# The Little Mermaid is GASP! Black **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651 "2019-07-07T01:30:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/21 "2019-07-07T14:24:32Z")
You know, I posted this so everyone could have a good laugh. I see some posts where my mother would have commented, “Oh for crying out loud,” and which the Internet generation has compressed to OFFS. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Sez Hans Christian Andersen: > \ > > - They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea…" \* Given the creator’s own description, Ariel could have been played by [Vanessa Williams.](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/f2/17/3f/f2173fd0f7f7df1753ead2ada90b6388.jpg) > [@msmith537](#): > > It’s more about Disney being faithful to their own characters they created. > Emma Watson looks like a live action Belle > Lilly James looks like a live action Cinderella > Angelina Jolie looks like a live action Maleficent > I’m sure live action Mulan will be played by a young Chinese woman who looks like Mulan. > > All I’m saying is that for 30 years, Ariel was a light-skinned red headed mermaid with the face of Alyssa Milano. So hearing they cast a black girl to play Ariel does sound like someone in marketing is checking off PC boxes. Here’s a look at the characters in [Disney’s animated version of Aladdin.](https://d1w8cc2yygc27j.cloudfront.net/-8469318901123307323/-7551723423067384179.jpg) And here they are in[the live action reboot.](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/YM8lCMMrjf_Zkt0tceh8lpSLdgI/fit-in/2048xorig/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/12/19/697/n/1922283/tmp_eRzWF7_d16415aa8ce40895_122818.COVER.ALADDIN-CLOSED-edit_1_.jpg) OMG! They cast a skinny, black, wise-cracking guy to play a non-human, large, blue, wise-cracking cloud. PC run amuck! Much worse than casting a young, black actress to play a young, non-human half-fish. Would we all feel better if Halle Bailey’s hair were dyed red? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/22 "2019-07-07T14:25:59Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Retroactively changing one of the character’s race feels like a PC marketing ploy. Well, her race has not been changed. She remains a mermaid. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/23 "2019-07-07T15:00:28Z")
Don’t know if it will be good or not, but if they change her bottom half from carp to tuna!!!:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/24 "2019-07-07T15:12:41Z")
> [@Kent Clark;21736315Here's a look at the characters in \[Disney's animated version of Aladdin.](#): > > ([https://d1w8cc2yygc27j.cloudfront.net/-8469318901123307323/-7551723423067384179.jpg](https://d1w8cc2yygc27j.cloudfront.net/-8469318901123307323/-7551723423067384179.jpg)) > And here they are in[the live action reboot.](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/YM8lCMMrjf_Zkt0tceh8lpSLdgI/fit-in/2048xorig/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/12/19/697/n/1922283/tmp_eRzWF7_d16415aa8ce40895_122818.COVER.ALADDIN-CLOSED-edit_1_.jpg) > > OMG! They cast a skinny, black, wise-cracking guy to play a non-human, large, blue, wise-cracking cloud. PC run amuck! But he played it in blueface. What if Disney cast an African American actress, and lightened her skin and changed her hair color? I think **msmith537** had a good point: in previous live adaptations, like _Beauty and the Beast_, they were pretty faithful to the way the characters looked in the cartoon. Thanks to the original animated feature (plus decades of spinoffs and merchandizing), people have a very specific idea in their minds of what Ariel looks like; and some people have trouble wrapping their brain around a version of the character that doesn’t match that. (For the record, I’m not saying that Disney shouldn’t have cast a black Ariel; just that I have at least a little bit of sympathy and understanding for some of the people who are bothered by it.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/25 "2019-07-07T15:13:17Z")
The complaints are about casting a Black actress, when they really should be “Why the fuck are they making a live-action version”? Casting a black actress may or may not be a cynical money-making move, but making the film in the first place is a far more egregious example of cashing in for the bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/26 "2019-07-07T15:13:51Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Didn’t hear them complain much about how all the prior Disney fairytale versions thoroughly upend the Andersen/Grimm/Perrault originals Huh? People have smugly talked about Disney-ifcation of classic fairy tales and stories for as long as I’ve been aware of them. And they’ve probably been doing it since 1937 with Snow White. _“Ya know, in the REAL story, a hunter brings the Queen a boar’s liver and says it’s Snow White’s. Then the Queen eats it. Didn’t see THAT in this cartoon…”_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/27 "2019-07-07T15:16:45Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The complaints are about casting a Black actress, when they really should be “Why the fuck are they making a live-action version”? Because when they’ve done so before, it has been successful (i.e. made money). ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/28 "2019-07-07T15:20:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Apparently there were already people noticing [a trend of redhead characters being replaced by black characters](https://www.revelist.com/pop-culture/zendaya-mary-jane/4346). The forgot Red in Shawshank Redemption. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/29 "2019-07-07T15:29:59Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But he played it in blueface. Did you see it? Smith was in blueface for significantly less than half his screen time. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/30 "2019-07-07T15:40:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The complaints are about casting a Black actress, when they really should be “Why the fuck are they making a live-action version”? Because people keeps going to watch them. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Casting a black actress may or may not be a cynical money-making move, Not really. If anything this will cost them the so profitable China market. A more well-established actress of any race would have been the way to go if that’s all they wanted with the casting. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > but making the film in the first place is a far more egregious example of cashing in for the bucks. Yeah. Show Business is still a business. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/31 "2019-07-07T15:44:34Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Yeah. Show Business is still a business. Indeed. It’s a little late to be outraged that Disney is trying to make money using business strategies that generally make them money. If there’s a problem with Disney’s business model (and I think there is, but I’m a confirmed pinko), it goes much, much deeper than their current focus on remaking cartoons with real people. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/32 "2019-07-07T15:46:05Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Did you see it? Smith was in blueface for significantly less than half his screen time. Yes I did. When he was (blue), he was to me recognizably a [live-action realization of the Genie from the cartoon](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/aladdin-did-will-smith-live-up-robin-williams-genie-1213666). (Anyone wishing further discussion of the _Aladdin_ Genie’s color may want to read these articles I stumbled across while searching for a good image to link to: [The Racial Wonderland of Aladdin’s Genie](https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/the-racial-wonderland-of-aladdins-genie.html) [Why Is the Genie in ‘Aladdin’ Blue?](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-genie-aladdin-blue-180971536/)) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/33 "2019-07-07T16:11:18Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Huh? People have smugly talked about Disney-ifcation of classic fairy tales and stories for as long as I’ve been aware of them. And they’ve probably been doing it since 1937 with Snow White. _“Ya know, in the REAL story, a hunter brings the Queen a boar’s liver and says it’s Snow White’s. Then the Queen eats it. Didn’t see THAT in this cartoon…”_ But that has been basically book nerds like us calling attention to it and being ignored and told to lighten up, this not your book it’s is a fun movie for kids with a happy ending the way Disney does it. The people pulling out their hair on Reddit and the memespace over nonwhite Ariel apparently don’t want to be told “this is not your animation, it’s a movie by Disney and they decide how to make it”. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/34 "2019-07-07T17:12:31Z")
Wait a second. I have a more important question. Are they going to make the live-action Ariel’s tail swish around like the animated Ariel? Because everyone knows that [live action mermaids’ tails only flex in one spot.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/12/19/article-2526620-1A348E9600000578-559_634x751.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/35 "2019-07-07T17:30:58Z")
1. Internet rage is inversely proportional to the stakes of the matter. 2. The story is a metaphor for crossing rifts and dealing with foreigness. While, granted, in this day and age it shouldn’t really be any sort of rift between white and black people, that’s not the reality of the modern world. It probably is relatively good casting symbolically. 3. Traditionally, red heads represented tempestuous Irish folk. Given that that is no longer a thing in modern culture, replacing all the red heads with African Americans may make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/36 "2019-07-07T18:34:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes I did. When he was (blue), he was to me recognizably a [live-action realization of the Genie from the cartoon](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/aladdin-did-will-smith-live-up-robin-williams-genie-1213666). Okay–I’m not trying to be difficult, but I’m not sure what you were getting at, then. My point was that for most of the movie, Will Smith appeared as a black man, a definite change from the original movie. If the animated Little Mermaid were green-skinned, and they cast an African American actress but changed her skin tone to green for significant sections of the movie, I don’t think anyone would have a problem with it, and then it’d be analogous to Aladdin. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/37 "2019-07-07T18:49:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m sure live action Mulan will be played by a young Chinese woman who looks like Mulan. Well, young_ish_. But approaching middle age. [The character is 16](https://disneyprincess.fandom.com/wiki/Mulan), [the actress is 31](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yifei). [The trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yq1SA3l-yI), to me, looks kind of like a trainwreck. ---
**Author:** ![split\_p\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@split\_p\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/split_p_j)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/38 "2019-07-07T19:29:22Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Creating Disney Princess characters like Mulan, Jasmine, Tiana, Moana and (I think) Pocahontas that are a cultural departure from the traditional white, pseudo-European aristocratic stories of Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Aurora, Anna and Elsa is “correcting a path to be more inclusive”. Retroactively changing one of the character’s race feels like a PC marketing ploy. I’m black, and I agree with this. I think it’s fine to have more black characters, but why not make them new and original. For example, I was 12 when I saw ROTJ in the theater. I didn’t think I couldn’t be Luke because he was white and I wasn’t. I’m not even really sure how they figure more money will be made. The last I looked we are only about 14% of the US population. That is clearly not enough to offset all those that won’t see the film because of this change. I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/39 "2019-07-07T19:49:05Z")
> [@split\_p\_j](#): > > I’m not even really sure how they figure more money will be made. The last I looked we are only about 14% of the US population. That is clearly not enough to offset all those that won’t see the film because of this change. I just don’t get it. Think how much of the _world_ population is peoples of color and there’s one possible answer. Which however is not determinative, I mean in my Puerto Rican social nets the black Ariel is grinding some people’s gears to the point I worry about them. Although yes, I agree the best way to make the princessphere more universal and inclusive is to bring in more stories with heroines and princesses from other cultures and peoples. There are plenty of other love and/or adventure stories around the world we can use. Or even go to some yet-unused western story and relocate it elsewhere. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Well, young_ish_. But approaching middle age. [The character is 16](https://disneyprincess.fandom.com/wiki/Mulan), [the actress is 31](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yifei). [The trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yq1SA3l-yI), to me, looks kind of like a trainwreck. And of course a bunch of commenters on the trailer are going _“hur hur why not make her white Dizney lol I’m so smart”._ …and _ **31** _ is _“approaching middle age”_??? Say wha???😕 (though that is itself a recurring tcasting theme in TV/film, “teenagers” pushing 30) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651/40 "2019-07-07T19:55:44Z")
So she’s changed from Ariel to **Ariel Black**. She’s still the same type. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-mermaid-is-gasp-black/836651.md?page=3)