We now have our first look at Disney’s ambitious live-action reworking of The Little Mermaid, which will star Halle Bailey as Ariel. The teaser trailer gives us a glimpse at the photorealistic underwater world and Bailey’s character, shown plaintively looking up at the surface and wondering whether she’ll ever be “part of that world…”
Along the way, the usual suspects have been grousing that a person of color is playing a mythological creature and others that the film is showing ‘redhead erasure’ as Ariel doesn’t have her distinctive primary-colored hair from the animated classic. Now, Bailey herself has weighed in on the hair issue, saying that the movie carefully combined her existing hairstyle with Ariel’s look.
Speaking with EW, she said:
“With Rob, he’s so amazing and just saying, ‘I see you and I want to bring you into the character. So it was a beautiful thing. My hair, for example — incorporating my locs into the red hair was something that was really special to me. The outfit, the fins, everything. It’s just amazing. I’m just grateful that I’ve been able to take the essence of me and mix the two.”
Bailey went on to talk more about Ariel’s character:
“We all yearn for something greater. We all relate to feeling like we want something better for ourselves, and I think the strength in her is that she goes for it. She goes after what she wants and what she sees for herself, and she knows she should be somewhere else. I just admire that strength of hers, and was really trying to play that in this version.”
As usual, any controversy over Ariel’s casting appears to be a storm in a teacup, and you have to wonder about any grown man who gets genuinely upset about whose playing who in a Disney movie aimed at young girls. But whatever the case, we’re hoping for a full trailer soon that’ll show off a bit more of Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula, and Javier Bardem’s King Triton.
The real danger for The Little Mermaid is that it’ll have its underwater crown stolen out from under it by Avatar: The Way of Water. Based on the teaser alone, many have decided that The Little Mermaid‘s underwater look pales in comparison to the Avatar sequel, which boasts a new form of underwater motion capture and asked its actors to hold their breath and perform in a giant tank.,
The proof will be in the pudding, so let’s hope for more news and footage soon.
The Little Mermaid will hit theaters on May 26, 2022.
