The Little Mermaid (TV series)

The Little Mermaid
The opening title
Format	Animated series
Created by	Walt Disney Television
Starring	Jodi Benson Edan Gross Samuel E. Wright Maurice LaMarche Kenneth Mars Danny Cooksey Jim Cummings Bradley Pierce Pat Carroll
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	31 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS Disney Channel
First shown in	November 17, 1989
Original run	September 11, 1992 (1992-09-11) – November 26, 1994 (1994-11-26)
Chronology
Preceded by	The Little Mermaid
Followed by	The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

The Little Mermaid (aka The New Adventures of The Little Mermaid) is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation based on the 1989 Disney film of the same name. It features the adventures of Ariel as a mermaid prior to the events of the film. This series is the first Disney television series to be spun off from a major animated film. Some of the voice actors of the film reprise their roles in the series, among them Jodi Benson as Ariel, Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Kenneth Mars as King Triton, and Pat Carroll as Ursula.

The Little Mermaid premiered in the fall of 1992 with the animated prime time special called "A Whale of a Tale," then moved to Saturday mornings. This series originally appeared on CBS, with an original run from 1992 to 1994. It was later shown in reruns on The Disney Channel until June 2010. Some of the episodes contain musical segments, featuring original songs written for the series. The opening theme to the show is an instrumental combination of the songs "Part of Your World", "Under the Sea", and "Kiss the Girl". The overture for the stage musical of The Little Mermaid is similar to this.

Premise

The Little Mermaid television series is a prequel to the movie of the same name. The story is set before the events in the 1989 film, and follows Ariel's adventures as a mermaid still living under the sea with her father, Sebastian and Flounder. Various episodes highlight her relationship with her friends, father and sisters, and usually involves Ariel foiling the attempts of various enemies that intend ill harm to her or to her kingdom.

With the release of the prequel film The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning in 2008, some events in this television series have been contradicted (such as Ariel's first encounter with Flounder). This indicates that the TV series and the prequel film are set in different continuities.

Characters

From the 1989 film

• Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson) - She is the seventh daughter of the sea king who loves to sing and go on adventures. She also has developed magic in season 2 (episode 9) to save her world.
• Sebastian (voiced by Samuel E. Wright) - A small red trinidadian crab who acts as the king's adviser, court musician, and a baby-sitter-like figure for Ariel.
• Flounder (voiced by Bradley Pierce and Edan Gross) - Ariel's best friend, a bright yellow and golden blue colored tropical reef fish called a juvenile blue tang who follows along on her adventures, and can be easily scared.
• King Triton (voiced by Kenneth Mars) - He is Ariel's father and ruler of Atlantica who protects his kingdom with his magic trident.
• Scuttle (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - He is a seagull who is friends with Ariel.
• Aquata (voiced by Mona Marshall), Andrina (voiced by Catherine Cavadini), Arista (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman), Attina (voiced by Kath Soucie), Adella (voiced by Sherry Lynn) and Alana (voiced by Kimmy Robertson) are Ariel's six older sisters.
• Ursula (voiced by Pat Carroll) is a powerful sea witch who occasionally antagonizes Ariel.
• Flotsam and Jetsam (voiced by Paddi Edwards) - They are Ursula's green moray eel henchmen who do her evil bidding for her.
• Prince Eric (voiced by Jeff Bennett) - Ariel's future husband. His first appearance is in the episode "Thingamajigger" and appears occasionally throughout the seasons with his dog, Max, as a puppy. Ariel first sees him saving a dolphin from a net, which technically makes this scene the first time she has ever seen Prince Eric, but does not know who he is.

Original characters

• Urchin (voiced by Danny Cooksey) - He is an orphan young merman and Ariel's friend. He shares her love for adventure and is unofficially her adopted brother, and at one point starts to develop romantic feelings for Ariel.
• The Lobster Mobster (voiced by Joe Alaskey) - A lobster gangster following the style of the 1920s gangster stereotype and Da Shrimp (voiced by David Lander) is his sidekick.
• Evil Manta (voiced by Tim Curry) - An evil man/manta ray hybrid who repeatedly tries to take over Atlantica.
• Pearl (voiced by Cree Summer) - A spoiled, thrill-seeking mermaid whose actions often lead to Ariel, as well as herself, getting in trouble.
• Spot - A Killer Whale calf whom Ariel adopted and secretly raised in the palace.
• Gabriella - (voiced by Cree Summer) A deaf-mute Latina mermaid who dreams of becoming a singer. Gabriella's sign language is translated by her octopus friend Ollie (who is voiced by Gabriel Damon). This character is based on a real person who was a fan of the show and died during its first season.
• Moray (voiced by Dave Coulier) - A dark green moray eel salesman and con-artist who occasionally sells items to Ariel that alternately help her or get her into trouble.
• The Crabscouts (occasionally voiced by J.D. Daniels, Anndi McAfee, Bradley Pierce, Malachi Pearson, and Whitby Hertford) - They are crab children, consisting of two boys and one girl, who are under the mentorship of Sebastian in a scout-like troop.
• Flo and Ebb (voiced by Kath Soucie and Jim Cummings) - Two brown chinese alligator criminals who first appear in the episode "Beached".
• The Magical Wishing Starfish (voiced by Tony Jay) - A giant starfish with a beard and crown who only appears in the episode "Wish Upon A Starfish".
• Little Evil - He is the Evil Manta's son and appears in "A Little Evil".

Episodes

Main article: List of The Little Mermaid episodes

A notable episode is "Metal Fish", in which Ariel saves a character named Hans Christian Andersen who is based on the real life author of the original The Little Mermaid, and the encounter inspired the character to "write" the story of The Little Mermaid. In this same episode, Ariel confronts her father with the fact that, despite his hatred of humans, he, as well as all merpeople, are half-human in an attempt to appeal to his compassion and better nature in order to save Hans' life when his ship is stranded at the bottom of the ocean. The ploy, unsurprisingly, works, as Triton has always been depicted as a compassionate (albeit sometimes bullheaded and set in his ways) monarch. A voice-over at the end of the episode talks about the real Hans Christian Andersen, while the image on the screen shows Ariel sitting on a rock in the style of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbor. If this is to be chronologically accurate, this places the time frame in which this series takes place at around 1836 when the story was first written or shortly before 1837 when the story was actually published.

This situation is repeated in The Legend of Tarzan episode "Tarzan and the Mysterious Visitor" where Tarzan meets his author Edgar Rice Burroughs who travels to Africa in search of inspiration for a new novel.

External links

• The Little Mermaid (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Disney's The Little Mermaid at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Little Mermaid (TV series) at TV.com