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Samuel Wright and Jodi Benson with Ariel at the premiere of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. (Photo By Alex Berliner)

It's been almost 20 years since The Little Mermaid first hit land, and to this day, you can still find fans who know all the words to "Under the Sea" and "Part of Your World."

Plenty of them were in attendance this weekend at the seaside premiere of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. The prequel to Ariel's land-based romance, the new Disney flick (which arrives on DVD today) hosted its coming-out on Santa Catalina Island, at the historic theater at Avalon Casino. (Fun fact: Built in 1929 by William Wrigley Jr. -- gum magnate and Chicago Cubs owner-- the casino was never a gambling venue.)

Stars walked the blue carpet, many of them with their families. Here are some choice tidbits I picked up:

Samuel E. Wright, the voice of Sebastian in all three Mermaid films (which include The Little Memaid: Return to the Sea and the animated series), let me in on a secret: the song "Under the Sea" has a little mistake in it. Pressed for more information on this nugget, Wright would only say, "I'm not going to tell you what it was. You have to listen to it."

Aside from reprising his Sebastian role, Wright also recently starred in The Lion King on Broadway. He lives in upstate New York, and proudly talked about co-founding the Hudson Valley Conservatory of Fine Arts with his wife Amanda and business partner Pamela A. Murphy.The school -- with students who range from "8 to 80," according to Wright -- offers classes in theatre, dance and music frequently presenting musicals, ballets and plays with its students and semi-professional performers.

Wright shared a gleeful reunion with his Mermaid co-star three times over, Jodi Benson -- who last year got to give props to Ariel by playing Patrick Dempsey's secretary in Enchanted. (In the film, Benson pulls a few faces as she watches Giselle play with fish in an aquarium as Mermaid Muzak plays.) Benson, who attended the premiere with her husband and two children, daughter Delaney and son McKinley, gave the audience a live dose of Ariel, taking to the stage to sing "I Remember..." a new song from the film.

Asked if her kids have a favorite Ariel moment, Benson said, "Anything to do with Mommy, they love." Her children weren't born when The Little Mermaid released in 1989, and she was pregnant with her first child when the sequel emerged, so Benson was thrilled that Ariel's Beginning would be the first Little Mermaid film that she and her family all saw for the first time together.

Also celebrating a first was Parker Goris (pictured at left) -- the new voice of Ariel's fish friend Flounder. Goris has done a lot of live-action work for television but never played an animated character. After giving me a sample of Flounder's musical prowess, he told me that his favorite disney movie is probably Cars, especially "the part where Mater is in the helicopter at the end, because he got his dream." Asked if there's any Disney character he ever wished he could play, he said, "I always thought it would be cool to be Nemo but this is going to be better."

The film's stars were joined on the carpet (and the seaside after-party) by lots of celebrity families. I spoke to Melora Hardin (Jan on TV's The Office), who attended with her two daughters, Rory and Piper (the three are pictured at left.) She said her tots were a little nervous about whether sea-witch Ursula would be in the new movie. (FYI: She's not. Instead, Sally Field plays Marina Del Rey, a nice addition to Disney's pantheon of villains.) As for her girls' favorite Disney flicks, Hardin's list was long -- "They like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White. They love Mary Poppins. And the Sound of Music, though I'm not sure that's Disney." (For the record, it's 20th Century Fox, but it's still a great family flick.)

Other celeb families at the premiere included ER's Noah Wyle with wife Tracy, son Owen and daughter Auden; King of Queens' Kevin James with wife Steffania De La Cruz and daughter Sienna; and Watch Over Me's Casper Van Dien and Catherine Oxenberg with their three daughters.