The Little Mermaid (2023)

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Personally, I think she’s absolutely stunning—well, that’s just my take, anyway🤣—so I’m really rooting for her to live up to the role.

As for all the noise regarding her skin tone... honestly, there will always be critics. The second someone who isn't white, cisgender, or heterosexual enters the frame, you hear the usual: ''HoLlYwOoD iS oNlY fOrCe-fItTiNg bLaCk pErSoNs, gAyS, aNd MuSlImS.'' It’s just inevitable at this point. Especially considering Disney produced 47 films between 1937 and 2009 before finally giving us our first Black princess, Tiana. Besides, Ariel is a mermaid princess—not some royal from medieval Europe—so there's really no reason she *has* to be white to fit the setting. She could be any skin tone; she's a mythical creature, after all, and the interpretation is ultimately up to the director.

I don't have a solid opinion yet—I'm holding out for the trailer. You can have a perfect cast and end up with a mediocre movie, or vice versa—sometimes those unknown actors just steal the show in a masterpiece.

It would have been incredible if they had cast a drag queen as Ursula, especially since the original animated version was inspired by drag queens!

I mean, I totally saw Disney pushing their agenda coming from a mile away, but they really didn't have to mess with this movie specifically...

Whatever though, the box office numbers will tell the real story...

Hashtag #NotMyAriel has been trending all over Twitter 🤣

Honestly, this girl just doesn't have it. There isn't a single thing about her that reminds me of the original Ariel from the cartoon. She doesn't even have blue eyes! And don't even get me started on those trashy eyebrows... they're giving me the creeps. I'm just sitting here waiting for the day that look finally goes out of style...

Even though she's a mythical creature, Ariel is originally from Denmark.

I feel a little silly saying this, but since she's a Black person now, I was really hoping to see that iconic red hair. I guess I just wonder if it'll look right on her.🤷
Black people rarely let white actors play characters from their own history or cultural heritage—if you want to call it that. They tend to stick to their own stories. Meanwhile, it feels like white actors are constantly being forced to make up for things.
Another issue is how they handle Asian characters in Hollywood films by casting white actors instead (like in Ghost in the Shell, Alohi, etc.).
We'll see.

My absolute favorite Disney animation
I’m just not feeling the female lead at all👎
Plus, I'm really not a fan of her being a Black person

What’s even coming next? A gay Elsa? Sleeping Beauty as some drag queen from Thailand? Snow White and the seven orphans from Syria?...

Gary Patel said:View on twitter

Personally, I think she’s absolutely stunning—well, that’s just my take, anyway🤣—so I’m really rooting for her to live up to the role.

As for all the noise regarding her skin tone... honestly, there will always be critics. The second someone who isn't white, cisgender, or heterosexual enters the frame, you hear the usual: ''HoLlYwOoD iS oNlY fOrCe-fItTiNg bLaCk pErSoNs, gAyS, aNd MuSlImS.'' It’s just inevitable at this point. Especially considering Disney produced 47 films between 1937 and 2009 before finally giving us our first Black princess, Tiana. Besides, Ariel is a mermaid princess—not some royal from medieval Europe—so there's really no reason she *has* to be white to fit the setting. She could be any skin tone; she's a mythical creature, after all, and the interpretation is ultimately up to the director.

I don't have a solid opinion yet—I'm holding out for the trailer. You can have a perfect cast and end up with a mediocre movie, or vice versa—sometimes those unknown actors just steal the show in a masterpiece.

It would have been incredible if they had cast a drag queen as Ursula, especially since the original animated version was inspired by drag queens!

Even Black people are saying they aren't impressed; if anything, they're against it.

and this

What really gets me about this little girl is those tiny, pig-like eyes that are spaced way too far apart.
Regarding her skin tone, it’s not even that dark. Let's be real, light-skinned Black women always have an easier time, even within the Black community itself.
As for the hair, they'll probably just sew a red wig straight onto her scalp...

But there's no fixing those eyes.

Those wide-set eyes are just creepy to me...
like some kind of alien.

I'm going to head out soon...
I simply don't care for this forced diversity—it feels unnatural.
It implies there’s a fundamental issue that can't be fixed through merit, suggesting we're so pathetic that we need mandatory quotas to succeed.
Take those massive corporations that have to ensure 20 percent of their board is female—I believe in hiring the absolute best talent for the job, period.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for women's rights and equal pay; women shouldn't earn less than men...
but forcing a 20 percent quota onto corporate boards isn't the answer.
That kind of coercion just screams that we are too weak to make it on our own without being shoved into positions by force.
What really needs to change is the public mindset.

Or look at the trend of Black actors at the Oscars...
they need more leading roles, certainly.
But for heaven's sake, it doesn't mean Ariel has to be a Black person.

For me, the worst example of this was in the film Tulip Fever.
If I recall correctly, the movie is set in Amsterdam during the 17th century.
A few Black people appeared in the film, but the most glaring part was seeing wealthy Black individuals in fine suits just walking through a scene for less than a second in the background...
And that happened maybe five times, perhaps even more.
If that isn't a slap in the face, I don't know what is. 🙏
All of this is done just so some Americans won't complain that there isn't a single Black person in the cast.
They shield themselves with that kind of circus.
Fine, give one Black actor a meaningful role and let them say a line...
but those people relegated to the background for a split second in expensive clothing?
Honestly, I found it quite degrading.

I'll be signing off shortly...
The film *After* was based on books.
One of the main male characters in the book is a blonde...
but in the movie, he's a Black person.

Then, a minor male role was changed into a female character.
In the book, he has a girlfriend...
but in the movie, since the character is now female, they turn it into a lesbian relationship.

All of this just so nobody can claim the film is once again filled with nothing but heterosexual white people.

Mark my words, they'll probably find a way to insert someone gay into Ariel's story too.

The guarantor is basically gonna toss Prince Eric into the sunset along with Ariel's dad, leaving her to just sit there and cry while she decorates the walls...

It’s pretty wild how all that "progressive" casting talk completely vanished when they were picking Belle for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast. Funny how it always seems to be the redheads who end up getting targeted for racebending, isn't it? I’m just gonna say it because someone has to: I am absolutely losing my mind over this whole "casting" debate. Seriously, can we please stop acting like a movie studio is committing a federal crime every time they cast someone who doesn't look exactly like the drawing in a storybook? It feels like every time a big studio announces a remake, the internet erupts into this massive, angry meltdown. People are out here acting like their entire identity is being erased because a certain character isn't a redhead or a specific shade of pale. Give me a break! It’s a movie. A fantasy. A piece of entertainment. Since when did watching a film become such a high-stakes political battlefield? Look, I get it. Representation matters. Truly. We need more diverse stories and more people seeing themselves on screen. But there’s a massive difference between fighting for actual visibility and throwing a tantrum because a character's hair color changed. When you scream "#NotMyAriel" every time Disney decides to shake things up, you aren't actually fighting for progress—you're just being loud and making it impossible for anyone to actually have a conversation about what matters. It’s exhausting. I’m sitting there trying to enjoy the magic, the music, and the spectacle, and then I scroll down and see people acting like the world is ending because a character looks a little different than they imagined. It’s not that deep, guys. Really. It’s just a movie. Let’s all take a collective breath and maybe find something else to be outraged about, because this is getting ridiculous.

Good grief, I honestly didn't think this many people would lose their minds over her skin tone.
And wow, was I wrong... they really managed to let me down.

Does nobody care that the character of Ariel in the last few adaptations—including that '89 cartoon everyone keeps bringing up—isn't even close to the original? That doesn't bother anyone, right? Even that red hair from '89 is fine, but suddenly everyone’s a critic because she's a Black person.

I just hope the girl crushes the role and shuts all these haters up. I still can't believe some of these comments in 😵😵

I honestly couldn't believe how many people were getting worked up over her eye spacing 😲 .

Long live the people with wide-set eyes 🙂 .

Honestly, I’m just constantly let down by how creatively bankrupt "progressive" Hollywood has become. Instead of actually doing the work to honor Black culture by building genuinely original characters, they just take the lazy route with all this racebending and raceswapping nonsense. It feels like they're just pandering rather than actually creating anything meaningful.

Reading about their eyes is an even bigger nightmare. Honestly, it’s like some insecure teenager having a meltdown wrote this—it makes zero sense.

Hollywood can't even come up with original characters in white culture (just look at the current trends), let alone for a Black person, so why is everyone acting so shocked and disappointed? 🤔

velvetmaker78 said:Reading about their eyes is an even bigger nightmare. Honestly, it’s like some insecure teenager having a meltdown wrote this—it makes zero sense.

Hollywood can't even come up with original characters in white culture (just look at the current trends), let alone for a Black person, so why is everyone acting so shocked and disappointed? 🤔

So, where are all the original white characters? Seriously! Look at how Disney handled Rey—it was like they’d never even seen a Star Wars film before. And you wouldn't know it from the progressives, either; nobody was tearing their hair out to demand some young Black woman take over the role, even though it was such a perfect opportunity. Then Disney gives us everyone's favorite, Elsa from Frozen, and once again, she’s white as a sheet—and blonde on top of it! It’s like a textbook example of "diversity," just totally lopsided. Why weren't they "brave" enough to actually give us a dark-skinned ice princess? It's not like winter and ice are exclusive to white people. Or did Disney just decide that the target audience for Frozen wouldn't relate to a dark-skinned princess, so they’d make less money? Makes sense, right?

Honestly, you can't even deny there’s enough crazy material here to keep anyone stunned.

Setting aside the whole debate over skin tones, what really grates on my nerves is how they’re butchering Andersen's original story.
I'll start weighing in on the casting once I finally see a version on the big screen where the Little Mermaid actually has bloody feet from every step feeling like she's walking on red-hot knives—and where the ending follows the book, with the prince staying with his wife while she wanders the world as a spirit just to earn an immortal soul. Only then will I have something to say about the actors.
As for the plot itself, people can pretend it's whatever they want, but it’s basically just a forced, overly optimistic happy ending.

stormyridge2 said:So, where are all the original white characters? Seriously! Look at how Disney handled Rey—it was like they’d never even seen a Star Wars film before. And you wouldn't know it from the progressives, either; nobody was tearing their hair out to demand some young Black woman take over the role, even though it was such a perfect opportunity. Then Disney gives us everyone's favorite, Elsa from Frozen, and once again, she’s white as a sheet—and blonde on top of it! It’s like a textbook example of "diversity," just totally lopsided. Why weren't they "brave" enough to actually give us a dark-skinned ice princess? It's not like winter and ice are exclusive to white people. Or did Disney just decide that the target audience for Frozen wouldn't relate to a dark-skinned princess, so they’d make less money? Makes sense, right?

Honestly, you can't even deny there’s enough crazy material here to keep anyone stunned.

Look, there’s zero biological or phenotypic logic in having a Black actress play Elsa from Frozen or designing her as a dark-skinned character since she's from the far north. If they wanted to create a character like a little Eskimo girl, fine, but definitely not a dark-skinned one.

But hey, look at Moana as a prime example of a successful original character. It honestly feels like Black actors are actually overrepresented in Disney films lately. At this rate, all we need is for some gay Black tranny to play Elsa just to really complete the whole absurd circle...

northerndriver said:Look, there’s zero biological or phenotypic logic in having a Black actress play Elsa from Frozen or designing her as a dark-skinned character since she's from the far north. If they wanted to create a character like a little Eskimo girl, fine, but definitely not a dark-skinned one.

But hey, look at Moana as a prime example of a successful original character. It honestly feels like Black actors are actually overrepresented in Disney films lately. At this rate, all we need is for some gay Black tranny to play Elsa just to really complete the whole absurd circle...

People will easily toss biological or phenotypic logic out the window in favor of "progressivism" since we're dealing with a totally fictional, fairy-tale character anyway. It would almost make sense if skin color affected her powers, but within the reality of political correctness, it’s somehow "illogical" that an ice princess can't be dark-skinned. Isn't that the whole point of "inclusivity" nowadays—that anyone can be anything? The same goes for an Eskimo character. Why does she have to be stereotypically tied to coldness and ice? Why can't she be portrayed any other way?

But here's the kicker: this famous "inclusivity" is selectively pushed not because it makes sense for the fairy-tale world-building, but because they're chasing a specific demographic. Let's face it, a dark-skinned Elsa probably wouldn't be as profitable for Disney as this pale version. You only have to look at how much The Princess and the Frog made ($271m) versus Frozen ($1.276b), or compare the amount of Tian toys versus Elsa toys out there.

They already tried pushing the idea of Elsa being gay, but Disney knows that would be total suicide. Maybe that snowman can be gay, but Elsa? Hard pass. In the end, "political correctness" always turns out to be incredibly hypocritical.