5 actresses who gifted their looks to the cartoon Disney princesses

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Everyone knows the characters of Disney cartoons - probably any child can list them by name and describe how they look. But few know that some of them had real prototypes - actresses who gave the cartoon princesses not only their voice, but also external features, facial expressions and plasticity. From whom Snow White, Cinderella, Alice, Little Mermaid and Jasmine were "copied" - further in the review.

Marge Champion - Snow White

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was Disney's first full-length, hand-drawn cartoon - before that they had only shot short cartoons. In the early 1930s. this project was dubbed in the press "Disney madness" - the idea to go on an experiment with a full meter in animation in the midst of the Great Depression, when studios went bankrupt and closed one after another, seemed to everyone a desperate and risky step. Many doubted that the audience would like the unusual format, and that viewers would spend as much time watching a cartoon as they would visiting a movie with Hollywood divas. But Disney believed in the success of this venture and made it so that he still starred as a real actress.

The model for Snow White was Marjorie Belcher (in the future she will become famous as a dancer and actress Marge Champion). The girl was dressed up in a long dress, the same as her heroine should have, and asked to act out all her movements. Marge was shown storyboards of her episode, she played the scene using her imagination, and the artists redrawn her movements. Marge recalled: "". Marge has been working on this role for 3 years.

The experiment turned out to be incredibly successful - the cartoon broke all box office records and brought the studio $ 8 million. At the 11th Academy Awards, Walt Disney received a special award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: it consisted of a standard-sized Oscar and seven small copies of the statuette.

Helen Stanley - Cinderella

After the triumph of Snow White, Disney decided to continue working on full-length cartoons. But if before that the animators sketched sketches of live actors, then starting with "Cinderella" the sitters were filmed, and then the shots with the models were "outlined". In this way, the effect of the maximum life-likeness of cartoon characters was achieved - their appearance was very close to the models. The actress and ballet dancer Helen Stanley presented her appearance and incredible grace to Cinderella. The animators were delighted with her. They said: "".

Helen, along with other actors, acted out the entire plot in costumes in front of the cameras to make it easier for the animators to work, taking the movements and facial expressions of live models as a basis. True, after the release of the cartoon, some critics smashed the image of Cinderella - in their opinion, it turned out to be too sensual. However, Helen Stanley later served as the prototype for Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Anita in 101 Dalmatians.

Katherine Beaumont - Alice

The model for the main character of the cartoon "Alice in Wonderland" was 10-year-old Catherine Beaumont. Walt Disney personally chose her after seeing her in one of the films. The work on this project was just as painstaking: the model on the set acted out all the scenes of the cartoon, and the animators created only 23-24 seconds of material in a week. Catherine voiced both Alice and Wendy from Peter Pan, for whom she also became a model. In one scene, she was even suspended in the air to simulate flight, despite the fact that the young actress was afraid of heights. Although in her youth she starred in several films, later Katherine left the acting profession and worked as a teacher for more than 35 years.

Alyssa Milano - The Little Mermaid Ariel

The cartoon "The Little Mermaid" was created when Walt Disney was no longer alive. Initially, the company's management portrayed her as blonde and melancholic, like Andersen's. The writers objected: this is a cartoon for children, the main character should be naughty and positive! And the artists said that red hair would be best contrasted with a green tail. They revisited the photographs of several young actresses, and most of all they were inspired by the lively face and open eyes of 16-year-old Alyssa Milano (stars of the series Charmed). She did not even know for some time that Ariel's appearance was "copied" from her, because in the studio another model posed for the animators - the actress Sherri Stoner.

Outwardly, Ariel was very similar to Alyssa Milano, but the plastic of her movements was "copied" from Sherri Stoner, about whom the artists said: "".

Jennifer Connelly - Jasmine

The image of Princess Jasmine was collective and combined the features of three girls. According to animator Mark Henn, once at Disneyland, he saw a very beautiful young visitor with long black hair, and her image inspired him to create the appearance of Jasmine. The cartoonist "spied" the features of the heroine from his younger sister Beth. Well, the third prototype model for Jasmine was actress Jennifer Connelly, known for her roles in the films Requiem for a Dream and A Beautiful Mind. Most of all the animators were impressed by the thick dark eyebrows of the actress. After the release of the cartoon "Aladdin", the appearance of the main character caused a lot of controversy - the Muslim world was outraged by the too open outfit of a girl with an oriental appearance.

Another Disney heroine had a real prototype: The true story of Pocahontas.