Disney legend wants a drag star to play Ursula in The Little Mermaid remake

[xoxo cupcakke 4,781]

2 minutes ago, DemeLarell said:

Excuse me for wanting an LGBT character that is not on the opposition or an antagonist 

Ursula is iconic, but I just realized she is still the villain. Why couldn't they have made Ariel lesbian? You can roll your eyes all you want, or did you need to do your research over the implications that would be had if an iconic heroine like Ariel would be made LGBT 

Society isn't playing with matches nowadays, it is playing with fields of fire. Disney wants to play it safe, and I get that, ...but imagine if they ended up taking the risk and doing the overall great thing for society. But keep with your irony, it keeps me cackling 

[ACT2 3,267]

Todrick hall????

[Morphine Prince 106,225]

Ready for the Russia ban on the movie. 

[PMKKARDASHiAN 8,570]

I'm here for a queen playing ursula, but not Harvey. 

His voice during Hairspray was just, imo, awful and really distracting, and his enunciation was poor.

I will not stand by while my work bop Poor Unfortunate Souls is butchered. 

Edit: this is the brother from Mrs. Doubtfire?! 

I take it all back! I retract my previous statement 

Here for him. 

[Pablo 7,815]

As long as it's true to the original I'm here for it.

[Carmex 964]

I like this idea. But I think Gaga should play Ursula, she's got the nose for it.

[ManuelColon 702]

COME THROUGH GINGER MINJJJJJ!!!

[PoshLife 17,000]

I've wanted to see Harvey Fierstein as Ursula for SO long. I remember when TLM first came to Broadway a decade ago, there was fan hope that he would get cast as the lead villain. Unfortunately they went with Sherie Rene Scott who is super talented but not what I wanted for the role. 

This would be really awesome.

[MaybeKermit 4,967]

Honestly, as much as I hate saying it: DARIEN LAKE Y'ALLLLLLLLL 

She'd be perfect 

[skaxboy 5,612]

Although I would love a Ru girl to get cast in a huge production like this, why not Mama Ru herself?!? She could slay this so hard. 

[kipperskipper 1]

Wendy Williams would be perfect!

[CautiousLurker 19,472]

3 hours ago, Morphine Prince said:

Ready for the Russia ban on the movie. 

I read somewhere that they don't ban movies in which gay characters are villains or... die... so, this remake might be safe still *sigh*

[DemeLarell 931]

3 hours ago, CowSiss said:

Excuse me for wanting an LGBT character that is not on the opposition or an antagonist 

Ursula is iconic, but I just realized she is still the villain. Why couldn't they have made Ariel lesbian? You can roll your eyes all you want, or did you need to do your research over the implications that would be had if an iconic heroine like Ariel would be made LGBT 

Society isn't playing with matches nowadays, it is playing with fields of fire. Disney wants to play it safe, and I get that, ...but imagine if they ended up taking the risk and doing the overall great thing for society. But keep with your irony, it keeps me cackling 

Lol. Pressed? What you said had nothing to do with why I said that. But personally these characters have vague character descriptions so it's easier to rewrite the subtext hence why Lefou could be easily portrayed as gay. Ursula on the other hand was inspired by a drag queen so I can see the reasoning behind that. The villains are my favorite characters so that makes me happy personally.  Dominant characters usually have strong character developments so making such changes, manipulates the actual story and text rather than the subtext. This is something i learned (I have a degree and career in musical theatre). Another thing I learned is to be true to the text. We can add all the subtext we want, but to change the text is highly disrespectful to the writer. I'm all for a gay hero/heroine, but, being an actor, I would never change someones work to do that. I feel like a gay protagonist should be created for us. 

As far as the personal digs at me, I really could care less. Keep them coming, but I'm not gonna disrespect you like that. 

 

[CautiousLurker 19,472]

3 hours ago, CowSiss said:

Excuse me for wanting an LGBT character that is not on the opposition or an antagonist 

Ursula is iconic, but I just realized she is still the villain. Why couldn't they have made Ariel lesbian? You can roll your eyes all you want, or did you need to do your research over the implications that would be had if an iconic heroine like Ariel would be made LGBT 

Society isn't playing with matches nowadays, it is playing with fields of fire. Disney wants to play it safe, and I get that, ...but imagine if they ended up taking the risk and doing the overall great thing for society. But keep with your irony, it keeps me cackling 

This.

Unfortunately gay character, or even more often men who don't behave in your conventionally masculine way being villains is a very wide-spread trope - the implication there being that those people are bad.

Especially earlier on homosexuality in cinema was either ascribed to villains, or made fun on. After gay rights activism took off, a different trope became prevalent and that's a depressed, tormented person often suffering at their own hands. 

It would be nice to see more gay characters who don't fall into those two categories, and if any company has the finances to do that and experiment, it's Disney. Sadly, I highly doubt they will ever not play safe.

[CautiousLurker 19,472]

11 minutes ago, DemeLarell said:

Lol. Pressed? What you said had nothing to do with why I said that. But personally these characters have vague character descriptions so it's easier to rewrite the subtext hence why Lefou could be easily portrayed as gay. Ursula on the other hand was inspired by a drag queen so I can see the reasoning behind that. The villains are my favorite characters so that makes me happy personally.  Dominant characters usually have strong character developments so making such changes, manipulates the actual story and text rather than the subtext. This is something i learned (I have a degree and career in musical theatre). Another thing I learned is to be true to the text. We can add all the subtext we want, but to change the text is highly disrespectful to the writer. I'm all for a gay hero/heroine, but, being an actor, I would never change someones work to do that. I feel like a gay protagonist should be created for us. 

As far as the personal digs at me, I really could care less. Keep them coming, but I'm not gonna disrespect you like that. 

 

What does inspiration for a character have to do with the actual character? In the animated film Ursula is clearly meant to be a female. If it's ok to change Ursula, does it mean that if Ariel's design was inspired by a man in drag, it would be ok to change her too? Cuz I can drop a note to Glen Keane and ask...

Also, Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' is an adaptation of Han's Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid'. Ron Clements didn't bother sticking to the original, so why should they stick to Ron's version now and have it deemed disrespectful? The animated film is done. It's not going away, nobody's making any changes to it. They're creating a new body of work, and for all anyone cares, whoever is making it can morph and pull and twist it however they please - it's their body of work now. All that matters is whether the result is any good.