My big brother had a red afro when he was a kid. Red hair is not an exclusive white people thing.
You don’t have to explain comics to me. I’m over forty, I’ve collected comics, I’m not disagreeing with you because I don’t understand the concept of comic book characters staying the same age or aging slowly. I just think you’re confusing “this is how it’s been”, with “this is how it is”.
This is what I mean about a subset of enthusiasts presuming that they have some special status or wisdom about an entertainment genre or medium.
I’ve been a superhero comic fan for longer than most of these dudes have been alive. Don’t presume to tell us what fans want.
Did not know that. Huh, learn something new everyday!
And really, if you can get someone of a different race with red hair, go for it! But a non-ginger-haired Anne Shirley just wouldn’t work for me. (That and no one else can top Megan Follows)
TIL Robert Guillaume sang opera. I had no idea. Neat!
Yes, the usual suspects are out whining about “SJWs ruining everything” and how terrible it is that the MYTHICAL HALF-FISH CREATURE isn’t white.
Yes, the issue I have with all the recent gender-swapped films isn’t that they star women but that they’re unnecessary reboots, and shit ones at that (I mean, “What Women Want” was a terrible film to begin with; remaking it with Taraji Henson in the lead didn’t improve it no matter how much I like her as an actress). Sadly, Hollywood knows there’s money in these things no matter how bad or pointless they are.
A decision that makes sense given that it’s a Caribbean-themed musical. They’re probably planning to lean more heavily in that direction.
Lin-Manuel Miranda doing additional songs, too.
Over in my other socials people are freaking out about “but it’s a Danish story”… well, sure, maybe the HUMANS are Danes in Andersen’s story, telle me nothing of merfolk. And do you really want to go into what Disney changed from Andersen, or from every other classic fairytale they adapted? “But that’s not the real classic Ariel” … Ariel’s not real, and this version thereof is a creation and registered trademark of Disney Studios. She most certainly does NOT belong to “the people”. I mean, really…
The original little mermaid was green-skinned and black-haired. And I doubt she spoke American English. But for some reason, cartoon Arial is totally OK while black Ariel is a travesty. People certainly are a trip.
I think the problem they’re having with Ariel is their internal fan-casting they’ve been making for so long is not being fulfilled, and they just can’t let it go. Not that that is any excuse, but this fan ownership thing is a continuing phenomenon that doesn’t look to be going away any time soon.
I really didn’t expect this backlash when I had seen so many people hoping for Zendaya in the role.
What’s getting to me is the insistence that a black Ariel is “pandering”, but a white Ariel isn’t. Disney defined the character as white in 1989 and any deviation from that is an outrage, apparently.
It’s crazy that people somehow need lengthy explanations to explain the existence of black characters in Eurocentric settings, but have never once questioned the incredulity of a Caucasian mermaid living in the Caribbean Sea. The only thing I can think of is that everyone–regardless of race–are used to white people being at the forefront in any and all settings. But a non-white character doesn’t have that privilege. They always have to prove they aren’t an interloper.
Just like in real life.
Ugh, I just came across a post on Reddit where someone seriously asserted that a dark-skinned mermaid doesn’t make sense given light refraction in the water column.
Worse than that: in the original story the prince marries someone else and the little mermaid throws herself overboard and dies, dissolving into sea foam. But it’s okay, because she becomes a “luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit”. But still, you know, dead.
Actually, I was more disappointed when I figured out it wasn’t Halley Berry playing Ariel.
https://www.unilad.co.uk/film-and-tv/people-think-halle-berry-is-playing-ariel-in-new-little-mermaid-film/
Princess Ariel [sup]TM[/sup] has about as much to do with Hans Christian Andersen’s story as Queen Elsa[sup]TM[/sup] and Princess Anna[sup]TM[/sup] have to do with The Snow Queen. IOW “loosely”.
The Disney character was created in 1989 with light skin and red hair. So to me, suddenly changing the look of the character after 30 years feels like a sort of politically correct racial pandering.
In contrast, when Disney created a black Princess Tiana[sup]TM[/sup] character for The Princess and the Frog that felt more like being inclusive.
So here’s a semi-serious question. Is my white daughter no longer allowed to dress as Ariel for Halloween?
Black Ariel is dumb simply because it’s another bizarre choice of lazy diversity by making a character black. Every single time they do a diversity casting for a main character it’s always a black person, and they’ll even go as far as taking a character who was Asian or Hispanic and making them black. Hispanics outnumber African-Americans in the US population and yet 90% of the time Hollywood thinks to include diversity you have to just make somebody black.
If the entire point of diversity is to have diverse races they sure aren’t doing it well.
Or, maybe, casting tried a bunch of young actresses and actually turned out that the professional singer/ actress they liked the most just happened to be black?
Nahhh…
:dubious: The Disney character Snow White was created with short black hair and brown eyes. The character in the 2012 movie Snow White and the Huntsman had long dark brown hair and green eyes. Was that “suddenly changing the look of the character”?
Halle Bailey actually looks quite a lot like the cartoon Ariel in face and figure, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the moviemakers reddened her hair (and even greened her eyes) for the role.
So all we’re really talking about here is a moderate difference in skin tone. Why are so many white Americans so obsessed with the notion that even a slight difference in skin tone, if it’s perceived as crossing racial-category boundaries, suddenly automatically makes someone hugely HUGELY “different-looking”?
(Rhetorical question; actually, I know why. :rolleyes: )
Dress as cartoon Ariel: sure, why wouldn’t she? The live-action version isn’t going to make the original cartoon version disappear or become “inauthentic”. Any more than the existence of Noma Dumezweni’s black Hermione Granger in the staged Harry Potter play The Cursed Child somehow invalidates Emma Watson’s white Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies.
Dress in blackface as Halle-Bailey-Ariel: no, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Apparently Chloe Grace Moretz was initially cast, but she dropped out.
I’m wondering if this information this will change anyone’s opinion about the selection of Halle being all about “pandering.”
And the other day, I heard Halle’s voice. She’s got the classic Disney singing voice going for her. I think it’s quite possible–but call me crazy!–that she was chosen because she’s got the pipes and she’s gorgeous. I seriously doubt the neckbeards (let’s face it, most of them are neckbeards) who have a problem with this were going to see the movie anyway since it’s a damn children’s movie. Children aren’t going to have a problem with a dark-skinned mermaid unless their parents’ racism gets in the way.
(If Chloe had been cast, I wonder how many white tears would have been shed over the fact that a blonde was chosen and not a red head.)
When I read about outrage on the internet about these kinds of things I always wondering how many people are actually outraged. Years ago I read online about people who were upset over the actress who played Rue in The Hunger Games having such dark skin but I never ran into a single person in real life expressing any such concerns. Sometimes I think the internet amplifies the voices of a very small minority.
She also strongly resembles Moretz IMO: not surprising if Disney’s looking for someone with that kittenish pointy-chinned gamine cartoon-Ariel cast of feature.
I’ve heard the same argument about why the Drow, the evil elves in Dungeon and Dragons that live underground, would be pale rather than dark skinned. It was a terrible argument in that case as well.