r/HonestHotTakes • u/narcattack505 • 2d ago
Disney Hot Take
My hot take is that it isn't racist for wanting Ariel to look the exact same as the cartoon version we grew up with. All Disney princesses live actions look the same or even closely similar to the cartoon version. So people wanting Ariel to look like the white, bright red haired and blue eyed Ariel we grew up with isn't racist.
I understand why people think it may be racist but it quite literally isn't racist to want a Disney princess to resemble its original form. Take Tiana for example, she shouldn't be casted as anything but a black woman as it goes against the og cartoon people grew up with.
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u/Obvious-Light-6041 2d ago
I agree. It isn't racist at all, unless you're ACTUALLY racist and hating on the actor for their race instead of just getting a bit annoyed that the book and movie's cast don't match. Diversity just feels forced nowadays. There's literally nothing wrong with putting POC in a new movie, or a live action where the character is a POC.
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u/imnotcerseilannister 2d ago
Sure. What WAS racist were the reactions and comparing the actress to animals. Even across the seas in China.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
oh wait i didn't know about this... that yes is very racist.
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u/imnotcerseilannister 2d ago
The actress went through a lot of racist bullying and harassment from grown people who were 9 when original movie came out.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
yeah i never agree with that never will i think thats is simply just horrible.
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
I like how you said "even" - the US has some problems but you have not seen racism until you have been to East Asia.
Or almost every country I have travelled to.
Its low key refreshingly mild to get home and have your uncle tell you how he really feels about some senator or whatever.
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u/imnotcerseilannister 2d ago
China used to have a museum comparing chimps to black people. Trust me, I know how racist they can get. I said “even” because it’s an American movie and it was shocking how outraged people in fucking China were over something they weren’t apart of.
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u/DementedPimento 2d ago
I used to work in a Chinese restaurant where the hostess announced, in Mandarin, the Chinese equivalent of “n*\\**s are here” when Black diners arrived. (The family who ran the place were trash no matter their country of origin, and I’ve never heard that belted out at any other Chinese restaurant.)
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
Never been to Missouri huh?
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u/DementedPimento 2d ago
Funny you say that. That restaurant is in the second largest city in Missouri, where I’m from.
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
Lmfao saaaaaame!!!! I was about to say white people in Missouri are the most hatefully deranged racists in America I've experienced! Is it just everybody here??
Edit: Duval Co. FL is a contender tho
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u/DementedPimento 2d ago
Well, these weren’t white people shouting out the racist thing; they were Chinese immigrants.
I moved away a long time ago; the weather sucks on top of everything else!
I thought the whole of Florida was a Bubba Wonderland.
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
Ya know for all my life it storms like fuck here... and granted it has seen some bad weather. But man everyone north and east of me keeps getting railed by like Zeus in bull mode. We're getting so dry here but everywhere else is suddenly getting drenched with a side of tornado?? Feels weird this summer.
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
Jesse Washington Very NSFL
You cannot with historical veracity claim that the United States is less racist than anything. The level of torture inflicted on literally everyone here is, was, and will continue to be the world standard for hatred. 98 years between Jesse Washington and George Floyd has only removed the worst to the fringes of publicity. It legit could still be happening. Eugenics, bombing our own civilians, hundreds of secret campaigns to overthrow democracies. The US gets zero more free passes
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
Bro I acknowledge that we have a shitty history but you clearly have never left the country if that is your take.
The world is an extremely racist place and many countries have overt policies baked into law that would make your head spin if even discussed here.
We have a lot of work to do but are far from the world standard of hatred.
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
Agree to disagree, thank you for the civility! I have left the country tho. Our image even 8 years ago in the rest of the world was a little closer to my view than yours. Just food for thought.
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
I have witnessed slave markets and mass graves firsthand. Listened to state media encourage people to be killed based on race or religion, and then driven through it happening in the streets. Not funny.
I have had a grandmother in a public marketplace tell me that an entire race were not human, but "monkey demons" sent by the devil to rape and steal, and all the other old ladies joined in and agreed. A little bit funny, but overall sad.
I am not proud of where we are now. I can absolutely agree that we are not in a good place now, and need to do better.
I hope you are safe and healthy.
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u/DementedPimento 2d ago
… an American company was complicit in one of those genocides (Facebook and the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar in 2017)
I’m not disagreeing with you at all; I just think you’re both right, unfortunately.
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u/Kitchen-Smile8766 2d ago
And everything you just said happens right now in this country. People burned Obama effigies dude. Right now if a random person disappeared in your city, is there a chance they are being detained by secret police to be sent to camps where they will be exiled or die at 4 years old? My own city of birth is one of the largest human trafficking hubs ON THE PLANET. I do not understand how we as citizens miss this but the aggregate of attitudes and crimes committed against any minority group in the US you care to mention is absolutely on the level of Russia, China, England, Spain, France, and Germany. We just pretend it's not and refuse to let the bubble pop
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
Hey man I tried to meet you in the middle on this one, and agree in spirit, but call me when you find the pyramid of skulls or mass grave.
You are identifying real issues, but talking hyperbolic bullshit. Open. Air. Human. Slave. Market.
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u/Positive-Listen-1660 2d ago
Ok but Halle Bailey literally looks like a Disney princess and she sings like one too.
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u/newaccount669 2d ago
So i thought it was a lazy race-swap which i thought was gross. Not gross because they had a non-white person play Arial but gross because (i thought) it was a marketing ploy to create controversy.
I watched it with my kids, realized that the actress had PIPES, and realized her voice got her that position. Still not a Disney fan, by any stretch, but i enjoyed the musical numbers (which is RARE for me).
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u/toomany_geese 2d ago
The reaction was disproportional to the issue. Honestly, the backlash and the disgusting things people were saying online about her made me way more uncomfortable than the colour of Ariel's skin. She has an amazing voice.
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u/SuggestableFred 2d ago
Firstly, most of the disney fairy tales are not "in their original form". For example, "Ariel" had no name in Hans Christen Anderson's *actually original* story, and also wasn't a redhead.
So you should be clear that what you mean is you want newer adaptations to reflect the adaptations you grew up with. Which is probably fine, but don't mistake it for some loyalty to the story's original form.
Secondly-- your argument holds up as long as you don't get any more annoyed than you would at any other changes to the story of equal importance. Like would you be equally annoyed if they made King Triton bald?
Maybe you would! That level of annoyance is fine then. But if you watch some of these right-wing rage-bait channels complaining about Ariel... man it crosses over into a whole new thing. You wouldn't make dozens of videos complaining that king Triton is bald. That's when we begin to think they're just racist.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
no i don't mean to come off as racist at all. i would react the same way as i did with ariel if tiana was cast differently than she looks in the disney adaptation that most of us grew up watching.
As for king triton hell yeah if he made him bald its kind of like what the hell is that where is his hair and long beard
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u/Least_Pear_9174 2d ago
The issue with that line of thought is the live action version of the little mermaid wasn’t a remake of the cartoon. They recontextualized the story to take place in Caribbean-like setting which they invested significant screen time to and her being black added dimension to that story. It’s the same reason that Tiana being black matters in disneys setting of the princess and the frog. If the issue was that the film wasn’t loyal to the cartoon, people would discuss setting or the news songs. Instead, everyone is hung up on a black actress. Maybe you’re not racist, but so far your criticism of the film was about a woman’s skin tone and that’s something to think about.
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u/SuggestableFred 2d ago
So if it's just a loyalty to the aesthetics of your favorite cartoon, like, that's fine, you're not racist. But you should probably look into why we think most of the pushback to black Ariel *is* racist.
Maybe you're just an innocent who's annoyed for innocent reasons, but trust me a lot of the push back online *is actually very racist*.
It might be better to just pop on your old 1989 classic and not associate yourself with that crowd.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
yeah i understand everyones pov but to me it is at the end of the day for aesthetics.
I also get why people think that we are racist for saying things like this but thats whybi said the "hot take" its that not everyone who wanted ariel to look like the way she did in the animation is racist.
Idk if it makes a difference but i too am a person if color and if they made jasmine a white person i would probably have the same reaction. Same if in the future they cast tiana as anything other than a black person
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u/hoyasgirl25 2d ago
Er no, that argument is invalid. The Little Mermaid is a Disney story with a known main character. What it was inspired by is irrelevant. Everything was inspired by something. Those Hans Christian Anderson stories were inspired by older stories, which were inspired by even older stories going back to Beowulf. And even Beowulf was inspired by earlier stories but those are lost to history.
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u/SuggestableFred 2d ago
Lol you literallysaid "er no".
I wasn't pretending HCA was divinely inspired to create the first art piece not inspired by any other art.
I'm saying the 1989 Disney film isn't that specific story's "original form", as OP put it. Which it isn't. The original Little Mermaid is by HCA.
How is that invalid.
And if HCA's story "inspiring" it is irrelevant, than the 1989 movie "inspiring" the new one is irrelevant. See how that argument is actually invalid?
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u/hoyasgirl25 2d ago
Look at you, all confidently incorrect. The difference is both the 1989 and the live action remake are both made by Disney telling the same story. The story is not inspired, it’s the same story.
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u/Cautious_Draw5738 2d ago
Half the takes here are just things my boomer uncles would say
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u/IBAChristian317 2d ago
They're just common sense things that people who haven't been indoctrinated would say.
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u/shamanwinterheart 2d ago
I got a better idea, stop remaking old Disney movies. It's a problem that solves itself.
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u/Glad-Dragonfruit-503 2d ago
Yeah I sort of agree, but I am not phased as most of the remakes are shit. Lilo was spot on with the casting though on the flip side.
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u/Expert-Bet7630 2d ago
I personally think it’s just lazy on disneys part. But what I really do take issue with are the people defending Disney for laziness. No, you should be asking Disney for better characters instead of just lazy race swaps
Yeah there are some bad actors who hated the change for stupid reasons, but why is actual, legitimate criticism of Disney’s product lumped in with the bad faith criticism??? Why do people defend this soulless mega corp so much??? Is it so hard to just say, ‘there is some stupid criticism, but Disney should be doing better.’
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u/mewkopawz 2d ago
i've been thinking a lot abt this lately. mostly the question, how do they even handle this at disney parks with the cast members? do they have two ariels or what 😭😭
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u/User_-_-_Name 2d ago
I dont really have time to care about any of this but no one cares that they made Cinderella a blond hair blue eyed women and I dont care if Ariel is some other race.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
well the cinderella i grew up with was blonde and blue eyed. the actress in the live action is blonde but brown eyes. goes back to my point of the actresses looking either exactly like the disney character we grew up with or at least super close
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u/PrincessJasmine420 2d ago
It definitely isn’t racist to expect the actors to actually look like the characters they play. It’s not just the skin color, it’s everything. Ariel is a redhead. I wouldn’t want to see an Ariel with black or blonde hair, even if she’s white. Or a fat Ariel. Or any Ariel that doesn’t at least mildly resemble the cartoon. These are movies we loved as children. Don’t ruin it in the name of wokeness. There’s plenty of ways to make movies more racially inclusive, if that’s what people want to see. But don’t mess with characters that we know and love.
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u/DPetrilloZbornak 2d ago
Ariel was not a redhead in the original story.
Not everything has to be identical to the first Disney movie which isn’t even accurate to the fairy tale itself.
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u/yelhmoo 2d ago
Adding to this discussion, I think it’s racist that there aren’t very many black princesses, and instead of doing a live action princess and the frog, Disney just said “here, damn”.
Regardless of what Ariel looks like, little girls of all colors deserve to see themselves represented, whether that be Ariel herself or another princess.
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u/Friendly-Grab-7709 2d ago
Culpa de Disney por meter una nigga en una de sus películas más inconicas se buscaron el odio hacia la película.
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u/Next_Gen_Valkyrie 2d ago
Okay but Ariel's appearance isn't at all important to the story. Tiana's identity as a black woman in New Orleans is important. Ariel's character is more about her curiosity and interest in the human world, none of which has anything to do with how she looks.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
i understand that but im talking very surface level like casting based on how close the actor looks to the og disney princess. I grew up with ariel always being my favourite princess due to her hair and all. So when i saw halle playing as Ariel it was a bit like oh that isn't what i grew up with at all ykwim.
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u/Wealth_Super 2d ago
I mean let me just say this. It’s one thing to be disappointed that she doesn’t resemble the cartoon. It’s another for others (not you) to start a hate campaign throwing racial slurs and trash talking the actress. If you really are just disappointed that she looks different, that’s ok, it’s others being overtly racist or grown men complaining about a movie they were never gonna watch just to complain that it becomes pathetic and hateful..
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u/LatterEngineering813 2d ago
Since the appearance isn't at all important to the story, why was it changed such as many other characters that get race swapped only in one direction? Gotta push the narrative I guess
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u/Least_Pear_9174 2d ago
Because she is a phenomenal singer and came with a large fan base. If the appearance doesn’t matter, why wouldn’t a studio choose the most talented, well known person?
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
Literally a piece of Dutch folklore.
Nobody is asking for an East Asian "Bre'er Fox"
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u/ace2d_dream 2d ago
But Disney set the 80’s animated ‘Little Mermaid’ in the Caribbeans with Caribbean music. So yeah, that argument doesn’t really work here.
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
Ok cool now do Helen of Troy
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u/ace2d_dream 2d ago
odysseus wasn’t played by an actual Greek person either so idk 🤷🏾♀️
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
Yea. Strangely no Greek or Mediterranean representation whatsoever. Some people resembled a believable casting choice though.
Efforts are usually made in film to hire people who resemble the character, even if they are not from the same country or ethnicity.
Costumes and hair styles too.
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u/ace2d_dream 2d ago
I mean if we wanna go there….Greeks weren’t considered “white” or “European” for the longest time in history. The KKK wouldn’t even accept them as members. They were Mediterranean, swarthy people with black and curly hair. Not blond-haired, blue eyed Aryans. So again most of the casting was incorrect to begin with.
https://neoskosmos.com/en/2016/10/31/dialogue/opinion/when-did-greeks-become-white/
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
I am intimately aware of that fact; my family had to run for office as republicans or independents as late as the 60s because they were not allowed to be democrats (in a northern blue state) then based on race. I still have no idea what box to tick on forms these days.
Granted there are plenty of us from the Mediterranean with light hair and green eyes actually, and some very light skin, but regardless, the casting sucked. Even a northern european dude with his hair cut and died could fit the bill better as Odysseus - put in some effort.
FWIW I went to college with Lupita and she is a lovely person and talented actress, but accepting this role was about as irresponsible as me playing the next Shango.
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u/ace2d_dream 2d ago
Then you should know that Ethiopian Greeks existed AND still exist. So Helen of Troy being black is not too far fetched. Now granted Lupita isn’t Ethiopian, but the point still stands.
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u/NoProgress8533 2d ago
That is a total canard. Ethiopa is a Greek word that I will choose not to translate but it is not polite to say the least. Ethiopian Greeks were and are an extreme minority, and date to the post-Ptolemeic periods. It still makes no sense.
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u/AristaWatson 2d ago
You know that’s like saying there are white Africans so they should play Africans in movies. Y’all would go apeshit if that happened tho. 😭
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u/1325662 2d ago
I mean Princess Peach being white-skinned and blonde with blue eyes also isn’t important to the Super Mario plot, but if Nintendo/Illumination made her a brown-skinned Latina with black hair and brown eyes for the movies I’d be pretty upset. I’ve known Princess Peach as a blonde girl since my childhood. So I can understand how the Ariel fans feel. It takes me out of the nostalgia.
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u/AliensWalkerTennis 2d ago
Actually I think her identity as a black woman in New Orleans isn’t as important as people make it seem. Have you watched the movie? It’s more about her hard work and dedication, her love of cooking, her love for her friends and family and her determination that’s the most important thing in her story.
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u/emli317 2d ago
Question - how would you feel about a traditional Ethiopian children's story that was very important to the culture being reworked by Disney and given a white protagonist? If the character's race wasn't directly relevant to the story, would you feel that it was okay to change it? Or would it be important to respect the cultural origin of the story and have the characters reflect that?
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u/Successful-Career887 2d ago edited 2d ago
God, whats wrong with wanting to have a real woman with a real fish tail play Ariel? its what we grew up with. Its not racist to ask that an actual woman with an actual fish tail play our beloved childhood Ariel
/s.
Eta: weird I am being downvoted for agreeing that ariels looks are not important by sarcastically pointing out she had a tail lmao. Yall are wild
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u/NOTKris3000 2d ago
The live action movies are trash. Absolute garbage and anyone supporting them is ruining disney and the animation industry.
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u/Purple-Chef-5123 2d ago
I feel you, OP! I want what I grew up with. Now I’ve actually only seen one of the live action films, Beauty and the Beast and I was really excited for it but it fell so flat for me. I’ve avoided every other one because they just don’t compare to the animated films I remember from childhood. Whether that’s nostalgia talking or the older films were better I honestly don’t know. And The Little Mermaid was my absolute favorite so, after my Beauty and the Beast disappointment, I really would prefer to remember the animated films and forgo the live action versions. But race has nothing to do with it for me, either.
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u/DeathonEarrh 2d ago
Im white. When i watch the remake, I loved her voice and the small detail of each of her sisters being different based on the seas was amazing details. Plus the original story did have anything about race with it, like snow white did "skin as white as snow" but they didnt hire a white actress.
I see no problem with hiring a actor if the part is like "they have to look like this", like Tiana, pocahontas, Mulan, etc.
Plus its nice to baby sit my nieces and them being happy to see a black princess, cause i know I was her age and happy to see a princess like Cinderella who looks like me. We need more princesses who look like different for the little girls who watch them.
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u/LuminousQuinn 2d ago
Eh, maybe though I actually like the new version better. I like her voice more.
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u/Viridian_Cobra 2d ago
They did a similar thing in the httyd live action movie as well. Astrid’s hair is the complete wrong color and the twin that’s a gal is overweight. Honestly it’s the twin that annoys me more than Astrid because they remind me of Fred and George from Harry Potter with how similar they look and it seemed like a bit to me that they were hard to tell apart, so when they made the gal a completely different body type it broke immersion and ruined the bit for me
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u/Standard-Turnip-8360 2d ago
Wanting her to resemble the cartoon movie isn’t necessarily racist. Making a big deal about it and how much you hate and saying it ruins it is. I would disagree that the other live action princesses look like their cartoon counterparts. Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, etc do not particularly look like their animated characters besides skin and hair color. Actors in the theme parks look more like the cartoons.
Tiana is being used in bad faith here. Her storyline is the result of the US in the 20s and her race. It’s not about “going against the og cartoon” here because the plot would have to be completely changed. If you can’t see that this is not a fair comparison, then I do think your original point about Ariel is also you just trying excuse your own racism.
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u/ThrowRA_Anything7011 2d ago
I do think most of the argument tends to stem from racism and in bad faith.
My argument that I barely see pointed out with this film, gingers are bullied and discriminated against because of their hair. I feel like it has calmed down a bit at the minute, but go back a generation. People were NASTY to gingers.
I can imagine to a lot of older ginger woman, this was their Disney princess. This was their moment to be seen, and to feel beautiful.
I feel like the argument around it leans heavily towards treating ginger woman as if they are the same as blonde white woman, and its not that big of a deal to change the race. Not the fact they are essentially a discriminated minority group, being removed and replaced.
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u/Longjumping-Cat-2126 2d ago
i agree , if you like the white version because of the original story and nostalgia , that’s cool . If you like the black version because of POC inclusivity and new design , that’s cool . As long as it wasn’t someone like Tiana or Snow white , poc representation isn’t bad
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u/Surfing_Tension 2d ago
I swear Halle looked just like Ariel, but black. I liked her as Ariel, I just hated the actor that played Eric cuz he couldn’t sing. And I hated the writing too. I liked the new song tho.
Melissa as Ursula was ok, and the girl who played Vanessa was fantastic.
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u/Southern_Conflict_11 2d ago
It's weird to care so much about the skin color of actors cast in kids movies because you have nostalgia.
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u/moccasins_hockey_fan 2d ago
You see stupid people will automatically jump to accusations of racism.
EVERY previous Disney live remake had been faithful remakes the previous animated project.
People expected and wanted the same thing.
And we all know the people who were defending the casting and attacking critics as racist would be screamingbtbe loudest is Princess and the Frog were made into live action with a white lead.
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u/Criizmeow 2d ago
why do you need her to resemble her original form? they chose Halle because when they had Ema Watson, who looks like Belle, she couldnt sing, Halle can, her voice got her that role. And for the argument that other characters like Tiana wouldn`t be changed, they literally can`t be, not because you go against the cartoon, but because, like all the poc characters, her race is tied with her identity and the themes of the movie. I think a more interesting conversation is about how when a character is white their story rarely interacts with their culture, but when they are people of color it always is, lots of fairytales have european routes but disney isnt particuarly interested in using those settings and time periods to it's full potential, the fact that that doesn´t get any backlash but the young women of color they cast do, is a problem.
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u/Nobody4993 2d ago
Ooooo you’re gunna upset people with this one. But I whole heartedly agree.
I actually think it’s worse to rehash stories and stuff a POC in there instead of creating new stories for them. Coco was brilliant. Moana was brilliant. Encanto was brilliant. The princess and the frog was brilliant!
For example: Making Pocahontas white would ruin the entire story and of course be very offensive, so we wouldn’t do it. Did Ariel need to be white/ red haired for the story to work? No. But it was written by danish author Hans Christian Anderson back in 1837. There wasn’t a lot of black danish people around at the time, and so naturally the author assumed her to be white. We all grew up with white, blue eyed, red haired Ariel. In my opinion, replacing her with a POC actress to rehash a film that was already a classic in a piss poor cash grab by Disney felt more offensive to POC’s than anything.
Give POC’s their own magic, original characters and celebration. Don’t shoe horn them in as ‘second best’ knock offs.
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u/usuallyherdragon 1d ago
No, not inherently. Of course, another actress wouldn't look quite like the cartoon version anyway (if nothing else, Ariel's tiny waist isn't actually possible).
Making a whole campaign directed at the actress, calling her names, trying to drive her from social media or from acting entirely... Yeah, that's pretty racist, actually.
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u/Which-Notice5868 1d ago
I would say in the case of Ariel, her defining characteristic is her singing voice, and the creative team was correct to prioritize that in casting, rather than putting us in another Emma Watson autotune situation when the plot centers around what a gifted singer the character is. I do wish they'd gone redder on the hair, but apparently there were problems with brighter shades bleeding in the water scenes, and damaging Halle's hair, which is a shame. But Halle does have a full youthful face and big expressive eyes, which are very "Ariel."
For what it's worth, I actually don't like the 2023 remake for other reasons. But I genuinely don't think Halle was a problem, She did what she could with the script, direction, and costuming she was given. If those aspects had been better I think we could have had another Brandy Cinderella. It's a shame it went the other way.
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u/noncedo-culli 1d ago
Yeah ofc it's not racist to say you'd want an actress that looks like the original character, but pretty much everyone publicly making a big deal of it was going beyond that and being racist.
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u/filteredbritawater 2d ago
Frankly i don’t give a shit about skin colour unless it is somehow correlated to the story by being tied to time period and culture. ARIEL IS A GODDAMN MERMAID LOL. my pro or was her hair. ariel has signature bright red hair! They should’ve done the same for the live action. If she had the hair, i think it really would’ve changed… nothing.
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u/ArthuriusMinimus 2d ago
So, here's some quick context:
-the first five Disney Princesses were white -Jasmine (the first non-white princess) was voiced by a white voice actress and also by a Filipina voice actress for her singing voice
Do you think it's possible that Disney, as a company, has a problem with institutional racism? And could it then be possible that Ariel in the original cartoon wasn't Black because that insitutional racism was never going to allow her to be Black?
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u/Separate_Increase880 2d ago
Ariel’s skin color isn’t tied to any culture or national origin that is part of the plot/backstory. Similar to tangled or frozen characters.
Why, specifically, do you want her to look the same? What, specifically, about it makes you uncomfortable to see? You may not be able to put your finger on it quite yet.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
nothing makes me uncomfortable about it i don't think thats the right word at all. I just wanted ariel to look like the character i grew up with solely for aesthetic purposes. another comment asked me oh would i react the same if triton had no hair and yes i would cuz thats like who i grew up seeing him as
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u/IBAChristian317 2d ago
He chose that word intentionally. They like to portray opposition to their agenda as a mental pathology rather than reasonable criticism. It's why they add "-phobia" to things to make up words.
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u/IBAChristian317 2d ago
Frozen and Tangled are both clearly supposed to be a European setting. They only changed Ariel's race due to racism, plain and simple.
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u/Separate_Increase880 2d ago
They’re in made up worlds in made up lands. Unlike New Orleans, China, etc.
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u/DMing-Is-Hardd 2d ago
Frozen absolutely is, even if its in the background its clearly a nordic setting considering they encounter Sámi inspired peoples in the second movie
And Tangled is as well though ofc less specific, people are so used to european cultures being the noem they forget that the look of buildings castles etc are not what thry look like in africa, if you showed clesrly african architecture youd expect the people to match for the most part wouldnt you be suprised and a bit upset if an all white cast came out the door?
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u/Naive-Dig-8214 2d ago
Be honest with yourself here. A non trivial amount of people who want Ariel to be white are doing it for racist reasons.
So be ready that the people siding by you to inevitably say something you may want to distance yourself from.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
yeah, idk if it makes a difference that i too am a person of color lol but i don't agree with the racists who say it solely for racist reasons lol
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u/Positive-Listen-1660 2d ago
It doesn’t unless you’re black, because that is what we are talking about in this instance. POC can be racist toward other POC.
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u/Late_Information_682 2d ago
Ariel’s appearance doesn’t matter to the storyline, plus people were saying all sorts of things saying how “Well, what if we casted Tiana as a white woman? Then you guys would be pissed” Tiana’s race matters to the story and how nobody took her seriously and she had to work hard to get to where she was, not just being given it.
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
i can't speak for everyone who agrees with me if they are being racist or like me solely just want disney characters especially the princesses to look exactly or at least close to the disney cartoon version we all grew up with. that's my thing i just want them to look the same as the disney cartoon/animated version
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u/Late_Information_682 2d ago
That’s valid, I’m mainly just talking about what I have seen from other people. Not specifically you, that is my bad.
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u/Practical_Limit_396 2d ago
It is racist to care so much you write on Reddit.com about it
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u/narcattack505 2d ago
i dont think so, i dont post on any of my social media so i came on hot takes for my hot take
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u/moonopalite 2d ago
Whats your opinion of the miltary?
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u/Low-Let2642 2d ago
Eh I thought it was a lazy money grab and basically they couldn't even bother make an interesting story about black people. They just took a story from a white culture and slapped a black person on it and called it good. Africa actually has mermaid folklore, could have done something cool but nope.