Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
Theme Song by Brian Setzer and owned by Walt Disney Records
Since there is no way humanly possible to top the “Animated Analysis” review I decided to share my thoughts on the movie that could have been. I warn you this might come off as fanfiction and this plot has been done before, but it’s better than what we got. My true opinion of the “one we got” is that it’s a guilty pleasure for me. While the film’s writing and story was unimaginative and lazy the concepts and potential of the new characters does have value. My verdict would have been a generous 2.8 out of 5 because I’m a huge fan of the Atlantican universe. Now without any further delay let’s get this fanfic started.
The movie actually begins in a flashback sequence 10 years before the original where King Triton is banishing Ursula and Morgana from the palace because of their latest scheme to takeover Atlantica. “When I took away your true powers I granted you mercy so you could use what little power you had left to help the creatures of the sea. Instead you use it for your own selfish purposes. From this day forth you shall be banished from Atlantica!” Triton bellowed. Ursula and Morgana swim to the area where Ursula would build her base. Morgana is extremely angry at Ursula because it was Ursula’s idea to takeover and now they have nothing. They get into a mystical duel with one another. It’s purposefully unimpressive because their powers are weakened, but Ursula has more experience and wins the duel turning Morgana into one of those plant thingies (in an area where she can’t be seen from the entrance to the base to preserve continuity) Fast forward to Ursula’s demise and Morgana is freed from the curse and swims away. Now that Ursula is dead the only one left to get revenge on is Triton and his family for banishing her. She swims aimlessly and ends up at the Fortress of Solitude (awesome) and the cave intrigues her. She goes inside and discovers that this is where King Triton hid the true powers of the sea witches and she releases the power and now she is back to full strength and begins to train herself on how to use her powers because it has been so long while a shark (Undertow) looks on.
The film truly begins they exact same way it did in the “one we got” the same song is sung and everything. Triton gives Melody the locket and then a transition to when Melody is about six. We get some interaction scenes to establish Melody’s life in the palace and with the staff. Then we see her running to her parents and asking them if they can go out on a rowboat. They say yes and we get scenes of the family on a rowboat that establish how much Ariel and Eric love Melody and all that. Then something attacks the boat and flips it over. Undertow appears and knocks Eric to the rocks where he is unconscious. Ariel being a slightly older adventurous bad ass is prepared and pulls out a knife and starts stabbing Undertow in the face. Undertow hears Morgana telepathically telling him not to kill Ariel and Eric, but to rough them up a bit. Undertow then smacks Ariel away and knocks her unconscious too. Undertow then proceeds to go after Melody and then he strikes. Cut to black. Then when Ariel and Eric awaken they are in pure terror at what could have happened. The whole kingdom was searched just in case Melody returned and was hiding out somewhere waiting for her parents. The whole area where the attack happened was searched, but nothing, not even remains or blood. The kingdom holds a funeral ceremony and everything and Ariel and Eric are devastated and Triton has issued a shark hunt to find the one responsible dead or alive. Ariel is the one hurt most of all. She looks out at the sea and all that appear are tears of sorrow. She wonders if the fates were punishing her for abandoning her place as a mermaid and tells Eric that she doesn’t wish to look at the sea ever again so Eric builds the wall to seal away the pain that came every time they looked out at the sea.
We cut to a scene of Undertow bringing Melody to the Fortress of Solitude. Undertow is angry at Morgana for not letting him kill Ariel and Eric. She tells him that they must suffer first. Through the rest of the conversation we find out that Undertow’s parents were killed by humans and he serves Morgana because after he helps her takeover Atlantica and takes vengeance on the royal family she will give him the power to walk on land and wreak havoc on the human population (I know the idea of a manshark is a little stupid, but thankfully we never get to see how stupid it looks). Then we make another leap in time where Melody is the age she is in “the one we got”. She is hooded and cloaked and has been taught the way of the sea witches. Morgana erased her memories of her childhood and was told that King Triton killed her human parents and like Undertow offered her a chance at vengeance in exchange for various missions and loyalty. Melody’s mission is to convince the race of the Octopans (you might remember them from an episode of the TV show) to join their fellow comrade (Morgana) in forming an army to takeover Atlantica. She is accompanied by Undertow who serves as her sidekick. It’s a twisted version of Ariel and Flounder’s relationship. In short they succeed and the Octopans prepare for war.
This is followed by a conversation between Melody and Undertow that shows their genuine friendship and how Melody is naturally drawn to the sea and adventure yet doesn’t know why. (This is how you spiritually link characters. Not rehashing the first movie) Undertow despite his hatred for humans has grown fond of Melody and deeply cares about her and senses a kindred spirit in her even though he knows about the ruse regarding Melody’s memories (He’s ordered by Morgana to remain silent about it or he never gets his revenge). The army is assembled and Morgana gives a speech and maybe a villain song depending on the talent of the songwriters and how well the script is paced. During the raid Ariel’s sisters are captured and Triton tells Flounder and Sebastian to swim for it. Melody fights Triton and kicks his ass with the powers of the sea witches and Triton knows why he’s losing. Just before Melody is about to kill Triton she looks into his eyes and just can’t do it and doesn’t know why she has these feelings. Triton uses the hesitation to get away and Flounder and Sebastian swim him to Ariel’s Kingdom where he can get medical attention.
Melody is confused and curious and believes she can find the answer on land (where she comes from) much to Undertow’s dismay. Yet he loves his friend and tells her to come back as quickly as possible. Melody reaches her parents’ kingdom and wanders into town (I forgot because she has the full power of the sea witches she can freely transform from mermaid to human vice versa). Then a flood of visions and old memories come back in clumps and then she runs into Ariel (who just got back from getting Triton settled with the doctor).
Ariel looks as if she’s seen a ghost and hugs Melody with tears rolling down her face. Melody doesn’t understand and Ariel explains that she has come home and that she is her daughter. Melody is quite shocked, but then more memories come flashing back and she begins to understand. Ariel takes Melody to the palace and gives her a damaged locket (it washed ashore a few days after the funeral)where a song between mother and daughter takes place because it simply must happen. Then Melody has one last vision of her being strapped down while Morgana uses mystical electroshock “therapy” to make her forget. Melody realizes all the terrible things she’s done and runs away to sort the developments out. She then comes across Triton in the lagoon (Where “Kiss the Girl” took place) healing his wounds. She approaches him and apologizes for actions and explains the situation. Triton calls a meeting with Ariel, Eric, Melody, Flounder and Sebastian. Ariel is carrying her 1 year old son and introduces him to Melody and Melody is filled with even more resolve because now she has a responsibility to her brother as well.
Triton explains that Morgana intends to invade Ariel’s Kingdom (should have put that as part of the original plan. Sorry).Triton says the only way to combat Morgan’s magic is with not only his trident, but “THE QUEEN’S TRIDENT”. A trident that is actually more powerful than the king’s that was sealed in the “TOMB OF THE SEA QUEEN” in the Atlantican palace’s basement after Ariel’s mother died. (Ariel’s eldest sister Attina would inherit this particular trident after Triton died or if she was in a serious romantic relationship) The plan is Melody and Ariel would return to Atlantica and Melody would get Ariel to the tomb and Ariel would wield the tridents. Flounder and Sebastian would work with Melody after Ariel enters the tomb to free the prisoners. Eric would rally his army to protect his kingdom (The wall built in part 1 actually comes in handy). With trident in hand Ariel transforms herself back into a mermaid and the team heads to Atlantica. With most of the Octopan army elsewhere preparing for the raid on land security is minimal. The group is confronted by Undertow at the entrance to the tomb(unbeknownst to him) and he recognizes Ariel as “the traitor to her undersea lineage” and says to Melody “How could you side with those monsters. I thought we were friends!” Melody replies “True friends wouldn’t let each other live a LIE!” She then use her magic to open the tomb and fights Undertow giving Ariel a chance to slip in. The fight ends in Melody’s victory, but she doesn’t kill Undertow and asks Undertow if his vengeance is more important than their friendship. He remembers the day he kidnapped Melody and he saw what vengeance did not want him to see. When Ariel was stabbing him he looked right into her eyes and he saw fear. Fear for her life, her husband’s, and her daughter’s and he sees that human’s are just like him. They can feel pain and mourn the loss of loved ones and he sobs and apologizes to his friend and agrees to help her any way he can. Undertow, Melody, Flounder and Sebastian head for the dungeon taking out straggling Octopans as they go.
Ariel is in awe at the scale of the tomb and has a heartfelt moment at her mother’s grave. She has never seen her mother’s grave because she was too young. We are treated to some Indiana Jones homages and then the queen’s trident is found on an altar and an apparition of Ariel’s mother appears and tells Ariel that she is proud of her and loves her and is a heartfelt reunion indeed (this is made possible by the power queen’s trident because it contains the spirit of the previous queens). Ariel is found worthy of the trident and takes it. The two tridents are united again and Ariel can feel the new found power that is made even stronger because of her desire to protect everything she holds dear.
Meanwhile Melody is freeing her aunts and palace staff while Undertow is fighting alongside Flounder and Sebastian against the octopan guards. Undertow makes playful banter by saying “I’m being backed up by a crab and a guppy? Is it too late to switch sides again?” The trio make mincemeat of the guards and Melody and the trio lead the prisoners out of the palace into a nearby refugee camp. Ariel has rejoined the group and is ready to head to the surface to take down Morgana and the rest of the army.
Eric is barely holding on (the various stages of the fight have been cutting back and forth from the quest to get the queen’s trident) and everything looks bleak, but the team of 5 shows up and the octopan army is sent running away after a few double trident blasts form Ariel. Then a one on one duel between the princess slash trident master and Morgana. Melody is dealing with the Octopan leader when Morgana gets a split second upper hand on Ariel she fires a powerful spell at Melody, but Undertow jumps out of the water and saves Melody and is critically wounded as a result. Melody is furious and joins her mother in the fight against Morgana and with one blast of both tridents and magic kills Morgana and the remaining Octopans retreat. After a resolution scene and Atlantica returning to normal Ariel, Melody, Eric, Ariel’s son(don’t have a name for him any ideas?), Triton, Sebastian, Flounder, and Undertow sing an ending song (preferably the same song sung at the end of “the one we got”. And the end credits go with a cover of “Part of Your World”.
That’s my scenario for Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea what could have been. Stay tuned next time “Mermaid Month” continues with a much better and more competent sequel with Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning!
