ItB次元官网网址檚 not uncommon for people to just look at Jodi Benson and burst into tears.
Sometimes they hyperventilate or scream. But mostly they break down and start sobbing. Benson will hold them, heaving in her arms, and pat their back gently.
Benson isnB次元官网网址檛 a household name but for many sheB次元官网网址檚 an intimate part of their childhood. She supplied the singing and speaking voice of Ariel, the heroine of the 1989 animated Disney hit B次元官网网址淭he Little Mermaid,B次元官网网址� which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
Benson says she will sometimes watch as the stunned movieB次元官网网址檚 fans virtually go back in time in front of her. B次元官网网址淚t triggers a memory for them,B次元官网网址� she says.
B次元官网网址淭hey remember who they were with when they saw the movie the first time. Maybe that sibling is no longer with them, that grandparent is no longer with them. It reminds them of a relationship that had been broken with a parent. So they have all sorts of emotions that go on.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淭he Little Mermaid B次元官网网址� has changed a lot of lives, not least of which is BensonB次元官网网址檚, who has continued to perform Ariel virtually every weekend in concerts as well as on film in the B次元官网网址淲reck-It RalphB次元官网网址� franchise.
B次元官网网址淭he Little MermaidB次元官网网址� also had a big role in making Disney into an animation juggernaut and reviving the art form. Many believe weB次元官网网址檇 never have Anna and Elsa from B次元官网网址淔rozenB次元官网网址� without first having Ariel.
B次元官网网址淒isney was starting to get into a groove that would continue, but I feel like a lot of that started with B次元官网网址楢 Little Mermaid,B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址� says Ron Clements, who co-wrote and co-directed the film.
Benson was a rising Broadway star when Ariel came into her orbit. She had been in a short-lived musical B次元官网网址淪mileB次元官网网址� when Howard Ashman, the musicalB次元官网网址檚 lyricist and story writer, invited the out-of-work cast to audition for his next project, an adaptation of Hans Christian AndersenB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淭he Little Mermaid.B次元官网网址�
Producers wanted the singing and speaking voice to be supplied by the same actress. So Benson, a lyric soprano, sang the signature B次元官网网址淧art of Your WorldB次元官网网址� on a reel-to-reel tape and was handed a few of pages of dialogue.
B次元官网网址淚 ran into the ladiesB次元官网网址� room,B次元官网网址� she recalls B次元官网网址渁nd waited for everybody to get out of the stalls and started talking to the mirror, sort of trying to come up with what would she sound like at 16.B次元官网网址�
Benson, it turned out, was a master mimic. She had spent countless hours in her room as a child with her guitar, singing along to records by Barbra Streisand, Carole King, James Taylor as well as Marvin HamlischB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淎 Chorus Line.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚 would start to just sing like them. But it wasnB次元官网网址檛 like I was trying to be them. ItB次元官网网址檚 just thatB次元官网网址檚 what I heard. And so thatB次元官网网址檚 just what you do. You just sound like what you been listening to,B次元官网网址� she says.
A year or so after auditioning for Ariel, she got the call that sheB次元官网网址檇 won the role. B次元官网网址淚 completely forgot that I had auditioned,B次元官网网址� she says. Back then, voiceover work wasnB次元官网网址檛 very glamorous and big celebrities wouldnB次元官网网址檛 consider it.
B次元官网网址淚t wasnB次元官网网址檛 a good job. Doing voiceovers was what you would do when your career was on the back half, when it was tanking,B次元官网网址� says Benson. She thought Ariel would be just another notch on her resume. It was not.
B次元官网网址淭hings just changed overnight,B次元官网网址� she says.
Propelled by such Alan Menken songs as B次元官网网址淯nder the SeaB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淜iss the Girl,B次元官网网址� the film won two Grammys and earned three Academy Award nominations. It was critically acclaimed, with Roger Ebert calling it a B次元官网网址渏olly and inventive animated fantasy,B次元官网网址� and would go to earn $211 million worldwide. Parents of children with learning disabilities have told Benson their childB次元官网网址檚 first words were from the film.
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A live-action remake is in the works, featuring new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created B次元官网网址淗amilton.B次元官网网址� He loved the 1989 animated film so much its partly the reason he named his first child Sebastian B次元官网网址� the mermaidB次元官网网址檚 crab friend.
It was the kind of hit that Clements and his animators at Disney had long been hoping for. He had started at Disney in 1974 and was part of a new generation of artists trying to change the notion that animation was just for kids.
Clements had pitched a two-page treatment of the musical to then-studio head Michael Eisner and was given the green light. For Clements and his partner, John Musker, the stakes were high: It was the first fairy tale Disney had done for some three decades.
B次元官网网址淭here was a feeling B次元官网网址� all through B次元官网网址楲ittle MermaidB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� that this film had potential to be the film that could break through and work the way we were all hungry for and hoping for,B次元官网网址� recalls Clements, who went on to co-direct B次元官网网址淎laddinB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淗ercules.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚t was really, really gratifying that it did break through. It broke through the stigma that animated films were just for kids. It became a date movie. People started taking Disney animation seriously again.B次元官网网址�
Over the past 30 years, Ariel has become the bridge between classic princesses like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and modern ones like Mulan and Merida. And Benson has become the official Ariel ambassador, tapped to do sequels, video games and shorts, in addition to voicing other characters like Barbie in the B次元官网网址淭oy StoryB次元官网网址� franchise.
Her arms are always open to fans and sheB次元官网网址檚 now welcoming the fourth generation to B次元官网网址淭he Little Mermaid.B次元官网网址� So feel free to cry on her shoulder.
B次元官网网址淚t doesnB次元官网网址檛 feel like a job. It just feels like a way of life more than more than anything else,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淵ou have this multigenerational moment that families can share together. And I get to be a small piece of the puzzle of their story.B次元官网网址�
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
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