From our Friends at D23
Close your eyes and picture your favorite Disney Princess; there’s a good chance Disney Legend Mark Henn animated her.
Throughout his illustrious career, Henn served as the supervising animator for five female leads—more than any other artist in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ history. Earlier this month, at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event presented by Visa®, the five actresses who voiced those characters—Disney Legends Jodi Benson, Paige O’Hara, Linda Larkin, Ming-Na Wen, and Anika Noni Rose—reflected on their initial reactions to seeing how their likenesses and mannerisms helped to define the Disney Princesses we know and love today.
Below, Henn’s muses muse on how it felt to see their animated characters for the first time:
“Mark is absolutely wonderful. He is one of our most brilliant animators in the world.”
“Mark’s initial drawings looked almost perfect, like Angelina Jolie. And then he quirked her up a little bit. She’s still beautiful, but a little quirkier. On the wall, the animators had photos of all these famous, beautiful women like Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn—and then my funny-looking little picture was down at the bottom!”
“Oh, I thought she was so beautiful. And I was really, really proud to be a part of creating that character with him.”
“Mark is an incredible, expressive artist. He captures each character with such nuance. He can be very quiet and still, because he’s always observing you. He’s always capturing those special little things about the people who are portraying the characters, and that allows him to create these amazing beings that have such a positive and everlasting effect.”
“When they showed me Princess Tiana for the first time, she was in black and white. They told me they needed me to look at something and see how I felt about it; I didn’t know it was going to be her. And when they revealed it, I broke down. I had no idea she was going to look as much like me as she did. Even now, it’s very, very moving to me. It’s amazing. There’s nothing like it… Mark honestly made my dreams come true.”
