Disney is making waves with another live action remake of The Little Mermaid (2023). However, since the trailer was released in early September this year, the studio has encountered controversy.
The internet population has reacted negatively to the trailer, which received 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube. The dislikes are attributed to the fan reaction of casting Halle Bailey, a black actress, in the role Ariel. This follows a trend of internet outrage flaming whenever predominantly white media becomes more diverse.
The Disney Princess franchise has been criticized in the past for promoting regressive ideas with overly white and idealized faces and bodies. More recently they have found pushback on the inclusion of protagonist women of color from irate internet commenters, varying from some companies’ lack of cultural nuance and others wary that companies are encouraging representation of beliefs they disagree with, like mermaids with melanated skin.
Both groups criticize Disney for using colored characters as props to virtue signal that they are politically correct. This backlash also happened in their Star Wars franchise reboot, with characters of color like Fin and Rose, whose actors were harassed viciously on a variety of different platforms.
This is not unique to Disney productions, and similar backlash has been witnessed for shows like Rings of Power (2022) and The Sandman(2022), which also cast black actors for roles that were previously assumed to be white.
While the negative response to the diverse casting was very loud, there was an equal outpouring of love from parents posting videos of their little girls reacting to the trailer with excitement. Many advocates for Disney’s casting choice laude the future generation’s embrace of their natural features based on their presence in their most loved characters.
Red haired characters have a history of being re-cast as people of color, perhaps due to red-haired character’s tendency to portray a sense of otherness, but for little girls. Still, the history of the character does not matter as much to little girls as seeing a beautiful mermaid who looks like them on screen.
