The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (also known as The Little Mermaid III) is a 2008 animated fantasy feature film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and DisneyToon Studios, and the direct-to-video prequel to Disney's 1989 film "The Little Mermaid". Directed by Peggy Holmes, the film's story is set before the events of the 1989 film and the , where all music has been banned from the underwater kingdom of Atlantica by King Triton, and his youngest daughter Ariel attempts to challenge this law