The Little Mermaid

On the data. The order here is genuinely counterintuitive, and it is counterintuitive in the same direction twice: the two entries people assume are sequels are both prequels. The 1992 television series is the worse of the two, because a series that came out three years after a film reads as a continuation and it is not. Ariel is still a mermaid throughout and it is set before the film. Ariel's Beginning, from 2008, is the last animated entry made and the first in the story. It sits before the series. So the story order is Ariel's Beginning, then the series, then the 1989 film, then Return to the Sea. Only the last of those four is a sequel in the ordinary sense. The 2023 remake is its own continuity and the differences are worth knowing before you watch, because several are structural rather than cosmetic. Ariel, not Eric, takes the wrecked ship and kills Ursula. Eric has an adoptive mother, Queen Selina, who does not exist in 1989. Ariel's six sisters are renamed and each rules a different sea. Scuttle is a gannet rather than a seagull, which lets the character go underwater. And Ursula's spell is rigged so that Ariel forgets she has to kiss Eric at all, a mechanic the 1989 film does not have. Three new Alan Menken songs were written for it with Lin-Manuel Miranda. On counts: the 1992 series is thirty-one episodes across three seasons, fourteen then nine then eight. The preschool Ariel series has thirty episodes in its first season; a second began in November 2025 and no count has been announced, so none is written down here. Three different things are called The Little Mermaid: the 1989 film, the 1992 series and the 2023 remake. Keep the years.

On your progress. Checkmarks are saved on this device and are tied to permanent title IDs, not to list positions, so new episodes, titles, and whole franchises can be added later without disturbing anything you've already marked. Use Sync & backup to move progress to another device.