Featured Image Credit: ScreenProd/Photononstop/Alamy Stock Photo/Disney
Topics: Disney, Film and TV, Racism
Joe Harker
Topics: Disney, Film and TV, Racism
After so much abuse has been hurled at Halle Bailey for getting cast in The Little Mermaid that another mermaid from the big screen has spoken out.
Since the announcement of Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel in Disney's live action remake of The Little Mermaid there's been a major backlash.
It turns out that some people can seemingly accept a fantastical world where the sea has talking lobsters, literal magic and creatures that are half-human, half-fish, but only if their human half isn't black.
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Within two days the trailer for The Little Mermaid had racked up over 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube, with lots of complaints over how Bailey looked as Ariel, or more specifically one particular aspect of her appearance.
Some took to social media sharing the hashtag '#NotMyAriel', trying very hard to pretend that the skin colour of a character whose only other major appearance was in a 1989 animated movie was in any way a reasonable thing to get worked up over.
An AI artist even went so far as to digitally replace Bailey with a white woman in the trailer, proof if ever it was needed that some people have far too much time on their hands.
Fortunately, the reaction has not been one of overwhelming hate as there have been plenty of people who've loved what they've seen of Halle Bailey as Ariel.
Loads of young black girls have had their heart-warming reactions to the trailer shared as they've been delighted to see a Disney princess who looks like them.
Famous figures have also stepped in to defend Bailey from the racist trolls, with original Little Mermaid Jodi Benson praising Bailey as being 'absolutely amazing'.
Now another famous Hollywood mermaid has stepped in to defend Bailey, with Daryl Hannah taking to Twitter to tell people 'don't be a racist dork' over the character's casting.
Hannah played a mermaid in 1984 movie Splash, a romantic comedy where she starred as mermaid Madison who rescues Tom Hanks from drowning before the two eventually fall in love.
Meanwhile, marine biologist Karen Osborn has said that if mermaids were real (either they aren't, or they're very good at hiding) then it'd make scientific sense for them to be black.
She explained that fish 'reflect whatever's around them', and the deeper down into the briny depths you go the darker it'll be as there's much less light available.
Mermaids in the shallow parts of the sea would likely be more blue in colour, while those who swim down deeper would more likely be black or even a dark red.
The Little Mermaid live action film is set to hit cinemas 26 May 2023.
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