Do you like Little Mermaid, if you do then you should know some things that not everyone knows about the movie! What is not included? The VHS box supposedly has a “phallus” on it. This was an accident and it was not because an artist put it on the boxy. Typically you will find anything pointy can look like a phallus.
1. Ariel Had A Recorded Audition From Jodi Benson
Benson had never been a movie star before, but had worked in Broadway in Smile, which Howard Ashman wrote. The production did not last long and Ashman felt guilty, and gave all the women who had been staring in the play the chance to try out for the Disney movie. Benson managed to complete her voice audition quickly and had to wait over a year before she found out she had snagged the job.
2. Howard Ashman Stayed With Benson When She Was Recording
While it is not common for the producer to sit with the voice artist while they are recording, Ashman wanted to make sure that Benson would be able to make Ariel sound perfect. Howard had to be very quiet in the booth while directing her because the microphone could pick up his sounds
3. The Disney Renaissance was started off by The Little Mermaid.
Do you know what shows Disney was putting out before Ariel was discovered under the sea? If you do not know some of them were Oliver & Company, and a lot of other live action films most of which were Herbie does this or that. All of them were far away from the movies like Dumbo and Cinderella Disney was famous for.
Quite often the downward spiral of Disney at the time was credited to the death of Walt Disney in 1966 and only a few short years later his brother, Roy. The next 20 years were horrible for Disney as the movies they were producing were more of a lackluster version of what the company wanted to do at first. Then along came a mermaid. Once The Little Mermaid hit it big, you had a lot of feature films coming out like Mulan, The Lion Kin, and even Aladdin.
4. You may not realize this, but The Little Mermaid was the first to use the computer animation process from Pixar.
The typical way of doing the cartoons was to take the animators’ drawings and put them on celluloid and then paint the reverse. The process could give you great looking images, but it was very time consuming. The program from Pixar allowed the animators to load the drawings onto the computer with multiple color palettes and made it easy to blend the movies together. The computers were not used a lot of in the movie, but Pixar did gain valuable insight into the process and now is the standard of quality for the Disney films.
5. If you are looking for inspiration for Ariel you need to look no further than writer Sherri Stoner and Alyssa Milano.
Stoner’s had a very slight frame that made the movements of Ariel very realistic. You can even catch a video of Stoner modeling for the film here. While Alyssa Milano may not know it at the time, the face for Ariel was modeled after her. You will want to catch Milaon reveal that fact on The Wendy Williams Show. Just add a mermaid tail and you have Ariel.
6. Ursula Had A Positively Divine Inspiration
While you may notice that she has the look of the drag queen Divine from Hairspray. You will notice that Divine was the staple of John Waters in his joyfully trash films that he had until he died in 1988. He would never see himself live to be immortalized as one of the best Disney villains of all time. If you have younger fans of The Little Mermaid you will not want to watch this now, but you will want to go and check out Pink Flamingos to see what we are talking about.
7. Bea Arthur Was The First Choice For Ursula’s Voice
She probably would have been able to do a great job. The screenplay, when it was written even had notes to have a Bea Arthur type of voice being used. She did not want to do the job, or at least her agent did not want her to do it. The co-director John Musker seems to think that it was her agent who read the script and thought that if Bea Arthur did the role she may be seen as a witch. Most people think that the script was never even shown to Bea Arthur. Quite a few other famous actors auditioned for the part, but only Pat Carroll was able to give the voice that the Ursula character demanded.