Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID live-action movie musical - News & Discussion Thread- Page 6

[Seb28]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 6:20pm

Plannietink08 said: "gives off the impression her blackness is the issue, despite her blackness not being part of the performance you’re intensely critiquing."

The problem is in your head, because indeed, her blackness is not part of the performance I am critiquing.

I love that she was cast and have been very enthusiastic about it. Again, not because she was black, but because I think she is the right type for Ariel, which is a very specific type, and also because I think her voice is extremely beautiful, which is essential for the role. I have not seen anyone that would suit the role better, or that I would rather see being cast, type and voice quality wise.

So please stop involving blackness whenever someone is critiquing the film in the slightest. Because there are actually other factors in a film, in case you were not aware of that.

I think the mental state of the world is deteriorating in a fast pace. Look at the people here who insist on thinking in color first. Even when a discussion has nothing to do with that. That is bad. Bad beyond words. That is actually creating a bigger separation in race than ever before. That is basically racism.

Sometimes I long for the time how it was in the 1990's. For example when the black Morgan Freeman played the role of the white, redhead, Irish man in the film adaptation of the book "The Shawshank Redemption". Nobody made a sound. It was just a human who played a role. I loved his performance, and any critique on the movie was content-, story or acting related. Nobody said anything about his color and people loved his performance and that was that. Black people were everywhere, making success, and were seen as any other person. He was praised for his wonderful performance. The most popular people in the world were Oprah and Whitney and Michael. But today, people are acting as if they see water burn when a black person plays something. Kids that grew up with the black Disney princess Tiana are now suddenly acting surprised as if not everything in the world is played by black people too. As if we did not have a black Disney princess before. That is weird, because actually, everything is. For many years. Black artists leading the charts, black president, black glinda, black annie, black sesame street characters, black everything. When are those people going to stop acting surprised that black people are normal people? That do normal things and have bigger successes than anyone I know since I grew up in the 90's? And very importantly, accept that they are actually judged by people on fora just like any other person, because of their performance, choices, things they do, etc. Without people frantically demanding that she is not a normal person because any critique on the film she is in is immediately labeled as racism? That is bizarre. We now live in a time where people start screaming and tearing down buildings should the new James Bond be cast white. That is not normal. People are deciding which race can use certain words and which race can not. They are even deciding what subjects a race is allowed to talk about. I hope you realize what your behaviour is causing and I will kindly ask you to stop those world alienated remarks and change your attitude towards people and color. I am half POC. If you react on me in the future, please make sure it is about the actual points that I discuss. Thank you.

 

Updated On: 9/18/22 at 06:20 PM

[WestEndGal]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 7:28pm

jacobsnchz14 said: "DottieD'Luscia said: "Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a live action Little Mermaid a few years ago? I could have sworn I watched it on TV, but can't seem to find anything online. Thanks!"

There was a Little Mermaid Live on ABC which showed the animated film and live performances of the musical numbers.

Sierra Boggess posted this this morning."

Who is actually p*seed that Ariel is being played by a black actress? Because I haven’t personally seen any comments to that effect. Of course you’re always gonna get a small minority of terrible humans who spout their racist crap, but it’s seems like 99.9% of people have zero issue, as they shouldn’t. I feel like these days the drama is often fuelled by social media outrage that is completely overgrown. All it does is fracture society even more. 
 

Oh and I listened to the full(ish) POYW on YouTube and thought Halle Bailey sounded great - was concerned reading the comments that Halle had gone full Shobean with the unnecessary riffing, but she really didn’t at all, lol! 

[MysteriousLady]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 7:53pm

Seb28 said: "MysteriousLady said: "I just want everyone to know that Seb28 is the same oddball who has posted under a dozen different names and in the past has suggested that it would be ok to paint a white child black and put them in The Lion King. He seems to have a real problem with the way POC interpret songs and obsesses over the way individual words are sung."

What?? I kindly ask you to apologize. This is not me. I paint nothing and I am half POC myself."

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1093756#4819635

I'm not apologizing for anything. Here is a link to the post I mentioned. You were going by dave19 at the time, one of several names you've used here. 

[Seb28]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 8:47pm

MysteriousLady said: "

I'm not apologizing for anything. Here is a link to the post I mentioned. ."

I am not a European casting director. And I am not going to discuss the skin color of white lions. Please take your delusions somewhere else. You are making a fool of yourself.

 

Updated On: 9/18/22 at 08:47 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 9:09pm

Who is actually p*seed that Ariel is being played by a black actress? Because I haven’t personally seen any comments to that effect. Of course you’re always gonna get a small minority of terrible humans who spout their racist crap, but it’s seems like 99.9% of people have zero issue, as they shouldn’t. I feel like these days the drama is often fueled by social media outrage that is completely overgrown. All it does is fracture society even more. 

If you are on social media at all, you would have seen the thousands of racist posts with equally racist hashtags. Here is an article about the recent racist comments about Rings of Power and The Little Mermaid if you're interested. 

Why Black characters in 'Rings of Power' & 'Little Mermaid' make fantasy better

 

[Chase Miller]

Posted: 9/19/22 at 11:48pm

Halle's version is very powerful and exudes emotion. It's not a competition but I think this is the best version of the song. 

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/20/22 at 1:10am

This stupidity of Ariel being played by a black actress is one that reeks of stupidity to the point of me wanting to bang my head against the wall. 

It’s up there with people being pissed that the character of Rue in Hunger Games was cast by a black actress (despite being written as such in the book and cast accordingly.) 

And, in the Harry Potter novels, Hermione was never written with any sort of characteristics that stated the character had to be white. People had always assumed so based upon the acting of Emma Watson in the movies. So, when they cast a black actress for the role in Cursed Child, fans went wrongfully ape**** over it. 

[Seb28]

Posted: 9/20/22 at 6:02am

Islander_fan said: "This stupidity of Ariel being played by a black actress is one that reeks of stupidity to the point of me wanting to bang my head against the wall.

It’s up there with people being pissed that the character of Rue in Hunger Games was cast by a black actress (despite being written as such in the book and cast accordingly.)

And, in the Harry Potter novels, Hermione wasneverwritten with any sort of characteristics that stated the character had to be white. People had always assumed so based upon the acting of Emma Watson in the movies. So, when they cast a black actress for the role in Cursed Child, fans went wrongfully ape**** over it."

That is very true, a severe case of stupidity. But continuing to only bring up this and her color and nothing else on a message board like this, where every arts-loving person should be critiquing the actual artistic side (because this community is generally able to stand for inclusion and is able to look at other aspects) is kind of weird and stupid too. It makes me wonder which group is actually more unable to look past race. Where is the interest in the actual artistic details and choices?

 

Updated On: 9/20/22 at 06:02 AM

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 9/20/22 at 8:13am

It is possible to intentionally cast a person of color and also cast them because they are the right person for the role. Seb28, it sounds like you’re either a person of a different generation or not from America. There are so many inequalities when it comes to people of color in the arts. I know you mentioned the stars we loved in the 90s, and that’s great, but looking past celebrity, people of color are still not treated fairly and equally in all aspects of life. Representation in arts still matters so much today. Look at all of those blind reactions from little Black girls when they were shown the trailer for the first time. That’s why intentional casting like this matters.

Updated On: 9/20/22 at 08:13 AM

[MagicalMusical]

Posted: 9/20/22 at 9:38am

Seb28 said: "Let's just agree to disagree and that we have different opinions. I don't like an aggressive Ariel. I like classy longing, not trashy longing (for the lack of a better word, I find aggressiveness is lacking class per definition). The ad-libs and riffs come across as posing and indulgence to me, but might come across as sincere to you. Maybe in 100 years 99% of the people find screaming and riffing sincere and beautiful, where in the 1950's it would have been not even 1%. Now, in 2022 we seem to be in a place where 80% finds it jarring and 20% loves it very, very much. In 20 years it might be 50/50. Who knows. Time will tell."

Ok, let's agree to disagree. I love her take, you don't like it except for the "above" part.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 9/20/22 at 3:36pm

HeyMrMusic said: "It is possible to intentionally cast a person of color and also cast them because they are the right person for the role. Seb28, it sounds like you’re either a person of a different generation or not from America. There are so many inequalities when it comes to people of color in the arts. I know you mentioned the stars we loved in the 90s, and that’s great, but looking past celebrity, people of color are still not treated fairly and equally in all aspects of life. Representation in arts still matters so much today. Look at all of those blind reactions from little Black girls when they were shown the trailer for the first time. That’s why intentional casting like this matters."

And a commercial film by one of the greediest companies on earth is solving the structural problems that are woven into the very fabric of the American society? Delusion is good only if you don't have to live the real life.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 1:38pm

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 1:45pm

The movie is most likely gonna be awful since all of their lazy life action versions are, but that poster is gorgeous. 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 1:52pm

Beautiful, beautiful poster. Stunning work. 

[Listener]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 10:19pm

Is it though?

....it's fine, don't get me wrong, but it also looks like the kind of digital painted art you see done for puzzles.

I have very low expectations for this and dread seeing Sebastian in quasi-"real" form. The underwater scenes in Aquaman were weird enough. Handdrawn animation just creates a greater sense of suspension of disbelief for me.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 12:21pm

New illustrations of Halle as Ariel from tie-in books coming out later this spring.

Rumor has it, there will be a longer trailer released this month that will feature the rest of the cast.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 1:37pm

Photos of the Funko Pop! figures based in the live action film were leaked as well…the Ursula design is boring, but excited for the longer trailer to come soon.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 5:33pm

Listener said: "I have very low expectations for this and dread seeing Sebastian in quasi-"real" form. The underwater scenes in Aquaman were weird enough. Hand drawn animation just creates a greater sense of suspension of disbelief for me."

I think if you're going to do a live action retelling of an animated property, what should really be taken into account is if you could picture the story itself in real life. Which has been a problem for several of Disney's recent installments.

 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 2/15/23 at 12:25pm

 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/15/23 at 1:17pm

OMFG. This looks amazing. She sounds stunning. Racists are soiling themselves. LOVE. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/15/23 at 1:24pm

That's just a longer teaser   

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 3/12/23 at 9:08pm

 

[Ke3]

Posted: 3/12/23 at 9:37pm

I don't trust Disney, or Rob Marshall but God that girl can sing so we'll always have the soundtrack!

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 3/13/23 at 2:17pm

Soundtrack pre-orders: https://presave.umusic.com/thelittlemermaidsoundtrack

[Peronista]

Posted: 3/13/23 at 4:30pm

Looking like this will be the most successful artistically and critically of all the live action remakes