Live-Action The Little Mermaid

[Monsieur Xavier]

You know that Mermaid is blue? Where's the representation for all the blue people in Hollywood? heh

Avatar ?

 

[DarkKnight88]

 

[moviefreak]

Avatar ?

Oh my! lol

 

[moviefreak]

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

 

[Sithborg]

If the internet was around when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman......OMG!

From the sounds of it, the letters predicted internet geek culture perfectly. Things haven't really changed that much.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

The smartest person in this thread.

I would respect people in here more if they just flat out said a black woman playing a Disney mermaid makes me uncomfortable and mad, instead of writing books.

You recast any white character with a Black actor and you’ll see the racism and classism of any society. It never fails.

It’s entertaining to see how people truly feel though.

Here we go with the racism bull****.

As DarthSkywalker already said, there is nothing wrong, or racist, about seeing iconic characters LOOK like the versions they are based on i.e red hair and white passing. People have these versions of characters already embedded into their memories and just changing it for the hell of it is dumb when you can write original characters and represent minorities in a far more constructive way.

NO ONE said a Mermaid can't be black, and if race doesn't exist among "fish people" then the argument for having a black Mermaid is as stupid as not having one. I just said that instead of making Ariel black they could've simply made a new character that has zero to do with Ariel so she can stand on her own, especially since Ariel herself is a Disney creation, the story has been adapted so many times and Ariel is Disney version's so why not just make a new character again?

I've already said my peace that I think racebending or recasting white roles for poc is just insulting and pandering when minorities deserve more than just having a story written for a white character played by said minority, but if you think that's racist then by all means go off.

The funny part is that I'm also vehemently against whitewashing, white people should never take the roles that were written or portrayed by poc no matter what. So Blade should never be white, neither should Static Shock, John Stewart, Bishop, etc etc.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Oh man, a black James Bond gets ugly. You get into the racism and classism of British society.

I think James Bond should be white.

007 can be any race since it's just the Agent call sign essentially.

But yeah that would be a huge can of worms to open.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Here we go with the racism bull****.

As DarthSkywalker already said, there is nothing wrong, or racist, about seeing iconic characters LOOK like the versions they are based on i.e red hair and white passing. People have these versions of characters already embedded into their memories and just changing it for the hell of it is dumb when you can write original characters and represent minorities in a far more constructive way.

NO ONE said a Mermaid can't be black, and if race doesn't exist among "fish people" then the argument for having a black Mermaid is as stupid as not having one. I just said that instead of making Ariel black they could've simply made a new character that has zero to do with Ariel so she can stand on her own, especially since Ariel herself is a Disney creation, the story has been adapted so many times and Ariel is Disney version's so why not just make a new character again?

I've already said my peace that I think racebending or recasting white roles for poc is just insulting and pandering when minorities deserve more than just having a story written for a white character played by said minority, but if you think that's racist then by all means go off.

Dude you're in here spiking your own blood pressure and contradicting yourself. If we can have black mermaids, then there's no reason to be upset that Ariel is being played by a black actress.

Interesting to see how peaceful it is in the Mindy Kaling playing Velma from Scooby Doo thread compared to this one. No uproar for that casting.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Dude you're in here spiking your own blood pressure and contradicting yourself. If we can have black mermaids, then there's no reason to be upset that Ariel is being played by a black actress.

Lmao are you being intentionally obtuse?

I don't know how many times I have to say that Ariel should look like her 90s version the way the rest of the live action princesses have looked faithful to their animated versions, instead they should've just made an original black Mermaid, why the **** is that so hard to understand?

 

[Fincher]

I'm someone who lost interest in the movie with the casting, being particular about Ariel above all of the other Disney princesses, but seeing those images it really wouldn't have mattered. Her hair may be red, but it's not the vivid red I would expect, but what really gets me is all the modernization. Ariel's wearing a freaking rash guard. I'm just going to chalk this up to the Little Mermaid equivalent of A Cinderella Story. Maybe someday there'll be a proper live action Disney's The Little Mermaid, but in the meantime if people enjoy An Ariel Story, more power to them.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Dude you're in here spiking your own blood pressure and contradicting yourself. If we can have black mermaids, then there's no reason to be upset that Ariel is being played by a black actress.

Interesting to see how peaceful it is in the Mindy Kaling playing Velma from Scooby Doo thread compared to this one. No uproar for that casting.

To be fair, a Velma thread isnt going to be as big as of TLM movie thread.

I'm someone who lost interest in the movie with the casting, being particular about Ariel above all of the other Disney princesses, but seeing those images it really wouldn't have mattered. Her hair may be red, but it's not the vivid red I would expect, but what really gets me is all the modernization. Ariel's wearing a freaking rash guard. I'm just going to chalk this up to the Little Mermaid equivalent of A Cinderella Story. Maybe someday there'll be a proper live action Disney's The Little Mermaid, but in the meantime if people enjoy An Ariel Story, more power to them.

That's why they call it a "rehearsal". They arent filming the actual real scene.

 

[Mysteryman]

To be fair, a Velma thread isnt going to be as big as of TLM movie thread.



That's why they call it a "rehearsal". They arent filming the actual real scene.

LOGIC!

 

[Prison Mike]

The Velma thing is animated so I don’t think people care about it as much as live action

 

[Primal Slayer]

The Velma thing is animated so I don’t think people care about it as much as live action

Plus she has already been played by a half Japanese actress just like Daphne was played by a biracial actress in one of the many live action adaptions.

Hayley Kiyoko

Sarah Jeffries

Disney already has had a black Cruella

And a black Ursula

 

[Vaibow]

if she looks like a mermaid, acts like what we would expect from Ariel, then I am good...

 

[#root]

This casting was announced almost a year ago in July 2020. They’re in the middle of shooting. Process your grief and come to acceptance. Make peace with it already .

Besides, hardly any of these live-action remakes have captured the spirit or joy of the originals. Rob Marshall (who I dislike) is helming this and Melissa McCarthy (who I love) is IMO miscast as Ursula. There’s a lot of potential issues with this project and the lack of a white Ariel is not one of them.

 

[RockSP]

Plus she has already been played by a half Japanese actress just like Daphne was played by a biracial actress in one of the many live action adaptions.

The people who get very upset over racebending seem to me to get most upset when it's a black person (or biracial person who is half black) playing the role. I saw no complaints about a half asian Beast Boy, but they carried on and on about a black Starfire. And Starfire isn't even a white character lol. I've seen no complaints about Snake Eyes being asian in the new movie. Heimdall, Kingpin, Black Canary, etc. all got nerd fury for their casting choices. For whatever reason The Rock is the big exception. I remember people constantly suggesting him for Namor back in the day. I'm sure some of those people didn't know he's half black, but even the ones who did were okay with that fantasy casting choice. People are strange.

 

[DarkKnight88]

People are strange.

Yep. But there will always be those where if it doesn't match EXACTLY, they'll lose their minds.

I remember a time that the casting of Daniel Radcliffe had some fans up in arms because his eyes are blue and Harry is supposed to be green. Apparently, this changed everything!

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Yep. But there will always be those where if it doesn't match EXACTLY, they'll lose their minds.

I remember a time that the casting of Daniel Radcliffe had some fans up in arms because his eyes are blue and Harry is supposed to be green. Apparently, this changed everything!

After all fan comes from the word fanatic.
People were always strange, what we have now are morons who can broadcast their butt hurt point of view world wild with Internet.
As a consumer if I don't like a product, I dont buy it even if it's related to a product that I like very much. Making a crusade about it on Internet is a waste of time.
Freedom of speech is good but it is abused.
Edit: also, the whole race bending/white washing seems to be a very delicate matter in the US. It can trigger the worst within people.

Edit 2: just in case: nothing wrong to prefer a live action movie with Ariel looking like the anime. Just don't go all crusader about it.

 

[Sithborg]

Here we go with the racism bull****.

As DarthSkywalker already said, there is nothing wrong, or racist, about seeing iconic characters LOOK like the versions they are based on i.e red hair and white passing. People have these versions of characters already embedded into their memories and just changing it for the hell of it is dumb when you can write original characters and represent minorities in a far more constructive way.

NO ONE said a Mermaid can't be black, and if race doesn't exist among "fish people" then the argument for having a black Mermaid is as stupid as not having one. I just said that instead of making Ariel black they could've simply made a new character that has zero to do with Ariel so she can stand on her own, especially since Ariel herself is a Disney creation, the story has been adapted so many times and Ariel is Disney version's so why not just make a new character again?

I've already said my peace that I think racebending or recasting white roles for poc is just insulting and pandering when minorities deserve more than just having a story written for a white character played by said minority, but if you think that's racist then by all means go off.

The funny part is that I'm also vehemently against whitewashing, white people should never take the roles that were written or portrayed by poc no matter what. So Blade should never be white, neither should Static Shock, John Stewart, Bishop, etc etc.

The line between wanting to see something as originally seen and racism is extremely thin. It is something to be aware of.

However, I am going to be frank. Even if there isn't a racist reason for not wanting it (and I do encourage reflection on this, as someone who was on the edge of going into the alt right, constant evaluation of your values is important. I still need to do it), it still comes off as selfish ans entitled. White characters are so, so predominate in western media, continuing to hold so much of that in the views of the past is not progress. And how many of those characters does being white even matter?

And of course it doesn't work in reverse. Because again, the imbalance also tend to lead to the minority characters ethnicities being important to their characters.

I just don't know. I'm at a point where making a white character into a person of color doesn't do anything to me. Except X-men, where the vast majority of characters needs their race changed.

The people who get very upset over racebending seem to me to get most upset when it's a black person (or biracial person who is half black) playing the role. I saw no complaints about a half asian Beast Boy, but they carried on and on about a black Starfire. And Starfire isn't even a white character lol. I've seen no complaints about Snake Eyes being asian in the new movie. Heimdall, Kingpin, Black Canary, etc. all got nerd fury for their casting choices. For whatever reason The Rock is the big exception. I remember people constantly suggesting him for Namor back in the day. I'm sure some of those people didn't know he's half black, but even the ones who did were okay with that fantasy casting choice. People are strange.

You would be surprised. I saw a gater post a rather whiney rant about making Snake Eyes non-white.

 

[Still Wynning]

You would be surprised. I saw a gater post a rather whiney rant about making Snake Eyes non-white.

I know exactly who you’re referring to. Their entire argument basically came down to the fact that the character was white in the comics and in other media, therefore should be in the movie adaptation, and the fact that he isn’t is Hollywood being “woke”. I argued that the whole “mystically gifted white martial artist” trope is super, problematically racist and should have died off years ago, and that if the movie is bad, it will be because of it’s quality, not because of not staying true to some arbitrary comic lore.

These kinds of people have no legitimate ground to stand on other than, “These characters have always been white, therefore they should still be white, because...’reasons’”.

 

[Fincher]

For me, it's pretty simple. They can make the movie they want to make, and other people can watch it or enjoy it, but I'm free to like or not like the approach they've taken. If I don't like a plot choice or a visual style from a movie, I don't first ask myself whether the people who do like it want/need it more badly than I do to see if I can express my opinion. That's how internet forums work, and this case is no different. If I don't want Ariel to be racebent, I can say that. Me caring about her look is no different than me caring about Darth Vader's look, or Indiana Jones' personality, or Roland of Gilead's narrative. There's no rules dictating which aspects of a character people can or do invest in, no matter how convenient it would be for those who want increased representation if there were. Similarly, I can watch or not watch whatever I feel like.

 

[Marvel united]

Nobody else has unpacked this, so I guess I'll do it.

She is an icon to a lot of red headed girls and for 30 years has been drawn and adapted to look the way she does.

And Ariel is still a redhead in this version, so what's the problem? Why would "red headed girls" no longer be able to identify with her? Unless, ofc, the identifying factor in question isn't just her hair.

And if that's what you're trying to say w/out actually saying it -- "white girls will no longer be able to identify with Ariel because she's black" -- boy, do I have a story to tell you, centuries spanning, about media representation as viewed through the lense of Blackness Especially Black women.

Are you a minority? Because quite frankly I mostly see white people defending the race change, most blacks dont care for it and if anything, ESPECIALLY after Black Panther, want their OWN character, not a race change that will piggyback off a white appearing character.

That's not progress, that's pandering.

That's just... Not true. I'm gonna tell you this right now, as a Black man myself, most Black folks are nowhere near that invested in the whiteness of these characters.

What you're seeing is Black people within your own circles sharing the same viewpoints as yourself. But it is by no means an accurate assessment of how the overall community feels. It's like when conservatives use folks like Paris Dennard and Candice Owens to represent the Black community, knowing damn well the Black delegation disowned those two a loooong time ago.

From what i've seen, being black in black spaces, the majority of young Black women-- who are almost certainly going to be a large target market for this film-- are hyped asl that Ariel is black. You mention "red headed girls" but failed to mention the fact that a lot of young Black girls ALSO grew up with Ariel, and will be excited to see that she's now representing them! I'm excited for my niece(s) to see this film, they love the Little Mermaid, and the fact that Ariel, the star of the film looks like them, is beautiful! Black women deserve to have these type of role models in media. They deserve the right to be able to escape into fantasy, just like the "red headed girls" counterparts you mentioned.

And the crazy thing about this is, the original film ain't going nowhere! You can pop in your VHS, your DVD, your Blu Ray, your Digital, and experience that film all over again. Nobody is taking that away from you. So what's the harm in letting a new generation experience a new interpretation of the story?

You'll always have the old one.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

The people who get very upset over racebending seem to me to get most upset when it's a black person (or biracial person who is half black) playing the role. I saw no complaints about a half asian Beast Boy, but they carried on and on about a black Starfire. And Starfire isn't even a white character lol. I've seen no complaints about Snake Eyes being asian in the new movie. Heimdall, Kingpin, Black Canary, etc. all got nerd fury for their casting choices. For whatever reason The Rock is the big exception. I remember people constantly suggesting him for Namor back in the day. I'm sure some of those people didn't know he's half black, but even the ones who did were okay with that fantasy casting choice. People are strange.

I love Idris Elba as Heimdall, I thought Black Canary in the Harley Quinn movie was good and even loved MCD as Kingpin. Starfire just looked awful in Titans, ive seen black Cosplayers look dead on for her compared to what we got.

But they all held on to something iconic about the character or LOOKED like the character,, so no it isn't a race thing in general, Halle just doesn't look like Ariel and the skin color does play some part of it, but her looking "modern " and not having the vivid red hair is the most noticeable.

They cast a Mexican actor for Namor, allegedly, and I think he was miscast cause he doesn't look like how I imagine Namor, the skin color notwithstanding. Atlanteans are technically from Greek myths so I would've imagined someone Mediterranean for the role but if Atlantis has Mayan or Aztec influences then it would make sense. Then again Namor being Polynesian would also be cool so I'm on the fence in general about him.

Anyway, it may seem like I'm going on a crusade but I'm not that stressed about it, I'm just lamenting Tiana not being the first live action black princess instead of just racebending Ariel, that's the root of it. Princess and the Frog is such an amazing movie, and criminally underrated, that in our current climate of black stories being ignored it would do so much in progressing black films, especially fantasy, the way Black Panther did.

 

[CB Fan]

Tiana is cool but she’s also a frog for like 90% of her movie…while I love Princess and the Frog I’m never gonna stop giving Disney side-eye for that ****.