This one is over a month late but I have reasons! 1. I kept forgetting 2. I had some personal stuff going on and I had personal reasons to not want to watch this movie for a while after watching the first one. But this movie and Ariel's Beginning are way overdue at the library so it's now or never and get even more fines.

Today's rewatch: The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea
Last time watched: 2015

How much did I like this movie as a kid?
Since I loved The Little Mermaid when I was little, of course I was really excited to watch Return to the Sea and when I finally did watch it I might not have loved it as much as the first one, but that didn't stop me from watching this movie over and over and over again. The last time I watched this movie I was working 2 jobs and when I had a 3 hour break between shifts I was channel surfing when I saw Disney Channel playing this movie for the first time in I didn't know how long (seriously, when was the last time Disney Channel showed a straight to dvd sequel?). The second I saw this movie was on I sat back, relaxed, and took a nice trip down memory lane before I had to spend another night in stress.

Why I love this movie so much:
For one thing, JODI FRIGGING BENSON RETURNED AS ARIEL. Jodi Benson is one of my favorite singers and actresses and I love watching any movie that she sings in even if it's a bad movie.

Also, how did I go this long not knowing Pat Carroll voiced Morgana? Especially with that laugh!

I love that this movie toned down Triton's temper, the only time we see him get angry like he did in the first movie is when Morgana is involved and when he's upset about Melody missing (though that time was understandable it was a little much)

One of things I love about this movie is that the characters aren't out of character (except maybe Ariel a little bit, even if Melody couldn't know about merpeople she could have at least told Melody why the ocean wasn't safe but if that's not an option then it's understandable) which is almost rare to see in straight to dvd sequels (so far I've only seen it in the Aladdin sequels, BatB Enchanted Christmas, and kinda Cinderella 2)

Something I almost forgot about this movie (despite it being pretty obvious) is how similar this movie is to the first movie. Not just the parts about a princess sneaking off to somewhere forbidden and asking a sea witch for help, there's Melody forgetting about the party like Ariel forgot about the concert, Melody splashing out of the water like Ariel did after she got legs, Melody collecting treasures like Ariel did, and so on.

I'm glad we got to see more of Ariel and Eric together, in some of the sequels we've gotten we never get to see too much of the original couple interacting the same way Ariel and Eric do in this movie. In other sequels we see them talking about their children and most of the time it's only one or two scenes together and that's it. In this movie we see Ariel and Eric talk-singing in the opening, they talk about their daughter but they're longer scenes and there's more than one, and there's that sweet little "bad hair day" part before the birthday party.

Melody still isn’t my favorite sequel princess but I still like her. Sometimes I think people forget she’s only 12 years old and people that age can make mistakes especially after being lied to by a parent and being manipulated by a “sweet” old lady. I know I did some really stupid and dangerous stuff as a kid so I know how it is. I still love her design and I’m glad the animators didn’t make her look 100% like Ariel like Disney normally does with Disney children. I remember being so disappointed that she wasn’t going to be in the third movie because I wanted to see more of her relationship with her parents.

Watching this now I find it so weird that when Melody heard Mama Penguin yelling for help we didn't see her come to try help or any reaction at all. Like Ariel with the stuffed crab in the first movie, this might just be bad writing.

While Tip and Dash are obvious knockoffs of Timon and Pumbaa I had a hard time hating them. I didn't love them because they were more annoying knockoffs of Timon and Pumbaa, but I didn't hate them. I thought they had some moments that made them likable and honestly, I liked their song. It was catchy!

While the climax wasn't as intense as the first one we at least got to see Morgana use the trident more compared to Ursula who was only able to use it for a brief while.

What I loved the most about the ending is unlike the first movie, this movie actually addressed that you didn't have to choose to be only on land or in the sea, you can be a part of both. I still loved the ending to the first movie more than the ending to this movie but I'm still happy this movie showed the humans and mermaids together.

Movie:
As much as I love this movie, it's not the original. The characters look Saturday Morning Cartoonsy, Morgana wasn't as impressive as Ursula ("Morgana, why can't you be more like your sister Ursula?"), the background animation was even more disappointing, especially the ocean scenes which is a huge bummer because that's what I loved so much about the first movie. I had more fun watching the first movie but this movie was still more fun to watch than some of the other sequels I watched recently.

Rating: 6/10

How much has my opinion changed?
It's changed a little bit compared to how I felt about this movie when I was younger.

Would I watch it again?
Yes!

Next movie will be The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning