Mermaid Magic Season 1 Review – Fantastical adventures under (and above) the sea

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| The Pearls of Neptune
Episode 2 -| Pirates’ Cove
Episode 3 -| Dark Secrets Beneath The School
Episode 4 -| The Guardian of the Pearls
Episode 5 -| The Haunted Ride
Episode 6 -| Danger at Marine Rescue Center
Episode 7 -| A Volcanic Adventure
Episode 8 -| Return to Mertropia
Episode 9 -| A Test for Merlinda
Episode 10 -| The Power of the Pearls

Hot on the heels…erm…fins of Ariel: Mermaid Tales is another animated series featuring the titular water creatures who could be mistaken for human females if it wasn’t for their fishy tails. 

Streaming on Netflix, this new show aims for a slightly older audience than the aforementioned series of shorts, with fewer musical numbers and educational bits and a larger focus on adventure and monstrous threats beneath the sea.

The series, which comes from Iginio Straffi, the creator of Winx Club, follows Princess Merlinda and her two friends Sasha and Nerissa who leave their underwater world of Mertropia behind to go on a quest to find the “Pearls of Neptune” – items that will save their watery kingdom from extinction. During their journey, they swim through a portal and end up in the human town of Morton Bay, which is where they meet brother and sister duo Tyler and Celia who run a marine rescue centre. 

From there, a lot of fish-out-of-water shenanigans ensue as the three mermaids become momentarily distracted from their quest and adapt to life above water with the help of their two new friends. They enrol at the local school, visit an amusement park, and experience a few simple mix-ups, such as a moment when they think the rescued sea creatures at the marine centre are being held captive.

The show is very much targeted at young girls but it’s not as cutesy as one might expect. Sure, there are references to boy crushes and gaining likes on social media – two things the tween audience will relate to – but outside of the swooning and live feeds on Bubble-gram (or whatever social networking platform mermaids use), there is a relatively exciting story about a plucky young princess who, with her two spirited friends, go on an expedition to find special pearls and end up coming face-to-face with toxic sea monsters, an evil sorceress, and a skeletal do-badder named Barbarossa who is draining the ocean of magic. 

Luckily, these mermaids have superpowers that they can use to thwart their underwater enemies. Merlinda can control water, Nerissa can generate an electrical charge (surely quite dangerous when swimming beneath the sea), and Sasha can camouflage herself and turn her buddies invisible. Before powering up, they join hands and shout out “Pearl Power,” which, in a similar vein to the old He-Man cartoons, triggers a theme song that reminds us of how special they all are. 

Story-wise, the show is decent enough, with a good vs evil plot that manages to squeeze in messages about conservation and themes of courage and friendship. The characters are well-realized, with each mermaid having their own unique qualities, and the places they explore are bright and colourful, with lots of little details in the 3D animated environments that bring the underwater and overwater worlds to life. 

Parents will be less interested in Mermaid Magic than their children and I can’t see many boys being enthused about the show either. But those girls who care more about having adventures with their friends than painting one another’s nails with glitter paint will likely relish the show, thanks to its aspirational theme of ‘girl power.’

All episodes are available to watch on Netflix now, so it might just be the thing the younger members of your family might want to dive into if they’re becoming bored during the tail-end of the summer holidays. 

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