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‘The Little Mermaid’ Called Out For “Borderline Dangerous” Erasure of Slavery

The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid / Credit: Disney

On May 26, Disney released its newest live-action remake, The Little Mermaid. The film starred Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. From the moment Bailey’s casting was announced, the remake was a controversial one. Halle Bailey is a young, talented black actress, while the original Ariel has pale skin and red hair. Despite the initial backlash, Bailey’s performance as Ariel has been praised by critics and audiences alike.

Trolls are hurting the Little Mermaid box office

Credit: Disney

The Little Mermaid had a very successful opening in the US over Memorial Day Weekend, with many praising the remake. One of the people who saw the film was British diversity advocate, Marcus Ryder. Ryder saw the film with his young son. Ryder was thrilled to see a beautiful black woman playing such an iconic Disney role. He was also happy to see the blind-casting of Triton’s daughters, showing that racial construct on a social scale does not exist under the sea.

However, there was one glaring issue that Ryder could just not ignore. The movie occurs sometime in the 18th century, although the exact year is not specified. During that time, the slave trade and slavery were very present in the Caribbean, where the film takes place. However, Disney did not address the issue at all. In fact, they showed an island that lived in perfect racial harmony. Ryder believes that the film is doing a disservice by pretending that slavery did not exist.

The Little Mermaid

Credit: Disney

Per Mr. Ryder’s blog:

In this setting, I do not think we do our children any favours by pretending that slavery didn’t exist. For me Disney’s preference to try and wish the inconvenient truth away says more about the adult creatives than it does about children’s ability to work through it.

Setting the fantastical story in this time and place is literally the equivalent of setting a love story between Jew and Gentile in 1940 Germany and ignoring the Jewish holocaust. Or possibly more accurately setting it in a slave plantation in America’s antebellum south and pretending the enslaved Africans were happy.

First of all, I do not need every story and movie that my 6-year-old consumes to be historically accurate. The appearance of steel pans in the film, an instrument invented in the late 1930s, raised a wry smile in the pedant in me, but I found it easy enough to overlook. But the total erasure and rewriting of one of the most painful and important parts of African diasporic history, is borderline dangerous, especially when it is consumed unquestioningly by children. I do not want my child to think that the Caribbean in the 18th century was a time of racial harmony, any more than I suspect a Jewish father wants his child to think 1940 Germany was a time of religious tolerance, however much we might both wish they were. 

The Little Mermaid

Credit: Disney

In a Twitter thread, Mr. Ryder clarified, once again, that he enjoyed the movie, but that doesn’t mean that the film couldn’t use some improvements. Ryder suggested that the film could have taken place in an area that did not have the “historical baggage” of slavery. A second option was to keep the film set in the Caribbean, but place it on an island that had already abolished slavery, like Haiti.

Ryder also pointed out that other films — like Encanto and Turning Red — were able to successfully tackle the topic of diversity. A large part of that was due to the fact that there was a diverse crew working behind the camera as well. He could not say the same for The Little Mermaid.

Disney has not commented on Ryder’s criticisms.

About Krysten Swensen

A born and bred New England girl living the Disney life in Southern California. I love to read, to watch The Golden Girls, and love everything to do with Disney and Universal. I also love to share daily doses of Disney on my Disney Instagram @BrazzleDazzleDisney!

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