The Little Mermaid
thing were looking a bit bare for Walt Disney ’s famed animation studios . For a while , the films were not do as well as they used too . It was n’t until 1988 with the recording - setting sacking of Oliver and Company that they start to get their footing . It was around that time that the direct duo of Ron Clements and John Musker were in output of the famed invigorate moving picture that would save the studio apartment -The Little Mermaid .
For the dwelling tone ending ofThe Little Mermaid30th anniversary variant , we got the interview Ron Clements and legendary animator and creative person , Mark Henn ( who was the manage animator of Ariel ) . We look back at how things were at the studio apartment beforeThe Little Mermaid’srelease and we even find out what Walt Disney himself originally planned to do with aLittle Mermaidadaptation .
Screen Rant : Gentlemen , I just wanna say it ’s a delight to be speak to you guys today . Ron , well in reality both of you obviously in this … let ’s go back to 1985 . You ’re either finishing up or you were still in product onThe Great Mouse Detective ?
Ron Clements : Great Mouse Detective . There was a little bit of intersection . John Musker and I were start Mermaid while we were finishing up Great Mouse Detective , and I pitched the idea like about a year before we started it , at a Gong Show and that ’s kind of how it got going . But then John and myself , we were kinda focalize on Great Mouse , and then pop out scram back into Mermaid .
Screen Rant : What do you conceive was the populace ’s feelings on Disney flick at that time catamenia ?
Mark Henn : A pot of people thought they did n’t make them any more . I had several multitude would say , “ Oh do they still do animation ? They still make animated movies ? ” So I think there was almost an spiritlessness of … ”Oh , I did n’t even know they ’re still in the occupation . ”
So it was not our lustrous moment at that clip in the history . I always told people , we never stopped making movies , but that was the prescription . That ’s how spoiled thing have gotten .
Ron Clements : They came out every three or four years . So it was n’t that regular . And I call up they were kind of brand a petty bit as films just for kid . If you did n’t have a small fry to take there would be really no reason to sort of go . Which was never I think the attitude of the the great unwashed at Disney , the vernal the great unwashed at Disney . ' grade we were all there because we had been inspired by the keen Disney films . Certainly Snow White was like , and that was before my time , but Snow White was like Star Wars when it came out it was like the biggest film of the twelvemonth it was kind of a phenomenon . But over the years I think attitude has change and the feeling was maybe these are kind of safe films for a family hearing . But , it was frustrating I think for people our age ‘cause we thought of them for films for everybody .
Screen Rant : Is that the kind of ground when you get brainchild forLittle Mermaidthat you kind of need to bring something Greco-Roman back that has n’t been done in a while . At that point it has been 30 years since there was like a classical faerie tale story done by Disney . Is that variety of the inspiration to … incite it ?
Ron Clements : It was kind of … I cerebrate there was always even before that a desire to make a film that would break through … just kind of breakout through the stigma . And Black Cauldron for a picayune while I think there was a minuscule hope that might be and then things just did n’t figure out out for that film . But then Mermaid now seemed like because of a lot of thing , because that it hearken back to sort of classic Disney . But yet there were thing that were kind of new . And it was sure done by a different mathematical group of mass . None of the multitude who worked on Mermaid for the most part were masses who had done those earlier classic films , so there was some intersection but that was over now . So it was a new coevals , a sister baby boomer generation and the sentience of want really kind of being thirsty for something that would be peculiar and just something that you feel was as good as you could make it .
Screen Rant : Now there is tale that apparently Walt was gon na do aLittle Mermaidmovie at some point . Was there any kind of work made back then that you Guy pertain to ?
Ron Clements : There was , we did n’t know about it at that time . At the time I pitched it even years later on we did n’t know it . It was n’t a feature , it was a film that was kind of like Fantasia that would have different stories and section almost set to music without negotiation , and one of those was the Little Mermaid . Kay Nelson who designed “ Night on Bald Mountain ” ( from Fantasia ) had done a set of beautiful drawing . One of the oldest story Guy Vance Gary who let us cognise and we got those drawings out of the research subroutine library and pinned them up .
Mark Henn : And they used some of the imagery was used in our film .
Screen Rant : I was in reality gon na ask that if anything was transferred over to …
Ron Clements : peculiarly in the storm sequences there were things .
Screen Rant : Wow , that ’s bang-up . My last question , 30 years after , was there any specific life or even just a setting that you guy wire still look at and go “ We did really good with that . ”
Mark Henn : ( laughs ) Well one that comes to my mind is when Ariel loses her voice that was a real challenge , and I was very excited about that challenge , but there ’s a scene where she overhears that Prince Eric is gon na wed Vanessa and she reacts to it . There was no dialog , not a mass of weighty breathing . It was all in pantomime and if I had to peck one and I ’ve had other masses secernate me that ’s one of their favorite shooting . That worked out well .
Ron Clements : I commend at one of our preview … Roy Disney ’s wife , Patty Disney , was just sound on and on … at one of the Little Mermaid preview , she was just so impressed by that scene of Mark ’s . That ’s pretty cool .
Mark Henn : I got one rightfield !
More:Jodi Benson Interview for The Little Mermaid 30th Anniversary
Disney’sThe Little Mermaid30th Anniversary edition is now on Digital and comes to 4 K , Blu - ray , and videodisc on February 26 .
