Well, it’s Monday, time for another Disney reboot.
Fresh off the release of the widely panned live-action remake of Pinocchio, Disney has now dropped the first teaser trailer for their next live-action remake: The Little Mermaid.
And you better like it because if not, you’re racist.
Disney being Disney, a remake can’t simply be a faithful adaptation; it’s got to tinker with the original somewhat. In their remake of Beauty and The Beast, they made LeFou quite clearly gay. In Lady and The Tramp, the characters Jim Dear and Darling were made an interracial couple — even though interracial marriage was illegal at the time and place the movie was set. In the aforementioned Pinocchio remake, the formerly white fairy with long flowing blonde hair was recast as a black actress with a shaved head. So naturally, for The Little Mermaid, they swapped out the ginger-haired white Ariel to be portrayed by a black actress.
From what I can see in this short trailer, it looks like a really good casting, and she’s clearly a talented singer, nailing the song “Part of Your World.”
Nonetheless, like every other live-action remake, it begs the question of whether a remake was necessary at all. As such, there has been a lot of negative reaction to the trailer on social media, in part because it’s so dark (can’t argue with that) and, naturally, some Disney purists question why they swapped ethnicities — which, of course, has the social media peanut gallery lobbing accusations of racism for all those who dare not love the trailer wholeheartedly.
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As for whether the remake is any good, I’ll reserve judgment — at least until we know more and find out what kind of woke garbage has been woven into the new version.
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