Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and it is time, once again for our annual monthly theme to kick off the summer. Now, this one might be a little shorter than ones that we've done in the past but its one that I am beyond excited for as we head Under The Sea to visit various Disney mermaids. We are going to kick things off this week by looking at various comics featuring Disney's most famous mermaid, Ariel. Our first two comics come from a 4-issue miniseries that according to everything I've read, were published by Disney themselves and are described as being a bit darker than the later comics featuring this iconic princess. With that outta the way, let's kick things off as we dive down to Atlantica.
Cover
Now admittedly, the cover doesn't reflect the story that is told within this issue and normally, that would bug me but I am willing to make somewhat overlook that here as this is the first issue and they were most likely trying to entice fans of Ariel into reading and this cover more than perfectly captures her free-spirited nature. And that is a great thing here and I will say that all of the comics that we will be looking at, do a great job of this.
The Plot
That is just so gorgeous and yeah, it may not be the greatest art but having reviewed quite a few licensed comics over the various blogs that I do, this is one of the better takes I've seen on characters that originated in another medium. This may sound strange for a comic but the characters throughout this entire comic feel animated and the backgrounds also feel alive. Now, comparing that to something I looked at last year, the comic tie-in for Sabrina: The Animated Series, everything here feels more alive.
Now, perhaps it is not fair to compare the two as Little Mermaid is an animated classic whereas Sabrina was just a Saturday Morning Cartoon and in a way, I think the art in these comics reflect that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that art for licensed comics can go either way in capturing the feel of its source material and I think that this comic does a great job in that regard. Anyways, let's get back to the story at hand.
We spend a bit more time with Ariel exploring as she is want to do. And again, we get fun shots of Ariel being herself.
And this is where things start to get interesting as we return to a common well that has been used in many stories featuring Ariel is missing singing lessons. Now, let me clarify something. Just because I call this something that has been used many times with Ariel, that doesn't mean I hate it. Far from it, it shows how wrapped up Ariel can get in her adventures.
And this also helps to set up, who will be our other main character out of Ariel's sisters, which is a great thing that expanded media such as the TV show and comics like this can do, they can give more time to Ariel's sisters that they didn't have in the movie as the main focus was solely on her. As Ariel's oldest sister, Aquata is worried about how she can be a ruler if her own sisters won't take her seriously. We get more of Ariel's adventures and this is where things take a turn for the worse as our heroine mermaid is caught in a net as a certain sea witch looks on at something that Ariel is soon to regret.
Ariel sends Flounder to go and get help as she frees him from the net and this is where we get our first look at the creatures that have netted Ariel and the other fish, they are unique looking creatures that are half-human and half-eel.
And soon Ariel is dragged off to a city full of these creatures that appears to be on the other end of the ocean and while the young princess is able to escape, she is soon recaught. And she is zapped by this city's princess and taken as her pet. Yes, that really happened.
Our little guppy goes back to find Sebastian and tell him what happened and you gotta admire his bravery in these situations. Aquata overhears Flounder and Sebastian talking to one another and notes that she has not heard before and hears the danger that our youngest sister has gotten herself into and decides to go and save herself.
And this is where things get really fascinating as apparently, these eel people believed these half-fish people to be of myth only. And this is where Ariel has to cover for herself and lies and says that she's the only one and that her mother was a dolphin. We see the young guppy following these eel people looking for his friend, while Ariel attempts to reason with the princess, Celia that keeping her prisoner in such a way here isn't right and we learn that this princess also has a free-spirited nature as Ariel and things are about to get worse for Ariel as she is taken what is called the serpentine celebration, that is meant to test the skill of the hunters of these people but the king of these people have a different plan as Aquata has been found and the king is threatening Ariel to tell him where she came from, otherwise her sister will be fish food.
All in all, this was a great first issue that has me excited to see what comes next and how Ariel gets herself out of this mess.
Characters
There are quite a few characters in this first issue but not a lot of them are important to the story as or right now, so I just want to focus on Ariel and Aquata. With that outta the way, let's begin.
Ariel
As I've been saying throughout, this comic does a great job of capturing Ariel's spirit and showing how sometimes that causes her to get into trouble as we see here. And it was just a really fun adventure that I am excited to go on with her.
Aquata
We've already discussed this but one of the great things about expanded media like this is taking time to expand upon characters that the movie didn't have time to do and we see that here with Aquata as she is worried about being ruler one day and is determined to prove herself by going to find her sister but it doesn't exactly go as planned.
My Overall Thoughts On This Issue
This is a great issue that really sets up the story that is come to and I am excited to explore it more as we look at the second issue.
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