New Little Mermaid Movie Absolutely Fantastic

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Watched the new Little Mermaid movie with wife today. Despite all the unwarranted criticism, the movie was fantastic. It's quite rare when my wife and I agree that a movie was good, Haile Bailey was a an great, her voice was angelic and perfect.

I may have to watch it just because of all the backlash, like I would generally not give a crap but now I kind of want to see it to see what I think. I would not have been as curious without the right wing backlash but you could say if anything the right-wing backlash just makes me want to see the film more to try and figure what bits offended those 40 year old men boycotting it that were never the targeted audience to begin with. Like since when do 40 year old men concern themselves with childrens movies they would never watch to begin with? LIke its not really a boycott if you wouldn't have watched it in the first place.

Now that I think about it I am also curious to see the new Peter Pan movie that right wingers who probably have not and would not watch it in the first place are bitching about it.

I would like to see.that. Honestly I don't understand the backlash.

I didn't realize.they were going to do a live.action Peter pan. Seems like there has been many live.action versions of Peter pan already (though not the Disney version of.the story) so I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise.

Was all the backlash simply because of Halle Bailey?

I did hear that they were changing the lyrics to Kiss the Girl, but Ariel did give non-verbal hints to Eric that she wanted him to kiss her.

My main criticisms would be (a) the notion that one is racist if they don't like this one better than the '89 version, and (b) this one actually applies to many Disney princess films, the whole "you need a man to validate you" mindset.

Certainly, there are some people who are upset simply because Bailey is black, which is a terrible thing to be upset over. However, for context, all of the Disney live-action remakes have drawn criticism. They tend to get a mixed response at best from the fan community. Most of them have had white actors in the lead roles. Before that, Disney's direct-to-video animated sequels, which frequently featured the same voice actors as the original films, drew very similar criticisms to the live-action remakes. (I.e., that they are unnecessary cash grabs.)

The freak-outs about her skin color are absolutely ridiculous, but then, so much of what that crowd says and does is, so what's new, eh?

I read two newspaper critiques of the movie and both of the writers were absolutely up in arms about the CGI animals--adults claiming they themselves found them scary, or even horrifying and nightmarish. From the clips and trailers I've seen, I can only conclude that once again, these folks are making a living by creating an imaginary abomination and ranting about it.

I'm not sure how much money I'd take before I abandoned a reasonable view of the world for such a miserable mindset. Surely, it must bruise the soul after a while.

Little Mermaid is a perfect example of watching something for yourself (and not listening to newspaper reviews) and thoroughly enjoying it.

I think a lot of parents with small children will see it because their children will want to see the movie.

I think that race swapping matters a lot less when it comes to fictional characters. However, there are exceptions, such as when doing so comes with unfortunate implications.

Mermaids are interesting mythological creatures. Some mythological legends are fairly localised, whereas others have their own versions all around the world. Creatures which are half fish - half human are quite common in myths and not all of them are mermaids, there are all sorts of creations. There are stories all over the globe about mermaids. Some are more nightmarish than others. There are stories which feature black mermaids. There are stories with Asian mermaids. White mermaids. There are creepy black and white spirit mermaids which don't look very human like. You name it.

I find it interesting how sirens and mermaids ended up conflated. Originally, sirens were half bird - half human and lured sailors to their islands with the power of song. Whereas mermaids lured sailors into the water to drown them. In fact, there are stories of sirens whom are part bird, part fish and part human. Which is why I love myths - where else would I find such absurdity?

Sirens of the aquatic variety are sometimes depicted as possessing two tails such as in the Starbucks logo. There's definitely a joke to be made here about the allure of overpriced coffee...

In the original The Little Mermaid tale, the protagonist is white. However, she also doesn't have a name and the way she loses her voice is much more gory. Also, spoilers I guess but she dies. Well, after the prince falls in love with another, she loses her physical form and becomes a spirit of the air. It's up to interpretation if you'd consider this a death. You could certainly argue that it's implied.

Disney definitely couldn't have made a faithful adaptation. Imagine if they'd made that film - where she's just in constant agony every time she walks, has no tongue and fails to win over the prince so she promptly dies. It certainly would've been memorable!

So I don't think people can make the claim 'Oh, it's not like the original!'. Neither is the animated Disney version. It's a very loose adaptation, more of an inspired by than strictly based on retelling. Ariel's hair colour was never explicitly stated. In fact, the decision to give her bright red hair was because it was easier to animate. Originally the animation team was planning to make her blonde. However, blonde hair can be difficult due to how light impacts the hue of the colour. Picking a solid colour, such as bright red, made her stand out and it meant the animation team didn't have to worry about the impact of lighting as much. Which saved on time. It was a purely practical decision.

Ginger in general is easier to animate, not just bright red. Which is why you see a lot of ginger extras. Especially in Frozen oh my word - have you ever paused that film and counted the amount of background ginger characters? There's a lot. When it comes to very dark brown / black hair, sometimes animators add a little bit of blue. Not always, there are other methods. This is because it can be tricky to convey the flow of movement with dark hair. Anyway, I'm going off topic here.

The actress being black isn't an issue. It doesn't matter what the mermaid looks like. However, to nitpick a little bit here - Sebastian is the wrong type of crab and I dislike the colour design of the film (based on the trailer). However, the latter is simply a matter of preference, it looks a bit grey and I would've made it a little bit more vibrant in post. Apparently it's been edited a bit since, but I'd have to see the film to see how much editing has been done since the trailer. Other than that, it's fine.

Yes I can see how mermaids in popular culture look like this



They have a long tradition in European folklore of kidnapping unwary sailors (probably going back to the sirens of the ancient Greeks)