<Tr> <Td> "I heard Part of Your World, Jodi Benson singing that, and it just captivated me . I have to do that . And I went and told those guys,' I really wanna do Ariel .' And they said,' Well, I don't know . This is supposed to be a pretty girl . Can you do that?' I said,' Look, I have to do Ariel . I mean, I can feel it in my heart ."' </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td>--Glen Keane, Ariel's supervising animator </Td> </Tr> <P> Ariel was based on the title character of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", but co-director and writer Ron Clements felt that the mermaid in the original story was too tragic and rewrote the character, resulting in Ariel . </P> <P> Jodi Benson, who was predominantly a stage actress, was chosen to voice Ariel because the directors felt "it was really important to have the same person doing the singing and speaking voice". Clements stated that Benson's voice had a unique "sweetness" and "youthfulness". When recording the vocals for "Part of Your World", Benson asked that the lights in the studio be dimmed, to create the feeling of being deep under the sea . "Part of Your World", which was referred to by songwriter Howard Ashman as the "I Want" song, was originally going to be cut from the final film, owing to Jeffrey Katzenberg's belief that it slowed the story down, but Ashman and Keane fought to keep it in . </P>

Who was ariel the little mermaid based on