The Mysterious Mermaid

"The Mysterious Mermaid" is the first episode of the British animated anthology Tales from the Cartoon World, which was first shown on Murro on the 14th of August 2018. This episode follows a group of four boys as one of them (Daniel) thinks he was saved by a mermaid, to which his friends don't believe him for. The eventually lead to a battle with the mermaid's sea king who granted the mermaid who saved Daniel's life (Ariel), powers to walk on land but not talk as she has a beautiful voice. The episode was written and directed by series creator Gary Arrowman.

Plot
Daniel, Taylor, Johnny, and Ross are in a sailing boat where they are trying to catch a fish, but Daniel falls in the ocean causing the others to panic on where he is. Ross realises he’s looking after Daniel and goes after him; Daniel awakens from being knocked out and sees a figure who saves him from drowning by swimming him to the docks nearby. Daniel wakes up to his friends worried for him, but they don’t believe his mermaid story when they take him back to his parents’ resort.

Ariel is a mermaid who is 30 years old in mermaid years but still a teenager, her best friend, Jenny saw her rescue Daniel and warns her that that kind of behaviour could end up with her executed, though that is a 300-year-old myth. That night, Ross tucks Daniel into bed because his head is ‘messed up’ from that mermaid story, preventing him from visiting Taylor and Johnny in a nearby bar. When Ross leaves the room, Daniel sneaks out of a window and goes onto the beach to look for the mermaid girl but is stopped by Taylor who was watching him leave his room, he still doesn’t believe Daniel’s Mermaid story.

The sea king, Eric Sitterson, calls Ariel to his temple where he says that he could allow Ariel to become human for three days only but for the cost of her voice because it’s so beautiful to him. Ariel is sceptical but really wants to see her prince and ends up taking Sitterson’s offer of human but no voice. She drinks the potion and grows human legs and a breathing system which she needs to get used to. Ariel swims to shore and ends up on the beach but falls over as she hasn’t gotten used to using her legs, but at that moment a shadow looms over her.

She looks up and sees Johnny who tries to force himself upon her which she tries to get away from, she then realises she is naked. Ross then comes up to both and tells Johnny to stop it, Daniel and Taylor then appear to which Ariel’s eyes light up in hope as she has found her lover again. The boys take Ariel back to the resort to get her cleaned up and Taylor, Johnny, and Ross are suspicious about Ariel’s fishy smell. Johnny’s way of greeting her doesn’t involve talking which grosses the guys out.

Ariel takes her first shower as Daniel gives her some clothes he bought from the gift shop earlier. He then suggests to her that they go out to eat seafood to which she agrees. Daniel asks for a table for two outdoors right by the beach, Ariel sits down and while Daniel goes to the toilet, Ariel sees Jenny who communicates by telling her she can’t talk. She leaves after Daniel returns to see Ariel. After dinner, they walk by the sea holding hands, Daniel suggests that they see Daniel’s ship which Ariel blushes and looks away, Daniel corrects it to boat but then Ross appears behind them. Ross explains that he needs to supervise Daniel to which Daniel strongly disagrees with and the go off for a private talk, Jenny then appears and tells Ariel to come with her but she doesn’t want to, Jenny swims off after seeing the two boys return and Daniel takes Ariel to the ship.

Daniel shows her around and plays some music and then asks her to dance with him. Daniel praises Ariel’s slow dance moves, he then tries to guess Ariel’s name (as he himself doesn’t know it) but Jenny then reveals it and Daniel likes the name. They continue slow dancing and eventually start kissing but then they hear a loud crash. Ariel looks over and sees Jenny with her arms crossed, she believes that Sitterson is to blame as he wants something from Ariel. Daniel returns and just thinks that Ariel is looking at the fish, she wished that Daniel knew about Sitterson’s plan. He and his servant Timmy are under the boat and Timmy was the one rocking the ship causing the loud crash, Sitterson is frustrated because he didn’t think that Daniel and Ariel would kiss. Sitterson then comes up with a plan even though he made Ariel that way, something Timmy pointed out, but Sitterson silenced him for.

Daniel takes Ariel back to her room, she decides to turn in for the night, but Daniel is wide awake and heads to the bar to meet up with Taylor. He tells Taylor about Ariel’s name but still doesn’t believe the whole mermaid business. Suddenly, a man named Steven comes up behind them and tells them that mermaids are real. 50 years ago, Steven met a mermaid who sang to him but then tried to drown him. It turns out that Steven is a dad as her daughter appears behind him, her name is Siren, a name that Taylor doesn’t really like. Siren is rather fond of Daniel; Steven takes Taylor outside to show him something. Daniel is left with Siren, who then starts singing to him, Daniel realises that Siren is the one who saved him from drowning. She didn’t say anything because she thought that Daniel wouldn’t like her, he corrects her by saying ‘What’s not to like?’. Daniel is then locked in a trance to which she snaps him out of and asks Daniel to take him back to his room to which he agrees.

They are stopped by Ross who asks Daniel who this girl is, Daniel tells Ross that she was the one who saved him from drowning the other night, Siren is reluctant to sing for Daniel again. Ross points out that she doesn’t look like a mermaid but Siren shoves back at him by calling Ross a guppy and the two leave Ross and head to the room. The next morning, Ariel heads to Daniel’s room but is stopped by Ross and Johnny who tells her that Daniel has ‘moved on’, she can’t believe it, but she opens Daniel’s door to see him in bed with Siren. Ariel starts crying, Johnny tries to cheer her up by getting with her, but she pushes him away and runs back to her room.

A disgruntled Ariel sits by the water and can’t get the image of Daniel with Siren out of her head, Jenny appears once again to comfort Ariel about her loss. Jenny invites Ariel back into the water to which she nods in agreement. Ariel looks up and sees Siren approaching them, she welcomes herself and Ariel notices a similarity in her voice to hers. Siren announces that Daniel is hers and points out Jenny’s existence before slowly transforming into a fateful Sitterson. Sitterson stole Ariel’s voice to use as a surface top human who is a part-time mermaid. Jenny calls Siren (Sitterson) out for this, but she walks away still smiling. Jenny calls him a ‘son of a bitch’, Ariel begins to walk away but Jenny calls her back. The necklace that Sitterson was wearing is the key to getting Ariel’s voice back. She needs to destroy it to stop Sitterson.

Ariel returns to Daniel’s door where the guys try to stop her again, Ross tries to stop her because if she allowed her in then that would mean Ross’s laziness to stop her which could result in the termination of his job. While the boys are arguing, Ariel opens the door to see Daniel and Siren having sex. Ariel tries to grab Siren’s necklace and they end up tackled to the ground. Ariel ends up whacking Siren’s necklace off her neck causing it to fall to the ground and break into pieces, singing comes from the necklace and Ariel starts glowing. The song finishes and Ariel can finally speak again, and Daniel finds out that Ariel was the one who really saved his life. Siren tries to stop them but covers her mouth as she realises she has her old voice back. Sadly, the sun sets, and Ariel begins turning back into a fish, Siren transforms back into Sea King Sitterson who drags her back into the ocean.

The guys are so confused on what they just saw, but Daniel now realises that he has a fish tail too… The guy’s stare at Daniel’s new accessory, which ends with Johnny calling Daniel a ‘fish fucker’. Daniel wants to save Ariel but finds he can’t breathe because he’s now part fish, Taylor tries to help him, but Ross and Johnny don’t seem as confident. In the ocean, Sitterson has captured Ariel and is now keeping her hostage. He states that she didn’t have sex with Daniel and now she is all his. Sitterson had never seen Ariel that close to a human before and that she never did that with the mermen or Sitterson like that again. He then tries to kiss Ariel, but she turns away, not wanting to do so.

Daniel is confident he can get to Ariel but Taylor states that the ocean is huge, and he can get lost easily, but then Jenny appears before Daniel and tells him to follow her and so he swims away leaving Taylor, Johnny, and Ross on surface. Ross begins to panic as he could be out of a job when they return home if Daniel doesn’t go back to normal. Johnny just wants to find Jenny as she is very hot to him. Underwater, Jenny explains to Daniel that Sitterson is the sea king and she put a spell on Ariel to turn her human for three days to have sex with him to stay human forever. Daniel questions why he became a merman and to which Jenny is unsure. Daniel just wants to find Ariel and Sitterson so he can be changed back and to be with Ariel. Jenny is unsure, but Daniel says he will make it work.

The two merpeople arrive at Sitterson’s lair and Daniel enters, desperately wanting Ariel back into his life. He enters, not knowing the horrors that lay within the lair. Ariel is struggling to break free from Sitterson’s grasp, he then states the Mermaid curse that a human can’t have sex with another person except that said mermaid. The curse also kills the human, leading Ariel to believe that Daniel is now dead. Sitterson tries to kiss Ariel, but she fights back until she sees Daniel behind her. Sitterson tries killing Daniel with his trident which glows, and Daniel flees the scene. Daniel panics, swimming to surface and alerting his friends about Sitterson’s plan. As Daniel is explaining, Stephen from earlier appears but he is revealed to be Timmy in disguise, who is now wielding a knife closer to Daniel. Ross tries to help but Taylor stops him as Ross doesn’t have the same curse as Daniel does to breathe underwater.

A battle between Timmy and Daniel has commenced with Sitterson and Ariel as spectators. Daniel lies to Sitterson about wanting to kill Ariel for his own life. Sitterson calls him out for this and grabs his trident to kill him, but Ariel pushes it out of Daniel’s way. Timmy ends up getting killed by Sitterson’s trident. Sitterson grabs his head, and a black storm cloud appears around Sitterson. Daniel and Ariel make it to surface but Ariel tells Daniel to get away from the area to which Taylor intervenes to try and turn Ariel human again. A giant evil sea king Sitterson arises from the ocean causing thunder and lighting to appear. A giant ghast of wind separates Daniel and Ariel, he then creates a mini tornado and traps Ariel inside of it. Daniel tries to save Ariel again, but Ross stops it. Sitterson’s trident glows again as he aims for Daniel, but Johnny jumps Infront of him causing him to be killed and burned to a crisp. Daniel spots the ship and orders Taylor and Ross to get him on, to which they agree. Ariel tries distracting Sitterson but that leads to him wanting to kill both Daniel and Ariel.

The ship is now being steered by Daniel, with the help of Ross, and Taylor giving directions from top. Sitterson spots the ships and aims his trident but it’s too late, the ship smashes into Sitterson causing him to fall over and take the ship with him. Daniel, Taylor, and Ross eventually wash up on shore concluding that Sitterson has now been killed. Ross points out that Daniel is still a merman, but he doesn’t mind and thinks that this is how it was meant to be with him and Ariel. Daniel says a final goodbye to Taylor and Ross and swims off into the sunset with Ariel while kissing each other.