The Little Mermaid (TV series)

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The Little Mermaid

From left to right: Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder.
Genre Animated series
Creator(s) 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 Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 31
Production
Running time 22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 11, 1992 – November 26, 1994
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Little Mermaid is an animated television series based on the 1989 film of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It featured the adventures of Ariel and her friends Flounder, Sebastian, Scuttle, and other characters from the movie The Little Mermaid along with characters that are original to the series. This is the first Disney Television series to have spun-off from a major film. The Little Mermaid premiered in the Fall of 1992 with the animated short called "A Whale of a Tale," then moved to Saturday mornings. This series originally appeared on CBS, with an original run from 1992 to 1995. Jodi Benson reprised her role as Ariel for this show, and Kenneth Mars reprised his role as King Triton.

Contents

[edit] Premise

The first non-Disney Afternoon cartoon series to premiere for some time, The Little Mermaid television series is a prequel to the movie of the same name. The story is set when Ariel is 15, a year before the events in the movie, and follows her adventures as a mermaid still living under the sea. 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.

While the movie features musical segments, not every episode of this series has them. Some shows are presented "straight" (i.e. no songs). The show also does not always stay consistent to the movie, as Ariel has too much human contact in it. Also, in one episode, Sebastian is present when Ariel begins her collection of human objects in the cave, though in the movie, which takes place later, he was clearly surprised to discover it.

[edit] List of Episodes

[edit] Season 1: 1992

Screenshot Title Original airdate Production code #
"Whale of a Tale" September 11, 1992 4313-007 1
Ariel befriends a baby killer whale that was separated from his family because of human poachers. (Note: the title is also that of a song from Disney's 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.) 
"The Great Sebastian" September 12, 1992 4313-001 2
Sebastian tells Triton that he is capable of making a deal with the Sharkanians (an underwater mafia group), but in truth, he is petrified of them and Ariel and Flounder must tag along to help him make the process go smoothly. 
"Stormy" September 19, 1992 4313-002 3
Ariel rides a wild seahorse against her father's wishes and gets lost in the wilderness with the seahorse. 
"Urchin" September 26, 1992 4313-003 4
Ariel befriends an orphaned merboy. (Note: this is the first appearance of Urchin.) 
"Double Bubble" October 03, 1992 4313-004 5
Ariel babysits two mischievous mertwins; Lobster Mobster attemps to steal the mother's pearl necklace. 
"Message in a Bottle" October 10, 1992 4313-005 6
Ariel befriends a lonely sea dragon after she, Sebastian and Flounder discover his message he sent in a bottle. 
"Charmed" October 17, 1992 4313-008 7
Ariel puts on a human bracelet and then can't take it off. When she tries to use the key to take it off, she gets trapped by a giant whirlpool, into a horrible underwater nightmare, when she runs away from home. 
"Marriage of Inconvenience" October 24, 1992 4313-009 8
Ariel believes her father King Triton is setting her up for an arranged marriage with a snobbish merprince. 
"The Evil Manta" October 31, 1992 4313-011 9
Ariel unwittingly frees a dark figure known as the Evil Manta, who tries to take over Atlantica using deception and lies. 
"Thingamajigger" November 07, 1992 4313-006 10
When a pirate's boot falls into the sea, Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder try to figure out what it is. Some mistake it as a weapon. (Note: In this episode, Prince Eric, along with Max, his sheepdog, makes his first appearance) 
"Red" November 14, 1992 4313-012 11
A magic spell turns King Triton into a merboy, and Ariel has to play mother to him. 
"Beached" November 21, 1992 4313-013 12
Before a family trip to a carnival, Ariel and her sister get into a fight and are 'beached' (grounded); two gators attempt to steal the royal treasure. 
"Trident True" November 28, 1992 4313-014 13
Ariel looks for the perfect Father's Day gift to give King Triton, but it leads her to misfortune, when a giant octopus traps them in a cave, except Urchin. And Urchin attempts to steal the trident so he can save the day. 
"Eel-Ectric City" December 05, 1992 4313-010 14
A party-crazed mermaid named Pearl takes Ariel and her sister Alana to Eel-Ectric City instead of to her house, while Sebastion and Flounder follow. 

[edit] Season 2: 1993

Screenshot Title Original airdate Production code #
"Resigned to It" September 18, 1993 4313-015 15
Sebastian quits his job as King Triton's royal advisor and tries to make a new life for himself. 
"Calliope Dreams" September 25, 1993 4313-016 16
King Triton buys Ariel a very large present--a sea calliope, an instrument resembling a piano. However, she would rather play her human harp than listen to the loud chords of the calliope that wake the killer seaclops. 
"Save the Whale" October 02, 1993 4313-019 17
Spot, the killer whale from the pilot episode, returns. Spot and Sebastian get captured by a crazed circus owner, and Ariel has to save them. 
"Against the Tide" October 09, 1993 4313-018 18
Ariel rescues a Bad-Luck Creature, putting all of Atlantica in a panic and must make her own luck when Ursula comes after the creature. 
"Giggles" October 16, 1993 4313-017 19
A sorcerer blowfish's magic spell causes Ariel to create seaquakes whenever she laughs. 
"Wish upon a Starfish" October 23, 1993 4313-020 20
Ariel befriends a mermaid who can't speak. (Note: this is the first appearance of Gabriella. Also, the title is a play on a song from the animated film Pinocchio). 
"Tail of Two Crabs" October 30, 1993 4313-021 21
Sebastian feels threatened by an old arch-rival who is better than him at everything, while Ursula works on a plan to turn Triton, Ariel, and others into sea worms. 
"Metal Fish" November 06, 1993 4313-022 22
A human explorer boards a primitive submarine to explore the undersea realm, and crosses paths with Ariel. 
"T'ank You for Dat, Ariel" December 11, 1993 4313-023 23
Ariel enters a magic cave to become a sea witch and uses her powers to make Sebastian a great big crab. 

[edit] Season 3: 1994

Screenshot Title Original airdate Production code #
"Scuttle" September 17, 1994 4313-024 24
Ariel meets Scuttle for the first time and must use his help to rescue Sebastian from a gang of pirates. This marks the second appearance of Prince Eric. 
"King Crab" September 24, 1994 4313-025 25
Sebastian realizes that his parents are coming to visit and must try to create a huge scheme to make it appear that he is the king of Atlantica like he wrote in his letters to them. 
"Island of Fear" October 01, 1994 4313-026 26
A mad scientist capturess Sebastian, and tries to use him for sinister experiments. 
"Land of the Dinosaurs" October 08, 1994 4313-027 27
During a trip to the north pole Ariel finds frozen dinosaurs and thaws them with her father's trident. Somehow they are aquatic and cause chaos before King Triton makes a refuge for them on land. 
"Heroes" October 15, 1994 4313-028 28
Apollo, a great Atlantican hero comes to visit and Ariel wants to go on an adventure with him and learns that he is not all he's cracked up to be. 
"The Beast Within" October 22, 1994 4313-029 29
Flounder is bitten by a howling hairfish and starts to turn into one. 
"Ariel's Treasures" October 29, 1994 4313-030 30
Gabriella returns to visit Ariel as she shows her all of her new human things. However, Ursula's spell causes her treasures to go crazy and begin attacking innocent fish and merpeople. 
"A Little Evil" November 26, 1994 4313-031 31
The Evil Manta returns and introducers his son, who he wants to be just as evil as he is. Unfortunately, when his son befriends Ariel and goes to school with her, he starts to get other "good" ideas in his head. 

[edit] Characters from the film

  • Princess Ariel: Ariel is the seventh daughter of the sea king who loves to go on adventures. Although she is interested in the human world, her fascination with it has not fully developed.
  • Sebastian: Sebastian is a crab who acts as the king's advisor, court musician, and a baby-sitter-like figure for Ariel.
  • Flounder: Flounder, Ariel's best friend, is a fish who follows along on her adventures, even if he is a guppy.
  • King Triton: King Triton is Ariel's father who is also ruler of Alantica.
  • Scuttle: Scuttle is a seagull who is friends with Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. He is Ariel's only connection to the human world.
  • Aquata, Arista, Andrina, Attina, Adella, and Alana: Ariel's six older sisters.
  • Ursula: Ursula is an octopus-mermaid creature and a powerful sea witch. She constantly plots to steal the throne from King Triton that she believes is rightfully hers.
  • Grimsby: Grimsby is Eric's right hand man/servant.
  • Carlotta: She is Eric's maid.

[edit] Original characters

  • Urchin: Ariel's new friend is Urchin, a merboy (for lack of a better term). He shares her love for adventure and is supposedly her adopted brother. Note: It used to be suspected that Urchin had a bit of a crush on Ariel, but this statement has been shown as mostly untrue.
  • The Lobster Mobster: The Lobster Monster is a 1940s-like gangster.
  • The Shrimp: The shrimp is the Lobster Mobster's sidekick.
  • The Evil Manta(voiced by Tim Curry): As his name would suggest, he is an evil manta ray. He tries to take over Atlantica. While his magic is not as dramatic as Ursula's, the Manta can turn friends against each other by talking to one of them, and his tail delivers brutal possibly fatal lightning strikes. He has a son who became an artist and friend of Ariel's.
  • Pearl: This wealthy and spoiled mermaid is constantly trying to get Ariel in trouble.
  • Gabriella: Gabriella is a deaf Hispanic mermaid who dreams of becoming a singer. Because she is deaf, Gabriella has a translator for her, in her octopus friend Olie.

[edit] Voices

  • Ariel: Jodi Benson, Marisa Leal (Speaking Voice In the Brazilian Portuguese Version), Kika Tristão(Singing Voice in the Brazilian Portuguese Version), Claire Guyot (In the French Version) and Jana Werner (In the German Version)
  • Sebastian: Samuel E. Wright and Joachim Kemmer (In the German Version)
  • King Triton: Kenneth Mars
  • Flounder: Edan Gross and Bradley Pierce
  • Ursula: Pat Carroll
  • Urchin: Danny Cooksey

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • The character Gabriella is based off a real person. She was a fan of the show who died during its first season.
  • Some groups of creatures in the show use the time measure of tides as an alternative for years. One year is equal to 200 tides, and one tide is equal to about 3 days (which is coincidently the limit of time Ariel is given to kiss Prince Eric in the original film.)
  • In the episode Metal Fish, 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. 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.
  • In Calliope Dreams, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart makes a cameo as a musician who loses a lot of his valuable possessions to two clumsy sailors and his rocking ship. Coincidentally or not, it may be a humorous reference of Mozart's (possibly alleged) death as a poor man.
  • The upcoming sequel to The Little Mermaid, currently known as The Little Mermaid III, is supposed to feature the character of Urchin from the series.
  • The opening theme to the show is a combination of the songs "Part of Your World", "Under the Sea", and "Kiss the Girl". The overture for the upcoming stage musical of The Little Mermaid will be similar to this.

[edit] External links

Disney's The Little Mermaid
Characters

Princess Ariel | King Triton | Prince Eric | Flounder | Sebastian | Ursula | Flotsam and Jetsam
Films

The Little Mermaid | The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea | The Little Mermaid III
Other

The Little Mermaid television Series | The Little Mermaid video game | The Little Mermaid stage musical
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