A series based on the 1989
The Little Mermaid that aired from 1992-1994. Set during the period right before Ariel met Prince Eric, but after
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. (Note that this came before that movie, so there
Ariel's Beginning brings in some retcons, such as the music ban and how Ariel met Flounder). This show was part of the set of spin-off cartoons based on successful movies that Disney produced during the decade, others including shows based on
Aladdin,
Hercules,
Tarzan,
The Jungle Book (though not complient to
Tale Spin), and
101 Dalmatians that set up a backstory for the characters or a continuation of the adventures.
The series debuted as a
Saturday Morning Cartoon on
CBS, then was rerun on the
Disney Channel and
Toon Disney. It had three seasons and 31 episodes.
In this series, there was a musical number in every episode, and the tone was usually light and comedic, sometimes going onto the bizarre (a recurring comic villain was called Lobster Mobster).
List of Tropes relating to The Little Mermaid: the Animated Series:
- Anachronism Stew: Beside the historical cameos, and the Lobster Mobster, characters also do activities like bowling (which they apparently invented), and eat seaweed doughnuts.
- Big Eater: Adella.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Evil Manta.
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: specifically, defrosted aquatic dinosaurs.
- Freaky Friday Flip: Between Flounder and Sebastian in one episode.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs:
Triton: What
under the sea on earth
is going on?!
- Love Before First Sight: Prince Eric makes cameos, but he and Ariel never see each other.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Evil Manta, Ursula.
- The Other Darrin: Buddy Hackett did not return as Scuttle, so Maurice LaMarche filled in.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Howling Hairfish.
- Pet Baby Wild Animal: Ariel temporarily adopts a Killer Whale, then a wild Sea Horse (which according to the show, is like a regular horse, but underwater). There's also a "bad luck" creature which Ariel rescues from Ursula's wrath and calls her Lucky.
- Recycled: The Series
- Satan: The Evil Manta has some very strong shades of this.
- Shout Out:
- The king of a kingdom neighboring Atlantica is obviously based on Yen Sid.
- The episode "The Beast Within" is obviously based on the movie The Wolf Man.
- The sea serpent in the episode "Heroes" bears some resemblance to Dragon Maleficent at the end of Sleeping Beauty.
- Those Two Bad Guys: The Lobster Mobster and Da Shrimp, plus several others that appeared only in one episode.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Evil Manta.
- Villain Song: The Lobster Mobster and Da Shrimp get two and the Evil Manta & Ursula gets one each.
- Young Future Famous People: more like a historical cameo for Hans Christian Andersen and his amazing submarine. Also, there was a guest appearance from Mozart in a episode.
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