Ariel's Story Studio

Ariel's Story Studio (also known as The Little Mermaid Story Studio) is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook game developed by Media Station and Creative Capers Entertainment, and published by Disney Interactive. The game was released as a tie-in to the 1997 re-release of the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid. The game's plot is an abridged retelling of the film. Despite sharing the same style of gameplay and the same primary developer in Media Station, this game has never been released under the Disney's Animated Storybook name, although it is generally considered to be the eighth entry in that series. As a result, the game is sometimes known as Disney's Animated Storybook: The Little Mermaid.

Conception
The vision of Marc Teren, VP of entertainment for Disney Interactive, was to create games with a "true and fair representation of the original property", and aim to capitalise as "ancillary products to successful theatrical and home video releases". To achieve this, Teren helped ensure the games were animated by Disney animators. From December 1994 to February 1995, the company had hired 50 new employees. Children's Business suggests the series came into fruition because in the contemporary entertainment market, it was "customary now for entertainment companies to release CD-ROMs to support a film or TV show".

In 1997, Disney had re-released The Little Mermaid as "counter-programming" to Fox's animated film Anastasia, which was set to be released at the same time. The two studios were "scrambling to mine every potential dollar from their investment and make sure neither outdoes the other", so also butted heads in the video gaming space. Ariel's Story Studio competed against Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok. Joseph Adney, Disney Interactive's marketing director, said "What we're trying to do is go way beyond the movie by providing for the child to direct it".

Development
Disney and Media Station collaborated to create more than 12,000 frames of digital animation for each game, as well as 300 music and vocal clips. Digital music and sound effects were composed, orchestrated, arranged, edited, mixed and synchronized at Media Station. The games had hundreds of clickable hotspots that produced animated gags, as well as many mind-challenging interactive games. The voice cast sometimes consisted of actors from the films reprising their roles; meanwhile, at other times voice soundalikes were used. In this game, Jodi Benson and Samuel E. Wright reprise their roles as Ariel and Sebastian respectively. The game was included in The Animated Storybook Collection, along with four other games in the series.

According to Teacher Librarian, the game was produced by Disney Educational Productions, and was a part of their Disney Edu-Station website.

Plot
While Sebastian the crab and King Triton, Ariel's father, witness that Ariel, the mermaid princess, is not in the music concert that her six older sisters Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina are in, Ariel enters the shipwreck with Flounder and finds a fork and a pipe that were lost in the sunken ship. A shark arrives, but Ariel helps Flounder outsmart a shark that meanwhile gets stuck in an anchor. Ariel and Flounder Scuttle the seagull her human treasures, but Ariel heads for home with Flounder following after.

After Triton orders her not to go into the human world, Ariel collects human treasures in her grotto, while Sebastian watches her under orders from King Triton who wants him to keep her out of trouble, behind the back of Ursula the sea witch and her pet eels, Flotsam and Jetsam. Ursula hates Triton, and she says that he has Sebastian watching over Ariel.

With Sebastian and Flounder following her, Ariel watches Eric's ship. Scuttle gives to Ariel a binocular and helps her see Chef Louis, Grimsby, Max the dog, and Prince Eric. Max angrily barks at a statue that was given to Eric. A storm rages and destroys Eric's ship and tosses Eric overboard. Max, Grimsby, Chef Louis, and the sailors escape from the burning ship and return to their home on a boat. And in the midst, Ariel rescues Eric from drowning and sends him to shore.

Ariel sings the Part of Your World song to Eric, while Scuttle, Sebastian, and Flounder witness this. Eric comforts Ariel and makes love to her after being saved by her from drowning to death. Sebastian says to Ariel that King Triton will not like this. After Ariel leaves, Max arrives.

Ariel picks sea flowers and says that she is in love with a human named Eric. Sebastian tries to convince Ariel that the sea is better, but Ursula says that under the sea is no place for Ariel, who longs to be part of the human world. Sebastian accidentally races to Triton who is concerned about Ariel wanting to be with Eric.

Flounder shows the statue to Ariel, but Ariel faces Triton, who tells her that being in the human world is strictly forbidden. In the midst, after Ariel confronts Triton about saving a human from death, Triton confronts Ariel and begins destroying all of her human treasures. While Ariel grieves, she begins weeping over the loss of her treasures. Flounder and Sebastian repair all of Ariel's human treasures back to regular, but Flotsam and Jetsam sweet talk Ariel into going to the domain of Ursula the sea witch. Ariel, who does not listen to Flounder and Sebastian, joins Flotsam and Jetsam and gets to see Ursula.

Ursula comforts Ariel and reminds her that she will turn her into a human for three days. Ariel signs the contract and gives her voice and fins to Ursula who transforms her into a human. Flounder and Sebastian carry Ariel to shore.

Grimsby tells Eric and Ariel to have fun. Eric shows to Ariel the tour of the kingdom. The two ladies are doing laundry, but one boy jumps into the water, and the mom fishes him out. Ariel pulls a puppet out of a puppeteer's hands. Eric and Ariel dance with each other and become good friends. Scuttle asks Flounder if there is any kissing involved, but Flounder says there is not.

Eric tries to tell Ariel a girl's name. Sebastian tells Eric that Ariel's name is Ariel. Finally, Eric mentions Ariel's name to Ariel. Before Eric and Ariel almost kiss, they get squirted with water by Flotsam and Jetsam. Meanwhile, Ursula fumes and transforms herself into Vanessa and bewitches Eric.

After Flounder and Sebastian watch as Ariel begins weeping over Eric's loss, Scuttle and his sea friends crash the wedding, not allowing Vanessa to say 'I do'. Flounder helps Ariel get to the ship. Scuttle pulls the necklace off of Vanessa, and Ariel regains her voice back. Eric comes to Ariel and tells her she is the right woman for him. Ariel and Eric almost kiss, and the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula reveals her true form and takes Ariel with her. Max barks and Eric says that he will not lose Ariel again.

Flounder reminds Ariel to be careful, and Sebastian says that Triton will fix everything. Ariel apologizes to Triton for disobeying him. Triton furiously confronts Ursula and demands Ariel's release, but the deal is inviolable, due to Ariel signing the contract. Ursula tells Triton to sign the contract having Ariel released. Meanwhile, Triton saves Ariel only by signing the contract and giving Ursula his crown and trident. And after Triton is transformed into a polyp, Ursula becomes queen of the ocean. When Ariel confronts Ursula and points a finger at her, Ursula points the trident at Ariel. Eric intervenes with a harpoon and throws it onto Ursula's arm. Ursula threatens to destroy Eric, but Ariel stops her and intervenes, causing Ursula to inadvertently turn Flotsam and Jetsam into polyps. As Ariel hurries to join Eric, Ursula becomes enraged and enlarges herself into a giant.

Ariel reminds Eric to be careful. Ursula says that she is now the ruler of the ocean, and she will make the sea and all of its spoils bow to her power. Eric faces the final battle with Ursula on the surface. Just as Ursula is about to sabotage Ariel by using the trident, Eric skewers onto Ursula by steering one of the wrecked ships, impaling her with the ship's splintered bowsprit and leading to her transformation into a polyp.

When Ursula is defeated and transformed into a polyp, Triton is transformed back to normal and regains his crown and trident, while all the other merpeople are transformed back to normal. Sebastian, Flounder, and King Triton worry that Ariel will not be in the human world again, but Triton now allows Ariel to be in the human world. After having trust in Sebastian, Triton transforms Ariel into a human permanently.

At the wedding, Ariel and Eric marry. Eric becomes Ariel's husband, and Ariel becomes Eric's wife. Ariel bids her sisters (Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina) and father King Triton goodbye. Scuttle helps Flounder say goodbye to Ariel, who says that Flounder and Ariel will always remain friends. While Triton conjures up a rainbow, Ariel and Eric kiss and live happily ever after.

Gameplay
Players could follow along with the story, sing along with four songs from the movie, and take part in activities such as conducting an orchestra and taking photos of fish. Players learn skills like reading, vocabulary and critical thinking. The game was narrated by Ariel, Sebastian, and Ursula. It also has a "Create Your Own Storybook" feature that allows players to devise their own storybooks, both words and pictures, and then print out the finished product.

Cast

 * Jodi Benson as Princess Ariel and Vanessa (Ursula's human alter-ego)
 * Christopher Daniel Barnes as Prince Eric
 * Pat Carroll as Ursula
 * Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian
 * Courtland Mead as Flounder
 * Kenneth Mars as King Triton
 * Buddy Hackett as Scuttle
 * Nick Jameson as Grimsby
 * Paddi Edwards as Flotsam and Jetsam
 * Mary Kay Bergman as Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Attina
 * Will Ryan as Harold the Seahorse
 * Tress MacNeille, Michael Gough, Corey Burton as Additional Voices

Commercial performance
The game was the tenth top-selling home education program across nine retail chains (representing more than 40 percent of the U.S. market) in the week ending January 31, 1998.

Critical reception
Discovery Education wrote that the game was "fun and creative", and that it would appeal to children aged three to eight. Edutaining Kids wrote that the game was the most "educationally valuable" out of the three titles included in the Disney Princess Jewelry Box Collection, along with Disney's Princess Fashion Boutique and Disney Princess Magical Dress-Up. SuperKids thought the game was a crowdpleaser, and a nice entry in the edutainment category that would appeal to girls. Daily News suggested that "both [Ariel's Story Studio and Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok] can have lives lasting far longer than the movies will be in theaters". The Boston Herald said the game's strong point was its soundtrack and karaoke activity, as opposed to Anastasia 's adventure game mechanics, describing it as "more of an interactive storybook than a game". The Washington Times thought the game was "excellent", and recommended parents to buy it in a package with The Little Mermaid Print Studio. In another article, the newspaper deemed it "brilliantly executed" and a "splash hit". Rocky Mountain News gave the game a "tentative endorsement", noting that it helps to counteract the bias toward boy-oriented video games, and offered an opportunity got "computer-savvy girls to cheer".

It was nominated for Computer Edutainment Game of the Year at the first D.I.C.E. Awards, but lost to Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?