Now hear me out, I know it might seem impossible, but the story actually has something in it. It has a good sequel story based heavily in "irony" hidden underneath layers of at times bad animation, really bad music, useless side characters that bring nothing to the story and "dullification", that is, making the original characters dull to give more personality to the new ones.
Maybe it's because I have some sort of personal attachment to Disney's DTV sequel movies as when I was a child I had them in VHS and saw them just as much as the originals. But some Disney sequels are actually quite good in some aspects. Of course not in all as they don't have the same budget nor the same creative team the original ones had so they have to make do with what they have. I personally think most of them add extra adventures of the main characters (Like Tarzan and Jane), very few progress their character's development or backstory (like Aladdin and the King of Thieves) or go totally different routes or go crazy (like Cinderella 3).
This sequel belongs to the "offspring's ironic story" in which the daughter or son or both of the main couple have an emotional, physical or metaphoric journey filled with themes and tropes that the original showed us. In this one we see straight in the trailer (so it isn't really a spoiler) that Ariel's daughter loves the sea and wants to get back to it. And how ever will she do that knowing Ursulla coincidentally had also a cruel, ocean-domination-seeking crazy sister who would take advantage of this desire? Other movies that fall under this "category" of sequel is Lady and the Tramp 2 and Lion King 2 (and probably some other). I do believe there was an interesting mirror story hiding underneath the bad musical score and so-so animation, but I just can't stand the side characters here and the main characters are absolutely useless for the plot or worse they are plot devices to move the story forward.
In conclusion, it is an average movie, it's family friendly and has good messages and good entertainment. In my opinion it is not amongst the worst Disney sequels as I have seen others that don't respect the status quo with which the previous one ended. This one at least tries to have the same themes even though at times you can see some sequences and shots are copied straight out of the original movie. Still, for me it's always better to pay homage to the original one while building upon it. But that's just my opinion, objectively this movie is entertaining for kids and I loved it and understood it all and felt for it as a kid, like I felt what Melody felt with the whole "my parents don't understand me" ever-so-repeated trope. So yeap, totally kid friendly and I'm a sucker for easy to watch movies like these. (Aladdin King of thieves is superior in music, plot and characters so check that one instead!)
Maybe it's because I have some sort of personal attachment to Disney's DTV sequel movies as when I was a child I had them in VHS and saw them just as much as the originals. But some Disney sequels are actually quite good in some aspects. Of course not in all as they don't have the same budget nor the same creative team the original ones had so they have to make do with what they have. I personally think most of them add extra adventures of the main characters (Like Tarzan and Jane), very few progress their character's development or backstory (like Aladdin and the King of Thieves) or go totally different routes or go crazy (like Cinderella 3).
This sequel belongs to the "offspring's ironic story" in which the daughter or son or both of the main couple have an emotional, physical or metaphoric journey filled with themes and tropes that the original showed us. In this one we see straight in the trailer (so it isn't really a spoiler) that Ariel's daughter loves the sea and wants to get back to it. And how ever will she do that knowing Ursulla coincidentally had also a cruel, ocean-domination-seeking crazy sister who would take advantage of this desire? Other movies that fall under this "category" of sequel is Lady and the Tramp 2 and Lion King 2 (and probably some other). I do believe there was an interesting mirror story hiding underneath the bad musical score and so-so animation, but I just can't stand the side characters here and the main characters are absolutely useless for the plot or worse they are plot devices to move the story forward.
In conclusion, it is an average movie, it's family friendly and has good messages and good entertainment. In my opinion it is not amongst the worst Disney sequels as I have seen others that don't respect the status quo with which the previous one ended. This one at least tries to have the same themes even though at times you can see some sequences and shots are copied straight out of the original movie. Still, for me it's always better to pay homage to the original one while building upon it. But that's just my opinion, objectively this movie is entertaining for kids and I loved it and understood it all and felt for it as a kid, like I felt what Melody felt with the whole "my parents don't understand me" ever-so-repeated trope. So yeap, totally kid friendly and I'm a sucker for easy to watch movies like these. (Aladdin King of thieves is superior in music, plot and characters so check that one instead!)