Article source: Cultural Industry Observation
Editor: Huang Jie
Editor: Zheng Zejia
Promotion: Zhang Jiali
Three years ago, the live-action version of the Disney movie " The Little Mermaid " was released recently. The first trailer. The mermaid played by black people really "breaks the norm" and "breaks the tradition", but it seems that the public does not buy it. The
trailer was released on YouTube within a few days, and it was stomped on by millions of netizens from all over the world, and the number of likes was only a pitiful less than 700,000. Later, Disney officials directly concealed the number of "thumbs up", and only retained The number of likes, and even the comments were screened... And the trailer on the YouTube Rotten Tomatoes channel simply closed the comment area, and the picture was "clean".
Disney's efforts to make the "Black Mermaid" popular have failed miserably, but why is the Little Mermaid played by a black man so unacceptable? Is this the popular stereotype or is it too politically correct? Why is
unacceptable?
"The Little Mermaid" is a hot-blooded animated film directed by Leymonds and John Musker, adapted from the well-known fairy tale "The Daughter of the Sea" by Danish writer Andersen . It was launched in the United States in 1989 and won 200 million at that time. Dollar box office, won the Academy Award and the American Golden Globe Award. It was one of Disney's classic films, saving Disney's precarious state at the time.
Disney has made a great adaptation of the plot of "The Daughter of the Sea", shaping the little mermaid Ariel into a brave, lively, independent woman, changing the tragic ending into a happy ending, satisfying different stage audience. It also improves the integrity of the songs and plots, giving the audience a coordinated sense of experience, and has become an enduring animation classic.
So, the red-haired and blue-eyed Ariel image in The Little Mermaid has penetrated into the hearts of people all over the world. When mentions The Little Mermaid, everyone will inevitably think of Disney's mermaid . There are even many children who haven't read the original "Daughter of the Sea", but only know that this version is independent and a little rebellious "Princess Mermaid".
And when it was rumored that the live-action version of The Little Mermaid would be filmed, everyone took it for granted that since is a remake, the characters should fit each other. There are also actresses who can be very similar to Ariel among European and American stars. Under various factors, it is almost inevitable that the public will resist the role of black people in the role of the Little Mermaid.
After all, 19-year-old R&B singer and actress Halle Berry looks nothing like Ariel the Little Mermaid.
In addition, in the original book "The Daughter of the Sea" by The Little Mermaid, the author Andersen used words such as "white tender hands" and "white arms" to describe the appearance of the mermaid several times. Combined with the background of his time in northern Europe, whether Andersen has seen black people needs to be a question mark. The possibility that the Little Mermaid he created is black can be said to be zero.
even the little mermaid played by a real person in Disneyland,Almost all of them are played by red-haired white people. In terms of the degree of restoration of their appearance, they are far more than the casting of live-action movies.
does not accept it, is it racism?
Even when so many people have clicked on the trailer, there is still a voice that cannot be ignored - "If black people are not accepted, that is racial discrimination ." The reaction video, trying to prove that the public does not accept that the Little Mermaid played by black people is "stereotype" and "racist". Someone even posted a video of the live-action Little Mermaid's AI changing her face to a white person on Twitter, but was tragically banned by Twitter for "involving racism".
But really? Is mass disapproval really a manifestation of racism?
Of course not, This is actually a public resistance to the long-standing political correctness of the Western culture industry. The casting of the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" Whether it is from the original book or the animated version of the movie, the casting of the Little Mermaid should be more white, rather than forcing a black person to become the protagonist, and even more so that the little mermaid's sister Played by people of different races.
This is not an isolated case.
Two years ago, the famous lingerie brand Calvin Klein (CK) hired plus-size model Jari Jones. She claims to be the most "politically correct" model in American history: not only a black transgender, plus-size, but also raising a transgender child with a transgender spouse.
She cannot be said to be exactly the same as the image of " underwear model " in people's traditional impressions in the past, it can only be said to be irrelevant. With a bloated figure and an unattractive face, her posters caused a frenzy of public opinion all over the world as soon as they were posted. Some people think that this is an anti-body anxiety, and strive for more rights and development space for ethnic minorities and even sexual minorities. But more voices think that is unfair to other models, even other plus-size models, and it also seriously violates people's aesthetics and only caters to political correctness.
While it's important to design clothes that fit people of all shapes and sizes, there's nothing wrong with hiring people of different body types to be models to display clothes. However, 's pursuit of beauty is also a human instinct.
And Jari Jones' figure and appearance seem to be far from the standard of "beauty" in the eyes of the public, not to mention that her identity as a transgender does not add much to her "beauty". Her figure does not represent health, and an overweight figure will only endanger people's health.
The politically correct commodities and cultural symbols that the Western culture industry forcibly promotes regardless of the will of the public will only have the opposite effect, arouse the public's rebellious psychology, and exacerbate social division.
Equality should not be reduced to a Trojan horse for profit for interest .
"Equality" is just a fig leaf for the Western culture industry. They are all in order to obtain more profits by catering to the so-called political correctness, pretending to show a posture of "caring about minorities", trying to penetrate the market where oil and water can be extracted through superficial and symbolic equality .
This is essentially a higher level of arrogance than simple ugliness.
is also Disney's live-action movie " Mulan " remake in 2020. They chose the well-known actress Liu Yifei in China to play the protagonist Mulan. When the announcement of the remake and the trailer were just released, its casting and pictures were well received by Chinese people, thinking that they really planned to shoot Chinese women's stories.
The results were a big surprise after the feature film was released.
It can be said that the live-action version of "Mulan" has nothing to do with Mulan, who is very familiar to Chinese people in terms of service, plot, and character creation, except for the name "Mulan". All kinds of details are also full of thunder. The Disney production team did not really make efforts to study Chinese history and culture. Its interpretation of Chinese culture and the shaping of the character of Mulan are not even as good as the animated film "Mulan" produced in 1998.
In addition, the Southeast Asian culture-based animated film "", which will be launched in 2021, only borrows characters and natural scenery from Southeast Asia, but tells a story with a very western cultural core. As well as the film "Green Book", which won the best picture of at the 91st Academy Awards , forcibly set the black pianist Tang, the protagonist with a realistic prototype, to be a homosexual - causing serious dissatisfaction with his family, In the end it was over.
This is a kind of strong culture that squeezes the weak culture. With its loud voice and capital, it wants to make money from , the third world, , and ethnic minorities. It is a gimmick, and it is not willing to spend a little more time. Learn and polish. Because they know that even if they make a "four dissimilar" work in the end, there will still be some people who recognize and are obsessed with "political correctness".
Today they dare to let black people play the protagonists of Nordic fairy tales, just because there are many people who recognize "Black Lives Matter", but there are very few Nordic people.
