A few days ago, Disney released the trailer for the new Little Mermaid movie, and the social
networks began to fill with conflicting messages. The reason? The Little Mermaid will be black.
Singer and actress Halle Bailey will star. She uploaded a video to her Instagram account where
we could see several black girls reacting to the new Disney trailer, which will be
released in May 2023. The little ones were surprised and excited to see Princess Ariel,
who in the original animated film had very white skin and deep red hair,
would be played by an African-American actress. Before Disney released the trailer, in 2019 the
controversy was already in the air, when it was announced that a possible candidate for
the role would be Bailey. Finally, the director of the film stated in a press
release that she would be chosen, because she had the combination of spirit, heart,
youth, innocence, as well as a prodigious voice, which made her the Ariel they were looking for.
The young woman celebrated being chosen with a tweet with an image of the character with black
hair, brown skin and brown eyes, accompanied by the text "Dream come true". However, there
were many users who didn’t and don't think so. The social network began to fill with negative
comments about the choice of a black actress to play the Little Mermaid. The artist's tweet
celebrating her role was filled with replies with the hashtags #NotMyAriel or #NotMyLittleMermaid,
trying to pressure Disney to reconsider their choice and choose another actress.
The main argument of those who criticized the color of her skin or hair was that its author,
Hans Christian Andersen, was Danish, therefore, the Little Mermaid should be white, just like
in animation. Many Hollywood personalities faced criticism by giving their unconditional
support to Bailey, although perhaps one of the most commented was that of the Disney
cable television network, Freeform, which in an Instagram post reported the following:
"Yes. The original author of 'The Little Mermaid' was Danish. Ariel ... is a mermaid. She lives in
an underwater kingdom in international waters and can legit swim wherever she wants. But for
the sake of argument, let’s say that Ariel, too, is Danish. Danish mermaids can be black because
Danish *people* can be black. Ariel can sneak up to the surface at any time with her pals Scuttle
and the *ahem* Jamaican crab Sebastian and keep that bronze base tight. Black Danish people,
and this mer-folk, can also *genetically* have red hair. But *spoiler alert*, the character of
Ariel is a work of fiction. So after all this is said and done, and you still cannot get past the
idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly-talented, gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything
other than the INSPIRED casting that it is because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon one,’ oh boy,
do I have some news for you…about you.” Others go further by saying that if the
film was really faithful to the original story, the Little Mermaid would have to be a lesbian,
because the author of the story was homosexual. And some consider the work of the Little Mermaid
a reflection of his impossible love for his friend from adolescence, Edvard Collin.
It was clear that finding the actress to play the Little Mermaid would not be
easy. She is a character that millions of people have kept in their hearts,
and that is part of their childhood, because they have grown up seeing the endearing Ariel
from the cartoons over and over again. What do you think of this decision, tiktakers?