What do you think of Disney casting a black actress for Little Mermaid?

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Ariel is a mermaid.

It doesn’t matter.

Caucasian actors and actresses have played different ethnicities always

Natalie Wood was not Puerto Rican. Alan Arkin wasn’t either, both played Puerto Rican characters.
 
Allegra said:
I loved Ariel as a child, but as a parent, I’m less-than-enchanted. Did anyone else notice that she’s like the worst role model ever?
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I’m old, so I was already an adult when The Little Mermaid was first released in 1989. I thought it was AWFUL! 😠

Let’s see… what are the messages we are supposed to take from Ariel?
  • Thinking someone is handsome means you’re in love.
  • If you’re in love with a stranger, sell your soul, give up your natural abilities, and risk it all to make him fall in love with you.
  • If he finds you attractive and kisses you, that means he’s in love with you, and you should get married.
  • Because true love is all about appearances, falling in love should only take a couple days max.
Um, no.

NOOOOOOO!!!​

For the love of all that is good in this world, stop telling this disgusting story to our children!

Or tell it in its original form where the stupid mermaid doesn’t get what she wants and is turned into sea foam – See, girls, this is what happens when you think falling in love is all about appearances and getting kissed for the first time. Don’t be stupid, little girls, or you WILL lose it all.

That would be a story worth telling our children. 👵🚬

Oh, and I don’t care what skin color Ariel has in the upcoming movie. :roll_eyes:

I just hope she gets turned into sea foam in the end. That would be awesome. :+1:t4:
 
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F_Marturana said:
Caucasian actors and actresses have played different ethnicities always

Natalie Wood was not Puerto Rican. Alan Arkin wasn’t either, both played Puerto Rican characters.
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Not to mention playing Native Americans.
 
Isn’t this equivalent to whites using black face? Ariel is white.
 
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I’ve read it yah. I own the complete Hans Christian Andersen tales. Isn’t the end supposedly purgatory after she dies?

A lot of those old tales are bizarre. Many which Disney actually has done in short cartoons. The Pied Piper and Rumplestiltskin always have seemed disturbing to me.
 
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No. The tale is much more mixed up with his own personal life according to some and she doesn’t go to Purgatory but oblivion.
 
The Genie was the best thing about the original, in my opinion. In the live-action version, all the characters were wonderful! It was beautifully filmed and I thought Will Smith did a great job of recreating his own “genie”.
 
In the version I read as a child, she was granted an eternal soul and the name “Ariel” after she sacrificed her life for the Prince. I distinctively remember her having a post-mortem conversation with some sort of angelic being, unless that was added in by whoever translated or edited the story in the book I read.
 
redbetta said:
Why don’t they just create more original minority characters instead of giving minorities a hand-me-down? It’s just a lazy woke-points grab.

And, enough with the remakes!
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I agree. I absolutely loved the Princess and the Frog. Why can’t we have more like that.
 
I loved it too. It unfortunately marked the end of traditionally-animated Disney films and traditionally-animated films hitting the theaters. CGI can never replace the unique sense of the artist’s hand that you can from 2-D animated films.
 
This is the part from when she died to the end of the story originally.

She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam. The sun rose above the waves, and his warm rays fell on the cold foam of the little mermaid, who did not feel as if she were dying. She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of transparent beautiful beings; she could see through them the white sails of the ship, and the red clouds in the sky; their speech was melodious, but too ethereal to be heard by mortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes. The little mermaid perceived that she had a body like theirs, and that she continued to rise higher and higher out of the foam. “Where am I?” asked she, and her voice sounded ethereal, as the voice of those who were with her; no earthly music could imitate it.(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

“Among the daughters of the air,” answered one of them. “A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves. We fly to warm countries, and cool the sultry air that destroys mankind with the pestilence. We carry the perfume of the flowers to spread health and restoration. After we have striven for three hundred years to all the good in our power, we receive an immortal soul and take part in the happiness of mankind. You, poor little mermaid, have tried with your whole heart to do as we are doing; you have suffered and endured and raised yourself to the spirit-world by your good deeds; and now, by striving for three hundred years in the same way, you may obtain an immortal soul.”

The little mermaid lifted her glorified eyes towards the sun, and felt them, for the first time, filling with tears. On the ship, in which she had left the prince, there were life and noise; she saw him and his beautiful bride searching for her; sorrowfully they gazed at the pearly foam, as if they knew she had thrown herself into the waves. Unseen she kissed the forehead of her bride, and fanned the prince, and then mounted with the other children of the air to a rosy cloud that floated through the aether.

“After three hundred years, thus shall we float into the kingdom of heaven,” said she. “And we may even get there sooner,” whispered one of her companions. “Unseen we can enter the houses of men, where there are children, and for every day on which we find a good child, who is the joy of his parents and deserves their love, our time of probation is shortened. The child does not know, when we fly through the room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct, for we can count one year less of our three hundred years. But when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow, and for every tear a day is added to our time of trial!”
 
I’ve heard of color-reversed casting of Othello where the main character is white and the rest of the cast was black.

When I hear “Ariel”, I think of a white-skinned redhead, only because that’s what the cartoon portrayed, but there’s no other reason for me to think so🙂

So whoever the actress is…break a leg! (Or would that be … fin?)
 
No, it isn’t, and for several reasons. First of all, black face in its original context was generally used to demean black people in order to entertain white people. This is not an attempt to demean anyone. Secondly, Disney’s Ariel is only white because that’s the way she was conceived by the animators who drew her. That’s the only reason she has red hair and wears a purple seashell bra. The animators could have chosen to make her any color or race they wanted, but if we’re being honest, it probably didn’t occur to them to make her any color other than white because white was their default. White is “normal”. The only reason to be “other than white” is if it’s relevant to the story. I think that’s the mindset we need to reconsider. I think its a good thing that Disney is making strives to represent POC. In a way, I think Disney remaking these classic films with a more diverse cast is a way of making up for a couple generations of racially offensive films, followed by generations of completely ignoring black people’s existence.
 
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