#NotMyAriel trends after black actress was cast to play the Little Mermaid

[elijahfan 23,512]

It was meant to happen, what did they expect?  Not sure all the people against it are actual racists tho: if the movie wasn't based on such on iconic animated feature, I'm pretty sure everyone would've been fine with a black lead in a big studio mermaid film. While it's not legit upsetting me because it won't change anything to my life, I have to admit I was pretty eager to see Ariel faithfully portrayed as a ginger, being such a fan of the original design 

On another topic though, what's actually offending me is the fact they're not offering the role of Ursula to a drag queen, when the original character was famously based off of Divine. Now that is upsetting me a bit.

[Werewolves Wanted 2,241]

... it’s a movie  

[Haralampos 2,062]

I haven't seen the mermaid design (how she's going to look) so I can't have a complete opinion. She's cute and I think it would be interesting and different from the animation film at the same time. I'm a Disney fan myself and I like to see something close to the original story, more dramatic.

[Pacify Him 9,073]

Ofc she isn't. The millenials aren't dead yet, and we're the primary target market of Disney Princess movies

[Guest]

It just feels forced and fake, I prefer they make an actual new Disney movie thats good with a black character.  

[InsomniaMonster69 2,763]

23 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

The Little Mermaid is set off the coast of the Caribbean, right? I've honestly never seen the movie, but it's what I've heard.

If that's the case, then I don't really get why people are so upset by this casting...She may not be Caribbean herself, but it's definitely closer than the animated movie's version.

Nope. It playes at Danmark. 

[Reality 65,696]

1 minute ago, DreamingMonster said:

Nope. It playes at Danmark. 

I know that's the original story, but I'm talking about the movie adaptation. If it's in Denmark, then why does Sebastian have a Caribbean accent?

[CautiousLurker 16,578]

11 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

I know that's the original story, but I'm talking about the movie adaptation. If it's in Denmark, then why does Sebastian have a Caribbean accent?

He migrated 

OP: Oh whatever... I was gonna jump on the bandwagon and say as long as her hair is bright red, it will be fine, but... who am I kidding, the movie's gonna suck either way... I just hope the special effects look nice, they better not **** up the tails 

[Rudz Xinc 7,929]

A lot of people are not happy about this. This is getting out of hands.

I'm one of them, but I'm not gonna trend those hashtag. I'm not happy with this choice. she's a beautiful girl and have a beautiful voice, but she's no Ariel.

But sure people will still go see it. Including me.

[Jose P 23,341]

Look, I really don’t mind this casting but let me remind you that if a white actress were cast as Tiana everyone would lose their minds. I don’t get why these companies change the character’s races. I mean, it’s ok to blackwash but it’s never ok to whitewash. The blatant racism and double standards is annoying. It’s like white actors don’t matter or something. I’m not saying white actors aren’t being casted anymore, but people applaud when a black actor plays a white character but never a white actor playing a POC character.

Like, just leave characters the way they are and that’s it!

[Babel 40,887]

If these people are so butthurt about how a fictional character is portrayed in real life, I wonder where they were when this happened

#NotMyAquaman 

[StrawberryBlond 13,262]

1 hour ago, ShayCristoforo said:

This is gross. How many times do we need to recognize that Ariel in full capacity needs BIG changes. Her character is weakkkkk, to start off.

She frequently gets criticised as weak but I've never seen her that way. I explained in another thread how Ariel was the first truly proactive Disney princess and she was praised for this upon the original release. She thinks differently to everyone else in Atlantica regarding humans, she's not contented with the knowledge among her safe boundaries and wants to educate herself on new things ("I'm ready to know what the people know, ask them my questions and get some answers") and she fights for the man she loves and the life she wants, even if it's outwith the norm that she was raised with. She even helps out. She risks her life saving Flounder from a shark, she saved Eric from drowning on the sinking ship, she even helped in the final battle by pulling Ursula back so that the trident's zap was directed away from Eric, resulting in Flotsam and Jetsam getting zapped. How many Disney princesses save their love interest not once but twice? She and Eric even spend a notable amount of time together before marrying, the first ever Disney romance that wasn't based on 24 hour love. Ok, there are stronger women in Disney (not many on her level, though) and of course there will be changes to make her not such a submissive entity when she can't speak but I think her weakness as a character is really over-exaggerated. She heralded in a huge change for Disney women, she was the first ever proactive princess. Immediately afterwards were the similarly headstrong and intelligent characters of Belle, Jasmine and Pocahontas as well as similarly strong-willed non-princesses like Esmeralda, Meg, Mulan and Jane. People put down Ariel without realising that without her, they wouldn't have all the characters they love today. Not only this, Little Mermaid was the Disney picture that would decide if Disney was going to continue making movies. Not many people realise, but Disney went through a really low commercial point in the 70's and especially the 80's. They weren't making many movies and most were just niche success. Little Mermaid was going to be the big decider at the close of the 80's if Disney was going to continue. It was a huge success and the rest is history. So, we have Ariel to thank for a lot.

1 hour ago, Redstreak said:

Where do people keep getting this weird idea that the “woke” crowd don’t participate in entertainment culture? Do you really think the people who are fans of the casting have never watched or enjoyed the little mermaid?

Of course some of them will be, but more often than not, I've seen blind praise be given to diversity casting even if the one who gave the praise has no connection to the situation, or even if they have seen it, aren't even fans of it. They just want to see white characters changed for no reason other than furthering an agenda to oust as many white characters from media as possible. I've seen similar glee every time there's another instance in media of a black person replacing a white person. It's nothing to do with talent, intelligence or personality, they're just happy to see a POC of any description take over from a white person. And it is literal glee I have seen, even as far as saying "I hope her black genes go into overdrive and kick these pasty ass white genes to the curb" in the case of a mixed race pregnancy. It's disturbing how such people think they are on the side of acceptance and love and even more disturbing that they're being pandered to right now.

1 hour ago, M Monstre said:

The Little Mermaid is set off the coast of the Caribbean, right? I've honestly never seen the movie, but it's what I've heard.

If that's the case, then I don't really get why people are so upset by this casting...She may not be Caribbean herself, but it's definitely closer than the animated movie's version.

1 hour ago, M Monstre said:

I know that's the original story, but I'm talking about the movie adaptation. If it's in Denmark, then why does Sebastian have a Caribbean accent?

I've been over this a few times now but it's so clear that the original was trying to be a bit of everything. Like many American adaptions of non-American works, they change the location to somewhere American looking and give people American accents. It helps to appeal to their demographics, being one of the biggest countries in the world. And they probably thought a Jamaican accented crab would be a great piece of comedy relief. Despite the aesthetics, there was no getting away with the fact that there was royalty on the shore and it was overseen by whites. That suggested that this place could be just about anywhere, likely completely fictionalised. And let's not forget that at this time, Europeans had taken over Caribbean islands for themselves - check out how Pirates of the Caribbean starts for proof of that. It's not even mentioned on any official pages where this movie is set, so it suggests it's up to your interpretation. I don't really mind where it was set though - the movie should stick with the race they assigned to the characters. Why is it suddenly the case that only natives can live in certain areas only when there's potential whitewashing afoot? No one says that in reverse.

1 hour ago, GagaMariaSpears said:

Haven't you considered that she was chosen because of her singing ability? Which is kinda vital to the role 

Of course and she can sing very well. But it just seems that aesthetics are at the forefront of everyone's mind when it comes to adapations and for good reason - they're all about nostalgia. Before certain movies have even been announced, people are demanding that Mulan be Chinese, that Pocahontas be Native American and so forth because the ethnicity of a character is very important to POC. But apparently, white people don't deserve to have their originals free from alteration, they're not allowed the entitlement of assuming that their white characters will automatically remain the same. Movies have been dubbed with actual singers for years if the worst came to the worst. But we know there are redheads out there who look like Ariel who can sing. They've played her on Broadway, for crying out loud. Don't tell me someone who looked like Ariel with singing ability was that hard to find.

[Reality 65,696]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I've been over this a few times now but it's so clear that the original was trying to be a bit of everything. Like many American adaptions of non-American works, they change the location to somewhere American looking and give people American accents. It helps to appeal to their demographics, being one of the biggest countries in the world. And they probably thought a Jamaican accented crab would be a great piece of comedy relief. Despite the aesthetics, there was no getting away with the fact that there was royalty on the shore and it was overseen by whites. That suggested that this place could be just about anywhere, likely completely fictionalised. And let's not forget that at this time, Europeans had taken over Caribbean islands for themselves - check out how Pirates of the Caribbean starts for proof of that. It's not even mentioned on any official pages where this movie is set, so it suggests it's up to your interpretation. I don't really mind where it was set though - the movie should stick with the race they assigned to the characters. Why is it suddenly the case that only natives can live in certain areas only when there's potential whitewashing afoot? No one says that in reverse.

I completely understand both sides of it, which is why I don't really have a stance on this issue. I was just asking a question because I genuinely did not know much about the film at all. I only heard that it was "supposed to be set in the Carribean". 

Honestly, I think that as long as it's done tastefully, you can work around bending the race of a character. As @Vegasmentioned in his post, Aquaman was originally a white man, but they switched to have a person of color in Jason Momoa. I think that was done well and I think that makes sense.

I can't judge from the casting alone because that's not necessarily indicative of the movie. Maybe it is a poor choice for the role, but maybe it's not. Bailey could do an amazing job at playing Ariel, and then at that point, who cares if she's black?

[Inferno 2,880]

3 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Even though I don't support this casting, I think petitioning to fire her is too far. But that's precisely why I don't think diversity casting is the best idea. It's not fair on the actors to be hated on because the film studio wanted to appeal to the woke crowd who probably aren't even fans of the original but just want to give themselves a pat on the back for being their interpretation of progressive. Just give the public what they want and there wouldn't be these hate campaigns against innocent actors. Why these studios don't have this foresight is beyond me.

Wow....everything you're saying here is absurdly inaccurate. You speak like a white person thats never met a black person in your life. Regardless of whatever race/ethnicity/background you come from. If you are a poc i dont know. But you sound ignorant af in this regard.

[Inferno 2,880]

2 hours ago, Jose P said:

Look, I really don’t mind this casting but let me remind you that if a white actress were cast as Tiana everyone would lose their minds. I don’t get why these companies change the character’s races. I mean, it’s ok to blackwash but it’s never ok to whitewash. The blatant racism and double standards is annoying. It’s like white actors don’t matter or something. I’m not saying white actors aren’t being casted anymore, but people applaud when a black actor plays a white character but never a white actor playing a POC character.

Like, just leave characters the way they are and that’s it!

Tianas racial background is 100% integral to the character and the story. The same cannot be said for Ariel. You can't make that comparison at all. Period.