Jodi Benson Praises Halle Bailey for Her ‘Amazing’ Performance in ‘Little Mermaid’ Remake

Jodi Benson is sending fondness to Halle Bailey, beginning with one Ariel then onto the following! The voice performer who gave the voice of Ariel in the 1989 vivified film, The Little Mermaid, shared her approval for the 22-year-old after Walt Disney Studios dropped the trailer for its shockingly reasonable variety during the flow year’s D23 Exhibition.

The primary look at Bailey as Ariel starts with her investigating the ocean and fans seeing her vantage point as she swims past fishes and sea turtles. At one point in the trailer, Ariel unintentionally tracks down an obliterated boat. She will peer inside when suddenly it eliminates. In the meantime, “Part of Your Reality” crescendos, and fans finally get to see and hear Bailey’s form of the Disney model tune.

The film also stars Jonah Hauer-Lord as Ruler Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as Lord Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Wallow, and Awkwafina as Abandon.

“Halle, you were thoroughly surprising!” Benson wrote in an Instagram Story nearby a pic of Bailey at this week’s end Disney D23 Exhibition. “I’m SO happy for yourself as well as your great show as Ariel. It was so wonderful to celebrate with your family here at #d23expo and to the magnificent boss, Loot Marshall… I’m so thankful for our friendship of more than 35 years. Much gratitude to you for making such a stunning film!!”

Bailey reposted the message to her Accounts, replying, “Thank you sympathetic… this means the world to me coming from you! You made Ariel captivated for us.”

Benson completed the exchange by expressing thanks to the singer and performer and sending “much love” to her.

ET chatted with Bailey at Assortment’s Force of Youthful Hollywood last month, where she became open about the specific Little Mermaid scene that made her cry upon first audit.

“It was the recurrent that I saw… that was a subsequent where I cried,” Bailey said. “It’s segment 2 of ‘Part of Your Reality,’ later in the film where she’s on the stone.”

“I’m just reliably in surprise,” she added of her commitment in the endeavor. “That was the head [emotional] second for me.”

Bailey continued to portray her translation of Ariel as “fun, excited and revering,” preceding sharing what it means for her to being playing the second Dark Disney princess.

“I basically trust people love it,” she said. “I trust my shocking more youthful kin, sisters, cousins, my family, my neighborhood, from a’s perspective and be like, ‘Prepare to have your mind blown. We can be princesses also. This is dumbfounding.'”

The Little Mermaid is set to swim into theaters on May 26, 2023.