The Evil Manta (The Little Mermaid Episode Review)

Join me as we go Under The Sea again as I take a look at an episode of  The Little Mermaid TV show. First up the episode title.

Episode Title

The Evil Manta

Simple enough title and it refers to the villain of this episode.  Makes sense to use this as the title since this was his first appearance in the show.

The Plot

The plot is a bit simple in that Ariel is tricked into freeing The Evil Manta from a volcano when she think he is a small and helpless creature. However that is not the case as we soon learn that he is a giant monster filled with hate and rage.

Characters

Per standard form, this will be broken down into Main Characters and Villain.  I'm not going to cover supporting characters because there really weren't any.

Main Characters

Ariel voiced by Jodi Benson

As stated, Ariel let The Evil Manta free by accident.  So she had to try and set everything right after Manta turned everyone in Altantica against each other using hateful gossip and saying mean things about the inhabitants.   For the most part Ariel was her usual self although there were some moments when it seemed as though she was overwhelmed as to what to do.  That makes sense somewhat as Triton wasn't there. Though we know Ariel has sisters, so why didn't she go to one of her sisters to try and get them to help her out? Granted, the sisters didn't appear the main stories of the shows that much from what I recall. Still, that would have been the next logical step.  Though I will give Ariel credit for trying and fix this herself. But this is a daunting task for a 15 year old girl to take on.  Trying to restore peace in a land all by herself  almost seems impossible but of course in the end, Ariel pulled it off. 

Flounder voiced by Edan Gross

Admittedly, Ariel did have some help in the form of Flounder. Though I'm not exactly sure that I want Flounder to be the one helping me in crisis like this. Because he gets scared pretty easily. Although to his credit, he does trick Manta pretty well when Manta tries to persuade Flounder not to like Ariel anymore. He just pretends to go along with it. That was a nice touch. There was a nice moment in the episode where there was a flashback to when Ariel and Flounder first met.  Apparently Flounder is less of a guppy here then he was when he first met Ariel. I'm assuming through his friendship with Ariel, he learned to be somewhat brave.

Music

In Harmony

As with many many shows and especially this show, it liked to include music.  This song is actually a bit cheesy. It's all right for a children's show but I don't know it just feels lackluster. Granted, one shouldn't compare this song to the lovely soundtrack of the film as these are two different fields.   Even in this regard,  for a TV show song I do not find this song to be very memorable.  Honestly, this is a song that as soon I hear it, I'll probably forget it.  In all honesty, it was a bit of a bore. Though do keep a lookout for a Hidden Mickey.


Villain


The Evil Manta voiced by Tim Curry

Now we come to the villain of this episode, The Evil Manta.  Now don't expect any Rocky Horror jokes just because Tim  Curry voiced this character.  Tim Curry certainly gave the character a unique voice at first then it just got tiresome as it sounded like any other stock bad guy voice. Also  for a debut episode, he sure doesn't do a lot.  I mean sure after Ariel frees him from the volcano, he starts spreading the gossip and hateful rumors. After that he just stops and sits on top of the castle.  I found myself saying "C'mon do something! Please do something!"   Also his defeat was a bit weak as he was driven out of Altantica with music. Which you have seen if you watched the video included in this review.   I found that to be a bit disappointing that for a debut episode of a villain, he only takes action during the first act of the episode.  In some ways, you could have replaced this character with anyone else doing the same thing and it would be the same exact episode. While Manta would go on to appear in later episodes of the series, I felt that he had a weak debut episode. 

My Final Thoughts

While not the best or strongest episode in the series' library. It was decent, granted parts of it felt clustered such as when Ariel was trying to gather all the fish to explain what Manta was doing to them. The Flashback to when Ariel and Flounder first met was a nice touch.  Overall, the big problem with this episode was that I don't think the show knew how to use The Evil Manta yet and that is why we barely saw him. Which I consider a downfall when this is not only this villain's debut episode but his name is the title of the episode too. I was expecting to see more of him with the title this episode had.  To this episode's credit however, it never felt girly and trust me there were some episodes of this show that could feel really girly.   I would compare this episode to a newer cartoon that has taken the internet by storm, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.  Disregarding my lack of interest in that show, MLP has proven that you can have a show that while based on a girl property both  sexes can enjoy and I feel that is true of this episode and many other in  The Little Mermaid TV series as well. Of course, I may be saying just because The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney movies.  This with many other of the older Disney TV shows such as Aladdin prove that you can tell a new story with these characters without screwing them over like the horrid sequels did.   Oh before I forget I want thank DisneyOtoko  their Mermaid Month which you guys should take the time to check out inspired me to go Under The Sea one more time to revisit Ariel and her friends.