Can mermaids be victims of racism? This is the absurd question that we could ask ourselves when faced with the first live action excerpt of this new version of The little Mermaid Disney sauce. For this live-action remake, the big-eared studio chose Halle Bailey for the title role. This decision had already made a lot of ink flow when it was made official and has continued ever since the first images were revealed on September 10, 2022.
Disney unveils the first live-action trailer for The Little Mermaid
When some critics dwell on the particularly sombre character of the images and the absence of movement of the mermaid’s hair (which may seem particularly legitimate), others block the fact of having chosen a black, talented and deserving actress like Halle Bailey, only 22 years old.
Mixed welcome of adults to the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid
Among the arguments advanced, there are those who believe that a little mermaid cannot be black since it would not be exposed directly to UV rays. A scientific explanation that could hold water if it were not to explain the melanin level of a completely fantastic creature. The other argument is that Halle Bailey would not match the original work. However, it should be remembered, the Disney cartoon in which Ariel displays a pale complexion and red hair is not the original work.
Indeed, The little Mermaid is a story by the Danish Hans Christian Andersen. In the work published in 1837, Ariel’s skin color is not specified, and he did not even have red hair … The character of King Triton does not exist there, nor does the crab Sébastien (much less his inexplicable Creole accent in the VF Disney), nor the flounder fish. And most of all, in the end, he dies. We are therefore very far away happy ending so dear to Mickey and Minnie’s studio. Behind this argument, which obviously does not hold up, something very different seems to loom above all …
While racialized people have had no choice but to learn to identify differently with traditional cultural representations that until recently never physically resembled them, now some others find it unbearable to make this effort for a rare time. And this inability to decentralize speaks volumes about their ethnocentrism, their navel gaze and their social privileges.
Rather than returning to their dear and tender cartoon, these embittered adults therefore prefer to vent their anger on social networks, and howl at the “dictatorship of wokism and the Islamic-left”, according to the traditional reactionary amalgam.
TikTok’s adorable reactions to the first live-action Little Mermaid trailer
As a corollary of this blatantly racist hatred, we can fortunately discover a myriad of videos of innocent children, happy to discover this trailer. Because it is to them and to them that this new film for children is aimed above all. And you really shouldn’t have heart not to be moved by it. The proof, in 5 adorable TikTok videos of the reactions to the first images of The little Mermaid in live-action, which will be released in theaters in May 2023.
Front page photo credit: YouTube and TikTok screenshots.
Source: Madmoizelle
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
