Melody

Melody is the protagonist of Disney's 2000 feature film The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, the sequel to The Little Mermaid. She is the daughter of Ariel and Prince Eric, the only known grandchild of King Triton and Queen Athena. She is voiced by Tara Strong.

Appearance
In terms of physical appearance, Melody is a 12 year old of average height and build for her age. She has long, black hair, most often tied back in a low ponytail, and light blue eyes. Melody seems to have inherited most of her physical traits from her parents. Most noticeable is her hairstyle, which is quite similar to Ariel's except for the ponytail. She also inherited her mother's eye shape, smile, nose, and facial structure. It is also possible that Melody inherited Ariel's beautiful singing voice, which is heard side by side in "For a Moment". From Eric, on the other hand, Melody has inherited his hair color, eye color, skin tone, and eyebrows.

For most of the film, Melody is seen in her pajamas, which are a seperate pair of tan pants and a tan shirt. While in mermaid form caused by Morgona, Melody retains her shirt, but has a pink tail with light pink fins. Why the mer-teens she meets don't pay attention to her not wearing a typical sea-shell bikini top is odd. She also has a pink ball gown and a yellow casual dress. Since she found it she wears her locket that has her name on it.

Personality
Melody's spunky and headstrong personality 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 similiarities 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 sixteen. Melody's swimming proficiency and ability to hold her breath for long periods likely comes from her mermaid parentage.

Role in the film
Melody first appears as an infant at the beginning of the film. Her parents, Ariel and Eric, are celebrating her birth, and have taken her out on a ship to meet with Ariel's father, King Triton and the merpeople. Triton presents Melody with a locket which bears her name, meant to remind his granddaughter of her mermaid heritage. However, the celebration is interrupted by Morgana, Ursula's sister. Morgana kidnaps Melody and threatens to feed her to her shark, Undertow, if Triton does not hand over his trident. Though Triton attempts to do so, Ariel and Eric are able to thwart Morgana's plan. Morgana vanishes, but not before vowing revenge. Fearful for Melody's safety, Ariel decides that Melody cannot know of her mermaid heritage until Morgana is captured. She bans her family from seeing Melody, and later has a large sea wall built to separate their castle from the sea. Meanwhile, Melody's locket is tossed into the sea.

Melody grows up banned from entering the sea, but is ignorant of the reason why. Despite the ban, she loves the sea and regularly sneaks out to swim. This causes a difficult relationship between Ariel and Melody. One day, while out swimming, Melody discovers the locket and is surprised to see her name on it. The locket opens to reveal a picture of mermaids swimming in Atlantica. She confronts Ariel about it, noting that Ariel has told her that Atlantica was only a fairytale. After Ariel refuses to give any answers, Melody takes a rowboat and runs away from home. After learning of Melody's disappearance, Ariel resumes her mermaid form to aid in the search.

Meanwhile, Melody is lured to Morgana's lair by Undertow. Morgana uses a potion to turn Melody into a mermaid, which excites Melody. However, the spell will only last a few days. Morgana explains that she can make the transformation permanent of she has the trident, which she claims Triton stole from her. Morgana asks Melody to retrieve the trident. Unknown to Melody, Morgana is lying and only wants the trident for her own selfish purposes. However, only a descendant of Triton can remove it from it's resting place, and Melody is ignorant of Triton's connection to her.

While searching for the trident, Melody befriends a penguin named Tip and a walrus named Dash, and they join her in her search. The trio manages 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 arrives. Ariel attempts to explain the situation, but Melody, angered at Ariel's decision to hide Melody's mermaid heritage, gives Morgana the trident.

Afterward, Morgana reveals her true colors and the truth to Melody, takes Ariel hostage, and traps Melody and Flounder in a cave by sealing the entrance with a thick layer of ice. Soon afterward, Morgana's spell on Melody wears off. She reverts back her human form and nearly drowns, but Tip and Dash get Undertow, Morgana's shark minion, to ram into the ice, and help Flounder carry Melody to the surface. While Morgana is terrorizing everyone with the trident, Melody is able to sneak up behind Morgana and take back the trident. Melody throws the trident to Triton. She is then knocked off the ice pillar by Morgana, but is saved by Dash. Triton catches his trident and imprisons Morgana in an iceberg.

With the danger past, Triton offers to allow Melody to become a mermaid permanently. Melody refuses the offer, instead choosing to destroy the sea wall, so that everyone could be together.

Video game
Melody is also a playable character in the Playstation game The Little Mermaid II, which is based on the 2 movies.

Trivia

 * Melody seems to have inherited most of her mother's personality traits; headstrong, adventurous, rebellious, and stubborn. She also inherited Ariel's facial shape, nose, smile, eye shape, and hair style, as well as some physical abilities such as breath sustainability, and under-water athleticism.
 * Although Melody inherited a lot of her Ariel's traits in both personality and apperence, her mixture of black hair, thick eyebrows and blue eyes make her a perfect blend of her parents.
 * Although Melody is a princess by birth, she isn't included as a official Disney Princess in the franchise, possibly because of her young age. However, her mother is.