Disney Finds 'Little Mermaid' Star in Singer Halle Bailey

iluvatar5150

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I hope I censored everything this time...

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Trogdor the Burninator

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I'm glad social media wasn't a thing in the 90s, we were likely spared the whines and complaints about Dame Judy Dench being M.

I remember complaints, but a lot of it was to do with her role in the first film and numerous remarks to Bond being "sexist" which became annoying. Not Judy Dench's fault though.

After the first movie people were fine with her in the role (she's a fantastic actress after all), and she is still my all-time favourite "M" after seeing her in Skyfall.
 
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Nithavela

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As for Little Mermaid, I don't really care. Never been interested in it.

But you better not stuff up Mulan, Disney, you better not stuff up Mulan.... :p
Afaik, they took Mushu out. Propably to appease the chinese, who really didn't like that addition.
 
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The IbanezerScrooge

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Speaking of Mulan:


The trailer for Mulan makes it look like it's going to be a fantastic movie. I know that's the trailer's job, but lets hope it lives up to it. Mulan is one of my least favorite Disney films.

In keeping with the discussion of the thread, though, I do have to say, if they were to cast anyone other than mostly Asian actors in the main roles of the film I think there'd be a lot of push back. :) People tried that with the last airbender, but there's nothing really necessarily Asian about that world. It was just that the story used Asian cultural elements in it. Even in the cartoon version Aang didn't look particularly Asian to me along with a lot of the other characters and I actually thought M. Night matched him pretty well. Actually, a lot of anime is drawn in such a way as to mute the Asian features of the characters, IMO.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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I keep seeing this outrage about how "Disney is replacing white characters with black people in order to appease the PC left"

Not really...I don't know where this is coming from. If it is happening, it's certainly not from Disney.

If you consider the other Disney live-action modern remakes...

Dumbo, starring Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green.

Beauty and the Beast, main actress, Emma Watson (redhead btw).

Christopher Robin, main actress, a redhead named Hayley Atwell.

Cindarella, Kate Blanchet, Lily James, and Richard Madden (2 of those 3 are redheads).

Alice in Wonderland - Anne Hathaway and Helena Carter...guess the hair color?...

Maleficent, 2 of the 4 main characters are redheads, all 4 are white.

When you take into account that redheads have been prominently featured in the other 7 live action remakes they've done with main roles (3 of the aforementioned movies listed have them in the lead roles for the movie), if anything Redheads are over-represented.
 
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I keep seeing this outrage about how "Disney is replacing white characters with black people in order to appease the PC left"

Not really...I don't know where this is coming from. If it is happening, it's certainly not from Disney.

If you consider the other Disney live-action modern remakes...

Dumbo, starring Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green.

Beauty and the Beast, main actress, Emma Watson (redhead btw).

Christopher Robin, main actress, a redhead named Hayley Atwell.

Cindarella, Kate Blanchet, Lily James, and Richard Madden (2 of those 3 are redheads).

Alice in Wonderland - Anne Hathaway and Helena Carter...guess the hair color?...

Maleficent, 2 of the 4 main characters are redheads, all 4 are white.

When you take into account that redheads have been prominently featured in the other 7 live action remakes they've done with main roles (3 of the aforementioned movies listed have them in the lead roles for the movie), if anything Redheads are over-represented.
And a lot of the examples you gave above, the actresses aren't natural redheads.
 
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iluvatar5150

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if anything Redheads are over-represented.

This is just a cost-cutting measure by Disney that capitalizes on the little-known clause in the SAG-AFTRA contract stipulating that, as with speaking parts, actors with souls get paid more.
 
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SummerMadness

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I keep seeing this outrage about how "Disney is replacing white characters with black people in order to appease the PC left"

Not really...I don't know where this is coming from. If it is happening, it's certainly not from Disney.

If you consider the other Disney live-action modern remakes...

Dumbo, starring Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green.

Beauty and the Beast, main actress, Emma Watson (redhead btw).

Christopher Robin, main actress, a redhead named Hayley Atwell.

Cindarella, Kate Blanchet, Lily James, and Richard Madden (2 of those 3 are redheads).

Alice in Wonderland - Anne Hathaway and Helena Carter...guess the hair color?...

Maleficent, 2 of the 4 main characters are redheads, all 4 are white.

When you take into account that redheads have been prominently featured in the other 7 live action remakes they've done with main roles (3 of the aforementioned movies listed have them in the lead roles for the movie), if anything Redheads are over-represented.
I don't think there really is any outrage except for that pocket dimension on Twitter that thinks being the loudest means the controversy is real or realized by the general public. I think the bigger story to me is that Disney really is going to make all their animated films into live-action films. I wonder if after all of that, there might be a resurgence of 2D animation.
 
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SummerMadness

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Mermaids Have Always Been Black
The story likely started during chattel slavery, when people were kidnapped from the west coast of Africa and brought to the Caribbean and the Americas. The mother of the sea came with them because she already existed in West Africa as Mami Wata, a deity who promised fertility and prosperity to her devotees. It was incredibly good luck to encounter her in person. In West Africa, the goddess was beautiful, sometimes appearing fully as a woman, sometimes as a woman with a fish tail, sometimes with two fish tails. Check your Starbucks cup to see how she’s been co-opted.

But West Africa is not the only place where the idea of a mermaid existed. In Mali, the Dogon people have an origin story involving fish creatures called nommos. The sky god Amma is responsible for creating these half-fish half-people as the first living creatures on earth. Drawings and carvings of nommos exist throughout Dogon culture. In South Africa, the Khoi-san people have stories of mermaids despite living in an arid area.
 
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I keep seeing this outrage about how "Disney is replacing white characters with black people in order to appease the PC left"

Not really...I don't know where this is coming from. If it is happening, it's certainly not from Disney.
Hey rob! I miss you!

Anyways I'm not bother by casting. What I am annoyed and irritated at this, however is the double standards from the people who complain about the "whitewashing" at hollywood aren't bothered by the clear "blackwashing" by this cast pick.
 
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SummerMadness

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Hey rob! I miss you!

Anyways I'm not bother by casting. What I am annoyed and irritated at this, however is the double standards from the people who complain about the "whitewashing" at hollywood aren't bothered by the clear "black-washing" by this cast pick.
You can't "blackwash" a character that is not a white person.

The complaint is rather funny because it's similar to something I noticed with sexism. Men occupied 100% of the time, but as soon as women were given anything close to parity, the same men jump up and demand equal time! Except it's not 50% of the time they're asking for, but 50% of the women's time (i.e., to leave them with 25%). Anything else feels like "oppression."

Hollywood would not hire racial minorities, sometimes slapping makeup on white people to play different ethnicities. And as soon as Hollywood hires more people of color, you have the same people screaming oppression. Or my favorite is they will demand for people of color to "create their own" (a statement that suggests they are still "other"), but as soon as producers, directors and filmmakers do that, then the screed is oppression.

The Little Mermaid does not have a race.
 
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RDKirk

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And a lot of the examples you gave above, the actresses aren't natural redheads.

A lot of the blondes aren't blondes, either.

What are you saying here? That only a natural redhead can play a natural redhead?
 
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RDKirk

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You can't "blackwash" a character that is not a white person.

The complaint is rather funny because it's similar to something I noticed with sexism. Men occupied 100% of the time, but as soon as women were given anything close to parity, the same men jump up and demand equal time! Except it's not 50% of the time they're asking for, but 50% of the women's time (i.e., to leave them with 25%). Anything else feels like "oppression."

Hollywood would not hire racial minorities, sometimes slapping makeup on white people to play different ethnicities. And as soon as Hollywood hires more people of color, you have the same people screaming oppression. Or my favorite is they will demand for people of color to "create their own" (a statement that suggests they are still "other"), but as soon as producers, directors and filmmakers do that, then the screed is oppression.

The Little Mermaid does not have a race.

I just watched a YouTube video from a guy called "Beau of the Fifth Column," who looks like a fellow who's going to do nothing but parrot Trump tweets.

But he points out that, first, the dispute is not over a traditional story from 1837 (he quickly recaps what that rather ugly story actually is), but over a "traditional" story from 1989.

More importantly, he points out something--what he considers the only important thing--from either of the stories: Racial identity is not personal identity--racial identity (in this case, being a mermaid) can be given up for something better.

 
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A lot of the blondes aren't blondes, either.

What are you saying here? That only a natural redhead can play a natural redhead?

It's a portrayal of a fictional character that lives under the sea.

Is her hair or skin color integral to the plot somehow?
 
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