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

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Sure, and I agree with that. Context matters.

Basically my point boils down to this:

If you are trying to pass something off as a faithful recreation or a continuation of a character, you should be held to a higher standard of accuracy than if you are simply making a spin-off or less serious adaptation within a different context, in which case the standard changes.

Adapting the 7 Samurai to the “wild west” is cool. Introducing modern themes into a lighthearted story about knights is fun. Casting a scrawny white guy as Shaka Zulu makes zero sense. Casting Beyoncé as Elizabeth in a Pride and Prejudice set in an otherwise Regency England is jarring. Casting Beyoncé as Elizabeth in a Pride and Prejudice set in modern Britain or America could be a cool adaptation.

I guess part of my reasoning is that, while there is some truth to it, I don’t believe people need to have actors or actresses who look exactly like them for them to relate to a character, and I think suggesting that this has to happen for people to identify with a character is a little racist.

And as a disclaimer I can find fault with incorrect period weapons or armor in historically set movies. It may not affect the plot but it gives me a little tic in the corner of my eye. 😜
 
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FirstFiveEighth said:
I guess part of my reasoning is that, while there is some truth to it, I don’t believe people need to have actors or actresses who look exactly like them for them to relate to a character, and I think suggesting that this has to happen for people to identify with a character is a little racist.
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The tendency of people to think this about anything is illogical, imo. To think: I don’t see any women astronauts in this picture, so I guess I can’t become an astronaut seems odd, especially considering that there have been first women _______, first black _______, etc., so on that point I agree with you.

ETA: I also think that great literature is above race/color, and speaks to our common human nature, so requiring (not just including) works by or about black people, Hispanics, Asians seems to be wrong in the same way.

As to your other points, I don’t see the problem in casting for the Little Mermaid/Disney version (I think Andersen would have been way more upset by what they did to his storyline than he would be by their casting Hally Bailey as the LM!!!–) as a beautiful, young, spirited, mischievous woman who happens also to be black.
 
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Annie said:
I guess I see it from a different point of view, as I explained above, and I see maintaining the racial make-up of the cast to Andersen’ alleged vision to be about as important as keeping it in the language he thought of them as speaking.
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Likewise. The telling of fairytales and myths has always been subject to cultural and societal adjustments. I believe the singer Brandy played Cinderella in a Broadway production some years ago.

As an adolescent I remember getting a book with familiar stories before they were adjusted for what it was thought children could tolerate. The earlier forms of such stories were bloody and depressing, The Little Mermaid included.

Have you ever seen the story?

The Disney version diverges significantly from the earlier version when the deal is made to get legs. The mermaid must agree to have her tongue cut out to get the potion to become human. In the story mermaids live for hundreds of years but have no soul. But if she could get him to love her above all others and they became married she could have a soul too and be with him both here and in the afterlife. But if he married another she would die the day after his marriage and turn to see foam (as happens to any mermaid that dies). She is warned that once she has legs as she walks she will feel as though she is walking on top of blades and needles and that she would bleed.

After her transformation the prince finds her naked and has the slaves make clothing for her. She is granted permission to sleep by his door and he often takes her on outings, her feet feeling the sensation of the knives and leaving behind bloody marks. As time goes on she loves him more fondly and he loves her like a child. He decides to marry a woman that he thought had saved his life not knowing it was really the mermaid.

The mermaid, heart broken, has accepted that she will die the next sun rise. But her sisters bring her a knife from the sea witch. They made a deal with her and cut off their hair to get the knife. If the mermaid kills the prince and let’s the blood run onto her feet she will regain her tail. But she decides not to kill him. Instead she throws herself into the sea and dissolves into sea foam.

But instead of completely fading away she persist in an ethereal form with the “daughters of the air.” They tell her that if she does everything in her power to do good deeds for the next 300 years she can gain an immortal soul. If she enters a house of man and finds a good child a year will be taken off of her obligation. But if she finds a bad child a year will be added.

That’s about where the story ends.

I guess the moral is “be a good child or else you are prolonging the mermaids suffering.” (?)
 
Yes Disney changed the story quite a bit! Thanks for your retelling: you caught the nuances well 🙂
 
Annie said:
Yes Disney changed the story quite a bit!
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Yeah, I think it is better to think of the Disney version inspired by the story from Hans Christian Andersen’s story instead of a telling of his story.
 
Thomasbradley312 said:
Disney casting a black actress to play Ariel
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I would have called her bi-racial, which I think is a good choice

Do others feel this was an intentionally manufactured crisis?
Though I don’t know the OP, I find some of these out of the blue threads very suspect.

www.breitbart.com

Nolte: Media Fabricate 'Racist Outrage' Hoax About Disney's 'Little Mermaid' Casting

The fake media are fabricating national outrage against Disney' casting a black actress as Ariel in Little Mermaid.
www.breitbart.com www.breitbart.com
 
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Let’s take this to the logical extreme to avoid all appearances of cultural appropriation. Real people should only be played by themselves, because every individual is unique and unrepeatable. For instance, Audie Murphy played himself in “To Hell and Back”, but even that has problems because because he was playing himself when he was 10 years younger than when the movie was made.

Who would you dare cast in the part of Jesus for a remake of “The Greatest Story Ever Told”?

Hollywood should only make movies that are completely original to avoid offending anyone. That would mean only about three movies per year, and the danger of a studio killing flop would be high.

Or, with only a slim possibility of success, we should all get a grip on reality and worry less about nonsense.
 
Theo520 said:
Do others feel this was an intentionally manufactured crisis?
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I don’t think it’s a crisis.

As for the Breitbart article, I don’t think there have been many (if any) references to external articles in the exchanges within this thread. It’s primarily been people exchanging what I think to be their own feelings of support, apathy, and opposition on the decision.

One thing caught my attention in the article. They had a criticism on expressions from “UNVERIFIED” accounts on twitter being quoted. Most accounts on Twitter are of this status. To get the “verified” mark Twitter must be convinced that the account is of public interest.
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Twitter:
An account may be verified if it is determined to be an account of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.
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I don’t think it’s of relevance that the accounts with expressions of opposition might not fall into this area. Also it kind of stands out to me because when Breitbart is quoting what others have said on Twitter most of the accounts they are quoting have the same status.
 
The television series M.A.S.H. was bought by FOX. Disney then bought FOX. That makes Corporal Klinger a Disney Princess. Maybe Klinger should have played Ariel?
 
Honestly I beg to differ, it was radical in a really neat way; the music rocked, the plot was okay, the humor was pithy without being annoying…Shrug I accept it!
 
Oh don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be ensuring there are plenty of transgender actors in movies from now on too. After all, gender ideology is all the rage now. :cry:
 
Casting a white person for John Shaft, for example, would definitely be racist though.
 
My understanding, through a rigorous internet search if a couple minutes, is that Mami Wati is/was an African river goddess that took on mermaid characteristics when Europeans started coming to sub-Saharan Africa and the locals integrated European Mermaid stories into their own. Still, Mami Wati is one being, not a race of sea creatures. The Little Mermaid is pretty obviously not based on Mami Wati stories.

To clarify, I don’t have a problem with any “race” being portrayed as a Mermaid. We can have black mermaids and Asian mermaids and Arab mermaids, anyone. I don’t care. I simply think that this particular Mermaid, in this particular story, should match the story. Or at least the story as pretty much the entire world knows it, with Ariel as a red-haired young woman. Disney is using that popularity of that character to sell this remake. Nobody cosplays Ariel with raven hair cut in a bob, and no one cosplays Jasmine with flowing red hair. And even then I don’t really care other than I know they deliberately chose to race swap Ariel not for any story telling reason or because the actress added more to the gravitas of the story (like Red in Shawshank- a white guy in the book played excellently by Morgan Freeman). But because they want to pander to upper middle class white progressives. That is my only issue with it.
 
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I wasn’t starting anything. My reply was in reference to your statement that mermaids are not a part of African mythology. Many other cultures had tales of mermaids or mermaid-like creatures. I wasn’t in any way implying that LM was based on Mami Wata. She is an example nevertheless.
 
I think my tone was lost in translation. Wasn’t trying to be argumentative, just light hearted discussion! 🙂
 
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