Kyla Brown | Head Editor
October 7, 2022
When Disney released the trailer for the highly-anticipated live-action Little Mermaid movie on September 10th, people had a lot to say, particularly about the woman playing Ariel herself, Halle Bailey.
The trailer takes the audience through the sea, stunning underwater scenery with flashes of Ariel’s tail panning out on screen as an instrumental rendition of “Part of Your World” plays in the background. As the trailer comes to a close, Bailey takes center stage, her version of Ariel made public for the first time as she closes the song out in her voice. Senior Kate Loo said “It was a stunning trailer through and through. Ariel was one of my favorite princesses growing up, so it was surreal to see her outside of animation for the first time,” her excitement being shared by millions. Some viewers, however, have not been so easy to please.
Bailey, best known for her role in R&B duo Chloe x Halle, seems to be the perfect Ariel on paper. She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice and charming personality, so what could some of the outrage surrounding the trailer be about?
Well, Halle Bailey is a Black woman, whereas the 1989 Ariel is white.
Pathetic attempts to discredit Bailey’s Ariel have been made by saying her auburn locks “aren’t red enough” or that a mermaid would not have melanin since they are far from the sun– racist remarks poorly disguised as movie critique. Some people have openly expressed their distaste for Bailey’s race, saying that casting a Black woman as Ariel strays too far from the original Danish Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale published in 1837. What people hating on Bailey’s Ariel have seemed to disregard, however, is the fact that mermaids are fictional creatures, and the movie is filled with talking animal characters and a villainous octopus woman. Senior Celeste Radmanesh said “Halle Bailey matches the persona of Ariel really well. The backlash doesn’t make sense. Ariel does not have to be white– she’s a mermaid. It’s not like Princess in the Frog where race plays a role in the story and the setting.”
Though the trailer has received some pushback, it has also revealed the power of representation. Videos of children watching the trailer for the first time have taken the internet by storm, Black girls seeing Bailey as the iconic Disney princess and exclaiming things like “she looks like me!” as they look at their screens in awe. Despite all of the hate, the live-action Little Mermaid trailer has shown little Black girls that they, like Halle Bailey, are princesses. It has shown Black girls that through it all, they are magic.
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