General movies/Hollywood thread.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

I get it, them staying true to the source material is a big deal for some people, scratch that, a lot of people.

If they really wanted the movie to stay true to the source material, then everytime Ariel takes a step in her new legs, it'd feels like getting sliced open by razors. And the prince ends up marrying someone else. And have Ariel's sisters encourage her to assassinate the prince in his sleep to get her tail back. And have Ariel dying and dissolving into seafoam.

Like the original story intended.

Hey, hey, hey while were at it lets have Quasimodo cradling Esmeralda's corpse starving himself to death and years later men finding their skeletal remains.

Or Pocahontas dying of disease.

Hercules driven by madness by Hera killing his wife and children in the process then killing himself by making a pyre from wearing this shirt drenched in poison!

[Terasawa]

If the character’s race doesn’t matter then cast the best performer for the role. It’s that simple.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

One thing I'll never honestly get is why and what the point is in racewashing characters in adaptions based on their source materials. Who the skreeonk thought it was a good idea to make Johnny Storm black and an adoptive sibling to Susan Storm?

What would had that lead to? What was the point in that?

What is Disney trying to prove here making Ariel black?

[LSD Jellyfish]

One think I'll never honestly get is why and what the point is in racewashing characters in adaptions based on their source materials. Who the skreeonk thought it was a good idea to make Johnny Storm black and an adoptive sibling to Susan Storm?

What would had that lead to? What was the point in that?

What is Disney trying to prove here making Ariel black?

I don’t think they’re trying to prove anything. They probably liked the actress and wanted to give her the role? Her being black doesn’t detract or benefit from the film at all, minus maybe giving some little girls a different perspective. It’s really a non issue.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

minus maybe giving some little girls a different perspective.

You mean also the same movie that has a terrible moral teaching one its okay to marry a guy you barely even know and actually getting away with it in the end?

Great role model for little girls y'all!

[Terasawa]

What would had that lead to? What was the point in that?

What is Disney trying to prove here making Ariel black?

If the character’s race doesn’t matter then cast the best performer for the role. It’s that simple.

[Spuro]

minus maybe giving some little girls a different perspective.

You mean also the same movie that has a terrible moral teaching one its okay to marry a guy you barely even know and actually getting away with it in the end?

Great role model for little girls y'all!

What does this have to do with the character's skin color?

[eabaker]

And Hollywood racewashing continues, only this time, Disney cast a black chick to play Ariel in the live action My Little Mermaid movie: a chick by the name of Halle Bailey (not Halle Berry).

Next thing you know it the live-action Pinocchio movie will be removing Jiminey Cricket because they want Pinocchio to be independent and prove himself on his own as a real boy!

So, uh, you are aware that in the original story, Pinocchio kills the Cricket pretty early on, right?

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

What is Disney trying to prove here making Ariel black?

Maybe they're trying to prove that insecure manchildren will shriek bloody murder at anything even remotely different.

In which case, they certainly accomplished that.

[_JNavs_]

^ Seems like that's Disney's only goal as of 2013- onwards.


Sadly.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

Maybe they're trying to prove that insecure manchildren will shriek bloody murder at anything even remotely different.

In which case, they certainly accomplished that.

Yup says the guy who baits others with his comments for fun with nothing better else to do that can otherwise obviously just ignore. But obviously you don't even have the mental capability to do that to begin with.

[Greyshot151]

OK, just going to step in here and say, guys CHILL. GodzillaFan, SpiritGhidorah, baiting and flaming others any more will get another warning from me.

But to say something quick on the discussion:

Probably a good actor and they liked the role. Like, why does the race of the Little Mermaid even matter? If this was To Kill A Mockingbird, yeah, don't change the actors races as its kinda key to the story. Here, its a non-factor. Unless anyone is willing to defend the notion that mermaids, a mythical creature, CAN'T be anything but white? No, good.

Personally, I wish Lionsgate would learn from this and place Idris Elba as 007 already. IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN!

[KManX89]

One think I'll never honestly get is why and what the point is in racewashing characters in adaptions based on their source materials. Who the skreeonk thought it was a good idea to make Johnny Storm black and an adoptive sibling to Susan Storm?

What would had that lead to? What was the point in that?

What is Disney trying to prove here making Ariel black?

I don’t think they’re trying to prove anything. They probably liked the actress and wanted to give her the role? Her being black doesn’t detract or benefit from the film at all, minus maybe giving some little girls a different perspective. It’s really a non issue.

Except Ariel is more than just a cartoon character to many people, she's a sex symbol and many men's first fictional crush when they were young and one of the few fictional redheads to boot. A live-action remake is supposed to feel more real, and so I can see why people might want them to keep her the way she was before in that regard for reasons other than "UR RAYCEST!!!11!134!", especially with the plethora of actual black characters/characters of color for Disney to make live-action movies of. Gingers make up an even smaller portion of the population than blacks and have even less fictional reps to look up to.

I personally don't care and was never really interested in the film, anyway (or any of the Disney live-action remakes for that matter), but I can see why someone with an emotional attachment to the character as she was originally portrayed MIGHT, as with any character being race/genderswapped.

[Maritonic]

Except Ariel is more than just a cartoon character to many people, she's a sex symbol

Please stop referring to a 16 year old fictional fishperson as a sex symbol.

[Terasawa]

she's a sex symbol

She's a 16 year old fictional character in a children's film.

I don't know why I'm going to continue, but...

and many men's first fictional crush when they were young

Disney doesn't care about men's fictional crushes.

A live-action remake is supposed to feel more real, and so I can see why people might want them to keep her the way she was before in that regard for reasons other than "UR RAYCEST!!!11!134!", especially with the plethora of actual black characters/characters of color for Disney to make live-action movies of.

A live action remake is primarily to make money on the very bankable nostalgia of an earlier film, itself a heavily modified adaptation of a fictional story.

Besides, the very fact that Disney has made changes to its live action adaptations of its animated films is confirmation enough that they aren't trying to make the cartoon "feel more real." That's your own projection.

Gingers make up an even smaller portion of the population than blacks and have even less fictional reps to look up to.

Not that it particularly matters in the case of who the hell Disney casts as a mermaid in a movie, but this argument is blindly ignorant of the unfortunate history of slavery, abuse, human rights violations, systemic racism, and ongoing struggles of a related nature that black people have to deal with.

Would you also say that casting a blonde actor (Daniel Craig) as James Bond was a deal breaker since all previous actors had dark hair? Isn't that unfair to little brown-haired boys who envy that character? This is essentially your argument.

[_JNavs_]

So my deal with this essentially is, there's no actual redheaded princesses beyond Ariel. Hell, How many Irish superheroes/characters are there?

Wally West, MJ, Starfire and Ariel.... Uhhhhh.

I don't think I've seen an actual redhead take the spotlight of a big film in like, ever.

Just a Q, but weren't Irish people segregated too? Didn't they deal with slavery and immigration as well?

Anyway, I'd be game for Idris Elba as 007 James Bond. Just not Discount Halle Berry as Ariel.

[MikeSTZillak]

Except Ariel is more than just a cartoon character to many people, she's a sex symbol

Excuse me, but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

[Terasawa]

So my deal with this essentially is, there's no actual redheaded princesses beyond Ariel. Hell, How many Irish superheroes/characters are there?

Wally West, MJ, Starfire and Ariel.... Uhhhhh.

I don't think I've seen an actual redhead take the spotlight of a big film in like, ever.

Actors: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000314972/

Actresses: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls073977859/

Also, what do the Irish have to do with this? Or especially Halle Berry? The only thing she and Halle Bailey have in common besides their name is that they're black actresses.

[_JNavs_]

So my deal with this essentially is, there's no actual redheaded princesses beyond Ariel. Hell, How many Irish superheroes/characters are there?

Wally West, MJ, Starfire and Ariel.... Uhhhhh.

I don't think I've seen an actual redhead take the spotlight of a big film in like, ever.

Actors: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000314972/

Actresses: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls073977859/

Also, what do the Irish have to do with this? Or especially Halle Berry? The only thing she and Halle Bailey have in common besides their name is that they're black actresses.

Well Irish because natural redhead was what I meant.

Halle Berry because I thought that was her name lol, figured they shared the same name.

I'm not talking actors themselves, I'm talking about significant red-headed characters from famous stories being reimagined on the silver screen as something they weren't originally, thereby leaving redheads out in the cold.

MJ is iconic for her red hair, Ariel for her red hair and blue eyes, Starfire for being orange and having red hair, Wally West having scruffy red hair atop his mask.

These are defining characteristics that are being changed.

[Terasawa]

Well Irish because natural redhead was what I meant.

That's tangentially related though. Red hair is not a clear indication of race or ethnicity in the same way a skin color is. Northwestern Europe of course is known to have a higher percentage of redheads than other regions of the world but as I understand it red hair can exist in nearly any ethnic group. The animated Ariel is no more Irish because of her red hair than she's of English heritage because her skin is white. (She is neither; she's a mermaid.)

I'm not talking actors themselves, I'm talking about significant red-headed characters from famous stories being reimagined on the silver screen as something they weren't originally, thereby leaving redheads out in the cold.

MJ is iconic for her red hair, Ariel for her red hair and blue eyes, Starfire for being orange and having red hair, Wally West having scruffy red hair atop his mask.

These are defining characteristics that are being changed.

But is it a defining characteristic, though? Would people be making this argument if her hair color had been brown or black or blonde? Her hair color supposedly isn't even mentioned in Hans Christian Andersen's original story, making the color of her hair as important as the color of the skin. Again, she's a fictional character, it shouldn't matter if those aspects aren't pertinent to the story being told.

As for other red haired characters, I don't know. I guess it depends on your definition of "big movie." Until pretty recently black people were pretty underrepresented as meaningful primary characters in big movies too. But that's of secondary concern since Disney isn't trying to slight redheads by casting a black actress with black hair as a mermaid; they cast the actress they thought would be best in the part.

For what it's worth, Merida from Disney & Pixar's Brave is a redhead (as his her entire family) and is canonically a Disney Princess. And I don't believe casting someone with different hair color as Ariel is a slight towards redheads since the red haired animated Ariel is still going to be sold as a doll for little red haired girls to play with. Now there just happens to be a black Ariel for young African American girls to look up to, too. They can exist in harmony, dude.