The Little Mermaid (Live Action)

@starbee I know you weren’t. I know you better than that. Also know that you are my family and when you hurt I hurt and I want to make it better, even if it’s in the past.

@sej101 now Ramsey as Louie is a casting I can get behind! But wait, they have a rating they have to keep it under!

my childrens’ responses:
“Why?”
“I’m tired of all this remake stuff”
“Yeah, they aren’t as good as the original so why bother”?

All the fervor aside, I agree with all the live action fatigue. Instead of doing straight up remakes, I wish they would do more interesting things, like they did with Maleficent. There are so many interesting avenues they could explore if they did more origin stories and other angles

– Ursula origin story (I think it was covered in a direct to VHS sequel but I am choosing to not count that )
– Yzma and Kronk buddy cop style movie starring The Rock and Megan Mullally
– pretty much anything Dr. Facilier

I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here

@starbee whadaya know coppertop? Just joshing ya! Completely agree with everything you said. They’re changing things that don’t need to be changed simply to appease a vocal minority. All in the name of political correctness, or more likely, social justice. It’s a DISNEY move folks! It’s for little kids (primarily) who don’t need to be caught up in the controversy. The ones that see the original first are definitely going to notice the change and most will not be happy about it. Kids live in a very literal world and they will notice the character change and won’t like it. It won’t have anything to do with the actresses race. It will have everything to do with changing Ariel. That’s not who Ariel is supposed to be.

They did the same thing in Aladdin. Did it in Beauty and the Beast too.

I will not see this movie. I regret seeing Aladdin. I doubt I’ll ever watch another Disney remake unless they go back to making them properly.

starbee wrote:

Julia wrote:

it’s just that sooo many people have been making such disgusting and racist comments about Halle, and that makes me sad (i’m not talking about anyone here, just on the internet in general.)

I know you don’t mean here because if ever we saw something like that (not that I think we would) the moderator team would shut that down immediately there’s no need to get personal and be hateful or racist. I know it’s been out there since the casting announcement but I don’t understand why and that’s super embarrassing for those of us who don’t think like that. No matter how they cast Ariel, I wouldn’t see this movie. I’m so over the “live action” remakes it would take a lot to get me to go. However, I personally am sad about the casting because I think it’s political correctness gone too far. Like others said, it’s the political move to make these days in attempt to be all-inclusive. If they remade The Princess and the Frog and cast a white actress as Tiana, people would lose their ever loving minds. But, in reverse, that’s okay and no one can dislike that choice because if they do, they’re labelled a racist.
People may think this is dumb, but let me bare my soul for a second – hopefully I don’t regret this but I can always remove this comment later if people are inappropriate. I was bullied all through middle and high school. Why? Because of my hair color. People called me the most vulgar things I can’t post here. Ariel was my inspiration. She looked like me and she was a PRINCESS. I thought that was amazing. Growing up I never looked like anyone I saw on TV or in movies. I didn’t even meet another redhead until high school. Ariel made me feel like I wasn’t this weird creature the kids in the school yard made me out to be. But now, in the live action remake, they’re taking someone who looked like me and gave me inspiration and hope all through my childhood and making her look completely different. It almost undoes everything it built previously. On top of that, expressing my thoughts and feelings on the matter is completely not allowed, so the added hypocrisy just makes the whole thing worse. So to summarize, my feelings on this are all personal and specific to me, but hopefully that helps you understand why I for one feel the way I do about this casting.

You hit the nail on the head. And I believe you spoke for every single one of us. These kinds of changes would NOT be as big a deal IF and only IF the political correctness ran BOTH ways. If they were truly trying to be colorblind for the sake of our children and creating a better world then a lot of us would feel differently, but as it stands, no other princess ie; Tiana, Mulan or Moana will be given the same treatment. There will never be any generic, “this was the best child for the role” speech given to explain away why one of these princesses was cast by a white child because THAT in itself is a racist statement….but only if you’re talking about a white child. Let me assure you, if a white child went up for the role of Tiana no matter if she were the ONLY child that showed up for the auditions…Al Sharpton will be on scene in a shiny new suit. What they are currently doing is perpetuating racism, not healing it. And the conspiracy theorist in me knows the powers that be know this and it’s on purpose but that’s another story. They did the same thing with Hermione in the new Harry Potter play on Broadway. I’m sorry but in the books and in the movies that we watch every weekend of our lives thanks to ABC Family, Hermione is a little white girl. If you wanted her to be black then introduce her from the get go as black. Simple. JK Rowling just likes to keep herself in the spotlight and all she’s doing is trying to cash in as the times change by pretending that “she always saw her as black, and she always saw Dumbledore as gay” etc… no, no and no, you’re pandering plain and simple. It’s NOTHING to do with the color of this childs skin and everything to do with the one sided unfairness that comes along with it for me.

John Wayne played Genghis Khan, a Mongolian. Several white folks played Indians in old westerns. Why can’t a white person play Mulan or Moana? Also, I thought The Little Mermaid had something to do with the Danes? If it’s set around Denmark, it would make sense that the character would be white. Even if she’s a mermaid, if the location is northern Europe, even in the Atlantic, whites were the dominant race.

The problem with all of this stuff going on is it is racist. They’re changing the characters to a different race simply because the original characters were white. That’s the only reason. It’s not because the actor/actress beat out a white person in auditions. It’s simply based on the color of their skin. If that’s not racist, what is it?

I think people are getting tired of being labeled racist if they don’t agree with what “people of color” want. That’s why there’s a backlash. It has nothing to do with who the actress is in this particular case. It has everything to do with changing things simply because the original character is white. It’s doing nothing but perpetuating the racial divide. It’s getting worse, not better.

I’m not trying to take this thread into the political arena but if that’s where it’s headed, maybe it just needs to be trashed.

Folks, things seem to be getting a bit heated here. So after some discussions, including with the original poster, I’m going to close this thread. I’m not deleting it at this time as there are some very thoughtful and frankly insightful posts as to why people think certain ways. Thank you.