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

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Thomasbradley312

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I was just curious what people thought regarding Disney casting a black actress to play Ariel in the upcoming live action Little Mermaid film?
I have mixed feelings. Part of me doesn’t really think it matters but another part of me feels like, what if the rolls were reversed and one of the minority Disney Princesses were going to be portrayed by a white actress?
Hans Christian Andersen was from Denmark, I doubt he pictured an African American Mermaid.
 
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I think it’s a good idea. There aren’t any black Disney princesses except for Princess and the Frog and that movie wasn’t very good.
 
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Who cares? Why is this an issue. And why is in on Catholic Answers Forum?
If you don’t like Disney casting, write them a letter.
Don’t go to the movie when it comes out.
It is no big deal!
 
Yah but Ariel is white. She isn’t a black princess. Disney can make more black princesses.
 
I’m fine with it. I’m rather puzzled by the debate over the race of a fictional half fish.

Btw, the she was green in the original and it had a rather sad gruesome ending.
 
Not in this rendition. Now she’s black.

Stories are allowed to do this.

People can still watch the original if they feel like it. There will be two versions and that is okay.
 
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She is black by the new rendition however Disney Princesses are officially their original animated view. These remakes aren’t meant to retell the story but just to tell in live action. Putting a black Ariel when in the original she is red haired makes no sense.
Would you be cool if they had a white actress play Pocahontas, Tiara, Mulan, or Moana?
 
The whole history of fairy tales is built on change and cultural adaptation. 🤷‍♀️
 
Thomasbradley312 said:
I was just curious what people thought regarding Disney casting a black actress to play Ariel in the upcoming live action Little Mermaid film?
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It’s whatever, really. I grew up with Disney and it doesn’t really matter what the color of a character’s skin is.
 
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I think it’s a good thing.

I also think the “controversy” surrounding it is almost entirely fake, like the Starbucks holiday cup a few years ago. Everyone is outraged because they think multitudes of other people out there are racist and protesting a black Ariel; but if you search, you will be hard-pressed to find many people who are actually against the casting choice.
 
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I don’t care. But plenty of people would if a white portrayed, say, an Asian fairy tale character.
 
Thomasbradley312 said:
She is black by the new rendition however Disney Princesses are officially their original animated view. These remakes aren’t meant to retell the story but just to tell in live action. Putting a black Ariel when in the original she is red haired makes no sense.
Would you be cool if they had a white actress play Pocahontas, Tiara, Mulan, or Moana?
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These characters are specifically linked to a certain ethnicity and culture, so having a non-Chinese Mulan or a non-Native Pocahontas would disrupt the story and be inapproproate.

Ariel is a magical mermaid and is easily adaptable.

The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite movies and it will be interesting how they do the live action version. A black Ariel is a very good choice though.
 
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Pocahontas, Mulan and Moana are a specific character for a reason, changing the race of the character would change the story. Tiara could be played by any race, since it’s culture (Creole/New Orleans) and who plays the character doesn’t really matter, just like the rest of the Disney “princesses”.
Hollywood has had a long history of “whitewashing” characters…it’s about time it’s reversed.
 
I don’t care what color Ariel’s skin is. My bigger concern is that the Mouse has gone crazy with all these live-action remakes. I haven’t seen any of them in theaters (edit - at least not the current batch. I did see the live-action 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close, which came out in the late '90s, in theaters). I managed to snag a “free” digital copy of the Jungle Book remake, which I thought was pretty good, and I finally saw the Cinderella remake last week.
 
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Instead of reversing it why not stop doing it altogether. If “whitewashing” is negative then why isn’t the opposite also negative? It sounds like hypocrisy to me regardless of how one spins it.
 
I’m really not a huge fan of these live action ones to begin with honestly. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin were all right but I feel like it’s redoing things that don’t need redoing, as in I’d prefer just all around new stories. That is just my opinion. I always was a big fan of Disney Animated Films and I have felt like the renaissance which actually started with the Little Mermaid in 89 has kind of floundered in recent years. Frozen 2 should be good but I’m not a huge fan of these live redos that don’t really need it anyways. I wish they would focus on improving their animated films again. Of course Pixar is part of Disney now so some would say they have their own magic but I always have been a big Disney animated film fan. Snow White to the present, I like them all. All 57 of them.
 
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