Despite liberals’ immense pull on pop culture and mainstream media, covering up a failed retelling of a once-beloved story is much harder than one would imagine, especially if the backlash proved Disney went too far this time.
The latest in “woke” media is the most recent reimagining of the Little Mermaid franchise, based on a Danish tale that depicts a mermaid falling in love with a human being and the struggles that come with this romance.
Public opinions on Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” show it was definitely a flop
Naturally, if you or your child is a fan of Disney’s works, you’re probably familiar with the tale. It’s likely that you remember the main character, Ariel, as a young girl with fair skin and crimson red hair, which is no longer the case.
My favourite dress from the Little Mermaid, do you remember it?
Halle in it *^*#TheLittleMermaid #Disney pic.twitter.com/y9bUasW7qB— ladyshalirin (@_ladyshalirin) September 15, 2022
As it turns out, the character of Ariel will be portrayed by black actress Halle Bailey, a semi-popular musician and aspiring movie star. She came under fire for being cast in what is nothing short of a blatant attempt at “wokeifing” an iconic story.
Even though Disney’s only released an early trailer for the film, hundreds of thousands showed their discontent with the radical change to the main character’s race, both on YouTube and Twitter.
Unfortunately, it’s been a little over a year since YouTube decided to remove the dislike counter from all videos on the platform.
This is effectively removing any tangible way to tell how much of a flop something really is. Although comparing the number of likes, which are still visible for some reason, to the number of views, usually does the trick.
Dan Haskett, legendary American character designer and art director, is the designer behind many iconic Disney characters including Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Ariel from The Little Mermaid.#BlackAnimation #DrawingWhileBlack pic.twitter.com/kSMWDTGvMI
— Nilah Magruder (@nilahmagruder) September 13, 2022
YouTube censorship does little to hide Disney’s failure
Thankfully, a simple extension to your browser can show you these numbers you can’t usually access. The trailer has accumulated well over 1.5 million dislikes since its release, and the number is still growing.
Aside from criticizing Disney for poorly done casting for the movie, many decided to slam YouTube for its censorship, wondering why the platform chose such a controversial method for dealing with negative commentary.
If anything, the comment section on the platform opted for a different approach, posting absurd comments that have nothing to do with the actual trailer as an alternative to their comment ultimately being removed by YouTube’s algorithm.
Out of the sea, wish I could be… part of that world.
Disney's The Little Mermaid is coming to theaters May 26, 2023. pic.twitter.com/lUw5BmYRK5
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) September 9, 2022
It’s only a matter of time before YouTube decided to remove the comment section as well, given how ineffective removing the dislike count was. When that happens, at least we’ll have Twitter to say what we have to say about these “woke” takes.
While there’s certainly a great number of proponents of the movie, their arguments are often along the lines of “Danish people can be black too,” even though there was likely not a single BIPOC person in Denmark at the time the story was written.
Disney’s retelling of this tale is going down in flames. No matter how hard they try to cover up their shortcomings, the public has already spoken and they’re done with the wokeness.
This article appeared in Our Patriot and has been published here with permission.
