Disney casts 19 year-old Halle Bailey as Ariel in "Little Mermaid."

WHUT?

 

Hence the vetting.

 

Not sure they have the same concerns about Ariel.

 

If you don't think they're concerned about complaints of someone who looks/dresses like this being interpreted as too skimpy for the 19-ish heroine of a family picture that'll already be the subject of intense focus due to the perceived narrative of a woman changing her whole nature and identity for the sake of a man, I don't know what else to tell you.

But if you're oh-so-cleverly pointing out that the Middle Eastern harem trope doesn't apply, because the setting and character aren't Middle Eastern, then, your dry wit is truly the soul of sophistication; congrats.

 

I agree. The more I think about it the more I think they shouldn't even remake this because the original was in fact, a misogynistic horror story about an abusive relationship.

 

I, for one, welcome our sexy clothing wearing woman overlords

 

If women want to wear that clothing it's up to them but when they are being made to to attract the gaze of males like on mist tv and movies that's misogynistic

 

I loved the original, I think it was the first movie I remember seeing in theaters. It was a preschool trip. I’m glad little black girls get their own little mermaid.

I hope that Disney doesn’t try to address issues people have with the original like they did with Beauty and the Beast. I’ve seen it claimed that she gave up her voice for a man, but really she wanted to be human and was utterly miserable under the sea. There was some attraction to Eric, but she treated it as almost a benefit of getting her wish to be human. Her having to get kissed the ticking clock element, but without it she would have likely tried to develop a relationship at a more natural pace since both she and Eric were attracted to each other.

I’m wondering about Flounder. I’ve seen real ones and they aren’t cute and chubby little fish, taste good though.

 

That was a claim people made? For one that’s the first I’ve heard of that and 2, I guess they missed the lyrics to “part of your world” which pretty much summarizes the whole movie. Eric being there was lucky happenstance. Ariel was curious what the human world was like and was willing to give up anything to live in it. That song wasn’t even about the relationship.

 

I will be PISSED if Rene Auberjonois doesn't play the chef who tried to kill Sebastian.

 

I tend to agree. Perhaps I was being naive, but when I saw the movie I took the story as being about a controlled, "kept at home" girl wanting to be part of the wider world and choose her own path.

The "she gave up everything for a man" claim I've seen batted around the last few years never really felt true to me. I mean sure, art is subjective and if that's what people see then that's what they see, but I honestly don't think that's ever been the main take-away for a lot of little girls.

Ariel is portrayed as intelligent, curious, outgoing, non-conformist, willing to sacrifice to achieve her goals, but not willing to let others suffer for it. Hell, she's even ready to go so far as to permanently change her own body to suit her new identity. Honestly, I think one would have to try very hard to claim that this is some pro-patriarchal, or even hetero-normative allegory. It may dress in the trappings of one, but then it's based on a 19th century fairy tale, so what would one expect?

 

Another red head bits the dust.. Done a quick google search, redheads are 2% of the population where African and decendents are 18% of the population, so technically more of a minority.. Sorry, my extended family has a good chunck of redheads in there ( Scottish decent) so as previously mentioned, the number of redhead being tossed for diversity is abit irritating..
I'm sure she'll do a good job, Disney doesn't usually screw that up, but I'll keep her in my prayers as she's going to get alot of crap on the social medias.. ( wonder if Disney thought of the backlash, not on them, but on the actresss herself) So, good luck..
I'm waiting for mulan, I think that will be a Great movie!

 

Disney needs to exploit their IP for business reasons.

They remake their animated features for that reason and no other.

Spoiler

No.

 

Its about money, plain and simple.. And as long as the Meat Bag Remakes make over 500 million a pop.. were going to get more of them. That and Hollywood "Seem to be out of ideas" for movies.. But not really.. they are there to make money, and an original story could be a hit or a miss, where a sequal, remake, etc already has a built in audience, and more likely to make money.. But sadly the times the original movies do get through and made.. people don't support them by seeing them.. so they fall back on sequal.. etc.. sad really.. Owell

 

Ugh. If you divide white people into enough sub-phenotypes, any recast becomes discriminatory.

 

I don’t think it’s a feminist violation to have a woman make sacrifices for a man so long as we show equal willingness to have a man do the same for a woman.

Like

Spoiler

Toy Story 4, Woody gives up his kid to run off with Bo.

Besides, Ariel is trans-species and the Prince accepts her for who she is!

 

Redheads are not systematically discriminated against in the United States and never have been.* So I can't relate to this "technical discrimination" of which valkyrie03 speaks.

*Well, the Irish were discriminated against. But still no.

 

I got taken by her name. I read it and thought, Halle Bailey isn't 19. So I went and looked it up.

Turns out I was thinking of Halle Berry.

 

The thing I hope they fix int he live action version is Ariel has ZERO agency in act 3 of the movie. Things are happening to and around her, but she is making no choices and affecting no change. Everything is being accomplished by Eric or Triton, not Ariel.