[Netherrealmer]

Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are divided right now because of the Live Action Little Mermaid. Rather than casting a Ginger girl, Disney decided to cast Halle Bailey, An African American singer.


Someone from Twitter decided to use Ethnicity filter to to the trailer of Little Mermaid and turn Ariel into a white woman who looks like Amber Heard. This person promises that once Little Mermaid is released, He will release a "fixed" version. Twitter banned this person.


The Youtube Trailer of Little Mermaid garned 1.5 Million dislikes vs. 380 likes.

There is an ongoing debate right now whether its Racist to hate the fact Ariel is Black instead of a Red head white girl.

The actress who plays Ariel is currently getting harassed in social media.

[kataomoi]

Don't blame the actress. Blame Disney.

Other than the whole race thing, I think a lot of people are just sick of DIsney live actions. It just feels like Disney is trying to make money off of fans without trying to produce a good movie...

But it does suck that Halle Bailey is getting so much hate. I hope things die down soon.

[Netherrealmer]

One thing I notice, I see a lot of Black people who opposes Black Ariel, they dont like racebended white characters. They prefer original characters made for them like Blade, Black Panther, Princess Tiana etc. They do not like racebending.

[Treborika]

I think colour discrimination is evident through this incident. Let me say this whether black or white an actress is shouldn't matter here what matters most is the talent that they possess.

[kataomoi]

One thing I notice, I see a lot of Black people who opposes Black Ariel, they dont like racebended white characters. They prefer original characters made for them like Blade, Black Panther, Princess Tiana etc. They do not like racebending.

Yeah, it's called Blackwashing, the equivalent of Whitewashing. Networks do it for "representation". Some people are really offended by it.

[Netherrealmer]

and they always do it to Ginger characters for some reason.

-- 19 Sep 2022, 12:10 --

This controversy brings the worst out of people:

[mrki444]

I think Disney will start lose followers if they continue so much mixing things. Are they exclusive owners or Mermaid character or others can buy rights?

[nela13]

Ariel is a Disney princess who has strong features that make her recognizable, such as vibrant red hair, bright fair skin, and blue eyes. But the director says he chose Halle Bailey because of her "glorious voice", however people were expecting an actress physically similar to the original Disney character. I think the movie won't be a success.

[Netherrealmer]

I think Disney will start lose followers if they continue so much mixing things. Are they exclusive owners or Mermaid character or others can buy rights?

The Little Mermaid is actually named Marina and she is Public Domain. Ariel who is Disney's version is Disney's version of that Public domain character. The original Little Mermaid ends up committing suicide because the Prince didn't love her, So she turns into Sea Foam. Ariel was the family friendly version of that since she gets the man and didn't turn into sea foam.

The Polish movie, The Lure is Book accurate version of Little Mermaid but in modern setting, which is the tragic story of the Mermaid turning into Sea foam.

[kataomoi]

Disney's The Little Mermaid is definitely the family-friendly and kid-appropriate version. Ariel's a siren and shouldn't even look as "cute" as the animation.

I think the movie won't be a success.

Hard to say though. It's Disney. And even though a lot of people are hating on the trailer, there are also supporters for it (especially Blacks). Seeing how Black Panther was so successful, it won't be a surprise if this movie ends up doing well too.

Also, I'm not sure if the movie is being sold as a kid movie but I don't really think kids care about the color of Ariel that much. Parents will probably still take their kids to see this movie.

[Netherrealmer]

Disney just disabled the dislike button after receiving 3 million dislikes.

[mrki444]

I think dislike button is disabled everywhere on Youtube.

[Netherrealmer]

There is a Google chrome extension to make hidden dislikes visible. So they fully disabled dislikes because media announced how many dislikes they got.

[simplyfred]

I feel sad for the character actress Halle Bailey. I think it is not her fault. Anyway, I hope people will criticise her on how she acts not on the color of her skin alone.

[Tendz]

Why blame the actress, Halle Bailey? A job has been offered to her and she has accepted. She's doing what anybody else would do in her place.

Instead of Disney so radically changing such a long established character. It would have been better to have created a new black mermaid drawn from their own mythology of mermaids.

[ptrikha21]

One thing I notice, ....

I think the point is that if some character has been written with a certain race and ethnicity in mind, let it remain.
Even we might find it funny if a European or an American plays an Indian Mythological character.
And imagine someone like Thor being played by an Indian.
That is why perhaps many people might like characters that can either be race neutral or well different characters altogether.
But hate is not a good thing. Criticism is ok, not hate.

[Netherrealmer]

To be fair some South Asians can pass as white because even if South Asian identifies as Asian, Indians and Pakistanis are categorized as Caucasians. The Gypsies in Europe are from Pakistan and India. An Indian who is not from the South (they look East Asian) can assimilate easily in Italy,Portugal and Greece.

Priyanka Chopra plays White roles in Hollywood.

[nela13]

I don't really think kids care about the color of Ariel that much. Parents will probably still take their kids to see this movie.

You are probably right on this, children don't care and they just want to see the disney movie but there are many adults that enjoy seeing live actions of Disney classics and these could be the ones that won't watch the movie.

[edman200]

Very interesting information about the controversy of a mermaid I would love to see a real mermaid but I hard myths and some say that they are really real mermaid that been here on earth before.

[kataomoi]

You are probably right on this, children don't care and they just want to see the disney movie but there are many adults that enjoy seeing live actions of Disney classics and these could be the ones that won't watch the movie.

The same argument can be made from the other side though. There are adults who are not interested in Disney live actions, but would like to support the Black community so they will go see the movie. A lot of non-Marvel fans did that when Black Panther was released because it was the first Marvel superhero movie with a Black cast (mainly). So at the moment, I think it's still hard to say whether this movie will do well or flop.