The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

thedisneyspirit wrote:How about Sophia Llilys for Ariel?
She would be much better than Zendaya. She was great in It. She's also in that new Amy Adams show on HBO. Unfortunately, Zendaya is Disney product they want to shill, so I believe she has it in the bag despite not having earned the role in any way whatsoever.
Of course, I don't know if she sings, but that doesn't matter much nowadays in the age of autotone.
Zendaya can't sing for sh*t either. So much for the voice being plot-relevant.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Y'all complain way too much. Wait until news is actually confirmed by a reputable site like The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, or Deadline. Also, from what I hear, there is no new development with The Little Mermaid. I heard from a good source that Disney is looking to adapt Once On This Island as a movie musical, so these TLM rumors (Puerto Rico, Zendaya, etc) may actually be for Once On This Island. Don't quote me, but after speaking to my source, it all makes sense. Even if these rumors are for TLM live action, y'all sound hella suspect with your words... starting to side eye some of you...
Last edited by tsom on Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by Raf »

I must say, after everything that made it so obvious Disney is looking for a poc actress, it's great to see people still suggest white actresses :roll:.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Raf wrote:I must say, after everything that made it so obvious Disney is looking for a poc actress, it's great to see people still suggest white actresses :roll:.
We don't like the choice, we prefer other choices, we feel other actresses might fit her character better, some feel the character just works better as a sheltered white girl than an street-smart WOC...Really galling of you to call us racist just for having preferences from the ones you have.

I also didn't like Watson as Belle and felt she was miscast. Emma Stone and Sophie Turner also don't fit as Ariel. Where's your racism accusation there?

:roll:
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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tsom wrote:Even if these rumors are for TLM live action, y'all sound hella suspect with your words... starting to side eye some of you...
And we should care about your personal judgments because....? Zendaya is a crappy actress, sorry if it bothers you to read others say as much.

@Raf: I also thought white Lily James was a horrendous Cinderella and the white Mia was an atrocious Alice, if that makes you feel better. :roll: As for the suggestion of Sophia, not sure why you're surprised. The character was white in the animated film, naturally many of the suggestions will also be white/red-headed? So when they cast Tiana in the live-action of The Princess and the Frog that never will be, nobody should feel odd when they suggest Anne Hathaway should play her?
Last edited by Disney's Divinity on Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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thedisneyspirit wrote:
Raf wrote:I must say, after everything that made it so obvious Disney is looking for a poc actress, it's great to see people still suggest white actresses :roll:.
We don't like the choice, we prefer other choices, we feel other actresses might fit her character better, some feel the character just works better as a sheltered white girl than an street-smart WOC...Really galling of you to call us racist just for having preferences from the ones you have.
Wow, and I love how quick you are to feel attacked as being racist by a post that wasn't about racism at all. But oh, well...
thedisneyspirit wrote:some feel the character just works better as a sheltered white girl than an street-smart WOC...
:roll:
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Raf wrote: Wow, and I love how quick you are to feel attacked as being racist by a post that wasn't about racism at all.
Don't be facetious. Everyone can understand what you were implying.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by thedisneyspirit »

Raf wrote:
thedisneyspirit wrote:
Don't see what's the issue? The original Ariel is sheltered, and white. Why should they change her personality?
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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Disney's Divinity wrote:
Raf wrote: Wow, and I love how quick you are to feel attacked as being racist by a post that wasn't about racism at all.
Don't be facetious. Everyone can understand what you were implying.
Than you understand wrong, but that's the thing when people jump to conclusions, especially with people they know nothing about. My post wasn't even meant to imply anything. It was simply in answer to how there can never be a discussion here about something Disney wants to do. Let's take the rumors about location change as an example. No one wonders what it could mean for a movie or plot. Only why it's already a bad decision and what would be better instead. Well, sorry if it's so wrong to be tired by constant negativity here.

thedisneyspirit, and who said anything about change of personality? In my opinion WOC can be sheltered characters.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by thedisneyspirit »

Zendaya never plays sheltered characters tho, unless i'm mistaken...? She was pretty much the opposite of Ariel in her chatacter in the Spider-Man movie, so unless she has an amazing range i think i'll see the same thing when she plays Ariel.

I don't think why you're so steamed up with me, of all people? I simply suggested one actor that I particularly liked, and commented before that that would have been my choice even if they have cast another actress for the role. (Lohan).
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Raf wrote: Than you understand wrong, but that's the thing when people jump to conclusions
All we can go by is what you post. If you don't want to be misunderstood, then be clear in what you mean.

As for the rest, I'll say what I always say: worry about your own posts instead of dictating what other people can or should be posting. I don't owe it to you to be "positive" about something I don't like.
thedisneyspirit wrote:Zendaya never plays sheltered characters tho, unless i'm mistaken...? She was pretty much the opposite of Ariel in her chatacter in the Spider-Man movie, so unless she has an amazing range i think i'll see the same thing when she plays Ariel.
She has the range of a cardboard box.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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thedisneyspirit wrote:Zendaya never plays sheltered characters tho, unless i'm mistaken...? She was pretty much the opposite of Ariel in her chatacter in the Spider-Man movie, so unless she has an amazing range i think i'll see the same thing when she plays Ariel.

I don't think why you're so steamed up with me, of all people? I simply suggested one actor that I particularly liked, and commented before that that would have been my choice even if they have cast another actress for the role. (Lohan).
I'm not steamed up with you at all? My post wasn't even a direct answer to yours on this forum, but to various people on the web. Otherwise I would use a quote or start with a login. If you felt personally atacked, than that's misunderstanding, because like I said, it was not an intention. If my choice of words seemed that way, sorry, I think all of you could notice by my posts english is not my language.

As for Zendaya, looks like this time I was the one who misunderstood. Your post sounded to me as if you were saying if they change Ariel into WOC, they need to change her character. Sorry for that.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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thedisneyspirit wrote:Zendaya never plays sheltered characters tho, unless i'm mistaken...? She was pretty much the opposite of Ariel in her chatacter in the Spider-Man movie, so unless she has an amazing range i think i'll see the same thing when she plays Ariel.
Not defending Zendaya because I haven't seen her in anything besides The Greatest Showman, but if she's never played a sheltered character, that's ok. An actor is supposed to be able to play various types of roles.

At any rate, all of these things are just rumors. Nothing is confirmed. Trust me though...LMM doesn't have that much power at Disney. He isn't Alan Horn or Alan Bergman.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I see this as the same as Disney casting her in Spider-Man: Homecoming. They’re trying to make fetch happen and it ain’t. I would rather the movie was cancelled than have her cast as Ariel. Unfortunately, I could only see that happening if Aladdin and TLK flop or underperform next year, and that's very unlikely.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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JeanGreyForever wrote:I mean Emma Watson was not able to pull off Belle imo so I don't have much hope for any actress that Disney hires for Ariel. Especially if they're just going for big names rather than amount of talent.
I was never fond of Emma Watson as Belle (as I've ranted about it priorly), but despite her lackluster performance, Watson is not nearly as untolerable and full of herself as Zendaya. Casting Zendaya would've been a huge insult.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

Atlantica wrote:I think she is such a generic and bland actress ( much as Emma Watson was as Belle ) that the role of Ariel won't translate at all to the screen. She will get lost in the CGI festival that it is sure to become. I think the only Princess live action so far where there heroine hasn't got lost is Cinderella, in my opinion.

I've said it before; I don't want Mermaid to be the film experimented on. Leave it well alone as it's classic as it is. Yes, there are faults a-plenty but as a whole, the film manages to overcome them. Can you think of many films where the lead loses her voice for more than half the movie, but still remains absolutely beloved by generation after generation ? This is what Mermaid does to people, and I don't want it to be bogged down by all this other stuff :roll:

Why not someone who isn't a screen / TV star, but from Broadway ? Like Samantha Barks for the Les Mis movie.
Cinderella is definitely the only princess who I felt truly shined in her film. A large part of that was probably because Lily James was cast on merit and talent rather than fame and name. So glad that Emma Watson refused the part of Cinderella. More than likely the glass slippers would have been replaced with those clunky boots she wore as Belle if she had taken the role.

Not only am I worried about the casting and musical direction for Mermaid, but I'm also expecting big changes with the plot. Ariel gets so much flack out of the post Walt-era princesses for giving up her voice and deforming a part of her body all for a man and when Belle get such an "update" to make her more feminist, I can't see Disney standing by and not "updating" Ariel.

I haven't seen her in anything outside of Les Mis, but she was one of the most moving characters in the film. I loved Barks so I wouldn't mind seeing her as Ariel.
DisneyFan09 wrote:
JeanGreyForever wrote:I mean Emma Watson was not able to pull off Belle imo so I don't have much hope for any actress that Disney hires for Ariel. Especially if they're just going for big names rather than amount of talent.
I was never fond of Emma Watson as Belle (as I've ranted about it priorly), but despite her lackluster performance, Watson is not nearly as untolerable and full of herself as Zendaya. Casting Zendaya would've been a huge insult.
I love Emma Watson as a humanitarian and for her philanthropy work, but I find her more insufferable as an actress than Zendaya. Mainly because she seems to always play the same role and she's praised for it always. Zendaya has never outright bothered me but I don't really watch her in interviews and stuff. I always thought she was down-to-earth but maybe she isn't.

I also find it interesting that while Disney is looking for more POC to cast, they're mainly looking at black actresses (it seems anyway). What about the Hispanic and Asian actresses? I know that an Asian actress got a lot of controversy online for playing Ariel on stage recently so this would be a great way to address that as well if they cast an Asian actress in the role. Crazy Rich Asians has been a huge hit and a sequel has already been confirmed so clearly Asian stars can fill seats. On top of that, there's all the racist and sexist hate that Kelly Marie Tran (now known as Loan) got for playing Rose in Star Wars so hiring an Asian actress as Ariel would be very empowering. Not to mention that it's important to note that Asian people aren't just Chinese. They can be Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Bengali, etc.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by Raf »

I think that's the thing when they go after a bigger names for the cast, like with Watson and now possibly Zendaya. It's different from, for example Lily James in Cinderella, who I think became more recognizable after that role. They both already have a huge following, they appeared in more known stuff and more people managed to see them and get their opinions on them. They are liked or not. I noticed on social media about Beauty and the Beast, very few people said things like "she was okay" or "could be better" etc. It was almost always either "She's the perfect Belle, I loved her" or "She's the worst choice, terrible Belle". And really, looking right now at twitter, it already looks pretty much the same with Zendaya.
I wonder if Disney wants to get a huge, recognizable name for Ariel to somehow balance the fans who will be mad at race change?
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I personally knew Lily James before Cinderella and I think most people did. Both she and Madden seemed to be farmed from popular shows (GoT / Downton), and she was as bland there as on Downton. Madden was great though, but he was also great on GoT, so there you go.

They could better combat anger over “race change” by picking a good actress who's well-known rather than a bad one who’s well-known.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

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I would say the majority of people didn't know who Lily James was before Cinderella. Downton Abbey catered to a certain demo. Now that she's done mainstream stuff like Cinderella, Baby Driver, and Mamma Mia 2, I think people are now more aware of her from either of those 3 movies.
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Re: The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

Post by Disney Duster »

Wow, loving the positive remarks on Lily James as Cinderella. I thought she shone, too. But it's not like I don't think Emma Watson as Belle didn't at least have a presence.

Sophia Llilys as Ariel? Oh, I'd love that! Samantha Barks as Ariel? Sure!!! Emma Stone as Ariel? If she was younger, I wish!

Based on The Greatest Showman, I think Zendaya can sing really well at least!

Hey tsom, I hope you don't think I'm racist for liking these remakes to stay as close the originals as possible including in race, and also to have "believability" with race, like what social standing they would have in what countries, etc. I hope you always stay my buddy! :D
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