A Look at Disney Swims with Mermaids: Melody

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney as we continue our Mermaid event and just as we did with Ariel's Beginning,  I am foregoing an old rule that I set up years ago to not look at the direct-to-video cheapquels.  However,  this will not be a full review as there really isn't a whole lot I have to say about this movie.  It's not bad and it's perfectly serviceable.   I am talking about The Little Mermaid II: Return to The Sea.  Instead of doing a whole review of this okay sequel,  I wanted to talk about its main character, Melody and attempt to state why I think she is a pretty decent character.  You'd be shocked but Melody has a pretty large fanbase.


Voice Actress


Tara Strong

Melody was voiced by popular voice actress, Tara Strong and this was actually my introduction to Ms. Strong.   It's funny going back and hearing her in this role as you do get a hint of some of her later roles but that is probably just my brain playing tricks on me.  I gotta say that I really like Ms. Strong in this role.   And according to all the sources that I've read,  she has stated that Melody is her favorite role that she's ever played.  As stated on the DisneyWiki

Despite the unpopularity of the sequel, Melody's actually a pretty popular character with a relatively large fanbase. In fact, Tara Strong has said that, out of all the characters that she has voiced, Melody is her favorite.

And I think that is one of the biggest things that makes it work as you can feel her enthusiasm for the role and that is what makes Melody rather likable. 




First Appearance

Melody is first seen at the beginning as a baby girl and she is really sweet and this is where we get our first look at this movie's confusing villain, Morgana.  Ursula's crazy sister that both resents Ursula and wants revenge against Ursula.   and because of her attacking the baby,  we are treated to one of the dumbest decisions in this movie, Ariel decides that to protect her daughter, that she can never know the truth of merpeople or Atlantica. 



Personality



Now  if I'm, to be honest, and fair,  I will admit that critique that this movie is the original in reverse is a valid complaint and that is seen somewhat in  Melody in how she is a bit more awkward and feels like more of an outcast at 12 than her mother did in the original  movie.  She is also a bit sassy and tomboyish and of course, there is the obvious thing that she collects items from the sea as a contrast to her mother collecting things from the land.   And this brings me to one of the biggest issues with this movie, the relationship between Ariel and Melody and it can be summed up with this meme. 

This pretty much sums Ariel in this movie as she becomes her dad somewhat in regards to how she treats her daughter in much the same vein, she was treated. Granted, it is softened a bit but it just felt off.   




Biggest Desire

To be a Mermaid



That's all there is to her grand desire.  They attempt to throw in things about her feeling out of place in the human world and thinking that she could fit better in the land of the sea.   It's not a bad idea but more could be done with it if the movie had a longer runtime than the average direct-to-video movie. 




Song


For a Moment





Man, if Melody could have more moments like this in the movie than she could have been an even better character than the hint of what we were shown at first.  This song shows that there was something there to work with as you really get to see understand her excitement in this number and this number is better than anything else in the movie.




Sidekicks

Tip & Dash

Man, these two bring the movie down a whole lot.   How we do go from Sebastian, Flounder & Scuttle in the original to these two?  I just look at these two and think that whoever worked on this movie and saw that Timon and Pumbaa were popular in The Lion King and wanted a comedy duo in that vein but forgot any of the charm. 




Is Melody a Good Character? 


Good would be generous but considering the batch of uninspired characters that came out of the cheapquels,  she is a bit better than most.  I'd take over someone like Quasimodo's live interest in the Hunchback sequel and I do think that her character shows that you can tell fun stories about children of Disney characters unlike a certain franchise *cough* Descendants *cough.*    Really,  the problem with Melody lies in the execution.  She's not a bad character by any stretch of the imagination, she just could have used a stronger story.