Jodi Benson Biography
Jodi Benson is an American actress, voice actress and singer. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voice of Disney’s Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
Jodi Benson Age
Jodi Marie Marzorati Benson was born on October 10, 1961. She is now 57 years of age. Jodi Benson was born in Rockford, Illinois, and is widely considered to be one of the signature voices of Disney.
Jodi Benson Husband
She got married to her husband Ray Benson in 1984.
Jodi Benson Kids
They have two children, McKinley and Delaney.
Jodi Benson Net Worth
Jodi benson photo
She has a net worth of $5 million dollars.
Jodi Benson Part Of Your World |Jodi Benson 1989 | Jodi Benson Enchanted
This is a song written by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken. It was made for Walt Disney Pictures’ 28th animated feature film The Little Mermaid (1989). It was performed by American actress and singer Jodi Benson in the titular role as Ariel, a mermaid princess.
The main character expresses her strong desire to become human. The film’s theme song, “Part of Your World” is reprised by Ariel after she rescues Eric, a human prince with whom she has fallen in love, from drowning.
Screen Rant: So first thing I just I feel like I’m going to miss my opportunity to not bring this up me, The Little Mermaid is one of me and my sister’s favorite movies of all time while we were growing up. I will always have this huge connection to the film personally because I will always associate this movie with my relationship with my sister. So I just want to let you know that this particular film means a lot to me concerning my relationship with me and my sister.
Jodi Benson: That’s so awesome. I’m glad you did, I just said earlier in a Q and A I did with Kira, a head of animation for Ralph Breaks the Internet is that one of the greatest things that I get to be a part of as I travel around the world and meet wonderful mermaid fans, many fans on the weekend is that I get to hear their story. And I love to hear the story of the first time they saw the film or the relationship that it connects to.
Now some of the memories that they recall are not so great, and some are fantastic, but the fact that is that it does stir up, I mean it is a powerful thing when you can see a movie and recall and as if it was yesterday ,and like you said, it’s an automatic connection for you and your sister so I just really appreciate you sharing that story with me. That means a lot.
Screen Rant: Thank you! So my first question is, I kind of want to go back when you first got to the role. I’ve always been fascinated by this part, you even mentioned today in the interview with Kira, is that animation wasn’t really considered a great job back then. Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit more? I mean did you watch Disney movies growing up…?
Jodi Benson: OH YES I DID! It was a big deal to me! I grew up as a Cinderella girl, and Disney was everything. Our family, we went one time to Walt Disney World, that was…oh my goodness…1971…and it was a huge deal. So when I got the job I was super excited because I’m like…not that anyone was gonna know me because I knew know one would know me, but just to be part of Disney I thought this was incredible, this was going to be amazing.
And then when I started telling people they were like…”Oh you’re doing a cartoon?”And I was like, “…yeah? Well it’s an animated feature film. It’s not a 26 minute cartoon.”“But you’re not in the movie? We’re not gonna see you?”I’m like, “No it’s called a Voice over.”
And the second you said “Voice over”, that and especially in New York City cuz they could be a little bit snobby about Broadway vs Television vs Feature Film, maybe not now but back then they were. So New York people were like “Ooooooh. Geeez.” That meant your career was done, you’re at the back half of your career.
If you are not on a Broadway show you know, eight shows a week and you’re doing voice over it’s just…yeah…it wasn’t good. It wasn’t a good thing. I just stopped talking about it. When I fly back and forth, I would just say “ Oh I’m working on a project.” So I just stopped telling everybody. And then all of a sudden the movie comes out and of course they decide to advertise me and other cast members. They started to connect the dots…then they were like..
“Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell us about this really great thing?”“Yeah, well I did but you guys just kind of made fun of me. You know like…it was this really rotten job. (Laughs)”Again that’s 1985 and ’86 so it was not, I don’t think you have the celebrities like you do now. Everybody and their brother doing voice over or doing animated. It was a different time back then
Screen Rant: I wanted to know what was the very first song you learn for the film?
Jodi Benson: “Part of your World.” I was given a cassette tape as were all the people auditioning. The cassette was a rough of Alan (Menken) at the piano and Howard (Ashman) singing “Part of your World.” And his rendition of it is absolute perfection.
So the smart thing to do as an actor is when a brilliant person hands you something…you imitate them. And that’s what I did. I imitated him. I imitated his breathing I imitated his phrasing I imitated his intonation and his volume of how he delivered a certain line. Yeah, it’s really amazing.
Screen Rant: Is there any songs from the movie that you can still up top your head is it “Part of your World” or are their any other songs you know still to this day?
Jodi Benson: It’s just “Part of your World” ’cause Ariel loses her voice for the rest of the film (LAUGHS) So she just does “Part of your World” and she does the reprise and that’s all she wrote. So I just get to sing the one song, the one iconic song that I’m very grateful for. And I’m grateful that it wasn’t cut from the film like it was originally gonna to be cut from the film otherwise I wouldn’t really have a song.
Screen Rant: They were going to cut the song at one point?!
Jodi Benson: Yes, there were screeners, test market screeners with children and Jeffrey Katzenberg was there, he was head of animation at the time. And when children were dropping their popcorn buckets and kind of running up and down the theater pathway they appeared to be restless to him. During the 3 mins and 43 seconds of the song. And so he did a test market on that and he came up with the plan that we need to cut the song.
And Howard said, “Over my dead body. You’re not cutting the ‘I Want’ song of the entire film. You have to have a ‘I want’ song. It’s what you have to have in the beginning of the film otherwise you’re not gonna care about her. They’re not gonna fall in love with her and they are not gonna root for her until the very end of the film.”
And he’ll (Jeffrey Katzenberg) tell you and I think I’m sure it’s in quotes, that would have been his greatest mistake in history. (LAUGHS) Thankfully he was wise enough to listen to Howard and the other powers that be and not believe a test market with some 3 and 4 year old kids.
Screen Rant: But a very strong connection to dingle hooper.
Jodi Benson: Very strong connection with the dinglehopper. Yes yes, absolutely my favorite.
Screen Rant: Thank you so much it was a pleasure talking to you.
Jodi Benson: So nice to talk to you too Justin, and by the way my son is a big big fan of Screen Rant. He’s a filmmaker here in Atlanta.
Jodi Benson Little Mermaid
In Disney’s deceiving animated dance, rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel (Jodi Benson) is fascinated with life on land. She falls for a human prince on one of her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton.
Determined to be with her new love, Ariel makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch Ursula (Pat Carroll) to become human for three days. But when plans go wrong for the star-crossed lovers, the king must make the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter.
“I went to the ladies room before my name was called, and I made sure that the stalls were empty and nobody was there,” Benson told Fox News about her life-changing audition in New York City for the iconic role.
Jodi talked to the www.fatherly.com and she had this to say;
“I went up into the mirror, grabbed my little script, and started to talk to myself because I had never been behind a mic. I’d never done animation. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just started talking, like, ‘What would she sound like?’ ‘How am I going to pull off that I’m 16?’
I just raised my voice a little bit, added a little bit of something raspy into it, and then ran out the hall.” At the time, Benson had just appeared in an ill-fated Broadway musical called “Smile,” which only ran about seven weeks.
According to Benson, playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman, who was working on the score for the movie, “Felt sorry for all the girls” involved in the show and allowed them to audition in a rehearsal studio where they were given a couple of pages of dialogue and a cassette tape of him singing “Part of Your World.” Benson learned she got the part – a year later.
“I had forgotten that I had auditioned for it,” she admitted.”I got the call saying I had been cast as Ariel, and ever since then, it’s been an incredible journey.”
“The Little Mermaid,” based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale composed in 1837, told the tale of a headstrong, fiery-haired young mermaid who yearns for more than what her life under the sea could offer.
Along the way, she falls in love with a human, who happens to be a prince.The film, which featured Disney’s newest princess since Aurora in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” premiered on Nov. 15, 1989.
It became an instant box office sensation and launched the “Disney Renaissance,” the decade between 1989 until 1999 when Walt Disney Animation Studios created critically and commercially successful animated films. “The Little Mermaid” also featured the element of a Broadway musical, an ambitious move at the time.
Benson shared “The Little Mermaid” is the last hand-painted, hand-drawn animated feature film for Walt Disney Studios in its entirety.”It was hard for me not to hit the microphone with my hands because I’m Italian and I use my hands a lot, so I found myself hitting the mic,” chuckled Benson.She was quickly swept away on a back-to-back press tour across the country. She met many characters along the way who fiercely loved “The Little Mermaid.”
Jodi Benson Ralph Breaks The Internet
Princess Ariel was among the many Disney princesses to be created using traditional 2D handdrawn animation. In “Ralph,” Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tiana get 3D makeovers to to be in line with the animation style in the movie.
Jodi Benson Songs
- Part of Your World
The Little Mermaid · 1989 - If You Can Dream – Disney Princess
Disney Princess Tea Party · 2005 - Down to the Sea
- Here on the Land and Sea
Here In My Heart - Jodi Benson Sings Songs From The Beginner’s Bible · 1991
- Little Talking Donkey
Jodi Benson Sings Songs From The Beginner’s Bible · 1991 - Me For You – You For Me
Jodi Benson Sings Songs From The Beginner’s Bible · 1991 - If You Can Dream
Disney Princess Tea Party · 2005 - For a Moment
Rusalochka 2: Vozvrascheniye v more (Originalnyi Saundtrek) · 2000 - One Dance
10 Disney Favorites: Songs from the Sea · 2006 - Voice In The Night
Jodi Benson Sings Songs From The Beginner’s Bible · 1991 - Plenty O’ Room
Note: This biography is based on the available information as of 2023, and real-time updates or developments are being updated by our editorial team.