Attack on Ariel: Haters Return for ‘The Little Mermaid’ – National

Some people just refuse to see the magic of the next Disney The little Mermaid live action remake.

At the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, actress Halle Bailey, who plays the titular mermaid character Ariel, and Melissa McCarthy, who plays Ursula, debuted the first full trailer for the highly anticipated remake.

Previously, Disney released two short trailers that only offered a glimpse of Ariel and her ocean companions.

The new two-minute trailer – which shows scenes of Ariel saving Prince Eric from drowning in a storm – has been viewed 7.9 million times on YouTube. Online feedback, however, hasn’t been entirely positive, with the trailer garnering at least 839,000 likes since it was released on Monday. There are only 165,000 likes on the video.

The backlash against the film has been around ever since the project was publicly announced. When it was reported in 2019 that 22-year-old Bailey would play Ariel, there was an outpouring of instant negative reviews online from those who felt a black woman shouldn’t play the iconic mermaid princess. .

So the #NotMyAriel social media tag is trending.

YouTube as a whole even opted to disable the site’s public dislike meter following a hateful barrage over the original trailer, which amassed 1.5 million dislikes in the first two days of its release. release in September 2022.

Last month, Bailey spoke to The Face magazine about the racism she experienced while playing Ariel.

“As a black person, you expect that and it’s not really a shock anymore,” she told the outlet.

Still, Bailey said she had no regrets and argued it was important to see black people in big movies.

“People don’t understand that when you’re black, there’s this whole other community. It’s so important for us to see each other,” she said.

Bailey said the reaction from young black girls who watched the original trailer and saw themselves as the new Disney Princess was enough to remind her of that importance. Hours after the original trailer was released, parents shared dozens of videos on social media of their children reacting to the first sight of Bailey as Ariel.

Sitting directly in front of her television, a young girl screamed as Ariel appeared on screen, and even did a double take to make sure what she was seeing was true. While rolling excitedly on the floor, the girl said, “She’s dark like me. I’m so excited.”

The new live-action movie is a remake of Disney’s animated classic The little Mermaid from 1989. The story follows a young mermaid, Ariel, who makes a deal with an evil sea witch to grow her legs and live on land in order to fall in love with a prince, all at the cost of his voice.

Jonah Hauer-King plays Prince Eric, while several other powerhouse performers play various roles, including Javier Bardem as Ariel’s dad King Triton, Daveed Diggs as The Crab Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay as Best Friend Fish ‘Ariel Flounder and Awkwafina in The Seagull Scuttle.

The film will have its theatrical release on May 26, 2023.

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