I thought she was cute and did a great job. But as rushed as the whole thing was, I didn't like the addition of extra characters. That screentime could have been used to enhance or give extra emotional impact to other scenes.

I think her characters function was to develop sympathy for the green mist victims and to have somebody for Lucy to say her "Just be yourself" line to. But since the whole movie was so rushed, I think that screentime could have been better used elsewhere.
This is by no means a reflection on the actress or the job that she did. This is an opinion on what I thought was poor script writing.

I thought she did a really good job acting.

Arabella Morton did a pretty good job with what she was given (which wasn't much.) But call me cold, I'm not a big fan of "little girl" characters who are thrown in for a cuteness factor...

The one part I actually liked with her was when Lucy tells her to be herself. Other than that, I could have done without the character of Gael.

I liked that Gael actually acted like a little girl. I was worried she was being thrown in so that little kids had a character to root for. For instance, I hate it when "cute" kid characters have the fighting abilities of adults (ex. Short Round from Indiana Jones, Scrappy Doo, any of the Jurassic Park kids, etc.)

I do feel her subplot could have been developed more. If they must put her in the movie, I would have liked to see more scenes with her and her parents so that we cared more about her finding her mother. A few more scenes with Lucy would have also been fine as long as they werent over the top "cute" and sappy.

I didn't mind the addition of Gael at all, especially when compared to certain other additions... I thought that Miss Morton's acting was good - especially in the Sea Serpent attack scene. That was my favorite of her scenes.

Josh, I completely agree with your estimation of children with amazing fighting skills. It would have been a disaster if Gael had been portrayed in that way.

I like her role. She's strong and pretty, no wonder she likes to be Lucy when she grows older. Her character is just unexplainable for me but what I can see is that she maybe Lucy's apprentice?

I loved Arabella's acting, I think shes very cute and adorable!

on that note I feel her character was very unnecessary and if she wasnt involved the movie could've gone on just fine

It was a cute add on but they could've taken her screentime and given it to people who were in the book...

I thought the movie went to fast for Arabella to actually get her audience to be happy for her at the end. But all in all, I think she is a great actress and she looks sorta of like my sister.

I thought she did a good job acting, and I agree that it was nice that she was a little girl and not SuperWarriorGirlGael or something like that. And I liked the storyline with her and Rhince and Elaine(?). Unfortunately, like others said, the story was already so crowded and fast-paced that her addition just took time away from the fleshing out of other characters, and there wasn't even enough time for her story to be fleshed out and so the character of Gael ended up being superfluous.

(I also found it annoying that everyone seemed to catch a case of the stupid about her. Why was she allowed off the ship *ever*, particularly on Magician's Island where they hadn't even checked for dangerous creatures or Deathwater where they *knew* there were dragons and yet let her sleep on the shore just so she could be first to see the blue star? And then *why* didn't they leave her on Ramandu's Island and ask Lilliandil to take care of her instead of taking her to the Evil Island of Doom? It wasn't Gael's fault all the adults were idiots.)

Gael was great! I liked her a lot! she was a great addition to the story!
I cried when she saw her mom again!

I thought that gael was a very nice addition! Arabella is a great little actress too! The scene where her mom was being taken away brought tears in my eyes.

She was great in the film...loved her and Lucy's bonding, sort of like a big sister type!

What I like bout Gael is that she inspired Lucy. Gael really is a great addition to VDT, love how her character worked.

I like Gael, but I wish they gave her more screen time. I felt that her character needed to be developed more