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It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry for my lack of updates!
Anyway, this post is about my Disney-related autographs. No, I don't mean the characters at the parks... for some reason I never really got excited about those, even when I was little. I mean real people involved in the film's creation. Woot woot!
The first one that I got was from Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel. The Little Mermaid dominated close to myentire childhood so I had to basically pick my jaw off of the floor when I saw that she would be doing an autograph signing to promote the movie's Platinum Edition DVD release last year. I bought a lithograph the day before so I wouldn't have to waste time buying it the day of. Unfortunately I had a physics exam so I couldn't skip to go to the signing (all though if I knew I would wind up failing physics then I might have.. even though I did really well on that exam), so I wound up getting to the signing an hour after it had started (it was advertised to be from 12 to 2, and I got there at 1). To make a very long story short, after a LOT of begging with the store Cast Members and their manager, I got onto the line after they had cut it off.
This is absolutely one of my most prized possessions. I especially love it because she
was writing "God bless! -Jodi Benson, Ariel" for everyone (that's what she wrote on my DVD cover). When it was my turn to go up to her I just stood there and said, "I just want to thank you so much for all of the work that you've done." She told me "Thank you so much, that means a lot to me." and on my lithograph wrote, "With love + God bless! -Jodi Benson, Ariel." To me that "With love" makes all the difference in the world.
Next story!
2 weeks ago in the gallery both of my managers and a whole bunch of other managers called us all over to the entrance of the Friendship Room (where the character meet and greets are) saying that they wanted to talk to us. We're standing there for at least half an hour and at first I was like "what did we do wrong?" and they were all laughing and having a grand ol' time doing nothing. After more waiting they decided to send me on my break, then as soon as I got my Swedish Fish out of the machine one guy from gallery comes and gets me and is like "they want you back now." So we all go in the Friendship Room and there's this elderly woman in a knitted hat talking friendly to the managers (and Snow White, who was there even though there was no meet and greet that day) and the 3 of us from gallery are just standing around like "okay..." It turns out that the elderly woman in the knitted hat was Marge Champion, the live action model for Snow White.
At first I was like "no way!" because Snow White is from 1937. Marge Champion filmed for the movie when she
was 14 (makes sense, since Snow White is 14 in the film), making her 84 years old. I found out that she was at the store to sign some artwork for an event not related to us, but the managers thought that it would be nice to have an autograph signing session for a small group and figured, "well how about the gallery people?" because there are only 2 or 3 of us working at a time every day. So all of the managers and the 3 of us who just happened to be in the gallery at the time all got autographs from her (they even gave us lithos that normally cost $15). The rest of the store didn't even know that she was there! Talk about lucky.
Since working there I've found out that a lot of other people who I would have KILLED to meet were at the store in the past. Ming-Na Wen (speaking voice of Mulan) I would have camped out on the street to meet. And within the past year Kathryn Beaumont (voice of Wendy and Alice) and Margaret Kerry (live model for Tinkerbell) came together. Oh, and the actors for all 4 Pevensie children came for an autograph session to promote The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe's premier a couple of years ago.
If I'm ever lucky enough to stumble onto more events then I'll be sure to let you know!
When The Little Mermaid came out in 1989, I was 2. Yep, I'm old. Anyway, the movie pretty much completely dominated my entire childhood and even though now I hesitate to call it my favorite Disney movie, I do have an attachment and appreciation to it (did you know that it was the last cel animated Disney film?) that I don't have to any other movie.
This past January (during my summer birthday shopping) I ran across a Little Mermaid snowglobe on Disneyshopping.com that I absolutely had to get for my best friend. And since I'm not a fool, I bought one for myself, too. Thus marking the start of my very own snowglobe collection. Needless to say, my bank account has not been happy with me since.
Ariel is depicted inside of her grotto, with Flounder and Sebastian looking on just as they had in the movie. Above the "surface" Scuttle is preoccupied with a telescope (I wonder what he calls them...). There is an automatic blower inside of the dome (inside are tiny bits of sparkly and white plastic "confetti"), since it's too big and too heavy to manually shake, and when wound plays "Part of Your World."
In all of the Little Mermaid snowglobes that I've seen in the past, Ariel is usually attached to the base outside of the globe (or presented in her human form if inside of it) because of her fins. For this snowglobe, Ariel is suspended inside of the sphere by relatively thin metal bar connecting the wall of the grotto to her back. The metal is completely invisible if you're looking at Ariel head-on. It can be seen if you're viewing Ariel from the side, but it isn't very obstructive. Honestly, I hadn't noticed the metal at all for the first 10 minutes of looking at the snowglobe (or maybe I was just slow to notice it).
Ariel's sculpt also coincides with the underwater effect. Her hair is "wafting" as everyone's hair usually does underwater. And her fins are curled back, making them look much more delicate as opposed to the generic fin "pose" that makes them look rather stiff. With these details Ariel is extremely faithful to how she is animated in the film, and is what merited itself a purchase for myself.
Speaking of details, the diorama portion of the snowglobe is littered with little details from the film, which is a pleasant surprise. On top of Ariel's grotto is Scuttle and his little "island of stuff." I even double checked, and his crows nest chair is exactly how it is in the film. Scuttle is even hanging off of the edge and looking through his telescope (I wonder what he calls them...) the same way as he does in the movie.
Towards the base portion of the snowglobe, underneath the dome of water, is Sebastian and Flounder. On the left, Sebastian is looking at Ariel with a disapproving expression. Near him is also the pair of glasses that Sebastian looks through, and the pitcher that he backs himself into, during the film's "Part of Your World" sequence. In the photo you can also see the painting that Ariel references in the song ("What's a fire and why does it, what's the word, burn?"). 
On the right side Flounder is watching Ariel happily. He is also attached to they base by a spring, so he wobbles back and forth when touched. This was probably done in accordance to the underwater effect. At a small distance (and depending on the angle) Flounder looks as though he is not attached to the base at all, but suspended in mid-"air" just like Ariel.Just a bit behind Flounder are the wind-up crank and the blower switch. There are also
more details hidden towards the side and back of the snowglobe. On the right side of the switch is the seahorse who most people remember from the beginning of the movie (who announced the introductions during King Triton's "celebration"). Unfortunately he's discolored; in the film he's orange with (if I remember correctly) a turquoise collar thing (sorry, I don't know the proper name for it...).
If you move from the seahorse (does he even have a name?), there is a school of fish that travel from one side of the [back of the] diorama to the other. The giant mast (or whatever part of a ship that is) sticks up all the way to the top and right into Scuttle's crow's nest hangout. Both of these bring the eye across the entire perimeter and also direct the eye from the "ocean" portion of the diorama to the "surface" portion. It brings continuity to all of different elements and little details (there are more scattered objects all around the resin portion and inside of the dome, truly depicting Ariel's collection of "human stuff") of the snowglobe and interweaves them together.
On a side note, the snowglobe also had the option to come with a limited edition pin of Ariel showing a book to Flounder (from "Part of Your World"). Since I casually collect pins I decided to get it, but it really isn't worth it because pretty much every aspect of Ariel (particularly her face) looks extremely distorted. It would probably only remotely interest pin collectors because of it's edition size of 500. For fans of The Little Mermaid, pretty much every other pin available looks better than this one (See? It didn't even merit a photo).
As for the technical specs, the size of the snowglobe is approximately 10" tall and 8.5" wide and deep. It runs on 2 AA batteries (for the blower), which are included. And in case you're interested, the retail price is $99.95 USD (although I bought it on sale for approximately $75).
Although currently unavailable from Disneyshopping.com, if you happen to run across this snowglobe on eBay or any other website and are on the fence about buying it or not, buy it. This is hands down one of, if not the, best Little Mermaid snowglobe I have ever come across. The only real flaw that I've noticed is the coloring of the seahorse, but even so, he's located on the back so you can't see him when the snowglobe is on display. The details and homages to the film are so impressive that it long overcasts whatever other flaws you may possibly find.
Just be sure to turn on the blower occasionally so the confetti doesn't stick!
