Ariel Finds Common Ground With Triton's Old Friend in Treasures of Old

Disney’s Storytime Treasures Library is a charming collection of 18 picture books featuring characters from different Disney movies. The seventh volume, Treasures of Old, focuses on Ariel, the headstrong daughter of undersea monarch King Triton. Little Mermaid tie-in books are interesting because they are almost always prequels; after all, if they were sequels, Ariel wouldn’t be a little mermaid anymore. Presumably, this book is meant to take place around the time of the mid-1990s television series.

Lisa Ann Marsoli wrote several of the books in this series, and I’ve come to discover that she is very focused on the theme of friendship, particularly on characters transcending their differences to forge some sort of bond. She repeats the basic storyline in multiple books, which slightly lessens its impact; while I tend to love stories of this type, she doesn’t vary the plot that much from book to book. Considering that the intention is for children to read all of the books in the series, I see this as a weakness since the similarities might bore young readers, and this particular book isn’t quite as well-constructed as others following the same basic pattern.

King Triton is worried because another merking is coming to visit and wants to meet his daughters. He leaves Sebastian the task of giving his daughters a crash course in the social graces, particularly hoping that Ariel will be on her best behavior. For one thing, Triton acts as though he has never before held a banquet for a dignitary. This strikes me as pretty implausible. Ariel doesn’t look significantly younger than she does in the movie, so she’s probably about 15. Has Triton just been a complete recluse all these years?

I also find it rather bothersome that the beginning of the story seems to make a big deal about the fact that Sebastian is the court composer and that he is planning a musical surprise for Triton and his guest, yet when the big day actually arrives, the book makes no mention of it at all. Why bring it up only to ignore it later on? Then there is also the strange format of the poem in the back of the book, which departs from the usual ABCBDEFE format by rhyming the first and fourth lines instead of the second and fourth. It really doesn’t work for the format.

This is a fairly cute story that warns against judging people before you’ve met them. While part of the issue throughout the story is Ariel’s fidgety nature, which makes it hard for her to concentrate on etiquette lessons, the underlying problem is that she is certain the banquet will be boring and that she and her father’s guest will have nothing in common, which turns out not to be true at all.

The book doesn’t really take Ariel to task for her disobedience or lack of punctuality; the focus instead is on the joy of unexpected connections. Ariel’s actions, frustrating as they sometimes are, seem true to character. This book really doesn’t show her at her best, but she eventually takes the trouble to be gracious. The writing is pretty simple, with a paragraph or two on most pages and few words that would pose any problems for early readers. The illustrations are vibrant, effectively capturing the beauty of the undersea kingdom and the personalities of the characters. The only character who seems a bit off is King Mariner, who looks distractingly similar to Triton but with darker hair. It might have been a good idea to make him look a little more distinct.

While Treasures of Old uses beloved characters to demonstrate the fact that a generation gap can be bridged with a bit of effort, the story doesn’t come across as well as it could, so I only mildly recommend it. There are greater treasures to be found in this Disney library.

Disney Princesses Celebrate Inner Beauty

One of the most popular sub-groups within the world of Disney characters is the Disney princesses. This is a group that includes Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan (despite not technically being a princess), Tiana and the brand-new tenth member, Rapunzel, who joins the last three in being a late addition to the group. The Princesses have an extensive line of merchandise, including toys, clothes, calendars, books and videos. I recently watched one of these, Princess Stories Volume Three: Beauty Shines From Within.

Given the title, I was surprised to see that Belle, the protagonist of Beauty and the Beast, does not appear on this DVD. Instead, it focuses upon Ariel, Cinderella and Jasmine. Meanwhile, a game in the bonus features involves Ariel, Jasmine and Mulan. The DVD includes three shorts, each of which can be accessed separately, though I watched them straight through. Each includes an introduction by the starring princess in which she directly addresses the audience while speaking from inside of a magic mirror. These segments veer toward condescending and moralizing, and the quality of animation isn’t quite as good. However, I found two of the three main stories quite enjoyable.

Giggles - In this episode of the Little Mermaid television show, Ariel’s tendency to get the giggles annoys an ornery blowfish who speaks in rhyme and uses his magical powers to cast curses. Consequently, he puts a spell on her that causes avalanches to occur whenever she laughs. What’s more, if she tells anyone of her affliction, the effect will be heightened. This is a fun story, and I especially like the way stodgy Sebastian, who initially also is irritated with Ariel for giggling during class, tries to get the princess to lighten up after he notices her somber demeanor. He even sings a fun song about the joy of laughter. The story builds to a satisfying climax that leads to deeper understanding between Ariel and her antagonist.

Cinderella Story - Cinderella is perhaps the most famous of all fairy tales, so even children who have not seen the Disney movie will probably be familiar with the story in one form or another. Hence, this segment, which is simply a recap of the movie, is likely to bore many kids, especially since it has a stilted quality to it. Cinderella narrates a bit, then a page turns and we see a few seconds of a scene, then she narrates some more. The effect is jarring, and I can see a lot of kids wanting to skip past this one.

Eye of the Beholder - This is an episode of the Aladdin television series featuring recurring villain Mirage, an extraterrestrial sorceress with the power to change other people’s appearances. Somewhat reminiscent of the musical Once On This Island, this is the story that best fits the theme of the video as Mirage makes a wager with Phasir, a blind, benevolent magician, that Aladdin will stop loving Jasmine if she ceases to become beautiful. After Mirage tricks her into using some magical skin cream, Jasmine begins transforming into a snake-like creature. Aladdin joins her, Genie, Abu, Iago and Carpet on a quest to find the mystical antidote that grows on a faraway tree, demonstrating at every turn how wrong Mirage is about the frailties of love.

More tales can be found in the Princess Story Builder Game in the special features. Viewers have the opportunity to pick one of three stories, one set in Agrabah, one in Atlantica and one in Ancient China. At several points in the story, kids can use the remote to indicate which of three choices they would like to have the character make. This then directs the course of the tale, though I’m not sure just how much actually changes as I tried each story only once. The stories also incorporate games that require answering three questions correctly in order to progress to the conclusion. These are fun but also rather tedious because there is so much lag time, and it’s easy to lose patience with it.

While I think that an original story in the place of the Cinderella recap would have made for a more interesting video, the Ariel and Jasmine stories are engaging, and apart from the lag time involved at decision points and game segments, the story builder is a fun game. This DVD could be better, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to young Disney Princess enthusiasts.

Ursula Unveils a Musical Plot in The Magic Melody

On a recent trip to the library, I discovered a line of books entitled The Little Mermaid’s Treasure Chest. As a fan of The Little Mermaid, I found these little books intriguing, and I checked out several, only to be a bit puzzled about the timeline and characters I’d never encountered before. A search led me to discover that this book series was born after the television series Little Mermaid’s Island, a proposed collaboration between Jim Henson and Disney that would have had a human Ariel and puppets playing the side characters, fell through. The stories planned for that series were turned into the books for this series, which seem to have only been available to those who ordered them through the mail as part of a special club.

In The Magic Melody, the only characters present are those we already know from the movie. Flounder’s twin sister, who is pink and named Sandy, and a dragon named Scales appear in several of the other books, but here it’s just Ariel, Sebastian, Triton, Ursula and her faithful eels. Flounder also makes a very brief appearance. The story takes place at some point before the movie but after the television series that followed. Ariel looks about the same age as in the movie, so I would guess that all of the stories take place within that same year.

Ursula is plotting to take over the ocean. Her latest plot involves tricking Ariel into delivering King Triton’s magical trident to her. She’ll accomplish this by leaving Ariel a mysterious gift: an enchanted music box that will hypnotize the listener after three repetitions of its song. Ariel takes the bait, but can something be done to stop her from falling under Ursula’s spell?

The trouble with prequels is that it’s very hard to maintain perfect continuity. It was always my impression from The Little Mermaid that Ariel had only ever heard of Ursula, but in this book, they speak to each other. Ariel is perfectly aware of who she is, and she knows that Ursula has every intention of taking over her father’s command. This is not her only attempt in the series. This seems to me to change the relationship between Ariel and Ursula; the savvy mermaid we see in this series shouldn’t have been taken in by the sea witch months later.

Still, this is a fun story about friends looking out for each other and outwitting a nefarious villain. The coloring is vibrant, and the characters all look very much the same as they do in the movie. Most of the pages have one or two paragraphs of text set on top of the picture, and I’d put the reading level somewhere in the 7-to-10-year-old range.

For fans of The Little Mermaid, The Magic Melody is a charming read. Continuity issues aside, this is a series that Ariel lovers can treasure.

Flounder and Ursula Have Their Eyes on the Same Prize in An Undersea Wish

In one of my favorite episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit anxiously awaits the moment when his prized rutabaga potato will bloom. It’s a much-anticipated event, and the magic is in the rare blossoming of this fascinating plant. In An Undersea Wish, a book in The Little Mermaid’s Treasure Chest mail-order series published in 1992, Flounder is similarly entranced by a beautiful plant that almost never blooms, but his interest is not purely aesthetic.

Flounder is aware of the legend that when the flaminia blooms, whoever is watching will be granted a wish – but only if he is watching it happen all by himself. He believes that he is the only undersea resident to know about the legend and realize that this is the day he must go on a flower stake-out, but there is someone else who hopes to receive a wish from the amazing flower: Ursula, the sea witch. She sends her eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, to tell Flounder that Ariel is in trouble in hopes that this will convince him to vacate the premises. It works like a charm, but will Flounder be able to make it back to the flower before it blooms so he can stop Ursula from wishing to take over for King Triton as undersea ruler?

I’ve always found Flounder a very sweet character, so I liked that he gets a book to himself here. His twin sister Sandy, exclusive to this series, also makes an appearance, as does Sebastian, but this is mostly about his friendship with Ariel and his willingness to give up his dream to ensure his friend’s safety. Of course, Flounder, being the insecure little guy he is, has made one of those wishes that is basically already true, and he just doesn’t realize it. He wants to be “famous and important and loved” before it’s all said and done, he’ll realize that he is all three, especially the last, which is, after all, the most worthwhile of the three.

Of the three books in this series that I have read thus far, An Undersea Wish is my favorite. Continuity issues seem to ripple throughout the book series, but aside from another confrontation with Ursula involving Ariel, there’s nothing too glaring here. I’m curious as to whether Flounder’s twin was ever officially introduced; here, she’s really just a background character.

Like the rest of the books in this series, this one is a hardcover, with a cover design that resembles a golden treasure chest on the outside and has a significant scene from the book inside. It’s a pretty small book, wider than it is tall, and each page contains a paragraph or two of text. The illustrations are colorful, and all of the characters are rendered well. I especially like Flounder’s varied expressions.

If you’re a fan of the shy, loyal Flounder, chances are you’ll love An Undersea Wish.

Love Blooms Between Fish and Boy in Ponyo

I’ve been a fan of The Little Mermaid since the Disney version hit theaters when I was in second grade, and I’ve heard many accolades directed at Hayao Miyazaki, the man who helmed such critically acclaimed films as Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. Hence, I was very curious about Ponyo, a Japanese re-imagining of the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a mermaid who dreams of becoming human.

I’ve seen foreign films dubbed into English before, but one thing that makes Ponyo different is the fact that so many of the voice actors are familiar, including Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin and Betty White. Meanwhile, the children at the heart of the movie are from famous families; Frankie Jonas is brother to the Jonas Brothers, while Noah Lindsey Cyrus is Miley Cyrus’s sister. Having so many well-known voices in the movie was fun, albeit slightly distracting as I tried to figure out which actor was attached to each of the characters.

One identification that never eluded me was Neeson as Fujimoto, Ponyo’s overprotective father who has the force of the ocean at his command. He is similar in many ways to King Triton, his counterpart in the Disney film, but the character I kept thinking of was Bryan Mills, the distraught, dangerous dad in the 2008 thriller Taken. Like Bryan, he goes to extraordinary extremes to retrieve his daughter after she vanishes, causing me to conclude that whether he is in live-action or animated form, you simply do not mess with Liam Neeson’s daughter. In Ponyo, the whole town must pay the price for Ponyo’s disappearance as he subjects them to horrific flooding while he searches for his little fish-girl, even though she clearly is on land of her own volition.

Ponyo bears only the most basic of similarities to The Little Mermaid. The headstrong daughter of an undersea monarch escapes her humdrum underwater existence after befriending a human boy. The main characters are much younger in this instance, so while there is still an element of romantic love at play here, this is not a movie that’s going to end in a wedding. Sosuke and Ponyo are still just small children, so it’s little wonder that Fujimoto is so concerned, though his determination to punish all of humanity, whom he already loathes for their ecological carelessness, is a tad excessive.

The Little Mermaid’s Prince Eric is one of the more interesting of the traditional Disney princes, but he’s still not exactly a fully realized character. In this film, Sosuke is much more fleshed out than the princess. A lively, compassionate little boy, he delights in visiting the elderly ladies at the nursing home near his school and operating the beacon in his lighthouse to signal to his seafaring father that he is on the lookout for him.

When he and Ponyo first meet, she is still a “goldfish” - though she looks like no goldfish I ever saw. She doesn’t even look like a fish. Rather, she is a strange blob with a humanoid face and four appendages that vaguely resemble human limbs. But Sosuke loves her instantly and scoops her up out of the water to claim for his pet. Ponyo doesn’t mind being snatched up; she returns Sosuke’s affection and quickly develops a taste for human food as she snatches some ham from his sandwich. This simple act is an essential component in her later transformation into a little girl of few words who really, really LOVES ham, as she loudly proclaims on several occasions.

There is an environmentalist thread that runs through this film as Miyazaki uses the wild-looking Fujimoto to express discontent with the excesses of humanity and demonstrate how people might come to pay for disregarding ecological matters. But mostly, this is a story of love, pure and simple. Ponyo and Sosuke are as open-hearted as children can be, embracing each other and everyone around them with expansive enthusiasm and kindness. Among the voice actors, intimidating Neeson, harried Fey and affable White make the biggest impression, with Fey having a particularly hefty role as Sosuke’s devoted but frazzled mother.

Ponyo is beautifully animated, though some of the visual elements of the movie are strange indeed, particularly the various sea creatures who aid or hinder Ponyo in her quest. In addition to looking exceedingly odd, Ponyo sounds quite crazed most of the time, causing me to burst out laughing at nearly all of her dialogue. Equally silly is the bouncy end-credits song that starts in immediately after the movie concludes. Meanwhile, my mom was horrified at the erratic driving habits of Sosuke’s mother, which, like several aspects of the movie, are exaggerated to a rather absurd degree. There’s an element of strangeness to the film that makes it hard for me to embrace completely, but for the most part, I found Ponyo to be a fresh and very sweet twist on an old tale.

Christmas Goes Underwater in A Merry Mermaid Christmas

I’ve read Christmas stories set in many different types of locales. But A Merry Mermaid Christmas, written by Mary Man-Kong and illustrated by Bob Berry, is the first I’ve encountered that takes place underwater.

This colorful paperback takes readers to the majestic undersea kingdom of Atlantica introduced in Disney’s animated feature, The Little Mermaid. In the film, Ariel is 16, and she doesn’t seem much younger than that here; the much younger Flounder also seems about the same age as in the film, so I’d say it’s set within a year before the events of the movie. Not that continuity is a huge concern in Little Mermaid prequels, as demonstrated by the movie Ariel’s Beginning.

The book boasts an eye-catching cover, which is textured and sprinkled with sparkles. Inside, the illustrations are less striking but consistent with the look of the movies and TV series. The book is written in simple prose and involves Ariel’s discovery of the human holiday of Christmas. She’s so taken with it that she decides that the merpeople and their aquatic friends should have their own celebration, complete with a makeshift Christmas tree, decorations and a secret gift exchange.

Scatter-brained seagull Scuttle has a large role to play in the book, as he tells Ariel all about Christmas after she discovers some artifacts discarded from a celebration. Along the way, he characteristically offers some amusing names and definitions for ordinary objects, calling a book a “wopple” and a Christmas star a “sparkleydoo”. The sparkleydoo ends up being the central object of the book, as Ariel finds a very special purpose for it.

It’s fun to see Christmas traditions translated into an underwater context. The “Christmas tree” consists of sea plants stacked on top of each other to resemble an evergreen, and gifts given include a seaweed scarf and a shell necklace. Of course, snow is out, but on the whole, the scene looks very festive, and the celebration emphasizes the value of generosity.

This is a simple tale for young fans of The Little Mermaid. It’s not particularly involved, but I’d say it works better than the film sequels do. The basic story would have worked well as an episode of the television series. If you’re dreaming of an aquatic Christmas, have a look at A Merry Mermaid Christmas.

Little Mermaid II: Return to the Video Store for a Better Film

Sixteen years ago, The Little Mermaid splashed its way into the hearts of millions of viewers, becoming one of the most beloved Disney films ever made. Eleven years later, Hans Christian Andersen rolled over in his grave. (Not for the first time…) They had to do it, didn’t they? It seems Disney has gotten desperate. Apparently running out of ideas, they are resorting to a constant stream of remakes and direct-to-video sequels, hoping to cash in on the popularity of the earlier, high-quality films. There are exceptions to the low-quality rule, of course. The Aladdin and Lion King sequels were decent; Toy Story 2, The Rescuers Down Under and Fantasia 2000 were exemplary. But The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea has little hope of being counted among such prestigious company.

The basic plot of the film is an exact reversal of the first. Melody (Tara Charendoff), daughter of the mermaid-turned-human Ariel (Jodi Benson), adores the sea but is forbidden from going near it. The justifications are different; while King Triton (Kenneth Mars) harbored an inherent distrust of humans, Ariel loves the sea’s inhabitants but fears that Melody will get kidnapped if she ventures anywhere near the water. Melody is headstrong like her mother, and predictably she disobeys the edict. But Ariel’s attitude is so bothersome that it poisons the film from the start. When the ceremonious unveiling of the infant princess – accompanied by a rather shrill and jarring song containing too many random snippets of dialogue – is cut short by the arrival of Morgana (Pat Caroll) – sister of the late sea witch Ursula (also Pat Caroll) – who tries to snatch the infant, Ariel is so spooked that she declares the sea off-limits until Morgana is found (which nobody seems to take much trouble to do in the intervening years). For some reason, this means that Ariel can’t go near the sea either and that none of her relatives can visit. She cuts herself and her daughter off from their heritage – even tossing away the locket her father gave Melody as a reminder of her connection to the kingdom of Atlantica – and she never offers Melody any word of explanation as to why she must stay within the castle walls, let alone a word of warning to watch out for a skinny half-octopus woman who hangs around with two manta rays and a pygmy shark (Clancy Brown).

In addition to the obvious cloning of the first film – Morgana gives Melody fins, for crying out loud! – the filmmakers are most definitely borrowing heavily from Sleeping Beauty. Artistically speaking, that is a haunting film, but it terms of plot, it has always gotten on my nerves. The logic seems to me incredibly faulty. Why couldn’t Aurora’s parents just keep a close eye on her and, when she got old enough to understand, warn her not to touch a spinning spindle? Or if they were going to go through with keeping her in cognito, why in the world didn’t they wait one more day to take her back to the castle? Similarly, why didn’t Ariel just tell Melody what was going on? How can she think she’s protecting her well if her daughter lacks all the pertinent information? And, recalling her own recent headstrong ways, how can she think that Melody will accept blanket prohibitions that come with no explanations and no opportunity for discussion? Then again, if she is so absolutely determined to keep Melody away from the sea, then why don’t they move to a nice castle several hundred miles inland? If the situation is that desperate, then surely a move wouldn’t be out of order. At any rate, Morgana’s sudden appearance within the first ten minutes of the movie, right in the middle of a presentation celebration to which she was not invited, carries strong echoes of Maleficent, except that the Sleeping Beauty opening was elegant and the villain’s grand entrance chilling. This opening is cloying, and Morgana just looks silly and out of place when she shows up using her tentacles as water skis. As in Sleeping Beauty, the parents’ insistence on keeping the princess in the dark leads to disaster. At least Ariel finally admits that she screwed up.

The animation is decent. Certainly it would be appropriate for a high-quality Saturday morning cartoon. I loved the Little Mermaid television series, but whatever they did right in that instance they failed to do here. Of course, that entire series was a prequel, which allowed the creators to place Ariel and her friends in all sorts of innocent undersea adventures that could resolve themselves in the course of half an hour. As films go, the artistry lacks something. Then again, there simply is not a worthwhile enough story to merit the care that went into each frame of the original. It mimics the original to a groan-worthy degree, taking side trips that feel entirely unnecessary. We get all these hints of a backstory with the whiny Morgana, who is endlessly bitter toward her favored sister Ursula, but it serves little purpose. We are offered glimpses of Melody’s human peers, who all seem to be snobby, pig-faced jerks, aside from a very cute fellow who just appears to be a first-class wimp. We get similarly brief peeks at the pre-teen merfolk, all of whom seem friendly and attractive. (One bears a slight resemblance to Aaron Carter.) The lesson: humans bad, merfolk good? The walrus and penguin comic relief duo Tip (Max Casella) and Dash (Stephen Furst) fail to perform their humorous duties effectively. They don’t seem to belong in the film at all, and the song they sing as they promise to escort Melody on her adventure seems like a theme song to a television series where they would be more appropriately placed – though I suspect if such a series were in place, it would not outlast a season. More effective is Undertow, Morgana’s tough-talking shark sidekick who spends most of the movie in an unnaturally small state thanks to Triton’s trident, though the funniest character is still Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright), whose current thankless task is looking our for Melody’s welfare.

Which brings me to another point. Many of the characters in this film are not human, yet it seems as though they are being afforded life spans that are comparable to that of a human. Twelve years later – at least 13 years after the conclusion of the first film – Max (Frank Welker) the dog still romps around with a puppyish energy, though common sense indicates that he must be at least 15 years old. Sebastian complains that he is getting too old for such a stressful job and a now deep-voiced Flounder (Cam Clarke) is twice as big and has a brood of half a dozen fry, so at least some passage of time is acknowledged, but I would think that by this time Flounder, Sebastian and Scuttle (Buddy Hackett) would have gone to their great reward – especially considering the fact that the youth of Disney films tend to grow up unnaturally quickly. Similarly, Morgana spends 12 long years trying to change Undertow back to his former self and is no further along when we meet her again than on her first attempt. If I were him, I would’ve given up on her at that point and gone groveling to King Triton.

Additionally, the dialogue is anachronistic and much sloppier overall than in the first film. I notice that on imdb no one has bothered to list any memorable quotes from the film, most likely because there aren’t any. Many lines simply come across as corny and cliched, while others are cringe-worthy for their use of nineties dialogue. When Melody explained to Sebastian that she was “just kickin’ it,” a communal groan resounded throughout my living room. Such phrases continued to mar what was supposed to be a period film. I disapprove of compromised dialogue in the name of pandering to children. There’s also a lack of continuity. We’ve just celebrated Melody’s 12th birthday, but Ariel sympathizes to her, “I know how hard it is being a teenager.” Okay, so maybe she was just skipping a year, but still. And Melody, aghast when she learns of the secret her mother has hidden from her all this time, angrily asks her how she could do this to her. “You know how much I love the sea!” she shouts. How is Ariel supposed to know that when Melody has never told her? Earlier, Melody confided in Sebastian and Scuttle that she could never tell her mother about her love of the sea.

It’s interesting that this mediocre film managed to snag almost all the original voice cast. Even Max is played by the same person. Only Eric (Rob Paulsen), Grimsby (Kay E. Kuter) and Flounder are different. So that’s one bright spot, or is it a dim one? With a cast that proved so solid before, this film simply does not hold water. It’s a shame, because if they’d put more effort into the script – and the songs, which fail to be memorable – this could have been another classic.

The Littler Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is one of that class of movies, shows, and books identified as a prequel. We get a chance to see what Ariel's life was like before she met up with Prince Eric. All of the lovable undersea creatures from the movie are in this this show, and many other characters are introduced as well. My personal favorites include a baby orca named Spot and a merboy named Urchin.

At times we are offered a glimpse further back into Ariel's childhood, such as the first time she met Flounder. In one episode, we even get to see King Triton as a child, revealing that he and Ariel aren't so different after all. New songs pop up often, and they're pretty catchy. The animation is, for the most part, every bit as good as it was in the movie.

As with Aladdin, Disney has managed to make a successful spin-off series from a popular feature film. It is primarily a show about coming of age as Ariel discovers herself and her relationships with others deepen. The value of friendship is clear in every episode. I think perhaps the most valuable part of the show, though, lies in the relationship between Ariel and her father. The rocky rift between them surfaces again and again in the show, but their love for each other always manages to bridge the gap and bring them to a closer understanding of one another. Very few children have perfect relationships with their parents, but it is good to see a cartoon in which the protagonist sees past the differences and recognizes the value of the one who raised her. That is something none of us should forget.