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The Live Action Little Mermaid Lets You Be Part of Her World

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The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most loaded fairytales, notably for celebrating a 16-year-old girl who gives up her voice to win a prince. In the years since the animated film’s 1989 release, critics have been vocal about the message the movie sent to young girls—one of silence, obedience, and willingness to do anything, including bargain with a sea witch, to get married. Famously, actor Keira Knightley said in 2018 about the film: “I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man. Hello.” And, try as it might over the last decade or two, Disney has never really modeled women’s empowerment; their princesses are typically White, Barbie-thin, and incredibly feminine, and there’s a straight love story at the core of almost every story. 

So how much can a live action remake change? That’s the question that’s been rooting around in my brain since Disney announced a Little Mermaid remake. The answer, it turns out, is complicated. 

Maybe I should have opened this with a different disclaimer: I’ve loved The Little Mermaid since it was released on my fifth birthday. The defiant Ariel has always been my favorite Disney character, and there was a year of my life where I watched the animated version on repeat. (I’m sorry, Mom and Dad.) Like Knightley and thousands of other millennials, I’m torn. I love it and I’m very critical of it. 

So when the waves broke against the screen alongside a quote from Hans Christian Andersen’s original tragic tale—“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more”—I was nervous: What if I love this? What if I hate it?

Rob Marshall’s live action version has been in the works since 2016. Most of the cast signed onto the project in 2019, which might explain the under-utilization of Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley. That summer, it was announced that R&B singer Halle Bailey would play the titular Little Mermaid. Bailey made headlines: A Black Ariel had been cast, which caused a wave of racist trolls and troglodytes to storm the internet with their outrage over the race of a made-up creature who’s part fish. (Bailey is, in fact, the perfect Ariel, equal parts free-spirited, strong-headed, and enchanted by the human world.) Filming was meant to begin in early 2020, but COVID, of course, delayed production allowing tension and anticipation for the film bloomed like algae. 

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Written by enovate

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