Reflection and Analysis

Little Mermaid - Hailey Bailey Isn't the First Black Mermaid (5/10/23)

Note - The ending of this has spoilers for the movie because there's a film adaptation it  out already that gives away some of the changes that were made, or so I've heard. I'm hoping they're not true, but...

Why am I bringing it up?

Because someone said that Hailey Bailey is playing the first Black mermaid.

I guess Millan Tesfrazgi and Alvina August don't get any credit for being Black mermaids, right? Of course, their characters Cami and Viv appear in Siren, so I can understand their being people who didn't realize Black mermaids have been done before, given the assumption they are sirens and not mermaids from the title of the show, you'd think Cami and Viv weren't mermaids, but sirens, yet this stems from the misconception some have that sirens and mermaids are the same things, which honestly depends on the mythos. In other mythos, they're completely different characters.

Siren, the television show, works with the mythos that they're the same creature.

Oh! Actually, I can name another Black mermaid who doesn't get the credit she deserves simply because she's called a Siren instead of a mermaid. Not to mention I missed her character not being in the second season, but I'm talking about Camila/Iara from Invisible City. Of course, Wikipedia describes her as a mermaid that does what sirens do, so then it must be because this series isn't a show from an English-speaking country.

Notice how I don't say series in English, because Invisible City or Cidade Invisivel does, in fact, have an English dub. Still, I found this delightful series right before the second season aired on Netflix, and I'm really hoping it gets a third season. Still, if you're looking for a diverse cast that is representative of the people in the place the story takes place that isn't woke in content, this is it.

This isn't to say there aren't topics that aren't hot among the woke, such as the environmental message, but since the series takes place in Brazil and its rainforests, it's rather understandable that it's there.

Of course, maybe I misheard them.

Maybe they said she's the first Black actress to play the Little Mermaid character, but--

Is that really making history?

I mean, it's yet another Black actor/actress who is the first to play a non-white character, so it doesn't sound like it's making history to me. The fact Ariel is a mermaid doesn't make this special at all.

Mind you, I'm not against things like The Wiz or Annie. I actually love them.

Problem is, while those are creative, this is not.

Nor do I buy this idea that this is meant to reflect the world we live in because in what world does a girl have six sisters who are ethnically different from herself?

Oh, wait. The way I worded it makes it sound like all of Ariel's sisters are white, which in turn makes Posidon look like he simply remarried after his first wife died.

No. what we have is a case of seven sisters with seven different racial makeups because - woah, how else will we get our diversity quotas in, right? We even have an actress who is Black to the point we know she can't possibly be Posidon's biological daughter which implies his wife had an affair because he's played by a white person, yet that one daughter is likely the only other daughter by the same wife who had Ariel.

Yeah. You get the idea.

It's not the only person, and I worry about a friend of mine whose super gungho is still about the Disney live-action remakes because while she may like it (and no, she's not woke), this may be the one that she's not happy with.

Because there are other things before it even airs that--yeah, no. Aren't good.

- A lot of the scenes are dark and grungy to the point it's difficult to make things out.
- The fish are creepy and I wouldn't blame parents for not wanting to take their kids to see the movie.
- Apparently, despite not having any legs, it is now Ariel who stirs the ship into Ursula.
- Apparently, a spell is cast on her that makes her forget she needs to kiss Eric before it's too late.

And yes, I know the last two may not show up and may just be something in the live-action adaption of the book. Goodness knows for the third Santa Clause movie, the live-action adaption of the book is different than the movie because, you know, Bernard is in the book and not the movie, but given the fact we've seen the movie poster with Ariel's sister match up with the book...

As for what the issue with the last was, um...

Yeah.

How to put this?

I saw the clip of the Kiss the Girl scene in his movie where the spell supposedly kicks in, and she looks away because she's no longer desperate to get a kiss. Her turning away doesn't make sense even with her "forgetting" because of the spell, but if the spell distracts her and makes her look away from the kiss--

Good job of making fun of ADD kids and their focus issues, trumping it up to a magical curse while making focus issues look like a matter of the person with focal issues spazzing out at random moments.

And then there's the part about her driving the ship in despite having no legs to hold herself steady which feels like a mockery of those in a wheelchair who needs special accomindations to drive cars while Ariel magically needs no accomidations at all.

Yup.

In their attempt to make Little Mermaid politically correct and correct things that don't need to be fixed, they were ableist.

Actually, can we count Flounder in this, as by making him look like a super realistic fish it looks like he's gone on a diet and him being on the chubby side of things was a part of who he was, so yeah--

Non-white dyslexic who's not looking forward to this one.