‘Disney Junior’s Ariel’ Takes Us Under the Sea Once Again! (NEW TRAILER)

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The Little Mermaid is nothing short of a classic. Interest in Disney’s telling of the fairy tale has remained strong since the release of the 1989 animated feature and the 2023 live-action update.

So, it’s no surprise that the Mouse House isn’t stopping there. The CG-animated preschool series Disney Junior’s Ariel debuts June 27 on Disney Junior and the following day on streamer Disney+.

The musical series follows young Ariel as she and her mermaid pals, Fernie and Lucia, learn about life and have adventures in the underwater kingdom of Atlantica. The series features the voices of Mykal-Michelle Harris as Ariel, Taye Diggs as King Triton, Amber Riley as Ursula, Gracen Newton as Flounder, Cruz Flateau as Fernie and Elizabeth Phoenix Caro as Lucia.

Executive producer Lynne Southerland — an animation veteran whose credits include Mulan 2 and Monster High — came aboard the project because of the opportunity to bring real-world Caribbean culture to the famous fairy tale.

Caribbean Princess

“The spark to get involved with it was the chance to do a deeper dive into what for me felt like the fringes of the Caribbean experience that the movie had had,” Southerland says. “I think the Caribbean captures the richness of multiculturalism as not just a concept, but as a living, breathing world.”

The Caribbean connection also resonated with Chrystin Garland, art director on the series and on of Animation Magazine‘s Rising Stars of Animation for 2024.

“I was shown some of the concept art that was created, and it was just so beautiful and lively and colorful,” Garland says. “We’re really getting the opportunity to take this really beloved legacy property and completely do an overhaul and reimagine it.”

In addition to helping shape Ariel’s history, the show was a chance to develop new characters and find new angles for old ones. Although Ariel’s pals Flounder and Sebastian are largely the same, Ursula plays the role of the knowing auntie — “tante” in the local lingo — to Ariel.

Southerland says Ursula couldn’t be the frightening nemesis of the feature films in a preschool series, but she was happy to find a suitable role for the character as the warmhearted auntie.

“She still does her magic, but now it’s more from a place of being part of a community and having an apothecary, where she can give herbs to people, which also anchors her again back in the Caribbean,” Southerland says. “Once we cast Amber Riley in the role, then all the magic comes together because she just exudes that real warmth and has a kind of fullness about her voice.”

 

‘I think the Caribbean captures the richness of multiculturalism as not just a concept, but as a living, breathing world.’

— Executive producer Lynne Southerland

 

 

 

Ariel’s friends Lucia and Fernie are original creations, designed to provide some different perspectives. “If Ariel is the anchor, then you’ve got Lucia, who is an aspiring magician, but she messes up quite a bit,” Southerland says. “But that’s also a great way for kids to learn — you keep experimenting, you keep trying, you don’t give up, you’re still fierce at what you set out to do.”

Garland turned to Caribbean festivals and costumes to develop a cheery and distinct look for the CG animation.

“I just really wanted to zoom in, home in on that shape language and have that reflected within the seaweed, within the coral, all the fun shapes that we see — just bring that vibrancy to the world,” she says. “What I love about each iteration of Ariel is that it’s something different. I’m such a huge fan of musicals like The Wiz and how it’s a completely different telling of The Wizard of Oz. It’s its own thing, but it’s so exciting, and you can watch both pieces of media and really enjoy them. I really wanted to do something like that with this show.”

Garland says they wanted a diverse look for all the characters and animation partner Icon Creative Studio in Vancouver, Canada, delivered that in everything from undersea vegetation to different hair textures for the characters.

“It was just really, really fun to really zoom in and be like, ‘No, this is a looser hair texture, a looser curl,’ or talking about Ariel’s locs and being able to see the parts in her hair, in her scalp,” Garland says. “We really wanted everything to look very sparkly and really whimsical, and I think that Icon just did a fabulous job bringing that to the screen.”

The underwater setting required experimentation and some help from real-life underwater photography techniques to find a look that’s immersive but not distracting. “We really tried to exaggerate those same elements around our characters,” Garland says. “If characters are in the background, as they swim to the foreground they start to become more saturated and more clear. We’re really, really proud of that one because that was definitely one of our lightbulb moments.”

Ariel wouldn’t be Ariel without a song to sing, and each episode includes a musical number. “We’ve been fortunate to have dedicated storyboard artists to focus on the songs, which I think allows more time for them to be very much in the mode of the song,” says Southerland.

Songs are used in the episodes in various ways. “Sometimes they’re just for fun and other times they’re driving a particular thematic moment,” Southerland says. “But in each case, it’s very much the tempo of it, the particular energy of that song is driven out of that particular story.”

Like the visuals and the stories, the music draws on the rich heritage of the Caribbean. “We’re able to pull from this huge, multi-genre aspect of Caribbean music and give a different sound to each song,” Southerland says. “It just creates this rich, rich opportunity that we’ve been taking advantage of, and you’ll see once the show comes out that just all kinds of fabulous songs have been written for this.”

It helps that the characters swim, which means they can move in any direction and in ways that land-based characters can’t. “We have no reason to lock down our camera and have characters just standing around,” Southerland says. “When they go, oh, joy! They can lift up, they can swim, they can move … So, for the songs, there’s a great fluidity to how they look.”

Disney’s producing 30 episodes of Ariel, each with two 11-minute segments. The production process is long but has enough variety to keep the work engaging and exciting.

An Invigorating Dive

“It kind of reinvigorates you,” Southerland says. “So, you’re working in storyboards, and then you see some color, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God,’ and you’re totally reinspired.”

The show aims to inspire a sense of curiosity in its young viewers. Garland remembers the magic of seeing the original animated feature and hopes Ariel conveys the same sense of wonder.

“One of the big aspects is encouraging kids to try things, and it’s OK to fail,” Southerland says. “Often in our stories, the kids have a mishap, and they may apologize for it, but certainly they’re learning from their mistakes. And I think that’s such a gift.”

 

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Disney Junior’s Ariel premieres on Disney Junior on June 27 and on Disney+ on June 28. Fans can also enjoy the Mermaid Tales shorts on the Disney Junior YouTube channel.