" My mother was like , ' That ’s your supercilium ! ' "
Recently, I got to sit down with Disney Legends Paige O’Hara, Linda Larkin, Jodi Benson, and Anika Noni Rose, the voices of Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, and Tiana, respectively.
I recently learned that Ming-Na Wen shared a cute story about the scene when Mulan was sitting under the cherry blossom tree and playing with her hair. She said her mom had told her that’s when she saw Ming-Na, that Ming-Na always plays with her hair, and it was so telling when Mulan did it that Mulan WAS Ming-Na.
I obviously have a “ tell ” on the red carpet ! Touching my tomentum . 😂 In the scene between Mulan & her Church Father under the cherry heyday tree , Mulan stroke her hair . My mom said that was when she saw ME . Animators determine it too ! hazard I ’ve had this nervous use for awhile now ! 😁 😎 https://t.co/PXEcutvB28
I was curious to know when these four princesses saw themselves in their character, too, and their responses honestly warmed my heart.
“For me it was the lock of hair,” said Paige O’Hara.
“I had long hair; it was always a mess, and I never fixed it. My hair was in my face, and Mark Henn, next thing I know, she’s using the finger to move the hair aside.”
“That was definitely me.”
Mark Henn was the supervising animator for all four of these princesses. He worked on over 25 Disney movies and just recently became a Disney Legend at this year’s D23 Expo.
“I would say for my character, it would be ‘Part of Your World,'” said Jodi Benson.
“All during that song, when she’s singing, ‘burn’ is me, ‘more’ is me, closing the eyes, biting the lip…”
“So I would say all of those kinds of mannerisms, especially when I’m singing, is really when I notice that.”
Anika Noni Rose who voiced Tiana said, “The thing that my mom noticed immediately, she was so tickled about, and other people have noticed: the eyebrow.”
“It’s not something I think about, and it is on my face all of the time. My eyebrows have a conversation that my mouth should be having, and she is living in Tiana.”
“[My mom] loved it,” Anika continued. “The first time she saw Tiana, the first time you saw bits of her on television…she would pop up at the bottom of the screen and the frog was there.”
“So she would pull back, and her eyebrow was in the air like, ‘Oh, I’m not kissing a frog!’ My mother was like, ‘That’s your eyebrow.'”
Here’s another fun fact, Anika requested Tiana be left-handed because Anika herself is left-handed.
For Jasmine, Linda Larkin said, “The time that people recognize me the most in Jasmine is when Jasmine is interacting with Rajah.”
“I know Rajah’s a cat, but I think that big cat feeling and the way I would imagine it when I was doing those lines, it would be how I interact with my big dogs.”
“Linda’s been very active with dogs anyway,” mentioned Paige O’Hara. She raises guide dogs!
Anyway, I loved how all of the voices see themselves in little parts of the princesses. I think it’s so wholesome.
