The Little Mermaid | Disney | May 26, 2023 | Queen Halle will rule the summer!

[Kon]

26 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

Director of the film: Halle was the perfect Ariel

Halle: *Is the perfect Ariel*

Racists: Well, Disney should have put a 'WHITES ONLY' clause for the casting 

 

In general, people are cynical. Many would agree Disney wanted "inclusive points".

 

They don't tend to believe Halle was only chosen by her talent (although she is pretty talented). After all, Disney didn't choose Emma Watson for Belle due to her talent.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Kon

[Issac Newton]

India

 

BMS ~ 6.6/10

Paytm ~ N/A but low 60s

 

You can read reviews here ~

https://in.bookmyshow.com/kochi/movies/the-little-mermaid/ET00058086/user-reviews

[grey ghost]

42 minutes ago, KP1025 said:

 

Agreed. A live-action Princess and the Frog wouldn't get anywhere near this level of backlash around the world. A lot of the outrage online mainly has to do with Disney making what these people view as unncessary changes to a beloved character in order to win political points. 

 

How do you know the motive behind the casting?

 

According to Haily they stopped her mid audition and she thought she lost the part. Alot of people think she's perfect as Ariel aside from pigmentation.

[Liiviig 1998]

4 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

Director of the film: Halle was the perfect Ariel

Halle: *Is the perfect Ariel*

Racists: Well, Disney should have put a 'No Blacks' clause for the casting 

Totally agree this is discusting and unfair. But for everyone one hailey you will get alot more " nowhere boys" scenarios of tokenisation. 

 

Blacks are entitled to the opportunity to get these roles and deliver their best and if the director has purpose and intent to using them well and good .

 

It's not fair ,they also need work  but everytime you do it esp for representation reasons  it starts to feel disingenuous. 

 

Best form of representation  imo is creating original characters and  projects that feature black leads and that creates more identity unlike compared to race swapped characters who for the most part feel like third wheels in another person's  story and such characters don't tend to develop identity and will always be tailored and compared to what came before.

 

Most of the popular black characters we have in media are original 

 

So rather than race swapping , creating an original character is always better.

 

Hailey bailey seems great from what I have heard and it's unfortunate she is a victim of the unfortunate circumstances the world lives in today but  also the shallow and  double standards of Hollywood we live in .

 

Race swapping isn't necessarily bad and it's works at times but for the most part some  studios want to have their cake and  eat it too and as a result instead of improving the situation, things get worse .

 

 

[UnapologeticKenny]

Great!

 

 

[grey ghost]

9 minutes ago, Liiviig 1998 said:

Totally agree this is discusting and unfair. But for everyone one hailey you will get alot more " nowhere boys" scenarios of tokenisation. 

 

Blacks are entitled to the opportunity to get these roles and deliver their best and if the director has purpose and intent to using them well and good .

 

It's not fair ,they also need work  but everytime you do it esp for representation reasons  it starts to feel disingenuous. 

 

Best form of representation  imo is creating original characters and  projects that feature black leads and that creates more identity unlike compared to race swapped characters who for the most part feel like third wheels in another person's  story and such characters don't tend to develop identity and will always be tailored and compared to what came before.

 

Most of the popular black characters we have in media are original 

 

So rather than race swapping , creating an original character is always better.

 

Hailey bailey seems great from what I have heard and it's unfortunate she is a victim of the unfortunate circumstances the world lives in today but  also the shallow and  double standards of Hollywood we live in .

 

Race swapping isn't necessarily bad and it's works at times but for the most part some  studios want to have their cake and  eat it too and as a result instead of improving the situation, things get worse .

 

 

 

Creating new stuff is more risky than using existing IP's.

 

Hollywood is pretty much done spending 300 m on a tent pole only for it to flop and open to 35m.

 

I mean it happens with existing IP's but they're easier to predict an outcome. And predicting an outcome is everything when you're gambling 250-350m with every tent pole.

[xieh tie]

 

[KP1025]

24 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

 

How do you know the motive behind the casting?

 

According to Haily they stopped her mid audition and she thought she lost the part. Alot of people think she's perfect as Ariel aside from pigmentation.

 

I think she's perfect for the role as well, and I don't doubt she was the best candidate they auditioned for Ariel. Sadly, that hasn't stopped people from believing the casting was politically motivated. Some people just can't accept that there is room for both the original Ariel and one for the new generation. 

[Liiviig 1998]

2 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

 

Creating new stuff is more risky than using existing IP's.

 

Hollywood is pretty much done spending 300 m on a tent pole only for it to flop and open to 35m.

 

I mean it happens with existing IP's but they're easier to predict an outcome. And predicting an outcome is everything when you're gambling 250-350m with every tent pole.

This..

Is the exact problem with Hollywood today.

Only think by throwing large amounts of money at something , this is why there is less creativity and lack of originality.

 

Having more Jordan peele's ,Ryan coogler type directors doing films at 50-75m budgets would do alot more for black film that your average 200m  blockbuster.

 

 

[vale9001]

People are basic. And they want copy carbon movies.

Before the cast choice of Barry there were tweets with million likes about this actress. I don't even know who she is, probably a teen tv series star, and still a lot of people really want her to be the main actress of a big blockbuster movie cause "it's ariel".

So they want just a copy and this mean the main actress has to be a copy too, if it's different they don't like it. 

 

 

Imo one of the reason of Cinderella underwhelming numbers (after alice and jungle book 1B most people were thinking similar numbers for that, but it made half of it) it's Lily James is really really different looking (even if white too) from the animated cinderella, and not only that, she is also a different "kind of beauty" from the stereotipated "disney princess". I rememeber a friend of mine saying "This Cinderella is ugly". 

 

As black actress for example I think Zendaya or the one from Bones and All would have been felt "more disney princess" types from the gp audience.   

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by vale9001

[ThePrinceIsOnFire]

Let's just look at the numbers:

this is underperforming in every market when compared to Aladdin, except for:

-USA

-UK

-AUS (roughly on par with aladdin, it seems)

-France (it's playing slightly above Aladdin but that had a disastrous OW).

 

With Japan not being a factor yet and no reliable data on Brazil (though it looks like it could perform on par with Aladdin there)

 

Now, we can have whatever opinion on it, but it looks like, just analyzing the data, that "the little mermaid" is simply a much weaker brand than Aladdin, pheraps because it is very much a "girls only" thing.

The anglo world seems to be an exception to that.

 

Live actions remakes fatigue is also a solid argument given the diminishing returns. 

 

Personally, nothing about this movie's performance is shocking to me. I've said months ago (years ago, even) that the international public is tired of these remakes because they really aren't good quality products and mostly exist just as unnecessary cash grabs.

Staying more faithful to the traditional traits of the characters, casting someone who is really famous or who has the conventional western/eastern beauty features might have helped quite a bit but I still don't think that there was enough in the tank for this remake to reach 1B.

 

Even though these remakes are all independent movies, they are perceived as one big franchise, so the horrible quality of Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Wendy and the other recent live actions does have an impact on TLM's b.o. performance.

 

Snow White IMHO is going to be the bigger bomb, to the point where I'm starting to wonder whether disney really wants to try a risky theatre release or simply dump it on disney+.

Edited May 27, 2023 by ThePrinceIsOnFire

[nydedan]

on China's social media, I've seen countless arguments like this: "I'm fine with their political correctness attempts and casting a black actress but why couldn't they at least pick someone more beautiful for example, Halle Berry?" Well first most Chinese don't know many black actresses so they just throw some big names like Berry without knowing that she is probably too old for Ariel and could not sing; second, I think this type of argument just scream (hidden) racism because you can clearly tell that they automatically believe that a light-skinned or a "whiter" black woman is more attractive.

[nydedan]

2 minutes ago, nydedan said:

on China's social media, I've seen countless arguments like this: "I'm fine with their political correctness attempts and casting a black actress but why couldn't they at least pick someone more beautiful for example, Halle Berry?" Well first most Chinese don't know many black actresses so they just throw some big names like Berry without knowing that she is probably too old for Ariel and could not sing; second, I think this type of argument just scream (hidden) racism because you can clearly tell that they automatically believe that a light-skinned or a "whiter" black woman is more attractive.

still, this is already the mildest criticism of the casting and Halle Bailey herself. The rest are just plain racism-they even make a lot of humiliating names for Halle's Ariel and use the n-word freely. They even attack people who went to see the movie and gave positive reviews online, calling them "brave" and "hero" and "not afraid of hurting your eyes"

[KP1025]

16 minutes ago, ThePrinceIsOnFire said:

Now, we can have whatever opinion on it, but it looks like, just analyzing the data, that "the little mermaid" is simply a much weaker brand than Aladdin, pheraps because it is very much a "girls only" thing.

The anglo world seems to be an exception to that.

 

I don't really see female-skewing being the limiting factor. At least, I don't see how TLM is any more female-skewing than Beauty and the Beast (and that ended up grossing $1.26 billion WW). 

[Spidey Freak]

2 hours ago, Kon said:

 

In general, people are cynical. Many would agree Disney wanted "inclusive points".

 

They don't tend to believe Halle was only chosen by her talent (although she is pretty talented). After all, Disney didn't choose Emma Watson for Belle due to her talent.

 

And yet Emma Watson was never attacked at this level despite being autotuned x100000. In fact HER casting was what made BatB so huge despite the original, with all its accolades, never being quite as popular as Aladdin (I'm going by the zillions of games, DTV sequels and animated show spin-off in the 90s in assuming that Aladdin was the more lucrative brand than BatB).

 

Halle is much more talented than Emma (no shade and I love Watson but let's be real) and is perfectly cast but apparently people just assume her casting is not merit based and that's who they draw the line at? No matter what excuses they make to justify their reasoning, they're telling on themselves.

[jedijake]

2 hours ago, grey ghost said:

 

Creating new stuff is more risky than using existing IP's.

 

Hollywood is pretty much done spending 300 m on a tent pole only for it to flop and open to 35m.

 

I mean it happens with existing IP's but they're easier to predict an outcome. And predicting an outcome is everything when you're gambling 250-350m with every tent pole.

People want familiarity. People don't want to take the time to like something new. Even when there is something new, there has to be something else external to the characters that lures people in (Avatar had the visuals and had a VERY familiar story). This is not due to a lack of creativity. It is due to a lack of movie execs greenlighting creativity for the reasons you stated. And if you look at the box office success of most live action remakes, why in the world would they ever stop?

 

As for what is happening Asia to TLM, it is really an event to ponder and debate for the ages.  This isn't just a drop in box office, but feels more like national sentiments or a protest, boycott, etc. that spans several nations. Very shocking to say the least.

[Issac Newton]

6 hours ago, Issac Newton said:

China

 

5.5⭐ Douban ~ 7K ratings

 

Maoyan/Taopiaopiao should open at low/mid 6.0 ⭐

Douban will already 5.3 ⭐ with 11K ratings 

 

Maoyan P/N - 263/86. In Taopiaopiao, 1 in every 2 gave negative review ~

[joselowe]

3 hours ago, vale9001 said:

People are basic. And they want copy carbon movies.

Before the cast choice of Barry there were tweets with million likes about this actress. I don't even know who she is, probably a teen tv series star, and still a lot of people really want her to be the main actress of a big blockbuster movie cause "it's ariel".

So they want just a copy and this mean the main actress has to be a copy too, if it's different they don't like it. 

 

 

Imo one of the reason of Cinderella underwhelming numbers (after alice and jungle book 1B most people were thinking similar numbers for that, but it made half of it) it's Lily James is really really different looking (even if white too) from the animated cinderella, and not only that, she is also a different "kind of beauty" from the stereotipated "disney princess". I rememeber a friend of mine saying "This Cinderella is ugly". 

 

As black actress for example I think Zendaya or the one from Bones and All would have been felt "more disney princess" types from the gp audience.   

 

 

 

Zendaya actually really fought for the role of Ariel and dyed her hair red for the film while auditioning in 2019. Halle did amazing and is perfect for the role but with Zendaya this would’ve grossed over $1 billion worldwide 

 

[WittyUsername]

Emma Watson was hired for BatB specifically because she’s a big name. Halle Bailey can actually sing, so the idea that she was hired as part of some political agenda to replace redheads doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

[PrinceRico]

I am so proud of America right now. Hallie is our Ariel.