• Friendly reminder: The politics section is a place where a lot of differing opinions are raised. You may not like what you read here but it is someone's opinion. As long as the debate is respectful you are free to debate freely. Also, the views and opinions expressed by forum members may not necessarily reflect those of GBAtemp. Messages that the staff consider offensive or inflammatory may be removed in line with existing forum terms and conditions.

The Little Mermaid. Is it getting flak because of racism, or because it's yet another remake?

mrdude

Developer
Developer
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
3,071
Trophies
1
Age
56
XP
8,227
I have a hard time believing that a generation raised on Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Rodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Whitney Huston (and so, so much more black entertainers…) has a problem with black representation in film. I think the problem might be that The Little Mermaid, originating from a Danish fairy tale and famously depicted in one of Disney’s greatest animated films, is traditionally depicted as white. We can argue all day about the chicken and the egg here, perhaps the studio was genuinely interested in promoting inclusion (likely story) or perhaps they wanted to capitalise on a “racial controversy” and score some easy and free advertising, but ultimately if we’re really so interested in black representation in film, perhaps we should be advocating giving black actors and actresses original and memorable roles which they deserve. We don’t need to race-bend existing characters for apparently no reason, unless Hollywood feels exceptionally honest right now and wants to admit that it’s going through a creativity crisis, with the writing getting so bad that it’s just safer to remake an old, beloved property, but with a “twist”.
I think you'll find it's the double standards that mostly piss people off, when you try to replace black people with white people in movies the blacks go mental. When you try to replace other races with blacks and try to palm it off as a historic documentary as they tried to do with Cleopatra, other races of people tend to get pissed. When you start with the blackwashing for other stuff like cartoons etc, people begin to stand up and call out the race baiting hypocrites in Hollywood. TBH a couple of years ago people were getting on just fine, then US media started making everything about race and trying to portray all white people as a bunch of racists, when they started with the critical race theory crap in schools I guess the masses just got sick of it. Maybe if the schools in USA taught that that the transatlantic slave trade, wasn't the only slavery the world has seen, and that it's been going on for thousands of years and many blacks were responsible for it then we would have less black people with a chip on their shoulders and less white people believing they should be held responsible for something that some mostly wealthy people a few hundred years ago did. One things for sure - the tide is beginning to turn and Hollywood better wake up to this if they want to make a profit because people will just turn off as they can't be arsed being lectured to or with the blackwashing anymore.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,825
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,841
Country
Poland
I think you'll find it's the double standards that mostly piss people off, when you try to replace black people with white people in movies the blacks go mental. When you try to replace other races with blacks and try to palm it off as a historic documentary as they tried to do with Cleopatra, other races of people tend to get pissed. When you start with the blackwashing for other stuff like cartoons etc, people begin to stand up and call out the race baiting hypocrites in Hollywood. TBH a couple of years ago people were getting on just fine, then US media started making everything about race and trying to portray all white people as a bunch of racists, when they started with the critical race theory crap in schools I guess the masses just got sick of it. Maybe if the schools in USA taught that that the transatlantic slave trade, wasn't the only slavery the world has seen, and that it's been going on for thousands of years and many blacks were responsible for it then we would have less black people with a chip on their shoulders and less white people believing they should be held responsible for something that some mostly wealthy people a few hundred years ago did. One things for sure - the tide is beginning to turn and Hollywood better wake up to this if they want to make a profit because people will just turn off as they can't be arsed being lectured to or with the blackwashing anymore.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, those days are behind us. All I’m saying is that I see all those controversies for what they are - advertising opportunities. Even talking about this issue at all is playing into their hands, so to speak - it gets people riled up over nothing. Just don’t watch the film if you don’t want to, whatever your reasoning may be. I personally just don’t like live action Disney films - in fact, their hand-drawn full length features are sorely missed as they were the best in the business by far. I can, however, understand the outcry over such casting decisions.
 

lolcatzuru

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2012
Messages
1,458
Trophies
1
XP
2,241
Country
United States
its the racism, its really insanely hard to believe how racist one director can be if im being honest.
Post automatically merged:

I co-sign on this. My family and I had a blast watching that movie, even though it's damned near a shot-for-shot remake, just in CGI. It's done extremely well, and is easily the best live action Disney movie to date.

im guessing you missed the part with aquafina.
 

WalterSlovotsky

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2023
Messages
891
Trophies
0
XP
1,528
Country
United States
its the racism, its really insanely hard to believe how racist one director can be if im being honest.
Post automatically merged:



im guessing you missed the part with aquafina.
I don't remember the movie well enough to recall Awkwafina in it. I wouldn't have recognized her voice back then in the first place. Hell, I wouldn't recognize it now.
 

RedColoredStars

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2022
Messages
921
Trophies
0
Location
Vancouver
XP
1,247
Country
Canada
Dear god, dude, get off my fucking nuts. In the context that we were discussing remakes, as close as this gets to actually being live, what I said qualifies.

Can you just block me or something?

Wow, dude. Why do you feel so entitled to give your thoughts and opinions, but someone that disagrees with what you post should "get off my fucking nuts" or "block me or something"? If you didn't post nonsense then try to constantly move your goal posts after getting called out, you wouldn't have this issue. "Literally" does not mean what you think it means and the CGI Lion King remake is not a live action film. Period. There's no debate to even be had for either point. Enough with the "But but but... in the context of... but but but.... close to live action... but but but" bullshit. This is on you. Don't blame me for YOU misspeaking on more than one occasion & then moving the goal posts in EVERY response you give me. Can you just block me or something? lol
 
  • Haha
Reactions: WalterSlovotsky

WalterSlovotsky

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2023
Messages
891
Trophies
0
XP
1,528
Country
United States
Wow, dude. Why do you feel so entitled to give your thoughts and opinions, but someone that disagrees with what you post should "get off my fucking nuts" or "block me or something"? If you didn't post nonsense then try to constantly move your goal posts after getting called out, you wouldn't have this issue. "Literally" does not mean what you think it means and the CGI Lion King remake is not a live action film. Period. There's no debate to even be had for either point. Enough with the "But but but... in the context of... but but but.... close to live action... but but but" bullshit. This is on you. Don't blame me for YOU misspeaking on more than one occasion & then moving the goal posts in EVERY response you give me. Can you just block me or something? lol
God, it keeps talking at me.
 

supermist

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
1,084
Trophies
2
Location
Wisconsin
XP
3,899
Country
United States
I know a lot of MAGAs/Nazis (same thing) were giving it flack and celebrating it doing 'poorly' but

AAADpjAAEj8y.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: KingVamp

SylverReZ

Dat one with the Rez
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Sep 13, 2022
Messages
7,150
Trophies
3
Location
The Wired
Website
m4x1mumrez87.neocities.org
XP
21,933
Country
United Kingdom
I honestly think that Disney is going way too far with representation in movies. They even gotten backlash for their 'Don't Say Gay' movement, and even in the past where they censored any references to LGBTQIA+ representations.
 

The Catboy

GBAtemp Official Catboy™: Boywife
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
27,946
Trophies
4
Location
Making a non-binary fuss
XP
39,321
Country
Antarctica
I honestly think that Disney is going way too far with representation in movies. They even gotten backlash for their 'Don't Say Gay' movement, and even in the past where they censored any references to LGBTQIA+ representations.
Disney literally removed the bisexuality of Marvel characters just to appease China. Honestly, I think people need to realize Disney is just doing anything to keep people coming to their movies. Be it the world's worst representation or making the most mid movies ever, Dinsey is just playing with people for money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SylverReZ

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,911
Country
Japan
Disney literally removed the bisexuality of Marvel characters just to appease China. Honestly, I think people need to realize Disney is just doing anything to keep people coming to their movies. Be it the world's worst representation or making the most mid movies ever, Dinsey is just playing with people for money.

It’s called pandering. It often works to gain support in politics, customers for a product, and followers on the internet. The end result tends to be similar in terms of quality. While the packaging can be easily changed for marketing, the actual product is disappointing at best.
 

titan_tim

(Can't shut up)
Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2009
Messages
461
Trophies
1
Location
Tokyo
XP
2,475
Country
Japan
Disney literally removed the bisexuality of Marvel characters just to appease China. Honestly, I think people need to realize Disney is just doing anything to keep people coming to their movies. Be it the world's worst representation or making the most mid movies ever, Dinsey is just playing with people for money.
It's not just Disney that panders to China. Most studios will bend over backwards to get those 1.4 billion potential customers. I think it was Pacific Rim that actually added pointless scenes in the movie showing the China navy helping defeat the monsters. You can probably find it on youtube easily. Really funny stuff to see.

As a business, can you really blame them though? Their middle class in China is estimated to be about 300 million people! That's almost the entire population of the US just as middle class!

It's also very important in terms of soft culture to expose the Chinese people to western stories. Even the west is fairly new to the idea of showing openly gay people on TV/movies. China will get there eventually. Baby steps for now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tabzer

The Catboy

GBAtemp Official Catboy™: Boywife
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
27,946
Trophies
4
Location
Making a non-binary fuss
XP
39,321
Country
Antarctica
This is just my opinion but it's starting to feel like the reason why Disney is using POC to distract people from how bad their movies have gotten. It seems like every movie is just bad or mid but the second someone says it, some random loud group of people start crying about racism. I am sure there are some racists in that group but I have strong doubts that everyone who finds these movies bad is doing so because of the race of the characters. Maybe it's just more to do with the fact that movies are bad and people are growing unhappy with random changes and stupid shit thrown into the plots of movies that were solid on their own to begin with.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,825
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,841
Country
Poland
This is just my opinion but it's starting to feel like the reason why Disney is using POC to distract people from how bad their movies have gotten. It seems like every movie is just bad or mid but the second someone says it, some random loud group of people start crying about racism. I am sure there are some racists in that group but I have strong doubts that everyone who finds these movies bad is doing so because of the race of the characters. Maybe it's just more to do with the fact that movies are bad and people are growing unhappy with random changes and stupid shit thrown into the plots of movies that were solid on their own to begin with.
The Disney we grew up with is dead and buried, they wouldn’t be able to make another Lion King if they tried - they sacked all their animators. It’s just a soulless machine that cranks out the same generic corpo art style films about slightly different non-offensive subjects. It has devolved into 3D animated soylent that anyone can ingest and feel absolutely nothing. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen a “new” Disney film, I think it was Rogue One, and I wouldn’t exactly classify an acquired franchise as a “Disney original”.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Catboy

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: 10 tabs open on chrome and no slow downs suck it low ram ple bs lol