Tip and Dash are characters from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. They are Melody's friends.
Background[]
Personalities[]
A not-so-daring duo, Tip, a penguin, and Dash, a walrus, are two best friends, who dream of becoming heroes. The problem is they're both cowards in the face of real danger and because of this tend to cause more harm than good. Still, they eventually prove themselves to be heroes for the sake of their friend, Melody.
Tip is the most assertive of the two and has a big mouth opposed to his small size. He envisions himself a daring adventurer and explorer, braving dangers in a heroic manner but rarely backs up his boastings with true heroics. He sometimes argues with Dash and crosses the line whenever he mentions Dash's blubber, and does not like to be reminded that he, a penguin, cannot fly. Still, they're truly best friends and look out for each other. When they meet Melody, Tip proves to have a suspicious side and refuses to help her when she mentions she would be turned into a human but Dash convinces him they should help her out, especially when he sees the kind and pleading smile on Melody's face, proving his heart isn't made of ice. He's also rather sarcastic and cynical.
Dash is the sidekick of the duo but with a kinder heart, and with a more realistic perspective on the situation at hand. But like Tip he's a coward in the face of real danger and runs away screaming like one, and will voice his cowardice from time to time. He's far more compassionate than Tip, as he was the first to want to help Melody in her quest and convinced Tip into it, as it was a "damsel-in-distress" situation, a real chance for them to become heroes. Dash and Tip tend to argue and he tends to cross the line when he mentions Tip, being a penguin, can't fly, usually when Tip mentions his blubber, which he is rather sensitive about. Dash is closer to Melody than Tip is, likely due to his more compassionate and gentle heart, and is brave enough to face any danger for her, even Tip when he tried to wrestle with Undertow, a shark to protect him.
Role in the film[]
Tip, a penguin, and Dash, a walrus, are two best friends, who dream of becoming heroes. The problem? They're both cowards in the face of real danger, and because of this tend to cause more harm than good. After saving a little girl penguin from a shark (badly), the duo got insulted by the other penguins and leave. Shortly afterward, they meet Melody, who asks them for directions to Atlantica, but Tip is wary of her. Though Dash, seeing Melody as a "damsel-in-distress", convinces him that this is their chance to really become heroes by aiding her in her quest.
They guide Melody to Atlantica and try to be discreet as they snuck into the palace to steal the trident from King Triton. They succeed and escape, but on their way back to the arctic, Tip and Dash got scared off by Undertow who they assume he's a shark since he purposely showed his dorsal fin, despite Melody trying to tell them that Undertow was only a mini piranha, but they already fled too far to listen or hear her, much to Undertow's amusement. When Melody is imprisoned in an icy cave, Tip and Dash lament over their cowardice and are so fed-up with it. Upon noticing that something is going wrong in Morgana's lair, knowing that Melody their only friend at the time was in trouble and truly desiring to become heroes for real, they try to save her but they are confronted by Undertow, who had been recently turned back into his giant shark form by Morgana who possessed the trident. Dash seemingly says goodbye to Tip but he then bravely jumps on Undertow. During the chase, Undertow is able to eat Tip so Dash blocks his eyesight in retaliation, causing him to swim out of control and accidentally break the ice in Melody's prison. After defeating Undertow, they arrive at the surface where Morgana uses the trident to make them bow to her. After being freed, Tip and Dash saved Melody from falling off an icicle. At the end of the movie, they were seen playing and swimming with Melody and everyone else.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Not only is Tip similar to Timon but the voice of Tip, Max Casella, also played Timon in the first few Broadway productions of The Lion King.
- Additionally, Casella also provided the voice of Zini from Dinosaur, which was released the same year as The Little Mermaid II, 2000.
- Also, Dash's voice actor, the late Stephen Furst, was also the voice of Booster Munchapper from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, a TV series also premiering in 2000.
- While they are a lot like Timon and Pumbaa, Tip and Dash are different in some ways: they were adventurous, while their counterparts were carefree and lazy.
- In real life, penguins and walruses are animals that do not coexist together, since most penguins inhabit the Southern Hemisphere, while walruses are only found around the Arctic regions.
- Dash's tusks are inaccurate for his gender, since male walruses in real life have much longer tusks, while only females have short, stumpy tusks like Dash.
- In the European French dub, Tip and Dash are voiced by the same person (speaking voice only).