Cast Connections: The Little Mermaid

Here are some interesting tidbits about the cast members of “The Little Mermaid” films and even a little bit of the Broadway show.

The voice of Ariel, Jodi Benson, is also the current voice of Lady from “Lady and the Tramp” and Weebo from the live-action movie “Flubber.” She’s also made cameo appearances in “Enchanted” as Patrick Dempsey’s secretary and “Batman Beyond” as the voice of Aquagirl. To this day, she continues to provide the voice of Ariel, most recently in "Sofia the First: The Floating Palace."

Speaking of Ariel, one of the biggest contenders for the role besides Jodi Benson was Melissa Fahn, who would later go on to play Gaz Membrane in “Invader Zim,” Rika Nonoka in “Digimon Tamers,” Nene Amano in “Digimon Fusion” and Edward in “Cowboy Bebop.” Fahn was called back several times, but was ultimately passed over because the producers thought she sounded too young.

Moving on to Christopher Daniel Barnes, who played Prince Eric. After “The Little Mermaid,” Barnes would go on to play the title character in the 90’s TV series “Spider-Man,” in what would become his most well-known role. He is also the voice of Prince Charming in the sequel films to “Disney’s Cinderella.” He could not reprise Prince Eric for “The Little Mermaid II” (for which Rob Paulsen provided Eric’s voice), but was able to do so for the video game “Kingdom Hearts II.”

Kenneth Mars, the voice of King Triton, was also well known as the voice of Professor Screweyes in “We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story” and Littlefoot’s Grandfather in the “Land Before Time” series. He is also remembered for his live action portrayals of Franz Liebkind in “The Producers” starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, and Police Inspector Kemp in “Young Frankenstein.”

Sadly, Kenneth Mars passed away in 2011 from pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis for his pancreatic cancer is what ultimately caused him to retire and therefore pass on reprising King Triton for “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning.” The role was instead given to Jim Cummings.

Pat Carroll, the voice of Ursula, also provides the voice for Ursula’s sister Morgana in the sequel film. However, before “The Little Mermaid,” Carroll could be heard as Katrina Stoneheart in “Pound Puppies” and Jon Arbuckle’s Grandma in two “Garfield” holiday specials.

Samuel E. Wright, the voice of Sebastian, has done a few other works for Disney. On film, he provided the voice of Kron in the 2000 film “Dinosaur.” On stage, he originated the role of Mufasa in “The Lion King.” He did not originate Sebastian in the "Little Mermaid" musical, though.

Flounder throughout the franchise has been voiced by a child actor, starting with Jason Marin in the original film. The only cases where this is not true is “The Little Mermaid II,” where he is voiced by Cam Clarke (Leonardo in the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” TV show) and the unaired Jim Henson-produced show, “Little Mermaid’s Island,” where he was voiced by Veronica Taylor (Ash Ketchum in the 4Kids dub of “Pokemon”)!

Flotsam and Jetsam were voiced by Paddi Edwards, who has also provided the voice of Atropos, the shortest Fate, in “Disney’s Hercules” and Gozer in “Ghostbusters.” She died in 1999, and Corey Burton now voices Flotsam and Jetsam.

Scuttle was voiced by Buddy Hackett, a very popular comedic actor who had previously worked for Disney in “The Love Bug” as Tennessee Steinmetz. He was also popular as Marcellus Washburn in the first film adaptation of “The Music Man.” He died in 2003, so Scuttle was voice by Maurice LaMarche for the prequel film.

Carlotta, the main maid, is voiced by Edie McClurg, who many might know as the Principal’s secretary Grace in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and recently provided the voice of Trudi Traveler in “Wander Over Yonder.”

Chef Louis is voiced by Rene Auberjonois, who is most known as Odo in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” He is also known as Azmuth in “Ben 10: Omniverse,” Pepe le Pew in the first season of "The Looney Tunes Show," and the Mechanist in “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” among other roles.

Finally, Grimsby was the final role of English actor Ben Wright, who died of heart surgery complications shortly after recording his dialogue for the film. Wright had previously worked with Disney in “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” as Roger Radcliff and “The Jungle Book” as Rama, Mowgli’s wolf father. He is also known as Herr Zeller in “The Sound of Music.”

Interestingly, Grimsby on the Broadway show was originated by Jonathan Freeman, who voiced the villain Jafar in “Aladdin.”