As if all of the woke news surrounding Disney’s live-action remake of the beloved 1989 animated classic The Little Mermaid wasn’t bad enough already, reports continue to trickle in making it sounds worse and worse.
Composer Alan Menken, who helped score and lyricize the songs for some of Disney’s most iconic animated classics, from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, returned to the story to help add a few new numbers and modernize some themes found in songs dating back thirty years.
Menken sat down for an interview with Variety in which he laid out two chief concerns surrounding the empowered women’s movement and how apparently little girls were fine with the messages portrayed in the 80s but are now too sensitive and fragile to accept them today.
“There are some lyric changes in “Kiss the Girl” because people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that [Prince Eric] would, in any way, force himself on [Ariel],” Menken said of the song featured while a voiceless Ariel and Prince Eric are out for a quiet boat ride and Sebastian croons some suggestions to help his friend both find love and regain her freedom from the antagonist.
“We have some revisions in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” regarding lines that might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn’t speak out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel to give up her voice,” Menken added, revealing that not just one but two key songs from the animated film were being revised because heaven forbid, the songs line up with the storyline.
As absurd as the lyric changes are, they are hardly the main reason prospective audiences are already outraged at Disney’s presumed abomination. The American Tribune previously touched on the focal point of fan disgust, which centers around the all-too-common race swapping of the protagonist Nordic mermaid. Disney got absolutely trounced when they shared trailers for the film slated to be released May 26th.
The American Tribune wrote in March:
The trailer for Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was trounced by fans on YouTube, garnering over one million “dislikes” against just a few hundred thousand “likes” in the first week since its release on the social media platform.
A teaser trailer released roughly six months ago is up to 3.5 million “dislikes” compared to just 1.2 million “likes.” Clearly, audiences have had enough of the woke left’s constant erasure of iconic characters at the altar of representation.
In this case, The Little Mermaid features the divisive and played-out practice of race-swapping the main character; in this case, Disney’s pale-skinned, red-haired protagonist has been replaced by a dark-skinned, dark-haired actress in the incessant push for more “representation.”
Less reported is that pretty much everything will look and feel different, save for the white male prince whose role will undoubtedly be diminished owing to the fact that Ariel’s primary mission is not to find love but simply to empower herself.
There is also the recasting of Scuttle, Ariel’s plucky seabird friend. Clearly voiced by a male in the 1989 version, he is now going to be decidedly female.
Of course, one thing that hasn’t changed is the representation of Sebastian. Markedly Jamaican – i.e. black – in the animated film, the voice actor chosen to represent him on screen is hip-hop artist Daveed Diggs.
As always, the swapping only ever goes in one direction.
Rotten Tomatoes has yet to release critic and fan reviews, which should be entertainingly outrageous, but does offer this overview of the film, saying:
The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life — and her father’s crown — in jeopardy.
The movie will be released in theaters on May 26th, 2023. The official trailer can be seen below.
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded YouTube video.
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