The Little Mermaid is the talk of the town lately, for both good and bad reasons.
Good because they're making good decisions, but bad because the internet had to hate on it.
The Little Mermaid is the talk of the town lately, for both good and bad reasons.
Good because they're making good decisions, but bad because the internet had to hate on it.
With production starting in April 2020 and the release date assumed to be around 2021, we can't wait for the year of great vision to finally roll around.
Get it? 2020? Moving on.
And honestly, I'm pretty excited to see Halle Bailey in the role.
She's cool, she's young and she's cut her teeth on a couple of acting roles as well. She might be perfect for the mermaid.
Which, you know, if you're going to be in a Disney musical, you're going to have to know how to sing with the best of them.
And she does, in fact, sing like the best of them.
Right?
I mean, she's a talented singer, she's the perfect age for the role, she has a great look, there's no possible way that anyone could ever possibly have any prob–
I'm going to stop you right there, me, because of course people have issues with this new Ariel.
And I'll bet you can't guess why people have a problem with Halle Bailey.
Because her career as an R&B singer makes her voice not sound right for the role.
People are so attached to Jodi Benson they couldn't see anyone else in the role.
or C) Because she's black and not white.
Then you're wrong because it's obviously C.
Yeah, people are pretty pissed that she's not a fair-skinned, red-headed mythological creature like she was in the original animated movie.
"BuT mUh ChIlDhOoD!"
Every time a traditionally white role is recast as black the whole internet blows up, and the same thing happens vice-versa.
Have a white person playing a Hawaiian? Prepare to get bombarded with #NotMyAllisonNg.
Disney already had mermaids that weren't white!
You may have forgotten about this mermaid, but she did exist!
I don't blame you if you don't, it was one of those after Disney renaissance hit movie TV shows that kind of came and went.
She was inspired by Ariel and her beautiful singing voice, and one day wanted to be as good a singer as Ariel was.
She was Latina!
And the people of Atlantica (yeah, I bet you didn't know the Kingdom in which Ariel lived until now) didn't care. Gabriella considered Ariel a sister, and vice-versa.
Yep, she used sign language to communicate and her friend, Ollie the Octopus, translated for her.
So Twitter, if they cast a deaf Prince Eric, please don't start #NotMyEric.
Apparently, she was based on a young fan who passed away during the show's first season.
She was added so deaf kids could have someone to relate too.
And boy, while the character is an inspiring one, the episode where she came into the world is a weird one.
I guess it would really be swimming around or whatever, mostly arm movements, but who am I to argue semantics about a magical underwater world?
We see Gabriella for the first time as she spies on Ariel and eventually comes out and talks to her potential mermaid friend. Awww, how adorable, she's a shy little mermaid.
Oh yeah, Ollie is there too.
Ariel talks about how she wants to dance (or swim around, whatever) and Gabriella talks about how she wants to sing as good as Ariel.
So what do they do?
Go to see a magical starfish that can apparently grant wishes.
What, you thought Ariel was just going to teach her to sing and they were going to find a way to dance together? Psh.
To get to the starfish, the two mermaids and their animal companions have to brave Killer Crab Canyon and the Cave of Terror.
Ariel bringing Sebastian and Flounder, Gabriella bringing her pal Ollie.
They get past the Killer Crabs by having Sebastian talk way too much and as they go along something happens...
Mostly over a mutual love of adventure, and their similar styles of doing so.
However, I feel like this happens a lot when two people go on a journey together.
The Starfish doesn't end up granting their wishes, and in fact isn't even magical, which is kind of a jip.
However, they treasure the new friendship that they made and remain as such.
Because Disney has already cast mermaids of color and even if they didn't why do you care so much?
It's a freaking movie, people.