| Melody | |
|---|---|
 Melody in her human form. | |
| Information | |
| Character | Melody |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Half-Human/Half-Mermaid |
| Occupation | Princess |
| Status | Alive |
| Family | Ariel (mother) Prince Eric (father) King Triton (maternal grandfather) Queen Athena (maternal grandmother; deceased) Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina (maternal aunts) Poseidon (maternal great-grandfather; deceased) Neptune (maternal great-great-grandfather; deceased) Crustacea (maternal great-grandaunt) |
| Appearances | The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea |
| Voice Actor | Tara Strong |
Princess Melody is the main character in Disney's 2000 direct-to-DVD feature film The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, the sequel to the 1989 film in the saga. She is the daughter of Ariel and Prince Eric, and the only known grandchild of King Triton and Queen Athena.
Appearance[]
Melody is a 12-year-old tomboyish princess of average height and build for her age. She has straight/wavy black hair, often tied back with a green hair tie in a low ponytail, and blue eyes. She has a deep love of being barefoot and hatred of wearing shoes. Melody seems to have inherited a fairly even blend of traits from her parents. Her hair is the same color as her father's, and she inherited her mother's eyes, smile, nose, and facial structure. It is also possible that Melody inherited Ariel's beautiful singing voice, as the two were heard side by side in "For a Moment", a duet between Melody and her mother. Eric also gave her his skin tone and eyebrows.
For most of the film, Melody is seen barefoot and in her undergarments, which is a separate pair of frilly white ankle-length pantalettes and a matching button-front camisole with a green bow; the pantalettes cover the bottom half of her stomach and is seen barefoot while in this outfit. As a baby, she was wearing a pink and white dress and her bow also has the same colors. While in mermaid form, Melody retains her camisole, but her legs, bare feet and five toes are replaced by a pink tail. She also has a pink and white ballgown and a yellow casual dress both with short puffy sleeves. Since she found it, she wears her locket that has her name on it. She usually walks barefoot and never wearing shoes because she prefers barefoot. Like her mother, Ariel, Melody loves exposing her bare feet with five toes, showing her bare soles and wiggling her five toes.
Personality[]
Melody has a sassy and headstrong personality which reflects upon the personality of her mother in her younger years, but her insecurity around others and socially-awkward tendencies stem from her father. While Sebastian states that Melody is "just like her mother" in The Little Mermaid II, many similarities exist between Melody and her father, Prince Eric. Her sense of adventure, curiosity and willingness to take risks exist in both Ariel and Prince Eric, but her mild shyness stems from a sheltered upbringing and her father's personality.
Melody's curious nature leads her to collect all sorts of items from the sea, a parallel to her mother at age 16. Melody's swimming proficiency and ability to hold her breath for long periods comes from her mermaid parentage.
She is also shy around boys, becoming quite flustered when a merboy she found attractive tried befriending her.
Role in the film[]
When Melody is an infant, her parents sail out to sea and is presented to King Triton. When the proud new grandfather sees her he instantly loves her, calling her "His precious Melody", and gives her a seashell locket, which, when opened, plays the melody of "Down to the Sea" and shows a moving image of
Ariel with baby Melody
the underwater city of Atlantica. The celebration is interrupted by Ursula's sister, Morgana, who threatens to feed Melody to the shark Undertow if Triton does not hand over the trident, which Triton almost agrees to do in order to save her. He ends up not having to when Ariel grabs Eric's cutlass and cuts the hatch to knock out Morgana and he retrieves Melody. When Morgana escapes, Ariel decides that until Morgana is found, the sea would be too dangerous for Melody and vows to keep all knowledge of the sea from her, including her grandfather, late grandmother, and her aunts. Ariel, heartbroken, gives her father the locket he had given to Melody. A baby Melody looks back at her sad grandfather who then asks Sebastian to watch over Melody (just like he had done for Ariel).
Melody grows up banned from entering the sea, and isn't told the reason why. This causes a misunderstanding to exist between her and Ariel, who refuses to explain the truth to Melody, making Melody believe that Ariel hated the sea and could not or would not understand her love of it. By her 12th birthday, she had been regularly secretly sneaking out to swim in the sea against her mother and father's wishes. When Melody finds her locket on the day of her 12th birthday she finds her name on it and the image of Atlantica when she opens it. Melody begins to question Ariel as she had told her Atlantica was "just an old fish tale." Ariel, however, panics when she hears this and simply yells at Melody for her disobedience that it was dangerous in the sea (like how her father had yelled at her). Melody ends the argument by telling her mother "How would you know? You've never even been in it!" Melody then runs off from her room, and both Ariel and Eric decide that they can no longer hide the truth from her. However, Melody runs away from home before they can tell her the truth.
Melody eventually is coerced by Undertow to go and meet Morgana, who uses Melody's love of the sea against her. Morgana promises her that she will be a mermaid forever if Melody will retrieve the trident from Triton, claiming that he stole it from Morgana. Wanting to be a mermaid forever she agrees to get it, not knowing she would be stealing from her grandfather. Morgana then gets a potion and drops it on Melody's foot. A green light then goes around her foot and spreads to both of her legs. She is then lifted in the air as her legs change. She is then set back down, and the green light disappears, revealing her tail. Unknown to Melody was the fact that, as the granddaughter of King Triton, she had the power to retrieve the trident from its resting place when Triton did not have it on his person. While searching for the trident, Melody befriends a penguin named Tip and a walrus named Dash, and they join her in her search. They manage to sneak into the Atlantican royal palace and make off with the trident.
Melody returns to Morgana at the same time that her mother Ariel, who's been turned back into a mermaid, arrives. Before Ariel has a chance to fully explain, Melody, angered at Ariel's decision to hide Melody's mermaid heritage, gives Morgana the trident. Afterwards, Morgana reveals her true colors to Melody and also tells her that she had stolen from her grandfather. She then traps Melody in an ice prison. As she is trapped, Melody begins to blame herself for this and starts to cry. Soon afterwards, the sun sets and Morgana's spell on Melody wears off. Melody begins to grunt and moan, as she doesn't understand what is happening to her. She continues to scream as her transformation happens. Melody's tail splits and forms into her legs, with her pantalettes on. When the transformation finishes, Melody yells for help, but immediately starts to choke. Melody then tries to find a way out while she is holding her breath. She stops and starts banging on the ice. No longer able to hold her breath, Melody becomes unconscious starts to drown. Tip and Dash trick Undertow, who has been restored to his original form, into ramming into the ice. They look down and see that she in on the floor, still not breathing. They quickly take her to the surface, where she then wakes up and coughs out water. A battle ensues, which is eventually ended when Melody retrieves the trident from Morgana. Morgana grabs Melody's foot and tries to take the trident but Melody pierces the trident through one of her tentacles. She throws Triton his trident. Morgana pushes her off afterwards which sent her falling and screaming. Tip and Dash save her and she becomes unconscious once more. When Triton catches the trident, he proceeds to encase Morgana in ice, and falls in the water. When Melody wakes up, she apologizes to her mother for her actions, and tells her she hoped that she'd be a better mermaid than a girl. Ariel then tells her that it didn't matter if she had fins or feet. That they loved her for what she was on the inside, their very brave little girl, and her grandfather decides to add in "Just like your mother."
Melody then runs and hugs her happy grandfather, who offers to allow her to be a mermaid permanently. Melody however turns it down, as she had thought of a better solution. Opting instead to destroy the barrier wall that separated the royal palace from the sea in order to reunite both sides of her family, where they could all be together. Melody giggles.
In the film, Melody sings in the songs "For a Moment", "Tip and Dash", and the finale song "Here on the Land and Sea". Melody is also a playable character in the PlayStation game, The Little Mermaid 2, which is based on the two movies.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- She is the first half-mermaid half-human.
- Melody express the same worries as her mother when she wants to be a mermaid, while her mother in the first movie wishes to be a human.
- Like her mother, she goes to a sea witch for the transformation.