Disney’s Live-Action ‘The Little Mermaid’ Star Halle Bailey Says Remake Is “Updating” Story’s Themes: “We’ve Definitely Changed That Perspective Of Just Her Wanting To Leave The Ocean For A Boy”
In the latest practical example of Hollywood’s backwards mentality towards anything made before yesterday, The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey has revealed that Disney’s upcoming live-action remake will be “updating” the themes of their animated classic – and in doing so, also laid bare both her and Disney’s factual ignorance towards the original story.
The singer-slash-actress provided this insight into her upcoming silver screen appearance during a recent interview given to the “equity”-centric celebrity and luxury culture magazine Edition.
Reflecting on her love for the original film and the fact that she considered Ariel to be her favorite of Disney’s animated princesses – an admission which itself torpedoes both her and Hollywood’s ‘representation’ narrative – Bailey informed the outlet that she was “really excited for my version of the film because we’ve definitely changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy.”
“It’s way bigger than that,” she continued. “It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she wants.”
“As women we are amazing, we are independent, we are modern, we are everything and above,” Bailey ultimately asserted. “And I’m glad that Disney is updating some of those themes.”
As noted above, despite Bailey and Disney’s attempt to frame the animated Ariel’s motivations as solely being based in love and a desire for a man, reality could not be further from the truth.
While a large portion of her story concerns her efforts to win the heart of Prince Eric, the iconic mermaid’s interest in the surface world has nothing to do with him specifically.
Per the actual film itself, Ariel is already entranced with the wonders of the surface world well before she makes the acquaintance of viewers.
For example, in her first appearance on screen, the young woman is seen skipping out on a kingdom-wide concert honoring her father in favor of exploring a sunken galleon in order to add more human trinkets to her hidden collection – which already held an impressive number of items prior to the film’s start.
And while many like to point to the animated musical’s ‘Part of Your World’ number as proof of Ariel’s puppy-love motivations, it should be noted that this song is not about Eric, but rather the human world in general.
Further, she doesn’t even lay eyes upon her eventual-husband until the song ends – a development which happens a full twenty minutes after viewers are introduced to Ariel and her surface life aspirations.
In other words, Ariel’s love for Eric is completely incidental to her dreams of walking on her own two feet.
The Little Mermaid crashes on to shores and theaters on May 26th.
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