Live-Action The Little Mermaid

[flickchick85]

I don't know what else to say. I think I made my point pretty clear. You can have it your way and stay mad about it if you choose, but these changes will continue to happen whether you approve or not. The rest of us will continue to see it as progress.

 

[Lencho01]

Never noticed this. Made me laugh...

 

[flickchick85]

Um, April O'Neil is not a ginger -- they have just stolen her and claimed her for their own over the years. She had light brown hair like myself and I resent this light-brunette erasure!

 

[Lencho01]

Halle Berry's response...

Should just have Berry up in this joint just because.

 

[Mysteryman]

Never gonna happen

Nor should it.

 

[Lily Adler]

I need her singing Part of Your World now!

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

White people who can’t see beyond their own white privilege are mad. Just as I perceived.

I cannot wait to see how this whole production unfolds.

 

[Mysteryman]

Remember when blonde James Bond destroyed the character?

I remember when people were afraid of that when Craig was cast.
5 films later, it appears those fears were unfounded, thankfully.

 

[Dr. Evil]

If you count all of the Disney live action properties from all of the Disney brands......Ariel is going to Disney's second black princess.

First one being her of course:

 

[dark_b]

 

[dark_b]

how come in the US its always a black actor that gets a major white character role? why not asians or arabs? Can you imagine an arab girl playing a classic disney princess? terrorists jokes and insults from the casting news until the realese date. It comes back to the best actor got the job.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I'm hispanic from a deeply proud hispanic family. I am a first generation son of immigrants and a minority in this country. I think casting a black actress as Ariel is pandering, cynical and plain dumb.

I work for the mouse and every day I see little black girls repping Tiana, and having her actually have a presence in the parks, as well as have her own section at Port Orleans, is amazing to see.

My issue with the casting is that people cry "shes a fictional character it doesnt matter what her race is" yet if i were to turn around and say Tiana should be played by a Latina actress like Isabela Moner or Becky G or even Selena Gomez, another minority, I'd get the same "stupid" defenses we are using for race changing Ariel while pointing out that Tiana is black; suddenly race matters huh?

I have zero qualms with race or gender bending these characters at Cons or whatnot, but as someone pointed out, Ariel is iconic for being a redheaded mermaid and has been that way in the public's eye for 30 years.

Why not just make new, interesting characters that have their own voices and can be written to appeal to these underrepresented minorities? I LOVE Coco because everything about it spoke to me as a hispanic. The way the family interacted, the way they cared for Mama Coco that hit close home to me because she reminded me exactly of my grandma who passed away a few years ago, the culture, music, colors, everything about it SPOKE to me as hispanic with a family of central americans. I cant watch it again because it hits too close to home and i'm not over my grandma passing, but that movie is an instant classic and a voice of hispanic culture. I am proud and happy that Disney released that movie.

None of the Disney princes or anyone else ever spoke to me. If they race changed any of the princes to be Spanish/Latino/Hispanic I would think its just as stupid because no matter what they were envisioned a certain way and that way will never speak to me. I am happy that Elena of Avalor is a Princess, though I wish she had her own movie, because hispanic girls now have their own princess to look up to.

Anyway, this is a lose lose situation for Disney and instead of creating unity all its doing is creating division between people and nuanced conversations about this are non existent in 2019. Stuff like this is why I feel people like Trump and the bigots of the Right wing will only grow in power, even moderates who normally dont care would rather side with the right just to stick it to people forcefully pushing this kind of stuff instead of finding new and creative ways to move our society forward.

Also, yeah Gingers are kinda underrepresented too but apparently they dont matter cause they're white.

 

[jmc]

I would be interested in hearing someone's response to the above post who's in favour of this casting.

 

[flickchick85]

The same as my responses before. I don't have the energy to re-type. Changing an established minority character =/= changing an established white character, period. No matter how you spin it. And again, it's not like we aren't getting new stories either. This hasn't replaced one of those - they were remaking The Little Mermaid no matter what. This one's just gonna speak to a different generation of girls.

And yeah, let's not start comparing the plight of gingers to people of color. That's not an actual road to go down. I don't care what your race is.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

The same as my responses before. I don't have the energy to re-type. Changing an established minority character =/= changing an established white character, period. No matter how you spin it. And again, it's not like we aren't getting new stories either. This hasn't replaced one of those - they were remaking The Little Mermaid no matter what. This one's just gonna speak to a different generation of girls.

And yeah, let's not start comparing the plight of gingers to people of color. That's not an actual road to go down. I don't care what your race is.

Yeah. This is a joke of a point even if you have a rudimentary understanding of the sheer brutality of race relations in America. But people don't, more accurately won't, bitterly, stubbornly, won't engage with this historical context, which makes these debates circular and pointless.

Also, the "create new diverse characters" point is also willfully glib. You know Hollywood is allergic to original content. They won't sign off on new stories, even if it casts white people, much less black people. People know this, but regurgitate this tedious point anyways.

There are exceptions though. Like Jordan Peele. But when he did exactly what reactionary nerds asked for, "create new, diverse characters", he got hate for it none the less.

 

[jmc]

And if people don't understand why some find this an issue then you're only ever going to cause more and more division and frankly there's too much of that crap already, and as Punisher said will only make things worse to the point where even moderate people will start to turn against the very cause that people are pushing for. The more you tell people to just get over it, the more they'll fight back to protect what they feel is under threat. It's basic ****ing human behaviour.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

Nobody in real life cares. Nobody cared about Mary Jane. Nobody cared about Valkyrie. And nobody will care about this.

Trump won because he shifted the rust belt with promises of a return to factory jobs. Not Disney movies.

 

[Marvel united]

And if people don't understand why some find this an issue then you're only ever going to cause more and more division and frankly there's too much of that crap already, and as Punisher said will only make things worse to the point where even moderate people will start to turn against the very cause that people are pushing for. The more you tell people to just get over it, the more they'll fight back to protect what they feel is under threat. It's basic ****ing human behaviour.

So you're saying that moderate white people are turning right because a movie based on a fictional creature that lives underwater -- now has the characteristics of a beautiful young black girl instead of a caucasian girl, in the remake of said movie? Umm, yeah. I'm not buying it. Any one of those people were probably already on the other side before this much needed push for minorities to see themselves represented in media started.

Also, i find it highly troubling that I've seen so many people compare this casting to white washing the roles of Tiana, Moana and Mulan. Characters whose specific racial identity are integral to the story itself. There is nothing specific about Ariel's race in the story, that requires she be white. It seems like context exists in a vacuum when these type of discussions are had. Intellectual dishonesty at its worst

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Tiana being black isnt unique to her. You can make her a Latina character and all of it mostly lines up perfectly with who Tiana is.

Are you saying hispanics didnt exisit in New Orleans? Is her experience as a minority in the south in those times unique to her being black?

I get that african americans have a bad history here in the US, but to completely throw out my point of view cause im hispanic and not black is willfully disregarding my views as a Latino, especially living in the US at a time where I have to deal with my people put into literal concentration camps.

Also, dismissing cultural, literary, film and media as a showcase of a society's views of the time is misguided and plain stupid. Saying "oh Hollywood will never approve of original content for minorities" is the exact sentiment why things will never change. Race changing characters as some sort of sign of progression is stupid as all hell.

The argument for why a character shouldnt be race changed is the exact one why it should be, it goes nowhere and pisses people off. So instead of creating a ****storm of an issue how about avoid it altogether and make something original that pushes things forward instead of claiming a Pyrrhic victory?

 

[Silvermoth]

Yay go Halle! I didn’t know she was one of the girls in that viral Beyoncé video. I reckon she’ll be amazing.

It’s a shame some of the fans are overacting. I reckon they’re like Ursula and her mirror. They look into it and think they’re the princess but deep down they’re the ugly sea hag

 

[psylockolussus]

Eh. The actress they hired definitely don't look like Ariel. The thing is if you're gonna adapt or remake a well known Animated film like The Little Mermaid, the actors should resemble the character from the animated film they are adapting or remaking, especially the lead role, similar to the Jungle book and Aladdin.

 

[Chesterfield]

I'm gonna need to stock up on some coco butter to moisturise myself after bathing in aaaaaaall these ********* tears.

Great casting of the little mermaid. Girl can sing periodtt and she's stunning, none of this biracial, racially ambiguous or typical casting. I'm not trying to hear any bs cries about casting fictional characters when for years Hollywood has white washed people of colour in films based on historical fact and even today, these bum-ass white washing castings still happen and people want to cry about this particular casting? Haha, can't and won't take such people seriously.

 

[jmc]

So you're saying that moderate white people are turning right because a movie based on a fictional creature that lives underwater -- now has the characteristics of a beautiful young black girl instead of a caucasian girl, in the remake of said movie? Umm, yeah. I'm not buying it. Any one of those people were probably already on the other side before this much needed push for minorities to see themselves represented in media started.

Also, i find it highly troubling that I've seen so many people compare this casting to white washing the roles of Tiana, Moana and Mulan. Characters whose specific racial identity are integral to the story itself. There is nothing specific about Ariel's race in the story, that requires she be white. It seems like context exists in a vacuum when these type of discussions are had. Intellectual dishonesty at its worst

I think this argument is dishonest. Firstly, it’s ignoring what the character has looked like for 30 years. Second, it’s ignoring the history of the story itself which is of European origin. Third, and the one that I find the most troubling, is the idea that one specific ethnicity is somehow considered expendable. Even if it’s just fiction, the idea that one type of ethnicity is allowed to be overwritten simply for the sake of having another take it’s place is not the road to be going down because it creates unneeded animosity. I don’t care for the practice which ever way it goes. And it’s nothing more than a band aid solution to a problem that would be easily fixed if Hollywood simply invested in creating new franchises for a new generation. Punisher makes the point above about why this is the wrong way to go about doing this.

 

[jolldan]

Seen the reveal this morning when I was just waking up and still half asleep thought it said Halle Berry was thinking "wait what she not a bit old" lol

Main thing I keep seeing is people freaking out on twitter that Ariel's been cast as black woman and the fact Ursula wasn't cast as a black woman can count on twitter to tell you the correct ethnicities for mythical creatures lol.

 

[DeadPresident]

So does anyone want to talk about how “diversity” isn’t really coming to the fore but it seems “pro-black” casting is? I mean I assume it’s because it’s mostly black celebrities lobbying for it and there isn’t the same attention drawn by other groups, but I just find it bizarre that people use the word diversity when in actuality it’s just creating a more balanced dichotomy between white and black representation.

I find it really interesting that people keep using the word diversity, but that would imply an equal outlook of casting Asian, Native American, Latin, Indian, etc actors but that’s not actually what’s happening.