“Wait. That’s illegal.” —Racists

Mind if I drop this in the politics stream, buddy?

Thank you kindly.

Why’s this relevant? I haven’t seen a lot of people that were actually upset about there being a black or African mermaid. Maybe it’s that I’m just not hanging around those sorts of people who would get upset over something so stupid and trivial. Yeah, that must be it. Carry on then, Slo!

I wouldn’t say I “hang out” with any of the 1.5 million folks out there, who vice-signal their affiliation with the digital KKK by mashing the dislike button in unison to a sweet and anodyne trailer for a children’s movie, for one obvious reason and that reason only.

That said it does no good to bury our heads in the sand and pretend such people don’t exist, simply because we have the good sense and privilege to isolate ourselves from such toxicity in our everyday experiences of the world.

I took the 1:34 minutes out of my day to watch this trailer in full. Finding nothing objectionable, I hit the like button — one of only 58k people to have done so to date.

If you’ve ever wondered why some platforms (including Imgflip) have moved away from publicly displaying a tally of dislikes, period — here’s a case in point.

What kind of message does being that abysmally “ratioed” send to this actress? To black people? To children in general?

While nothing can isolate the actress herself (God bless her) from becoming such an object of hate, for the high crime of being cast in a movie — removing the dislike counter in such cases can at least limit the collateral damage done by this online lynch mob to others.

The trailer wasn’t bad, I liked it too but personally I would prefer if Disney stopped making live action remakes of their cartoon classics and just made animated remakes of them instead. The Princess and the Frog shows that they are capable of doing that too, ya know?

I don't care who plays the mermaid, a live action remake sounds dumb by itself

Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo" was a variation of "The Little Mermaid".

I don't understand why it's relevant, I mean Disney is already ruining the old animated movies by making them live action.

Yeah, should’ve just did animated remakes instead. The skin color of the titular character shouldn’t matter if it’s just a movie for kids anyway.

Even in movies for kids, children of color should see a variety of characters that look like them. Scratch that: all children should see a variety of characters that reflect the normal diversity of humankind.

And for my two cents, I really liked the live action Aladdin a lot better than the animated one, and I love the live action Jungle Book as well. (The live-action Beauty and the Beast was just about as unwatchable as the original.)

Are you talking about me and preferences for animated remakes instead of live action? I don’t think I said you couldn’t enjoy the live action remakes when I can’t, but if I did come off like I was then I’m sorry 😞

I was replying to Lyoll's comment

Didn’t seem like he was disagreeing with you though.

No need to apologize

I didn't even know there were other versions lol

BATB has been done many times.

I used to have the Philip Glass score for this. It's sensational.
But if you're willing to go with an off-brand remake, Hotel de Luna has a pretty good Beauty and the Beast bit too.

On the other hand, I would watch a spinoff series about the fairies in Sleeping Beauty in a second.

Hence why I referenced the Princess and the Frog movie. Or did you not realize that Tiana was a person of color? And besides her, Dr Faciler and the Prince were people of color. :/
As for Aladdin remake, I could take the Will Smith attempting emulate the late and great Robin Williams or leave it personally. He’s not as funny to me as Robin Williams was as the Genie.

I really liked the Princess and the Frog, and I'd love to see a live action remake, with all of those historic New Orleans settings, and the period costumes.

Fairy tales by their nature have been told and retold hundreds of times: they don't have one perfect form. I really enjoy seeing the different riffs on the theme that we get with each remake. Of course most of the main characters in the Disney Princess and the Frog are Black, just like the characters of the classic movie Black Orpheus. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Orpheus ) It worked in 1959, and it worked again in 2009.

I don’t want a live action remake of Princess and the Frog. All I want is an animated sequel or reboot of that movie. Cartoons > Live Action

Actually the Frog Prince is Latin American.

Is he? I didn't think it had been established where he came from. (Also, it is possible to be both Latin American and Black.)

That’s true, too. But I mean, his voice actor, Bruno Campos, is Latin American (Brazilian, to be more accurate).

Normal diversity would be about 1 in 10 times a person would be black in a movie placed in America, I don't think you would classify that as "normal diversity", because it is such a low percentage at 13%.

But that would also depend on WHERE the movie is set. A movie set in rural Idaho would have fewer Black characters; a move set in Houston should have more like 1 in 4 or 5 characters be black.

Exactly, but most of these movies settings are in fictional environments.

So . . . a fictional environment doesn't have to reflect the actual demographics of the US. In point of fact, since Disney wants to sell its movies all over the world, it makes sense to have their fictional worlds more diverse, like the global population that will view them.

Im not saying that it doesn't have to reflect normal demographics, I'm saying, as I said in my first comment, I DONT KNOW WHY IT MATTERS! It shouldn't matter what skin color or culture a character has.

So, if it doesn't matter, let's make ALL the characters people of color . . . just to see how much it doesn't matter. There are plenty of talented actors of color, so why not?

MF you're literally agreeing with me!!! I keep saying it doesn't matter!

I'm taking your logic the next step: If you believe it doesn't matter, you shouldn't be bothered AT ALL by the casting of actors of color in these roles. You wouldn't mind if 90% of the actors were actors of color.

Me, I think it DOES matter. I work with a diverse bunch of kids in my job, and I'd like to see a lot more characters who look and sound like them.

So, yeah! I'm psyched for the new Little Mermaid too.

They didn't even need to remake them

It's still the same life lessons aswell.

I'm inclined to agree. Many Disney animated films, especially the older ones from the 1950s and earlier, have reached near classic status and should be left alone.

Some 1950s animated films made by Disney were pretty racist though, weren’t they?

No, that was the looney toons.

Song of the South? That was a Disney movie btw

YES!!! I bet they took the "We Are Siamese" number out of the remade Lady and the Tramp at the very first storyboarding meeting.

The other parts of that movie were still good, though

yeah but ariel isnt black you f**ktard, thats the point dick tucker