The official teaser trailer for the live-action The Little Mermaid movie starring Halle Bailey was released on Sept. 9, bringing joy and excitement to children and adults alike. The Bailey sisters’ official Twitter page first announced that Bailey would play Ariel in the remake in 2019 — and for three years, many have been looking forward to the live-action remake.
Unfortunately, with the announcement of her casting and the release of the teaser trailer, Bailey has received backlash from die-hard historians who believe that a Black actress should not play Ariel because it is not “historically accurate,” according to NBC News.
Bailey spoke about the criticism she received to Variety and shared a pivotal and uplifting conversation she had with her grandparents, saying, “It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement, telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you.’”
The representation of a Black Ariel means so much to young Black and brown girls who look up to Bailey and want — and deserve — to see themselves represented in media. Parents of young Black and brown girls took to TikTok to share videos of their daughters excitedly reacting to the teaser trailer, and on Twitter, user @normanination4 even started a wholesome thread of their reactions. Here are a few of the best reactions.
Despite The Little Mermaid remake making strides for Black representation, most Disney princesses are white and have storylines that cater to white audiences. In fact, there are only eight non-white Disney princesses, and according to the Geena Davis Institute, Black girls and women are only 5.7% of leading characters in family films in 2019. And since the 2010 release of The Princess and the Frog, there hasn’t been another Black Disney princess — until now.
Thanks to Bailey, Ariel has been reimagined in a new way, hopefully making space for more Black and brown female leads in Hollywood — which means the world to Black and brown communities and Bailey herself. Bailey said, “I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they’re special, and that they should be a princess in every single way.”