Raina Reviews: Sirenetta & the Second Star

Brought to you by Tiny Siren Animation- a new mermaid on demand series: “Sirenetta & the Second Star”. I got to preview this series before its general release to the public- and boy am I ready to shell-e-brate! 

​Sirenetta Pearlman is a young-adult “part time” mermaid – “The” Little Mermaid in fact! This TV series follows her life after the events of the original classic with a few fun twists. Nettie- as her friends call her- works at a pet store aquarium. She sports colorful hair, stylish outfits, and loves sushi too. She dates a boy nick named Freckles who reminds me a lot of Archie Andrews. She sings the opening theme song and it’s clear that music plays a role in the story telling of this series.
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Nettie is living a pretty average life until one evening when she sees four colorful shooting stars. Chasing after them with her boyfriend and best friend Iris, Nettie discovers four lost mermaids that need her help. 

​The lost mermaids aren’t the only change to turn up after the four shooting stars streak across the sky. Nearby, a young woman named Jackie is enjoying some frozen yogurt when she spies the shooting stars. She rushes home to reveal a secret to her friend Q. Jackie is actually a Pirate Queen! After putting on a special amulet Jackie transforms into Captain Redgrave. With a particularly perfect evil laugh, Redgrave awakens a pirate ship with zombie pirates! 

​The series lands on Amazon Prime video this World Ocean’s Day June 8th. It would be best classified as shorts ranging between 6-15 minutes, and definitely has the feel of many Youtube animated shorts. The series is clearly working with a small budget, but the potential for expansion and exploration is very obvious upon viewing. The voice actors do a pretty decent job with Nettie and Redgrave being the clear strongest and recorded songs weaving their way throughout as well. 

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The series is very bite size, quick and easy to watch- but would be amazing to see more of. Introductions to characters are sparse and transitions are quick without much explanation. This is a world I know kids will want to be immersed in, and while we learn little bits about the characters as we go through the episodes, there is a lot of potential for expansion should the series gain more traction.
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The character design hits it right for the target audience. Cute and eye catching outfits and hair styles, chipper voices, and flashy colors will draw the attention of most young girls. The animation style seems to be done in Flash or a similar type program, but you can see that it draws inspiration from classic cartoon animation. I even think there may be a little Sailor Moon inspiration there, but maybe that’s just me projecting –haha! 

​Overall the story of Nettie is really interesting, cute, and quick! I hope that it gets a lot of attention on Amazon so that Tiny Siren can do a full-fledged 22 minute episodes series one day. For now, Tiny Siren Animation is available for hire creating 2D animation and hopefully there will be more of Nettie on the way. Be sure to pull this one up on your watchlist if you’re a lover of mermaids, or for the kids in your life! With a message of love, acceptance, and friendship mixed in with a little mermaid magic, you can't go wrong! 

​You can check out the demo reel for Tiny Siren here:

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