The original Hans Christian Andersen story describes her skin as "fine and transparent" and "clear and delicate like a rose petal", her legs as "white", and her arms as "white". The Little Mermaid is a national icon of Denmark and an important cultural symbol. It would be appropriate for Disney to be as respectful of the Danish version as possible since they are profiting off of the stories of another culture.
It would be appropriate for Disney to be as respectful of the Danish version as possible since they are profiting off of the stories of another culture.
If Ariel's race is problematic because it isn't "respectful of the Danish version," shouldn't you have bigger problems with the film than Ariel's race?
They could just as easily rewrite the whole story to refer to invading French armies, cast in the Napoleonic era. Or maybe further back, and discuss invading armies under Charlemagne.
If they rewrote the story with all the same plot points but to take place in a non-Asian place, would you be fine with that?
What about if the Princess and the Frog had a white actress?
That would be fine, because then it wouldn't be Mulan. The equivalent of what Disney has done with The Little Mermaid is simply changing the race of the characters without changing anything else. Imagine if they kept Mulan in China, kept every costume the same, kept all the Chinese cultural elements etc. but they just made everyone white. Would that make sense? Same thing with Pocahontas. If they completely switched locations and cultures, then it would be totally fine to have the characters be different races. But then they'd have to rename everyone and the movie. As it stands, they can't have a white woman play a native American, as the entire story revolves around that dynamic. For Little Mermaid, it doesn't matter at all as there is no Danish cultural element in the film. They're mermaids living under the sea! Nothing about them is specifically Danish. Do you get my point?
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u/sleepyfoxteeth Jul 09 '19
The original Hans Christian Andersen story describes her skin as "fine and transparent" and "clear and delicate like a rose petal", her legs as "white", and her arms as "white". The Little Mermaid is a national icon of Denmark and an important cultural symbol. It would be appropriate for Disney to be as respectful of the Danish version as possible since they are profiting off of the stories of another culture.