In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea is in my opinion, one of the worst direct to video sequels ever made.The Bad: 1. The characters are not as likable as they were in the original. Melody is an atrocious character. I think she is an infantilised version of Ariel, in terms of both personality and appearance, also very annoying and unlikable, Ariel plays as a boring and generic mother figure, Morgana is a pale imitation of Ursula, and Eric goes from a fairly likable character to a boring character, Flounder plays as a boring and generic father figure, King Triton served no purpose in the film and Tip and Dash are a blatant rip-off of Timon and Pumbaa, the list goes on. 2. The music, both the score and songs are terrible. Unlike the original, where Alan Menken provides a beautiful film score and some good songs, with Part of Your World being the best song in the original. 3. The story is way too similar to the original, only differences being story told in reverse and being dumbed down for younger audiences.The Good: 1. The only characters in this film I like and am interested in are Sebastian and Undertow. They both give me a chuckle. 2. The animation is at least pretty good, but that is not saying much. Ariel is still very beautiful, just like in the much superior original and prequel and television series, her character design has always got a good balance of youth and maturity, and that is the reason why I think she is gorgeous. Keep in mind that I said "beautiful", not "hot", since "hot" has a sexual connotation to it, which I do not like or condone the use of the word and think it is inappropriate. And this is coming from a male who is a supporter of gender equality. Just because I commented on one female character's appearance does not mean I condone anyone to catcall other women, which I don't, because it's wrong. But I digress. 3. The voice acting is solid, with Jodi Benson reprising as Ariel, Kenneth Mars as King Triton, Edie McClurg as Carlotta, Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Buddy Hackett as Scuttle, Rene Auberjonois as Chef Louis and Pat Carroll as Morgana as returning talents, all do a decent job. New talents include Tara Strong as Melody, which is OK, I guess, Clancy Brown as Undertow is hilarious, Max Casella as Tip, Stephen Furst as Dash, Cam Clarke as Flounder, Rob Paulsen as Eric and Kay E. Outer as Grimsby all do a solid job. Not enough to save the movie, sadly. 4. The best part about this film is that it is much better than any of the English-language dubs of Studio Ghibli, which are highly nationalised versions of Japanese animated films, as well as capitalising on the fame of Hollywood movie stars, the salt in that particular wound. But with The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, being a direct to video film at least keeps it true to its identity, as well as trying to entertain me, even if it fails to do so. Also, watching it in English, the original language, has international cohesion to it, which is a good thing, but that is not enough to save this movie, unfortunately. So overall, watching Studio Ghibli films in the English dubs is much, much worse than watching this movie. This movie still sucks, nonetheless.Overall, this an awful direct to video sequel that I do not recommend to anyone. Watch the original film, prequel or television series. They are much better than this pile of garbage.

I watched this film from the beginning at a summer leisure scheme when I was 14 and it had a promising start but I couldn't watch all of it because other young people were playing noisily around me. Upon watching the Nostalgia Chick's 'Top 10 Worst Disney Sequels,' where she placed this at no. 6, I decided to give it another try after having purchased the triple DVD pack containing the Diamond Edition of the original, this one and the prequel. When I watched this in full, I was more satisfied with it than my first viewing despite its flaws.The animation is smooth and good for a sequel but the colours are overly bright in certain scenes and hurt my eyes. While the majority of the original voice cast have returned (unlike the 'Peter Pan' and' 'Cinderella' sequels), Flounder's voice is significantly different from that in the original since he is older and it sounds as if he has a cold but his children are cute as is baby Melody. While I'm on the subject of the voice work, Undertow sounded a little like Mr Krabs from 'SpongeBob SquarePants' since they were both voiced by Clancy Brown (also the voice of Dr Neo Cortex in the Crash Bandicoot games). The voices from Ariel and Eric were fine but I found Melody's a bit grating to start with. In spite of this, I liked the concept of her wanting to go under the sea because it made me see her as a reversed version of her mother and I liked her song 'For A Moment' especially the funny line about her wrinkly fingers. The beginning and ending songs were rather good but the one by Tip and Dash (who I thought were Morgana's assistants before I saw this film) was mostly forgettable and I prefer the original 'Part of Your World' to the version played over the end credits. Further to the original, there are parts of it that this film reminded me of such as Melody forgetting about her 12th birthday party (it made no sense that she was referred to as a teenager) whilst collecting sea artifacts in a similar manner to Ariel forgetting about the concert whilst collecting human bits and bobs and Melody swimming in loops during 'For a Moment' just like Ariel did during 'Part of Your World.' Another notable reference to the original is the scene where Chef Louie chases Sebastian at Melody's party while the orchestra plays the Can-Can music. If I could pick out any other gripes, these would be the dialogue being cheesy in parts (especially Morgana hoping she hasn't missed the cake and ice cream at the celebration of Melody's arrival), the blinking sound effects being a tad cartoonish for this film due to it being made by TV animators and Cloak and Dagger being silly assistants to Morgana (probably the most uninspired Disney villain since she looks like a slimmer version of Ursula) since they chuckle every so often, don't talk and are not as creepy as Flotsam and Jetsam. There are more positive aspects of the dialogue such as "old fish tales" being the sea equivalent to old wive's tales and a tuna colada being an underwater version of a piña colada and Undertow was more intimidating than Cloak and Dagger.All in all this isn't quite as good as the original but it still had most of the original voice actors and a decent storyline. 8/10.

It wasn't good. The characters were underdeveloped and the only personality were from the memories I had of the previous movie which contrasted with the 'new' personalities (or lack thereof). I seriously thought the opening scene was a nightmare by Ariel because of how absurd it was. It was serious. It just reminded me of all the annoying characters on the Disney channel-everyone is hyperactive and the story jumps from action to embarrassing scenes without any really connection.The most disappointing part was the horrible songs-not catchy, not amazing. In the original Ariel had an amazing and powerful voice and all the song are catchy and fun. You remember them and want to sing them. But the songs in this movie weren't creative in the least; it's as if they're talking in a annoying sing-song voice-quite weakly, disappointing. I don't have that want-to-sing-them feeling you normally get from a Disney movie.It's as if not one wanted to do this movie, so they barely made an effort . . . this movie would needs a new story line, new catchy songs and more warmth and enthusiasm without the annoying "look at me! look at me! I'm so annoying!" mentality of this generation of Disney. :'(

I highly recommend the stunning original, and the inspirational TV series, but I don't recommend this, I'm sorry.The animation was a lot of the time very flat and too garish, especially in the scenes with Morgana. Speaking of Morgana, never have I seen such a bland villainess. Ursula scared me so much, as I repeatedly watched the Little Mermaid. Morgana was just a wannabe, which is always ill-advised Disney. Why didn't they recreate the Evil Manta, who after Ursula, was the most convincing of the villains in the TV series? The characters were a mixed bag. Ariel was alright, though rather childish,but Melody was annoying at times. (I did think the story, on a parallel with the original, was rather unoriginal and rushed despite some effective scenes) Sebastian was the best character here, but he was also ruined to some extent. So was Scuttle and Flounder. Scuttle wasn't funny, whereas Flounder put me off with his nasal tone, since when did Flounder have a nasal tone of voice? Tip and Dash were also uninspired, and Undertow wasn't mean enough. And the flying bat creatures? They weren't even scary, they were nothing like flotsam and Jetsam, who were scary! Even the chef wasn't funny. Him chasing Sebastian was badly underplayed, really unfunny.However, there were some positives. Kenneth Mars does a great job as King Triton, the only character I cared for completely, but you don't see him that much. The songs weren't bad but nowhere near as good as the original, and I love Jodi Benson's voice, though "For a moment" sounded a little like the song featured in the episode "wish upon a starfish" or the beginning of it did anyway. The beginning wasn't bad either, in fact the beginning was one of the better scenes of the movie. Some aspects of the story worked nicely, but I wish they showed less of Tip and Dash. The climax with Morgana was the highlight of the film, with some really colourful segments.In conclusion, a sometimes colourful, but hugely disappointing sequel to one of Disney's finest. Mind you, the Cinderella and Jungle Book sequels were worse. My sister will probably hate me when she reads this. 5/10, maybe too harsh? Bethany Cox