jodi benson did the voice of ursula as vanessa in the movie the little mermaid.
jodi benson did the voice of ursula as vanessa in the movie the little mermaid.
who does the voice of ursula as vanessa in the movie the little mermaid?
jodi benson
carroll first learned of "the little mermaid" from her agent, and immediately agreed to audition for ursula because she had always wanted to voice a disney character. however, the actress felt that her chances were slim to none upon realizing that her competition largely consisted of famous film and television actresses. musker described carroll's audition approach as a hybrid of actors maurice evans and tallulah bankhead. although confident in both her acting and singing auditions, carroll did not hear back from her agent about the role until a year afterward, by which time she had already forgotten she had ever auditioned. upon being cast, carroll was entirely committed to the role, giving it complete precedence over all other jobs and projects at the time. carroll's first task was to record "poor unfortunate souls", her approach to which was remarkably different than stritch's, first asking howard to demonstrate exactly how he would like her to perform the song before attempting it. carroll completely credits ashman with her delivery, explaining, "i got the whole attitude from him ... and his shoulders would twitch a certain way, and his eyes would go a certain way ... i got more about that character from howard singing that song than from anything else." carroll also borrowed ursula's habit of saying "innit" instead of "isn't it" from ashman. despite their strong working relationship, carroll described working with ashman and composer alan menken as a "brutal" experience because of the songwriters' "military" approach; she would often return home from recording sessions with blown vocal chords. carroll recalled her daughter, filmmaker tara karsian, reassuring her that "you're in something that fifty years from now may be shown ... what you're working on now will be seen by our children, and our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren" after complaining to her about one of her recording sessions. describing her own performance as shakespearean, carroll perceived ursula as an "ex-shakespearean actress who now sold cars", which inspired her dry, theatrical interpretation. carroll also deepened her own voice for the role. when carroll watched the completed film for the first time, she was frightened by her own performance, comparing it to actress margaret hamilton's performance as the wicked witch of the west in the film "the wizard of oz" (1939). actress jodi benson, who voices ariel, briefly provides the voice of "vanessa", ursula's beautiful human alter-ego, in lieu of carroll. with the writing and recording of "poor unfortunate souls", ursula became the first disney villainness to receive her own song.
ursula (the little mermaid)
ursula debuted in "the little mermaid" (1989) as a sea witch who is scheming to take advantage of the ambitions of king triton's youngest daughter princess ariel in order to usurp the throne and turning merpeople into polyps for her garden. when ariel saves and falls in love with a human named prince eric much to her father's chagrin, ursula temporarily grants ariel's wish to live as a human for three days in return for her voice. if she successfully earns a kiss from eric by the end of the third day, ariel will remain human permanently; if she fails, she will turn back into a mermaid and belong to ursula forever. however, ursula is determined to sabotage ariel's and eric's budding romance at any cost; when she realizes that ariel and eric are falling in love, ursula transforms herself into a beautiful young woman named "vanessa" and hypnotizes eric, tricking him into agreeing to marry her instead. ariel manages to thwart ursula and eric's wedding. eric realizes that it was ariel who saved him when her voice returns to her and is about to kiss her, but as the sun sets ariel transforms back into a mermaid and is captured by ursula. triton confronts ursula and agrees to give up himself and his magical trident in return for ariel's freedom. ursula then uses the trident to expand into monstrous proportions and attempts to kill ariel and eric, but eric manages to impale ursula with the splintered bowsprit of a wrecked ship, and she dies. with ursula defeated, her power's cease, the merpeople turn back to normal, triton's power is restored, and ariel marries eric once she is permanently transformed into a human.
ursula (the little mermaid)