

Ursula. I don't think that would have been such

a bad voice cast for that character. But they

didn't go that way. They went with this Marina

Del Rey witch and just, oh God. Oh, I hate this

character. I had nightmares about this character.

So the basic... Overall plot is is that we get

this flashback of King Triton and Queen Athena

Which they totally ripped that off You know and

they're all happy and everything else and this

that the other thing and all of a sudden this

pirate ship comes up Queen Athena gets crushed

He bans music Ariel sneaks out finds flounder

Yeah, yeah, Flounder finds this music club and

then it basically follows the first film because

Triton comes in, everybody disappears, he locks

everybody up. It's just, oh God. It's not even

making any sense to me anymore. We have a bad

person that just wants Sebastian's job because

apparently that's a great job. And then we have

a king that bans music and Ariel... joins a band

and wants music back. That's all you need to

know. If you're not already turned off from it,

I don't know what's wrong with you. I did though,

as far as the music goes, I actually did like

the music in this one maybe better than the second

one. Yeah, I did too. And maybe that's just because

we have the whole band and it's all the whole

movie centered about music. but I kinda like

that. I mean, I don't remember a lot of the songs,

but I just remember while I was watching them

liking some of them. Not like I liked the first

one, obviously, but I do like the songs a little

better than the second one. Everyone else is

falling asleep. Yeah, no, we're not falling asleep.

No, I'm still here. I blame Ustream. But yeah,

the music in this makes absolute sense to this

film's story. It follows the film. I didn't feel

that... The line I didn't feel like I've said

before work where people just jump in and say

hey It's time to throw in this song. I mean,

yeah, they did mention conga lines But I mean

the music fit this film better than it did the

second film Yeah definitely So getting into the

legacy segments What year was that? Was there

a year on that or no? 2008. The DVD became the

top -selling DVD for the week ending August 31st,

2008. Apparently nothing else came out that week.

We should probably go back and look and see what

else came out that week. It couldn't have been

anything good. I cannot believe this. Reviews

of this film have generally been positive, though

the new villain, Marina Del Rey, has been criticized

as being a poor follow -up to Ursula. The animation

quality of the film has been praised as being

impressive for a direct -to -video and comparable

to that of the original film. I don't agree with

that, but the music has also been criticized

as being unmemorable with one review stating

that to label this a musical would be false advertising.

Not an understatement. Yeah, that's not an understatement.

That's 63 % on Rotten Tomatoes, just for the

record. Wow. Better than number two. Go figure.

So it gets better reviews than number two, usually,

by about everybody, but still does not feel great.

Like I said, there's only a few things, a few

problems that I have with this. Like Kevin said,

the sisters and Marina Del Rey. I have a problem.

I love Jim Cummings. He's an awesome voice actor.

I have a problem with them choosing him to replace

Kenneth Mars as the voice of Triton. I have a

few plot problems as well, but overall, I really

enjoyed this movie. For the most part. I mean,

just taking it on the face of what it is. Ignoring

all the plot. Well, I mean, I like the plot as

far as them showing what happened to her mother,

because like I said before... That was the first

five minutes. What? That was the first five minutes.

Well, still. You like movies for five minutes.

And then it goes to the rest of the plot. On

December 16, 2008, the film was released in the

Little Mermaid trilogy box set that includes

the Little Mermaid Platinum Edition and the Little

Mermaid 2 Return of the Sea, but unfortunately

has gone back into the Disney vault as well.

We are going to take a quick break, you're going

to hear some commercials, you're going to hear

some IGN bitches running and screaming for their

lives, and some other stuff as well, so we'll

be back. I am from the Geekcast Radio Network

and I have been sent from the cartoon gods to

do away with your crappy top 100 list and to

enlist all of the other geek gods from across

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and forever put you peons at IGN to shame. So

go tell all the other morons at IGN to take cover

Because the Geekcast Radio Network's Top 100

Animated Series of All Time list is coming soon!

This is Dr. Wily, and I will destroy Mega Man

while listening to Tooncast! This is Megatron,

leader of the Predacons. And if you're hearing

this, it means the Beast Unleashed Podcast is

now over. Yes. In the Beast Unleashed, myself,

Steve Megatron Phillips, Pecan Court Michael

Wilson, and TFG1 Mike review Beast Wars and Beast

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Yes. In the podcast, we interview voice actors,

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between everything in between. So, if you're

interested... You can tune into the now finished

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.com Excellent! Yes! Do you like retro shows?

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Then tune into Telecast GeekCastRadio .com's

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we revisit some of your favorite shows, such

as Clarissa Explains It All, Salute Your Shorts,

Saved By The Bell, and much, much more, only

on GeekCastRadio .com. Sword of Omens, give me

sight beyond sight. I see a new episode of Tooncast

coming this week. What about the Tooncast? So,

final thoughts on the Little Mermaid franchise,

Tara? Ugh, you know what? It's good. It's a good

franchise. I kind of wish there wasn't a franchise,

but it's a good story. I wish they would have

stopped at number one because it was fine. Could

have done without number two and definitely didn't

need the prequel. But I have nothing. I don't

have anything that bad to say about it. I love

Little Mermaid. It'll always remain one of my

favorite Disney films and it'll always have a

special place in my heart. So, Ariel, thank you.

I don't think, for me, I love the first one.

I love seeing what happened to everyone in the

second one as far as, like, what happened after

the first movie. Because there's some movies

that I'll watch that I'll be like, wait, that's

it? You know, I feel like I want more to know

more about what happened afterwards. So in that

respect, I like the sequel. And the prequel,

like I said before, I like, like Kevin said,

the first five minutes. Five minutes, and then

it's like, okay, what about the rest of the film?

What about you, Kevin? Well, I mean, if we're

just going to look at these three films individually

and try to, you know, just talk about those,

I mean, as far as the prequel and the sequel,

I don't really care for any, either one of them.

The only reason I'll say that I like the second

one better is because I guess since it copied

the plot of the first one and the first one actually

had a good plot, that somehow by default makes

the second one a little bit better than the third

one. But these two movies do nothing but prove

and reinforce my feelings about Disney sequels.

That's all that they do. I mean, Disney sequels

are not needed at all. So I mean, if you're going

to ask me about the Little Mermaid franchise,

I'm going to avoid that question because I don't

want to say anything negative about Little Mermaid.

But if you're just going to ask me about the

actual Little Mermaid first film, it's easily

in my top five or ten animated movies of all

time. It's just a great movie. It's one that,

for me, ushered in a new era where I was interested

in animation in the movie form again, in a big

scale, and I'm so happy that it did good because

You know, those four movies that came out in

the early, you know, 89 in the early 90s are

the greatest, in my opinion, some of the greatest

movies ever made, animated -wise. Yes. Definitely

agree 100%. Yeah, but sequels can run hell, like

I said from the beginning. Yes. And they can

stay in the vault. They can get lost in the vault.

I was right, Mike. Disney sequels suck. No, not

all of them. Not all of them. Just the one...

90 -some percentile. Just like 75 % of them do.

You're being nice. I'm being nice now. Alright,

so thank you for joining us here on Tooncast.

There's several ways to get in contact with us

to leave feedback for the show. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com. You can comment on each episode

post. Leave the show's feedback in iTunes. Please

do that. Speaking of which, we did receive two

new reviews. I'm only going to cover one in this

episode because the other one... I'm going to

cover when we get to our Disney Animation Spotlight

roundup at the end of episode 90. So this first

one is Informal and Entertaining. It's a five

-star review from Ilovealf88. It was posted on

January 12, 2011. I especially like the shows

on Disney and Hanna -Barbera properties. Why

all the hate from Kevin on Dexter's lab? That

show has always amused me. Now, hold on, hold

on, hold on. We've been over this before, since

this person I love, Alf, is probably new to listening

to it, and this person's probably catching up,

probably hasn't heard us go over and over and

over about this, but I love Dexter, it was a

cartoon of the time, it was what was on at the

time. Kevin doesn't like it. Take the floor.

I'm just going to say what I said from the beginning,

which is the reason I hate Dexter's is the same

reason I hate most of the crap that came out

the same time period. Number one and most of

all is I cannot stand that animation, the aesthetic

of the animation and the character designs. I

absolutely hate that style of animation. It looks

like people are lazy. It looks like a bunch of

preschoolers or elementary school people did

it. It looked like it was half -assed done and

that's why I don't like it. I would rather it

either be the cell animation that was in the

80s and early 90s or just go straight to CGI.

I hate the look of Dexers and I wish I... had

a list of all the other shows that had that same

type of animation so I'd not always just pinpointing

on Dexter's because it has nothing to do with

the actual Dexter show. It has to do with that

whole era and the type of animation that was

being used and I'll just leave it at that. I

did watch a show though and it was crappy too.

I agree with you. Dexter's live. Thank you. That

animation. I hate that style of animation so

that's where my problem lies and I will hopefully

put that to bed. He's like a square. It's the

same reason I don't like the South Park animation,

and it's nothing against the South Park show.

I don't like that style of animation. It does

look half us. I'll agree with you. It looks half

us. Follow us on Twitter. The show name there

is GCR and Dunecast minus DODO Mike. Tara, what

is your Twitter? Tara Blair. And Kevin? Optimus

Solo. Yeah, finally. You changed it. Yes. Yes,

become a fan of us on Facebook go to Facebook

.com slash geek cast radio network You can call

our voicemail line tell us to show you living

the message for and your name 502 -526 -5821

We hope you enjoyed this episode of tooncast

I wish you'll join us next time when the Disney

spotlight will continue and round up with The

Lion King franchise. We will also be rounding

up the entire animation spotlight on the Disney

films we've done here on Tooncast, so expect

a long episode. For now, I am TFG or Mike with

Optimus Solo from BehindTheVoiceActors .com and

Terra the Rising Star. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Dun dun dun. Dun dun dun. That

wasn't such a train wreck.