#NotMyAriel.
Imagine hundreds of thousands of people making videos, tweets, and comments all across the internet insulting you because of your role in a movie. This is what happened to actress and singer Halle Bailey.
While Disney initially released the cast list for The Little Mermaid back in 2019, it didn’t gain much traction or popularity up until last spring. All of a sudden, hateful and racist comments towards Bailey were spreading across the internet like wildfire for her portrayal as Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
No matter what app you were on, you were bound to find at least one video or statement saying that Bailey wasn’t fit for the role because she didn’t look like Ariel from the original 1989 film. Plaguing the internet were ‘hot takes’ and debates, each one stating why or why not she was suitable for the movie. Many arguments reasoned that it involves more diversity in the Disney princess films that they previously lacked, whereas others say that they shouldn’t mess with a classic.
After the drama of Ariel subsided, the tension was quickly brought back to the surface when it was announced that Rachel Zegler, a Hispanic woman, would be playing Snow White in the new live-action Snow White movie. This once again quickly sparked outrage in many that these classic and timeless characters were being portrayed differently than initially intended.
Many people thought that the belief that characters can’t change was outdated, and they claimed that many of the judgments were just poorly veiled racist comments disguised as concern for the characters’ originality. It has also led to rising fears that no future characters in the live-action movies will be depicted as their original, animated versions, were.
The general idea that Disney seems to be attempting to convey with this is that the color of your skin doesn’t matter and that any young girl could imagine herself as any one of the princesses. However, numerous critics and enjoyers of Disney films see it as a lazy attempt to include more diversity rather than creating diverse characters to begin with.
As the increase in live-action remakes increases, so do people’s concerns that integral parts of the characters will be changed for the sake of diversity. Many have suggested that Rapunzel will be played by a bald actress or Moana by a black actress, which would erase her important Polynesian heritage. In their movement towards diversity, they are changing the original characters and letting down the hopes viewers had that these films would accurately represent the originals they are based upon.
If Disney continues with this, they will inevitably lose fans who don’t like the way things are being done, and they will attract hate towards the actors and actresses they have playing these roles. All of Disney’s “color-blind” casting has led to more issues than anticipated and had the opposite effect it was supposed to, and as more and more live actions are released, the aggravation and hate will continue.
