Disney pays tribute to Ursula’s voice in The Little Mermaid

Pat Carroll will always be a part of Disney World. Walt Disney Animation Studios has paid tribute to the stage and screen star who is best known for the voice of the evil sea witch Ursula in the little Mermaid, who died on July 30 at the age of 95. In a statement posted on the company’s social media on Tuesday, Disney said it was “sad” over the death of the prolific voice actor with a nod to Disney’s famous “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” A sinister song performed by Carol in the 1989 musical animated film.

“We mourn the passing of the great Pat Carroll, who voiced the wicked and cunning sea witch, Ursula, in the little Mermaid, and gave an attitude and stage to the character,” it stated in a Disney statement. We are “lucky” for her contribution. ”

Carroll reprized the role of Ursula in little mermaid An animated prequel TV series and the voice of Morgana, Ursula’s sister, in a direct-to-video sequel to 2000 The Little Mermaid II: Back to the Sea. As one of Disney’s most prominent villains, Carol has voiced the character in multiple video games, including the popular Kingdom Hearts The series in addition to the animation show mouse house And the episodic live video Mickey’s House of Villains. She was portraying a sea witch for the last time in the 2020 short series The wonderful world of Mickey Mouse.

Besides her role as Ursula, Carol voiced Kookoo the Gorilla in the 1990s cartoon. Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers And the Old Lady Crowley at Disney tangled Spinoff series The Tangled Adventure of Rapunzel. An Emmy-winning television prop whose career spanned over 70 years, Carroll was a veteran of stage and screen, appearing in television series such as loose ragsAnd the red skelton watchAnd the getting together, And the Caesar’s watch.

the little Mermaid Directors John Musker and Ron Clements auditioned for several actresses for a sea witch they envisioned having the “Bia Arthur-type Basso voice,” which ultimately led to the casting of Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch in the role. But after Stretch creatively clashed with poet Howard Ashman, who wrote the song with composer Alan Mencken, the filmmakers recast the role with Carroll.

“After I read the script, I thought, ‘Oh, that would be so cool…and then I heard the music and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this looks like a Broadway score,'” she said in the Alan Neuwirth 2003 book Makin’ Toons: Inside the Most Famous TV Shows and Animated Movies (Across Jim Hill Media).

Actresses who auditioned for the role included Nancy Marchand, Charlotte Ray, and Roseanne Barr. As Carol told her, she didn’t expect to land the part of the sea singer’s witch.

“I went out into the studio, and I looked around the room at all of us ladies…there were ladies I recognized from the movie, and there were ladies I recognized from TV,” Carroll recalls. “[This] It was a highly sought after job. And in New York, they were doing the same thing. So I knew I was one of many [auditioning] …that wasn’t, “Oh, we should get Pat Carroll.”

After her success with Ashman—”I got to know that character from Howard singing that song more than anything else,” she said in the book—Carol saw Ursula as “a former Shakespearean actress who now sells cars.”

Carol went to tell Neuwirth that her role as Ursula the little Mermaid It is “the only thing I can be proud of in my life”.

“I don’t even care if the only thing I hooked up with after I’m gone is Ursula,” Carroll said in 2003. “That’s fine for me, because this is such a great character and a very great movie. To be remembered before.”

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