Princess Ariel is the titular protagonist of Walt Disney's 1989 animated feature film The Little Mermaid and the 2008 direct-to-video prequel, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, and the deuteragonist of the 2000 direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. She later appears in the film's prequel television series. Ariel had a strong love and admiration for human world, that she often had to keep secret due to her father laws against contact with the surface world. She longed to experience life on the surface. She also had a free-spirited and rebellious nature which often made seen as the odd-ball of the family amongst her sisters.