The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Farerb]

Her death was the point, it was the whole message of his story and Disney changed that in 1989.

When Walt developed the featurette back in the '40s, he planned to adapt the original ending of The Little Mermaid dying in the end.

[UmbrellaFish]

But Jodi Benson isn’t Danish either? The film was made by American artists in the US. Is the little mermaid’s whiteness more important to HC Andersen’s version of the story than her tragic death? Her death was the point, it was the whole message of his story and Disney changed that in 1989. Ariel being black is this version is a superficial change comparatively.

I mean… music like “Someday My Prince Will Come” did not even exist in the days of the Brothers Grimm, yet Snow White still sings the song. I just don’t understand why some updates and changes to the source material are okay, and others aren’t. I don’t understand why people are bothered. I just don’t get it.

Mulan also had quite a lot of changes compared to the original and was made by american artists in the US. So they can make her white now according to your logic? Same with Aladdin.

Well, I think you can guess that my feelings about this are more nuanced and that these examples are not the same. People say, “Well, they’d flip out if Tiana was white in a remake,” and they’re absolutely right. Tiana’s blackness affects her story in a way that Ariel’s whiteness does not. Atlantica’s made up, mermaids aren’t real, Ariel’s skin color never mattered in the story, there is beaucoups of white representation in Disney movies (and three red haired Princesses if you count Anna!). I don’t see what the problem is with Ariel being a black woman here. I’m glad they cast such a great singer.

[Sotiris]

If you don't understand the difference between casting a black actress in a character where the race doesn't really matter[...]

That argument doesn't hold water because people who believe this say that race never matters when a character is white regardless of setting, time period or storyline. This belief has turned the practice of racebending into a discriminatory double standard where only characters from one race get changed.

[Lele]

lord-of-sith, UmbrellaFish,

That hypocritical argument over again, huh. It’s hilarious how you claim race doesn’t matter because it’s a mermaid - despite the fact that it’s clearly a european folktale that defines her as white so yes, it does - yet in the next breath you will claim it is important for Tiana despite her turning into a talking frog, as if talking frogs are any more real than mermaids. Or the fact that you will claim race is important for Aladdin or Moana because the setting is middle eastern or polynesian - as if the little mermaid also doesn’t have a clearly european setting, hell to the point it even became a national symbol. Or Hercules, for that matter. But then even for characters where whiteness is even in their names, like Snow White, yall still claim race isn’t important.

Even in movies with an even clearer cultural european setting like Merida or Rapunzel, I see you people keep saying that race doesn’t matter.

Hell, even for historical white figures like Queen Charlotte, Ann Boleyn, Cleopatra, Viking kings and so on - you folks still say race doesn’t matter - just because they’re white.

Yet somehow it matters for Aladdin or Tiana.
Somehow, it mattered for a freaking cyborg, yet for some reason it can’t matter for a mermaid folktale character who is human most of the time.

It’s hilarious, really.

[Lele]

And it’s telling the way you try to demonize white people creating and making stories about white characters, usually based on centuries old folktales, and try to punish them for that by turning the "bajillion" white characters black. As if it’s impossible to create new characters, when it’s already done, but of course that’s not enough for you: you need to make the white characters non white.

Do you have the same amount of righteous fervor against non whites who make stories with characters of their own race?

[UmbrellaFish]

This belief has turned the practice of racebending into a discriminatory double standard where only characters from one race get changed.

Don’t you think “discriminatory double standard” is a little strong? That makes racebending white characters sound like a serious issue where a disproportionate number of white actors are losing out on work to people of color. From my TV screen, I don’t think that’s the case and I doubt there are any serious studies that would back such a claim up. I might be misunderstanding your meaning. There have been some controversial casting choices lately— Netflix got a lot of pushback from many different directions for their recent Cleopatra series that was a docu-drama (thus, meant to be interpreted as historical truth) and which cast a Black woman. But a couple isolated cases, to me, does not seem to be a big issue.

Lele, you’re upset and using words with a lot of emotion behind them like “punish” and “demonize.” That’s not about what we said, that’s how you’re feeling. I can’t argue with you about your feelings so I’ll just disengage and probably block you.

[Disney's Divinity]

To the B&tB comparison--I don't think that makes sense. Belle is already an empowered character in the original film anyway, they don't change much in regards to her in the remake. Moreover, Belle isn't invested in a romance with Beast in the original either--that's not a change. The final scene of him dying is the only moment in which her emotions towards him become acknowledged by her to herself, she was never thinking of him purposefully in romantic terms. She doesn't think that way about any of the men in the film, actually.

In comparison, Ariel was the pursuer in the original film. She is the one who knows who Eric is the whole film (unlike Eric, who doesn't even know Ariel's face or name), trades her voice for a chance on land to attain him, and then spends three days trying to kiss him to break the spell. In fact, I think much like Marshall's other film that erased even the little spunk Cinderella of the '50s had, he made Ariel more passive here rather than more "empowered."

Anyway, I think they could've found a redhead out there who can sing. They do exist. The decision to racebend was a deliberate one before any actors were considered, imo. That's why I don't dislike Bailey--if they were determined to racebend, she is a good pick. Helluva lot better than all the other options that were shopped in the rumor mill.

@Lele: I don't really see Mulan, Tiana, etc. being White as the same exactly. But the Snow White thing was the funniest thing to me. It's literally her name, there's no getting around that one--but somehow you can claim a character's birth name isn't important either?? I remember joking that the same people would claim that Dumbo being turned into a chicken for that remake wouldn't be a substantial change either. The first images that have come out though, Zegler mostly looks like Snow White (even if the actress in that case is kind of a tool). The Nani thing was pretty absurd, too, but only because it came after all the discourse around the racebending for Ariel and SW. It's one thing to criticize Disney for casting someone with skin lighter than the character, but they went after the actress like she was a racist personally even though she is literally a native. Is blood light or dark now?

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to say, I do like that part about Ariel only discovering what tears are when she's on land. It reminds me of how she doesn't know things like what a flame feels like.

[Vlad]

I just checked Amazon, the soundtrack is available to pre-order on vinyl, but the release date is May 26. I thought it was May 19. There's also a CD link, but it's not for this version, and it's $43.64.

[Disney Duster]

Wanting your character to look like they did in the origjnal is not racist. That's why I'm glad Maleficent got horns and sharp cheekbones, Cinderella got blonde hair (I know, not strawberry or dark brownish blonde hair, but close) and a big blue dress (I know it should be silver but it looks blue in the dark in the origjnal) Belle got brown hair and a yellow dress, and I don't like Ariel's racebending for the reason I stated, but I do love she has red hair, that makes me feel more ok about it.

Divinity, Marshall actually did not direct the 2015 Cinderella. That was Kenneth Branagh. But Marshall did choreograph the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

I also really like the Ariel tears thing, except she does cry when her grotto gets destroyed, right?

[Lele]

Disney’s Divinity,

The moment Rachel Zegler’s first thing to say about the casting was that she wasn’t going to lighten her skin for the role , she was already nothing like Snow White to me. Any white actress with her skin tone would have just worn makeup, but here this was intentional.

They definitely would complain about dumbo being a chicken, but you’re rignt that the argument sounds the same. It’s just that here they have a hyppcritical double standards and an agenda to say race never matters for white characters and always does for non white characters, so they can racebend every white characters and then cry racism if someone dares to say something. But of course if a white actors is used for crowd effect in Aladdin without even being visible, that’s a crime against humanity

[Disney's Divinity]

Divinity, Marshall actually did not direct the 2015 Cinderella. That was Kenneth Branagh. But Marshall did choreograph the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

I also really like the Ariel tears thing, except she does cry when her grotto gets destroyed, right?

Oh, interesting.

Yeah, she does. I guess they mean she doesn't realize she does cry tears in the grotto scene because she's underwater and so they disappear around her, so she never feels them..

[PatchofBlue]

To the B&tB comparison--I don't think that makes sense. Belle is already an empowered character in the original film anyway, they don't change much in regards to her in the remake. Moreover, Belle isn't invested in a romance with Beast in the original either--that's not a change. The final scene of him dying is the only moment in which her emotions towards him become acknowledged by her to herself, she was never thinking of him purposefully in romantic terms. She doesn't think that way about any of the men in the film, actually.

In comparison, Ariel was the pursuer in the original film. She is the one who knows who Eric is the whole film (unlike Eric, who doesn't even know Ariel's face or name), trades her voice for a chance on land to attain him, and then spends three days trying to kiss him to break the spell.

Where the Beauty and the Beast remake drops the ball for me is that the movie is not really interested in developing Belle and Beast's relationship. Maybe that's how I should have phrased it. Like you said, Belle isn't really the one instigating the romance in the animated film, like Ariel is in hers, but Belle and Beast's developing love, and the character of the Beast specifically, are still key parts of her story. And yet they feel almost like means to an end in the remake.

I've always hated, as one example, that the remake has the servants show Belle to her new room instead of the Beast. It's one of the earliest instances of Beast showing the embers of goodness toward Belle and trying to make her comfortable. Even if the idea to get Belle out of the dungeon was Lumiere's first, Beast at least recognizes that this is both a smart move and the baseline of human decency. Where Ariel is the pursuer in her film, Beast is the pursuer in his, yet in the remake he's just being strung along.

The magic storybook chapter is another good example of this. It doesn't really further the relationship at the heart of the film, it's just there to reveal more details about Belle's character that don't meaningfully interact with other elements of the narrative. It's also telling that one of the few real additions to the story, one which comes when the romance should be in the final stages of development, is focused solely on adding more character decorations for Belle.

The remake drops a few expository lines of backstory for Beast, sure, but little to none of the added runtime for the remake is spent nurturing any kind of bond between Belle and Beast, whether that bond has yet matured to romance on Belle's end or not. This is why that remake to me reads less like an expansion of the animated film and more like a victory lap for Belle's character. It's like the film was engineered specifically to use Belle as a battering ram against all the lazy critiques of the Disney Princess romance, or like the film is afraid that if they give Belle's love interest too much real estate, that will somehow take away from Belle's story. This creates some real dissonance given that, ironically, Beauty and the Beast is arguably the princess film whose plot hinges the most on the fulfilment of the romance.

This is the kind of thing I worry about in the remakes with things like them dropping the wedding scene from "Mermaid" and whatnot. Added character depth shouldn't have to come at the cost of a believable romance, but Disney often puts itself in that position anyways.

[blackcauldron85]

Maybe this has no wedding because Ariel's only 16 years old and they're trying to be appropriate to modern times...

I love everything about the 1989 film so I'm not saying I have an issue with that.

[Disney's Divinity]

Oh, I get that. But I think they aged her up to 18 or something.

[Farerb]

https://twitter.com/LittleMermaid/statu ... JGFIA&s=19

[cuau_cg]

I feel so hyped for this movie!!
The pre-sale just started today in Mexico, only dub versions unfortunately in my city
I wonder why Part of your world dubbed has been released in Italy, Japan, Spain, but not Latin America. I wonder if they will cast someone famous for the latin american spanish dub.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, you may be right, Divinity.

https://twitter.com/LittleMermaid/statu ... JGFIA&s=19

I think that's actually a thoughtful and well-written line of dialogue.

[Farerb]

New Sebastian and Scuttle clip:
https://youtu.be/5DTg05hPC-4

[Vlad]

Sebastian looks weird in promotional art, so does Scuttle, but they both look really great in the movie itself. I really like how Awkwafina performs Scuttle's lines.

[Mooky]

Head above water
This poster for ‘The Little Mermaid’ is probably my favorite out of all of them. It captures arguably the most important moment in the story with the little mermaid, or Ariel in Disney’s case, saving the prince because that’s what represents Ariel the best: the fact someone could save somebody they didn’t know because it was the right thing to do.
Also, the poster looks like a very deliberate homage of Edmund Dulac’s 1911 painting for a Hans Christian Andersen book that is one of the most widely repriced artworks of the fairy tale. Fantastic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsHxZavrw27 ... I4NDBkZg==