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I remember being in the 3rd grade and seeing the commercials for Cinderella starring Brady and wanting to see it so badly because I had never seen someone who looked like me in a live action princess movie, and it being Brady sweeten the deal. The night it premiered for whatever reason I missed it and I remember feeling so disappointed.
One day after school, my mother picked me up and sitting on the passenger's seat, was a bag from the warehouse (a media store that's doesn't exist anymore) and inside was a VHS copy of Cinderella! I watched it over and over again ,probably had the songs memorized that samw week, . I fell in love with the movie, the songs, the costumes and the whimsical notion that all of these people were different racially but no attention was brought to it, it's a luxury I took for granted.
I remember writing a post about not needing representation in every aspect of media and I stand by that. However, when I think about my earlier years of being excluded because kids were uncomfortable with how I looked, feeling like an outcast or even ugly because my hair wasnt like my peers, movies like this helped. I'm not saying that the movie changed all of that at once, but it did alter the way I saw myself at young age, even dressed up like her the following Halloween.
I do admit I am a bit conflicted when it comes to things like this, because the nerd in me does want accuracy. I don't want to think the reason why Halle Bailey got the role is because of her race, the same way I don't want to think I got my job because of mine. I'm acknowledging Disney is taking advantage of the fact that there is a demand for diversity and probably are exploiting that demand. But on the flip side, if the new little mermaid does for little black girls today what Cinderella did for me back then, I'm not standing in it's way. I will defend this movie at all costs, at least until it releases and it's garbage like all of Disney's recent live action movie (with the exception of Chip and Dale if you count that as one.)😉
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Cranky Old Witch
Ran across this post, and I figure it's a bit older. But it triggers me all over again.
Now, I'm European-American, and don't, properly have an informed opinion on this, so please forgive my missteps.
The earliest tales of mermaids come from AFRICA.
The mermaid tales are also likely taken from sailor's accounts of seeing manatees, and manatees come in different shades of GREY.
By the time Hans Christian Anderson is writing the tale, not only does his description of the mermaid from the ACTUAL story not look anything like the popular animated Disney version, but he wrote it as an allegory for a serious crush he had on a guy he knew and admired!
EVEN IF there's a new version of the story with an actress that someone don't like, the original Disney animated version STILL EXISTS and is still WIDELY AVAILABLE.
So I get frustrated. How. HOW can there even have been a flap about this??? My mind boggles at the depths that some of these knuckle-dragging three-backs have in their unnecessary vitriol.
People just looking to be angry about stuff that doesn't affect them not one IOTA!
(Okay ... deep breaths ... rant fading ...
... fading ...
... RISING! ...
... fading ...
*Sigh* Gone.)
Serene once again for now, and my APOLOGIES for raging!