Meme - "His fin be all over the place lol
King Triton and his daughters *7 women of varying races*"
Post | LinkedIn - "The blatantly racist responses to the casting of a Black woman in the role of The Walt Disney Company 's Little Mermaid, is a stark reminder of how far we have to go in terms of #DiversityEquityInclusion . There is nothing critical to the narrative in the race or ethnicity of Ariel the mermaid. This isn't Mulan or Braveheart or Black Panther. If you can accept talking crabs and singing fish without any issue, but the sight of a Black mermaid (a mythical fantasy character) causes a visceral response, it reveals deep seated bias that must consciously or unconsciously permeate other aspects of your life, including hiring and promotion decisions, and how you respond to seeing Black and racialized persons in other real life arenas where they are underrepresented, including the boardroom, as co-workers, and as elected and appointed officials... Director Peter Jackson adamantly defended his decision to not include a single non white character in his 6 Lord of the Rings movies, stating that he was striving for 'historical accuracy'...??? As if Middle Earth is a real place."
Of course, all the anti-racists outraged at "whitewashing" of fictional characters are brave and stunning, even when there is nothing critical to the narrative in those characters' race or ethnicity, and it's the people who criticise them who are racist
Another example of liberals claiming that in sci-fi/fantasy, anything goes and internal consistency/in-universe logic are unimportant. And I am unable to find any example of Peter Jackson claiming that historical accuracy is why he didn't cast non-white characters (which is wrong, anyway), but making up stuff is par for the course anyway
Meme - "Même le cheval ? Sérieux ? *Cheval noir*"
'Beyond The Trailer' Host Grace Randolph Defends 'The Little Mermaid' Race Swapping, Also Says "If Anyone's Hating On This It's A Reflection On Them And Not The Film Itself"
If you don't shut up and consume, you're a bad person
The Little Mermaid review: Halle Bailey and nostalgia can't save this remake - "Search for "The Little Mermaid side-by-side," and you'll land upon several user-created videos drawing visual comparisons between Disney's 1989 hand-drawn animated hit and the trailer for the new star-studded "live-action" remake directed by Rob Marshall. Many of the shots – Ariel breaching the water's surface while dramatically tossing her long red locks behind her, for one – are so eerily similar in composition that they almost present as carbon copies. This is, of course, by design; the studio wants viewers to notice its ongoing commitment to recycling. At this point, Disney has its formula down pat: Take one of its beloved traditionally animated properties, update its sensibilities for modern audiences just a bit, recast it with a bunch of familiar faces and voices, and rehash it all in "live-action"/CGI form. And over the last couple of decades, it's consistently worked, often to the maniacal tune of around a billion dollars at the box office... The primary function of this cynical exercise is to induce in viewers a warped combination of nostalgia and déjà vu, so as such, there are only two ways to measure its merits. The first is to stack it up against its peers; in this case, The Little Mermaid 2.0 is not oppressively atrocious in the way Aladdin 2.0 and Pinocchio 2.0 are. Like the decent Beauty and the Beast 2.0, there are a handful of moments and a performance or two that manage to stand out amid the cacophony of uncanny, deadening CGI... When measured against its origin story, however, Little Mermaid suffers from the same ailments almost all of these remakes have: Being "progressive" while also creatively uninspired... her interpretation of Ariel doesn't fully embrace the edgier, mischievous side of the character that came across so clearly in the 1989 version's animation and as voiced by Jodi Benson. Nor can a Black Ariel make up for subpar renditions of classic songs (the vibrant Oscar-winner "Under the Sea" is dead in the water here) and the cringe-y addition of new songs by the studio's current go-to music man Lin-Manuel Miranda, which include a dull, forgettable ballad for Prince Eric and a ridiculous "rap" for Scuttle and Sebastian called – wait for it – "The Scuttlebutt." Or the fact that the underwater scenes have a flattened sheen reminiscent of video games circa the early 2000s... her interpretation of Ariel doesn't fully embrace the edgier, mischievous side of the character that came across so clearly in the 1989 version's animation and as voiced by Jodi Benson. Nor can a Black Ariel make up for subpar renditions of classic songs (the vibrant Oscar-winner "Under the Sea" is dead in the water here) and the cringe-y addition of new songs by the studio's current go-to music man Lin-Manuel Miranda, which include a dull, forgettable ballad for Prince Eric and a ridiculous "rap" for Scuttle and Sebastian called – wait for it – "The Scuttlebutt." Or the fact that the underwater scenes have a flattened sheen reminiscent of video games circa the early 2000s."
Meme - "No offence to the actors but they look that they don't wanna be together compared to their animated counterparts
1989
2023"
Vox on Twitter - "Whatever happened to a good, old-fashioned Disney villain as wicked as Ursula? #TheLittleMermaid"
Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - "You and your website declared them all problematic?"
Dennis on Twitter - "And for good reason! Ursula was clearly an anti-semitic trope intended to represent the Jews."
Halle Bailey shows new Ariel doll inspired by her 'Little Mermaid' role - The Washington Post - "Growing up, actress and singer Halle Bailey would pretend to be Ariel from the animated Disney movie “The Little Mermaid” whenever she went swimming... Bailey cemented her place in that world as she revealed a doll created to coincide with the May release of Disney’s new live-action film version of “The Little Mermaid,” in which she plays Ariel... “And look,” Bailey added, pointing to the new doll’s forehead. “She even has my mole! See!”"
Weird how she could pretend when she was growing up without a doll that looked like her
Too bad no one without a forehead mole can feel represented. So we need dolls that look like everyone
‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: Disney’s Renovations Are Only Skin Deep - The New York Times - "The new, live-action “The Little Mermaid” is everything nobody should want in a movie: dutiful and defensive, yet desperate for approval. It reeks of obligation and noble intentions. Joy, fun, mystery, risk, flavor, kink — they’re missing. The movie is saying, “We tried!” Tried not to offend, appall, challenge, imagine... On land, Ariel can walk but can’t speak, which means whoever’s playing her needs a face that can. Achieving that was a piece of cake in the cartoon... The prince, Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), is white, English and now seems to have more plot than Ariel. “More” includes meals with his mother, Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni), who’s Black, as is her chief servant, Lashana (Martina Laird). The script, credited to David Magee, John DeLuca, and the director Rob Marshall, informs us that the queen has adopted the prince (because somebody knew inquiring minds would need to know)... The song that breaks this news to Ariel and Sebastian is a rap called “The Scuttlebutt” with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And Awkwafina, who does Scuttle’s voice, performs most of it while Bailey looks on in what I’m going to call anguish. Here’s an Asian American performer whose shtick is a kind of Black impersonation, pretending to be a computer-generated bird, rhythm-rapping with a Black American man pretending to be a Caribbean crab. It’s the sort of mind-melting mess that feels honest and utterly free in its messiness, even as the mess douses a conveniently speechless Black woman. Watching it, you realize why the rest of the movie plays it so safe. Because fun is some risky business. This is a witty, complex, exuberant, breathless, deeply American number that’s also the movie’s one moment of unbridled, unabashed delight. And I can’t wait to see how Disney’s going to apologize for it in 34 years."
When you want kink in a children's movie. Of course those who talk about the sexualisation of children are still paranoid far right conspiracy nuts
This is an admission that trying not to offend just results in a bland mess, and that despite that, people will still be offended by it in the future
'The Little Mermaid' Makeup Lead Responds to Calls for Queer Artist - "“The Little Mermaid” makeup designer Peter Smith King has responded to criticisms of the revamped Ursula look that Melissa McCarthy brings to life in the new live-action remake, specifically contending against a belief that a queer artist should have landed the job."
The woke won't stop till everyone is a "minority". Then they'll look for new ways to divide people up
Meme - Liberal: "It doesn't matter if Arial is black, it's a fictional character"
Normal person: "So why can't Chris Pratt play Mario?"
Liberal: *upset*
Disney Infuriates 'The Little Mermaid' Fans, Makes Racist Change - "Walt Disney Studios revealed the official Chinese poster for The Little Mermaid, which is significantly different than its American counterpart. Though studios often change posters for international audiences, fans quickly realized that the new poster intentionally obscured Bailey’s race, making Ariel look blue instead of Black."
Meme - *Little Mermaid Distracted Boyfriend*
'The Little Mermaid' Fan Artist Accused Of Racism, White Washing For Drawing Classic Ariel In Scene From Live-Action Remake - "In yet another example of just what happens when identity politics are given any amount of leeway, a fan artist has been accused of ‘white washing’ Halle Bailey’s version of The Little Mermaid after illustrating a piece depicting the original animated version of Ariel in a scene featured exclusively in the live-action remake... Screencapping another tweet from @vesuchka in which they beamed, “Canon Ariel is so beautiful,” @lcveadore added, “Like who is ‘canon’ Ariel, Halle’s Ariel is canon. Why is the artist liking replies like this?”"
This is amazing double standards and projection
British Diversity Activist And Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art Chair Marcus Ryder Decries Disney's Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid' For Ignoring The Topic Of Caribbean Slavery - "It’s time to add another dollar to the ‘Representation Is Never Enough’ jar, as the current Chair of England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Marcus Ryder has declared that despite all of Disney’s attempts to appeal to black audiences, the studio’s live-action The Little Mermaid remake still fails this demographic by ignoring the real-world topic of Caribbean slavery... “We owe it to our children to give them the most amazing fantastical stories possible to help their imaginations grow.” “We do not do this by ‘whitewashing’ out the difficult parts of our history,” he concluded. “We do it by embracing our rich history and empowering them with the truth.”... The Little Mermaid is now floundering in theaters."
You can never win with grievance mongers
He can accept singing mermaids who magically turn human, but not a world in which slavery doesn't exist. Ironic, given that SJWs say that with fantasy and sci-fi all logic can be thrown out the window and if you don't accept that internal consistency is important, you're just a bigot
Imagination means shoehorning a modern political agenda into everything and history means mermaids existed
'The Little Mermaid': What the Media Isn’t Telling You About the Film's Box Office Performance - "Despite the race-swapping and the woke tweaks to the content, professional critics didn’t gush over the film as you would have expected. As of this writing, the film has a 67% rating from critics tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is 95%, but those reviews appear to be filtered and may not accurately reflect the views of all those who have reviewed the movie on the site. Nevertheless, just like with the presidency of Barack Obama, the media has decided that the new version of The Little Mermaid must be seen as a success, and there is a seemingly endless string of articles touting its box office haul and making it out to be some record-breaking film."
‘The Little Mermaid’ Global Box Office to Pass Animated Original
When you don't correct for over 3 decades of inflation, the bar is low indeed
‘Little Mermaid’s Lower Overseas Box Office Leaves Breakeven In Question - "In a rare situation for a Disney tentpole, particularly a live-action title based on a treasured classic animated musical, The Little Mermaid looks to bank more at the domestic box office ultimately than overseas, with $300M-$350M U.S./Canada to $260M abroad... The studio’s summer slate remains in a precarious position after it boldly world premiered two major titles in Cannes to lackluster reviews: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (49% Rotten Tomatoes) and Pixar’s Elemental (58% Rotten, $40M projected U.S. opening). Little Mermaid‘s ebb tide at the box office is extreme when juxtaposed against the high water mark seen from the last Memorial Day Disney live action feature adaptation of a toon, Aladdin, back in 2019. That Will Smith pic cleared $1.05 billion worldwide, 66% of that gross generated abroad which also counted $53.4M from China. Little Mermaid‘s China ticket sales were non-existent with a $2.5M start. Given the quick burn of U.S. titles in the PRC, some believe that the Rob Marshall-directed musical may not even get to a double digit final gross there."
'The Little Mermaid': Chinese State Run Media Warns Disney To Stop Pushing Racism Narrative Around Fairy Tales Or They Will Lose Their "Magic Glory" - "An article in China’s Global Time, an English-language outlet run by the Communist Party of China, warns The Walt Disney Company to stop pushing a racism narrative around The Little Mermaid and other classic fairy tales or they will end up losing their “magic glory.”... The outlet went even further by insinuating that The Walt Disney Company is the one creating and spreading the entire racism narrative surrounding the film, “The controversy surrounding Disney’s forced inclusion of minorities in classic films is not about racism, but its lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy. ” It then questions, “If the company truly wants to represent marginalized groups, why not create original stories that reflect their experiences instead of turning classic tales into ‘sacrificial lambs’ for political correctness?” They even warn Disney to stop going down this path, “When the beautiful stories that have accompanied countless children’s childhoods become arenas for racial conflict, they lose their meaning and become devoid of romance and fantasy, replaced by arguments about skin color.” “If Disney continues following this path, audiences, especially innocent children will no longer care if the ‘prince and princess live happily ever after,’ but ‘what is the skin color of the prince and princess,’ and the fairy tale will lose its magic glory”... The article goes on to declare, “The vast majority of Chinese audiences do not have any bias against a black Little Mermaid and would rather evaluate the film based on its own merits.” It then specifically takes aim at American leftists saying they “are imposing their own politically correct values on Chinese audiences, expecting them to embrace the film the same way as Western audiences have. This expectation is unreasonable since Chinese don’t have such political correctness, as the country’s modern history is more about being invaded by Westerners rather than colonizing or oppressing black people.” “Instead, China has always maintained brotherly relations with Africa and has never needed an ‘atonement’ mentality prevalent in Hollywood”"
Box Office Analyst Predicts 'The Little Mermaid' "Will End Up Being A Box Office Flop," Could Lose $50 to $100 Million - "Box office analyst and YouTuber OMB Reviews shared his analysis of the box office receipts for this past Memorial Day weekend... OMB Reviews then explained why a projected global gross of $550 to $650 million is a big problem, “At $250 million budget, again based on my standards, the film has to make around $625 million dollars. If you were to take this at a 3x multiplier then it needs to make probably somewhere between $625 and $750 million to break even. In either case I think it’s a problem.” He then referred back to his $550 to $650 million projection, “As you can see from that the average would then put this movie in a flop territory, would be a financial loss.” “I would not be surprised if when all the numbers comes in it’s a $50 to $100 million loss. That’s the kind of numbers we’re seeing from this movie right now,” he shared. Ironically, OMB Reviews then predicted this could be a first for Disney, “This could be the first time that a full-fledged, full-featured, full distribution movie from Disney, the live-action Disney remakes ends up being an actual box office flop.”"
'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' stats show how representation works : NPR ("The new Spider-Man film shows that representation is a winning strategy")
No wonder The Little Mermaid is such a success
'The Little Mermaid' tanks in China and South Korea amid racist backlash - "“The Little Mermaid” has bombed with moviegoers in China and South Korea amid racist critiques in some quarters over the casting of Black actress Halle Bailey as main character Ariel. Disney’s live-action remake has made only $3.6 million in mainland China since opening there on May 26, according to Box Office Mojo. It brought in just 19.5 million yuan ($2.7 million) in its first five days, compared with 142 million yuan (nearly $20 million) for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” in the first five days of that film’s opening"
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges on Twitter - "If Asians don't watch our movies then that means they're racists.
Liberal identity politics has become a culture of self-defeat. It's all about wielding the little residual power that pointing fingers and making hysterical accusations can bring you."
Asians are racist. That's why Across the Spider-verse succeeded, because it doesn't have any black people in it
Meme - *Bronze Medal meme*
Lion King 191M Opening Weekend
Beauty and The Beast 170M Opening Weekend
Little Mermaid 117M Opening Weekend"
The Little Mermaid Remake's Box Office Destroys Disney's $1 Billion Trend: Will It Recover? - "The Little Mermaid may have just destroyed a $1 billion box office trend, causing many to wonder if Disney's live-action remakes will ever be able to recover. 2023's The Little Mermaid remake was supposed to be one of the biggest Disney movies of the year, with the film getting an immense amount of marketing and hype. However, the film has seemingly fallen flat, with The Little Mermaid not living up to many of Disney's other live-action remakes. Because of this, it could be possible that The Little Mermaid could be the final nail in the coffin of the trend of success for Disney's remakes... 2023's The Little Mermaid remake won't make $1 billion at the box office. This is surprising, as almost every remake of animated films from the Disney Renaissance has hit this landmark... 2017's Beauty and the Beast, 2019's The Lion King, and 2019's Aladdin all managed to make $1 billion at the box office, with The Lion King even being the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Mulan is the one exception, although it was released on Disney+ due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The box office for Disney's live-action remakes from outside of the Disney Renaissance has also been pretty good, with 2016's The Jungle Book making $966.6 million... The Little Mermaid's box office is mostly made up of viewers from the United States and Canada"
This is before inflation too
So much for representation being a globally-winning strategy and America being the most racist country in the world
After 'Little Mermaid' remake endures harsh reviews, IMDb steps in, alters review system for movie - "The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) activated an "alternate weighting calculation" in order to compensate for alleged "unusual activity" among audiences reviewing the new "Little Mermaid" remake... One notable factor is that reviewers across multiple countries and continents panned the film, possibly implying that this was not entirely caused by one centralized campaign. Thousands of collective users from the U.K., Brazil, Canada and Mexico have given the 1/10 score. Christian Toto, host of the "Hollywood in Toto" podcast, told Fox News Digital that ratings websites appear to protect films with diverse casts or narrative amenable to the political left. "We've seen major movie sites like IMDb.com and Rotten Tomatoes routinely tweak its system to combat so-called ‘review bombing.’ The films in question are often those embraced by the left or stories that feature ‘diverse’ casts or storylines. Think Amazon's ‘Rings of Power’ series," he wrote. "Why are they singled out for protection?"... "Yes, some movie trolls could be trying to sink a film for any number of reasons, but the same holds true for faith-based films or that rare conservative product," he wrote. "Does IMDb rush to protect those titles from possible review bombing? If not ... why not? Why only select titles? Did those sites suss out ‘unusual activity’ around titles like ‘What Is a Woman?’""
