Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid is a huge hit. In its opening weekend (which was a four-day holiday weekend), it made $118 million, the fifth highest Memorial Day-weekend opening in box office history. It sounds like every parent took their kids to see it, which is amazing for Halle Bailey and Disney and everyone involved in the movie. Unfortunately, it seems like some parents had no idea what they were getting into with the story? Like… how are you old enough to have children and you aren’t aware of the general story of The Little Mermaid? We need to ask Paloma Faith, who had some big criticism of the film:
Paloma Faith, a singer and actress in shows like Pennyworth and Dangerous Liaisons, watched The Little Mermaid over the weekend and is calling out the storyline.
“As a mother of girls I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love a man,” Faith shared in a now-deleted Instagram post that Metro caught. “Wtf is this sh*t. Not what I want to be teaching next gen women at all.”
Although Faith was not keen on Ariel pursuing love, she did praise Halle Bailey who portrays the little mermaid.
“I think Halle gives a good performance and it’s great casting,” Faith said.
With Faith receiving major backlash for her comments over The Little Mermaid, many questioned how she was not aware of what the story was about. As it turns out, Faith was seemingly a fan of the animated version. Back in 2009, Faith tweeted, “When I grow up, I want to be the little mermaid.”
The Little Mermaid is literally a fable written by Hans Christian Andersen in the 19th century!! If you have a problem with a mermaid giving up her voice to bang a hot prince, just know that a man wrote that sh-t and he did so in 19th century Denmark. Like, I know that every generation has to come to their own realizations in their own time about what the story is really about, but my goodness. In the year 2023, we’re apparently still doing “commentary” on how mermaids shouldn’t have to give up their voices to get a man. What’s even more bizarre is that this looks entirely performative on Paloma’s part? Why in the world??
when i grow up i want to be the little mermaid
— Paloma Faith💙 (@Palomafaith) October 30, 2009
Paloma Faith slams new live-action ‘Little Mermaid’ movie:
“I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love man. WTF is this sh*t?” pic.twitter.com/POZIbKZ3Tx
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 29, 2023
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- English singer-songwriter Paloma Faith performs at The Piece Hall in Halifax, Yorkshire Featuring: Paloma Faith Where: Halifax, Yorkshire, United Kingdom When: 02 Jul 2022 Credit: Graham Finney/Cover Images
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- New York Starz Premiere Of at Cipriani Wall Street. Featuring: Paloma Faith Where: New York, New York, United States When: 26 Oct 2022 Credit: ROGER WONG/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
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- UK premiere of ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square Featuring: Jonah Hauer-King, Halle Bailey Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 May 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
Those receipts from 2009 are hilarious.
People can change their mind after having children but still I guess Paloma got her 10 minutes of attention she ordered.
I also tend to agree with her the messaging is problematic and whilst I loved the film I agree with some of the criticisms, which even with diverse casting could not be solved i.e. the loss of her voice, the time period being so linked to slavery etc etc.
That said the representation is important, but hopefully in future new stories can be written that all kids will love.
I think they did what They could with the voice aspect, especially making it so that it wasn’t directly linked to her wanting to get with Eric but more so wanting to get to the surface world. I haven’t seen any criticisms regarding slavery, but what is the issue there? I just presumed it was set in a world where that didn’t happen. Especially since they had a multicultural court, a queen who was black, and apparently adopted a white son with no real in universe blowback. That doesn’t bother me, I don’t want to always have to see our struggle on screen, and honestly historical accuracy is probably not what I would expect from a movie with sea witches and talking, anthropomorphic animals lol.
I saw the slavery complaint made by somebody with MBE behind his name. Not a serious debate nor credible given he took an award from the Royal Family. The little mermaid is a fantasy not real life.
Oh wow. Yeah probably not best to argue about slavery being represented in a mermaid movie with that in your background. I mean at least for all we know the atrocities that we experienced, in Ariel’s world never existed. You know for sure what happened during the Empire.
Absolutely correct about the Royals. As a Brit I was shocked to find out that the UK had, in the year 2015, then finished paying “REPARATIONS” (the word the government used in a press release bragging about it!) to the decendedants of SLAVE OWNERS FOR THEIR FAMILIES’ LOSS OF INCOME when slavery was abolished in 1807 (WHICH THE UK STARTED AND WHICH MADE THE COUNTRY WEALTHY). They gave them millions of pounds. By the way, slavery was abolished only in the Empire, not its possessions . They kept it going outside the Empire while feeling so superior. They then started slavery in the US, which was a possession full of English with great plantations and holdings. Amazingly, America today gets all the blame and the UK gets to claim to be so noble.
Just to add;
anyone who tacks MB, MBE, CBE, or OBE, on their name is an arse.
I’m white, so no race snark
I loved the movie
Sorry about the lecture
Shall we now thoroughly examine Snow White…The 3 little pigs…Little Red Riding Hood? Only if a black girl gets cast as the lead 😉
This world is drunk and the people are Madd.
I truly need to have people unpack why, since the mermaid is NOW black, are we suddenly caring about slavery during this “historical” period where MERMAIDS exist. Why do you want to see Black people degraded, even in FANTASY???
Because no one cared about the lack of slaves when animated Ariel sang about being part of the human world.
Also, Ariel didn’t give up her voice for a man. She already wanted to be part of the human world, which is what’s established in the first 15 minutes of BOTH movies.
It’s The Little Mermaid people
The kicker is that it’s not even the original message.
The Little Mermaid is a self-insert. Ariel IS Hans Christian Anderson, who was at least gay and may have actually been trans. The whole thing makes so much more sense when you realize that it’s about a gay man/transwoman crossdressing and running into their crush. Speaking would instantly out them. Of course, in the original, she doesn’t get the guy and in fact dies pining to be human.
The original message is that being trans sucks, being trans in a transphobic society sucks even more, and being trans and in love in a transphobic society can quite literally kill you.
I’m a 49yo woman who has never seen Little Mermaid and if I saw it with my two girl godkids I would likely have the same reaction.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also, are we not allowed to grow and change our opinions on life over a 14 year span???
Of course you’re allowed to change your opinion. But would you LIE about not having seen the original film and feign outrage over the story?? I’m guessing not. My question is at 41 how did she magically change her mind AFTER seeing the live action film?? I would think a parent and mother to daughters would have had the presence of mind to have figured that out BEFORE taking her daughters to see the film. Her outrage was disingenuous.
I don’t know this person so I have no idea where she grew up but I’m the same age and The Little Mermaid soundtrack was my very first cd and I played that thing to death. I was obsessed with the movie, I still have my Ariel Barbie with the wedding dress and white tail. I also have kids and have watched it in recent years because I bought it on blu ray for my oldest daughter who is 11 and now that we have Disney plus we have watched it a few times. I definitely noticed how absurd the story was when I first watched it again as an adult with my daughter. She’s only 16, she literally doesn’t even meet Eric before she declares her love for him, and then she gives up her voice and family for him. But then I realized it was just an old Disney movie and pretty much all of the ones I grew up on are like this and most of the animated movies were only like 90min so you have to make love happen fast right lol. Anyway, I’m shocked that she seems to have avoided watching or knowing anything about the story this entire time.
@Mel, you would’ve been a teen when the original came out so I’m not surprised you never saw it tbh, I never saw any of the Disney movies that came out when I was a teen either until we got Disney plus and my kids watched them.
You are perfectly fine to have your opinions, but if you lie about it for performative outrage, get caught out in the lie (pretending you never seen it before), then you need to expect the blowback from everyone else calling you out on being disingenuous.
I don’t see her more recent comment as a sign of growth or maturity because she chose to go into a movie in 2023 to see a movie where she already knew the storyline. A storyline she knew because she had already seen the original. I could understand if it was her first time ever seeing the movie and had no understanding of what the storyline was going to be but she knew going in that this fictional mermaid lost her voice.
I agree. I’m not of the same mindset at my age as I was in my 20’s or 30’s. I find that most Disney movies are about women being better than men in most things. I think since Walt died the direction of Disney is woke and I wouldn’t go there anymore. I don’t watch those films either.
It’s not exactly a feminist tale. This was the reason I wasn’t gaga over it back when the cartoon came out. So she had no problem with it when the cartoon came out, but now that she’s seen the live action, it’s just a bridge too far? Nah…
The actual story is even worse. Ariel doesn’t get the prince and has to perform 300 years of good deeds to get into heaven.
I thought she turned into sea foam in the book.
Isn’t it more of a cautionary tale? She had to give up her voice to be with this man, or disappear to nothing if he didn’t choose her. She made a bargain with a witch. That was a bad idea. In the original story she doesn’t end up with him and turns into foam on the waves. I think the moral is to NOT do that. If you have to subvert yourself to be with someone, it isn’t worth it. It’s totally a feminist tale.
Agree! I like the interpretation in the K-drama Secret Garden with social/income classes. Does the lower income woman give up her life goals to marry the “prince” or does the chaebol give up his wealth to live in lower class with her? What if the relationship doesn’t make it due to these concessions and one or the other loses everything? Wish they would have done a bit more modern take with this movie, but I guess it is aimed at kids.
No, it’s not. It teaches girls to be rebellious and break the rules, sacrifice for what they want, and then they’ll get what they want in the end.
Mind you, when this movie came out in 1989, Christian groups HATED this movie because Ariel was rebellious and wanted to leave the world she’d always known. If you’re a Christian fundamentalist, you’d see how that message was counter to what they wanted for their children and taught in Sunday school.
So it’s HILARIOUS that 30 years on, this movie is still being deliberately misunderstood.
Ariel is a self-insert. Hans Christian Anderson was at least gay and probably trans. Viewed in that light, and the fact that the man Hans had been crushing on got married shortly before Hans wrote the story, the moral of the story is even simpler than that: being trans sucks.
I agree with tealily that it’s a cautionary tale. In the original story, she doesn’t just give up her voice and risk disappearing if he doesn’t choose her, she’s also feels like her feet are being stabbed when she’s walking on two feet. I think one interpretation is that it’s about the negative consequences of giving up your identity for someone else. But since the original story also included that she had the option to go back to being a mermaid if she killed the prince, the lesson is also about self-sacrifice, she’d rather turn into foam than murder someone she loves.
In HCA’s story, the mermaid wanted a soul. When a mermaid dies, she transforms to seafood. I made sure my daughter knew about the original version before seeing the animated movie. Whenever we were at the beach, she would call out, “Mom look!! Dead mermaids!!”
Guess I’m a little dark
UGH! I mean sea foam, not seafood. My darn autocorrect has been making my life hell!!
Lol I thought maybe you read a different translation!
I didn’t remember that bit about turning into seafood when I read the story as a child!! Goodness!
Who is Paloma Faith? For real, don’t know who she is but she’s acting brand new. Like what did she think the story was? Omg. My niece’s favorite Disney movies are Raya, Moana and Lili and Stitch so I guess if you’ve only seen those and then saw this, it could be jarring. But Paloma is not a child.
I have no idea who she is either
Holy crow, just about everyone I know has been raised and has raised their children with folk and fairy tales. How on earth did Paloma grow up and not get exposed to books, and in this specific case, the animated Disney film?!
I’m guessing what she means is that if Disney went out of their way to fix some problematic aspects (like consent, giving the chatacters more depth etc.), why didn’t they fix the most obvious issue with this story?
Because Ariel giving up her voice is literally the main plot point that you can’t change so they managed to make it obvious her main motivation was just to be human (in which giving up her voice just to be on land shouldn’t be an actual issue).
Just say you’re a racist Paloma?! You wanted to be the little mermaid and now it’s all bad?!?! Hmmm… If she is, I guess she hates Meghan too. I’ll be watching this spot- she’s very talented, but WTH
Bingo!
You can’t be serious. She specifically praises Halle Bailey, and says it was good casting. Please stop inserting fake racism when there’s already so much real racism to call out.
@Mrs. S
If youre not savvy to the ways of racists and assorted other bigots with how adept they are at camouflaging their bigoted intent, then perhaps it would be best that you listen and learn when those who are in the know, do what theyre capable of doing, i:e calling out poorly disguised bigotry.
@Mrs. S. That’s how many racists work. She praises Halle Bailey to deflect from her actual intention. Its equivalent to the “but i’m not racist I have one black/asian/jewish/etc friend” comment.
“I’m not racist but I love the animated version with the white girl but want to complain about the live version with the not white girl” energy in her comments.
Many of us have dealt with it enough to recognize the signs.
It’s amazing how all these wanna be Disney princesses discover feminism when the princess, real or fictional, is Black. Andersen wrote the story when he was in love with another man who married someone else. A tale of unrequited love, no happy ending in the original story. The movie was cute, beautiful visuals and closely adhered to the Disney cartoon with a few changes here and there. Halle’s singing was extraordinary. There was nothing remotely controversial about this movie unless you want to go after the whole princess genre, which is another topic altogether.
THAT PART
I’ve never even heard of Paloma before but I’m not impressed with what I’ve seen so far. What phony weirdo. All these folks using The Little Mermaid and Halle for clout. Are they not embarrassed?
There are hypocrites everywhere today. Paloma, Charles, Elizabeth Holmes so far. Not touching Al Pacino’s mess.
Completely agree with her. I think it’s legit to see a movie as a child and never think if it again until a remake years later, and of course with an adult understanding of the story.
But she didn’t forget about the Little Mermaid between childhood and the remake, she commented on it in a positive way, well into adulthood and well before the remake came out.
But, this take overlooks a huge component of the movie. Ariel LOVED the human world. Ariel ALWAYS was interested in the human world. I mean the first time we meet her* she’s exploring ship wrecks and having Scuttle explain the wonders of a snarfblatt to her. Eric was the catalyst for her going to Ursula, but it wasn’t like Ariel was all “I am so happy under the sea and want to live here forever and ever and I have zero interest in the human world!” Isn’t Part of Your World from BEFORE she rescues Eric from the shipwreck? That’s why the reprise is her big rock singing moment. (could be wrong about that though.) But still….Ariel wanted to be human before she fell in love with Eric. He was just the final thing that made her do something about it. She didn’t give up her voice for a man, she gave up her voice for the chance to be human forever, which was what she wanted.
*in the animated version, I’m seeing the live action this weekend, woohoo!
If she liked the 1989 movie why would she have issues with this one? It seems like they made it a little less problematic, if anything. They address the consent issue with “Kiss The Girl,” flesh out Prince Eric to make him more worthy of love and sacrifice and show us more of their connection.
I didn’t like the message of the original, myself. I did think the songs and visuals were delightful. But I’m an adult so yes, I know the story isn’t exactly feminist. I wouldn’t be taking my kids to see it without knowing that in the first place.
My daughter and her roommate went to see it and loved it. They are both former theater kids so they were there for the performances, visuals, makeup, music etc. They thought it was great.
That’s precisely why. They fixed other problematic areas, so why not one of the more glaringly obvious ones?
I guess because it is just too central to the story to change? I suppose they could have done a “Pocahontas” and had Ariel choose to stay below the sea with her family, but that would be kind of deflating in this case. It’s a romance and people want to see these crazy kids end up together. So they made it seem more like Ariel really would be happy on land, and made Eric more worthy of (and right for) her. Or so I’ve read.
At the end of the day, no one has to take their kids to watch this movie. I never showed my daughter the original “Little Mermaid” movie because I didn’t like the message. But she’s in her 20s now so I can’t stop it. And she’s old enough now to understand that it’s a fairy tale.
It’s a fairytale that has been disneyfied over the years. In the real story Ariel dies. I think the real reason for angst is that Ariel is no longer “white”. Let’s just remember that Ariel is a mermaid who had green skin.
I HATE this movie and I don’t care how long ago it was written. It has an awful message to young girls and I have never shown it to my children for this reason. He comments are valid. However, yes everyone knows the story and it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone.
I never showed my daughter the original one either. I really hated the message, but especially how it was done in that version. She first fell in love with Eric as a statue or something, right? He had no brains or personality and immediately ditched her for the bish with “the voice.” He wasn’t worthy of any sacrifice and I felt like she would have ended up unhappy, just like in the original Danish story.
I haven’t seen this one, and I don’t know that I would take my kids to see it now either, if they were young. But like you said, she knew what the central premise was why take her child to see it and then complain?
All these people creating drama around the live action Little Mermaid movie confuse me. Like, first of all, she’s a mermaid and not a real person or creature so she can look however the imagination of someone creating a mermaid designs her.
Next, the original Little Mermaid fairy tale is dark–she gives up her voice to gain legs, the prince STILL marries another woman (not the sea witch in disguise) and she turns into seafoam after all the crying and her grief. Hans Christian Andersen was in love with Edvard Collin and used his sadness from not having his feeling requited, to create this tale. HCA was an eccentric to be kind. He went to visit his favorite author, Charles Dickens, and basically refused to leave.
Many, MANY fairytales in their original forms are dark and cautionary tales. Disney did a lot of editing to many fairytales. Get a copy of the Blue or Green Fairy Book if you want to see some of your faves in their original or at least less Disney-fied forms.
All the old fairy tales were cautionary tales. Love seeing you recommend the Blue Fairy book! There’s 12 in the series collecting tales from across Europe and Asia. (The Blue/Green/Red/Yellow/Orange/Pink and so on Fairy Books)
These are dark, folk tales with the blunt violence and brutality of life in the times softened only by the magic woven within. There’s little mercy or forgiveness for the foolish
I’m older than most people here I think. I’m over 50. I still remember the grimmer versions of some fairy tales, which were in books that could be found at the library, on our shelf or even at school. Like “Hansel and Gretel.” Didn’t the parents just set their kids loose in the woods with a loaf of bread because they were too poor to keep them? And in “The Gingham Dog And The Calico Cat,” the two stuffed animals literally ripped each other apart. Dark stuff.
I actually own all the colored fairy tale books but thought the more popular ones are included in the Blue and Green, edited by Lang 🙂 My family owned them and they belong to me now. One of my friends (a librarian) used to run a blog (now defunct) called Land of Lost Books and one of the posts was about if you knew it was the last book you’d read, which would you choose. I chose the Lang Fairy Tales 😉
Obviously I’m old.
@PJ and @Leigh_S
Ahh Memories! I read and liked many of those colored fairy books as a child and never looked at the mainstream fairy tales the same way again! I also stopped watching a lot of Disney. Eye-opening indeed.
The Brothers Grimm we grim indeed.
She falls in love with Eric because she’s fascinated with humans in general. That’s a pretty huge part of her characterization. Her crush is the trigger point Úrsula exploits, but she clearly enjoys the human world. She has an entire song about how she wants to be a part of it. Ariel could have very much chosen to return at the end. She doesn’t WANT to.
Furthermore, much like Twilight, she has A CHOICE to do this. She pursues who she loves despite her the disapproval of the biggest man in her life (her father). That’s…not as anti-agency as you would think at first glance. Frankly, the original story has a much uglier message. It’s not exactly independent woman flag waving, but it’s not profoundly anti-feminist either.
We saw it this weekend and loved it! Halle is amazing amazing amazing. Saved Diggs never disappoints and I even loved Melissa McCarthy. Just go enjoy a movie. Sheesh. Or don’t. Don’t go see the movie and go on with your life (to this Paloma lady). My kids loved it.
I deliberately never watched the original “The Little Mermaid” because I couldn’t get behind the storyline – but I also didn’t make a big deal of any of the older Disney princess movies for the same reason. The first Disney movies I took my daughter to see was “The Princess and the Frog” and we watched “Mulan” on repeat. “Brother Bear” was good, too. The later Disney movies and the Pixar films were better, but most of the “classics” were simply terrible.
Watching the classic Disney fairy tales is like watching Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer as an adult. It was something I watched every year and loved as a kid, but now? Clarice, Mrs Donner get sidelined because they are girls, Comet is a a-hole bully, Mr Donner and the other reindeer are superficial dopes, Hermey, even though he just wants to be himself is a know it all who can’t read the room and Santa is every celebrity who goes the way the wind blows but is happy to jump on a bandwagon if he can exploit others and get something out of it. And don’t get me started on harassment of Abominable and entire Misfit Toys concept.
Santa in “Rudolph” is an asshole and a grouch. He basically shrinks away from Rudolph’s nose and wants nothing to do with him until he needs that light for his Christmas Eve ride. If I were Rudolph I would have told them all to f**k off and just left with Clarice for warmer climes.
Idk who this woman is, but I don’t like her for doing this.
With all the racists out in full giving this movie crap because they dared make Ariel black, for her to come out and and make this about her, just adds to the negative press about it.
All I’ve seen is little black girls so excited and happy when they see Halle Bailey. It’s about time they cast a beautiful black girl in a Disney tale. We don’t need hot feminist takes from nobodies about a fictional story. Let the kids enjoy it.
Can’t people just relax and enjoy a movie anymore? It is after all, FANTASY!
I mean, I agree with her but it’s not news. This was the problem with all the Disney movies before… maybe Mulan? They’re all about doing the absolute most for a man. Romcoms were also that way until recently… those of us who grew up in the 90s and especially the 2000s dealt with a special kind of sexism in a society that acted like it was dead when actually it was thriving
The evidence for her scorn is apparent and dismissed.
Envy does that every time.
Mermaids are not real………
So they can be whatever we want them to be…
Who is responsible for putting Halle in that getup????
Well they did change one thing; instead of Eric driving the boat into Ursula they made it Ariel.
Hans Christian Andersen could be very punitive to women. I don’t believe he ever married (have to check that). In The Red Shoes, a young woman wants to be a dancer, so she’s cursed by the red shoes, that make her dance and dance for eternity or until she dies (I forget which). Way to encourage women’s ambition! So many authors were/are sexist. I refuse to read a word of Thomas Hardy bc he’s so hateful to women and he admitted in his lifetime that he disliked women. That’s one “classic” author I can do without.
I’m too lazy to look it up, although I vaguely recall reading The Red Shoes–I always read books that movies were based on. In the movie version, Moira Shearer, the ballet dancer, dances herself onto the railroad tracks right in front of a train. Those shoes called to her, and once she got them on her feet, that was it. There was also something about a man she was in love with but who didn’t love her back, hence the dancing onto the tracks. Something like that. Moira Shearer was a lovely dancer, though, the movie is worth it just to watch her.
FWIW seeing something with kids can change how you see it completely. Like you can have loved something yourself as a kid, and still love it nostalgically as an adult, but then when you see it with children you’re responsible for all of a sudden you’re focusing on what messages it’s imparting in a much more critical way.
She’s not wrong about the basic storyline being terrible and retrograde. That said–I have no idea who this woman is, and it seems equally possible she’s just full of bullsh*t.
Actually, I kinda get where Paloma is coming from. I am a little older (too old for the original Little Mermaid – and so are my girls)… but not too long ago I tried to watch Grease with them – something I’ve seen a bajillion times, starting from age 7. And wow! When you show your kids stuff it hits differently. Things I had parsed because I didn’t really get them and oh look dancing and singing!
So, I love Grease for nostalgia of a time in my life, but yeah, does that message fucking suck!
I think she’s mostly being criticized and side eyed because her post gave the impression she was unfamiliar with the story but her 2009 seems to say otherwise.
If she’d related it the way you did to Grease I think it’d be a non story.
I didn’t show the 1989 animated version to my daughters because Ariel looked like a Hooters waitress, but we want to go to see this one because Halle Bailey and Daveed Diggs are great, and the haters are angry, which makes me cheer.
I don’t know her, but I kind of love her for expressing this. Yes, most of us thinking-individuals have known what the little mermaid is all about, but there are a lot of non-thinking individuals in this world. It’s always good to call it out and remind everyone to walk in with eyes open no matter where, when, or who.
I loved the original Hans Christian Andersen Little Mermaid and bought it for my niece when she went through her Disney little mermaid phase. I took a feminist interpretation of the original – as a cautionary tale – do not give up what makes you unique, do not give up your power to advocate (speak up) on your behalf, do not compromise your identity to please someone else – especially men, because you will lose your identity (soul) in the process. Also a reminder of the fickleness of some men – when the prince is blinded to the truth before him and opts for another woman instead. The original story is empowering. The saccharine Disney version set my teeth on edge.
Doesn’t the story show the negative consequences of giving up one’s voice? Only once she regains it do things get better.
Full disclaimer— haven’t seen the new version (we were camping), but I assume it follows a similar storyline to the animated version of our youth.
I mean, we are all aware Little mermaid dies in the OG tale? Andersen wrote Little mermaid in 19th century exactly as a kind of children’s cautionary tale (all fairy tales start as cautionary tales:). Don’t risk everything for a man you actually know nothing about and don’t really know him: and if you don’t find your voice, but remain weak and submissive, happy ending is not guaranteed.
I think they need to stop making remake of movies. I like the original version of “Little Mermaid”. Also stop trying to find the evil in children’s movies. Such as the wizard of Oz. I love that movie and see no evil in it. If you don’t want your children to watch certain movies then don’t let them watch them.
We saw this last night and loved it! Halle Bailey was incredible, as was Melissa McCarthy. It was very faithful to the original, almost respectfully so. Halle embodied the spirit of Ariel so well.
Ok another perspective…. I see the danger of wanting to be something we are not or covet something we don’t have. A good lesson for all of us of contentment! Whether a relationship or a lifestyle etc! A wise parent can have a great discussion with children over the dangers of being willing to do anything in order to get what they want! Don’t give up your voice for anyone or anything! Wow! Powerful! There are always lessons we can learn in all movies depending on our perspective! Parents, talk to your kids and help them to see these perspectives!!!!
Blessings all!
When I was a child you had to go to the theater to see any Disney movie, they weren’t on TV. We were thrilled and loved any of the Disney movies. Did it affect us growing up? Absolutely not. Just like the cartoons we understood it was fantasy and not true. And it was explained to us it was fake and just a story like the nursery rhymes that were read to us. What has happened to our kids today that have identified with fantasy? Or maybe it’s just another story the media has made?
Why do people think it’s ok to put real life into fantasy. I mean come on, it’s fantasy. If you don’t want your children to watch it walk out of the theatre, turn the t.v. off…ect. Quit being babies people, and let the people who realize its FANTASY enjoy a movie. Critics aside, shut up. All you’re doing is ruining a good movie.
So confused. The original is definitely a cautionary tale. She makes a deal with the sea witch and gives up her voice to have legs – the sea witch then cuts out her tongue – and every step she takes from that point on feels like stepping on knives incidentally, just to have the potential to try and catch some stupid bloke’s eye. But even giving up so much, the deal is if she can’t get him to love her, she’ll die. He never loves her and falls for another woman. The mermaids sisters strike a deal with the sea witch and give the mermaid a dagger. If she can kill him she can return to the sea. But she can’t bring herself to go through with it, and so letting him live, is reduced to sea-foam. How would this not be perceived as a cautionary feminist tale??? It’s literally telling the reader not to spend their time revolving their lives around someone who barely notices you!
– And I believe, given Anderson was gay and infatuated with someone who didn’t feel the same way about him, that the story is actually a metaphor about unrequited gay love?