February 26th, 2019 
Greg Ehrbar 
Feature animation flipped on its tail three decades ago, when Disney’s The Little Mermaid premiered and ushered in a “second golden age.” Today, the new Walt Disney Signature Edition of The Little Mermaid appears in stores and online, and whether seeing for the first or 400th time, it never ceases to wield its gentle power, an impact that can be felt just as strongly, no matter how much more advanced we may have come technically.
Perhaps no one has experienced the impact of The Little Mermaid more than versatile Tony-nominated Jodi Benson, the Broadway and Hollywood performer whose life was changed forever when she was cast as the voice of “the little mermaid that could.” One of several major new bonus features on the new release reunites Benson with fellow leading ladies Paige O’Hara (Belle in Beauty and the Beast), Judy Kuhn (Singing voice of Pocahontas), Lilias White (Calliope in Hercules) and Donna Murphy (Mother Gothel in Tangled) and their phenomenal composer, multi-Oscar winner Alan Menken.
JODI BENSON: That was a magical day. We shed some tears, had some laughs, because a lot of us have known each other for a really long time. Before Mermaid and long before Disney, we knew each other all from Broadway.
GREG EHRBAR: Mermaids and Disney must have been the last things on your minds back in those days.
JODI BENSON: We were all Broadway girls and no one would have dreamt in a million years that we would be crossing paths as either Disney heroines or villainesses! (laughs)
GREG EHRBAR: Yet in a strange way, these elements were sort of weaving together. You were in a Broadway show called Smile, composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Howard Ashman. I will never forget the day in 1986 when you appeared on The Merv Griffin Show to introduce a very special song…
JODI BENSON: “Disneyland.” Yeah. That’s a beautiful song Marvin wrote for me with Howard’s lyrics. In fact, I sing that in concert. Actually my daughter sang it for the first time earlier this month at a state competition, and it blew me away. I sat in the audience while she got up and sang my song. First time I’d ever heard her sing it. She kills it much better than I did, I tell you. I was like, whoa! I was blown away! I love that song. And if it weren’t for Smile, I wouldn’t have been brought into the world of Mermaid with Disney. All thanks to Howard Ashman.
GREG EHRBAR: Yes, because unfortunately Smile was not a success. But it was one of those “good coming out of bad” things, because the auditions for Ariel were a direct result.
JODI BENSON: It was an open audition for Howard because he felt so badly that the show closed so suddenly that he invited all of us girls to audition for Mermaid. So if not for all that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today!
GREG EHRBAR: Yet the impact of this was still not fully realized, because even though you were cast as Ariel, the cache of doing a Disney animated character voice wasn’t the same as today. You can even tell in the opening credits of the film. The actors are seen in a large list.
JODI BENSON: Animation during that time was not in a good place. Doing cartoon voices or cartoon shows was not considered a good job. It was what you did when your career was on the back half, at the end of your career, especially for Broadway people. They really looked down upon that. Broadway people can be a little bit snobby at times.
I would fly back and forth and do it. People would ask about it, but they’d say, “Well if we’re not going to see you in the movie, then it’s not really a movie, it’s not really a job, it’s just, you know… Just do it, get your paycheck and come back.” The mentality that I had was, “Well I’ll just do this, it’s a great job, it’ll disappear, no one will ever know, and we’ll just move on. I’ll just do another show.” But it changed the course of destiny in my life and my family’s life, that’s for sure. I think sometimes when those wonderful surprises happen, it makes them even sweeter, when you don’t have those expectations.
GREG EHRBAR: So how about all those people who were saying, “Ugh, you’re in a cartoon?” What did they say afterward?
JODI BENSON: (Laughs) They said, “Why didn’t you tell us about this? Oh my gosh, you’re in People magazine!” “Oh my gosh, I saw you on The Today Show or Good Morning America! What’s going on?” I said, “Well, I tried to tell you guys, but none of you thought it was a very big deal, so I just stopped talking about it.”
GREG EHRBAR: Well, those of us who love animation were thrilled about it, and think voice acting is (and always was) important. It was a wonderful aspect of your career, for example when you played Tula on Pirates of Dark Water. That was a great series.
JODI BENSON: Oh, thank you! I loved that series, too. Not too many people know about that show but I did that for three or four years at Hanna-Barbera. I loved working at that studio. We worked as a full cast together. That was so much fun to go to work and just play in the studio and play off of each other. It was great. I really enjoyed doing that series.
GREG EHRBAR: Another thing that I’ve always wanted to talk with you about is the fact that you played a second character in The Little Mermaid: the evil Vanessa.
JODI BENSON: Yes, I did. I just copied Pat Carroll’s laugh and cackle. A lot of people don’t know I played that little character, so it’s kind of fun when I get to talk about that because not too many people know!
GREG EHRBAR: Actors often talk about how much fun it is to play villains.
JODI BENSON: It was fun, because I didn’t kind of have to hold back and make things a little more subtle, shall we say, as with Ariel, and tone things down. I could kind of let ‘er rip with that one!
GREG EHRBAR: And 30 years later, The Little Mermaid is a bonafide Disney classic and
you must also be delighted to be an official Disney Legend.
JODI BENSON: Right! That was a huge surprise. I really thought that Disney Legends were inducted after they passed away, or after a 40-45 year career. So when I got the call, I think it was [Disney music executive] Chris Montan, I actually thought I was getting let go! So I thought “Okay, I’ve had my run and they’re going to find a replacement for me and that’s great, that’s totally fine. So when I got the call from his office I just assumed, you know, thank you so much, we really appreciate all your years of service, but we’re going to recast. We’re going to find a soundalike and it’s been great.”
When he called, I said, “It’s okay Chris, I’m good. I know why you’re calling.” And he said, “You do? I was just wondering if we could induct you as a Disney Legend this summer.” I dropped the phone! Then I picked up the phone and I think the first thing I said was, “I thought you had to be dead to get this award or something like that!” And he said, “Oh no, uh, well, will you accept it?” I said, “Yeah! I actually thought you were firing me today, so I’m having to change my mind and get on to the same page that you’re on. So I still have my job? Is that what you’re saying?” He said, “Yes you have your job! I don’t know why you would think that.”
It was, again, a huge surprise! That was a really, really special occasion because it gave me for those five minutes on stage to thank everybody.
GREG EHRBAR: Yet at the point when you thought you might be let go, you were prepared to accept it gracefully and move forward without anger. So let me ask you this. You also voice Ariel in the recent Disney Princess in Ralph Breaks the Internet, which has received all kinds of attention. There’s always talk about the relative strengths of the Princesses. When you were growing up, your favorite was Cinderella. What defines a strong person to you? Is it using karate, or being grim and fierce, or is it having strength of character? Doesn’t it come from inside?
JODI BENSON: I think for me, for Ariel, for the way that I’ve connected with this character and for what I feel like I’ve brought to the table, it’s my ability to be tenacious, my ability to be motivated, to live outside of the box and take chances and fail and get back up and try again.
For Ariel, it’s that she is reaching for something that is completely impossible for her. It’s something that is not obtainable. It’s that unreachable thing that she’s grasping for, something that she’s determined and ready to go for, even to the point of standing up against her father with a stubborn spirit. She speaks up and tells it like it is, for her.
For me, I feel the same way as far as that being a strength of character. If a door closes in my face, I keep pounding. If I can get a crack in the door to push it open one more time, I’ll give it a try until it slams shut. That’s my kind of personality. I’m kind of bound and determined to go moving forward no matter what the obstacles may be.
So when I travel and speak to children, high school students, college students, whatever, I tell them if you have a dream, you need to go for it because you really don’t want to have those regrets later in life. And I can honestly say that I don’t have any regrets. That brings me a lot of peace, and it brings me a lot of freedom to be who I am, in my own skin and not to worry what other people think or what other people say. I think that Ariel also has those types of qualities that are very strong.
Walt Disney Signature Edition of The Little Mermaid
New bonus features include:
• Alan Menken & the Leading Ladies Sing (discussed above)
“What I Want From You…Is YOUR VOICE” – Will Ryan, Buddy Hackett, Jodi Benson, Sam Wright and others in actual sessions.
• Stories From Walt’s Office – Gadgets & Gizmos – Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline and her staff share and tell the stories behind miniatures in Walt Disney’s formal and business office, including mermaids, movie toys and even the mechanical bird that inspired Audio-Animatronics.
Classic Bonus Features include:
• Audio Commentary with Ron Clements, John Musker and Alan Menken
• Deleted Character: Harold the Merman – Ron and John talk about Harold from the original script. Full cast and music reenact the storyboarded scene between Ursula and Harold.
• Under the Scene: The Art of Character Reference – Actual footage of Sherri Stoner, Josh Finkel with Kathryn Beaumont, who acted as a modeling consultant for The little Mermaid. Footage and photos of Snow White, Alice, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty model scenes are included.
• Howard Ashman’s Lecture: excerpt from a landmark in Disney history, when Ashman shared his views on musical storytelling as it applied to the animated feature. A fascinating 15 and a half important minutes.
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