"The Little Mermaid" Trailer Brings In More Than 104 Million Views And Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dislikes On YouTube
Disney has made live-action versions of some of the childhood favorite cult classics, including "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." The trailer for the live-action "The Little Mermaid" just dropped over the weekend, and it's one of the most viewed trailers in the history of Disney.
We all know Ariel as the red-haired mermaid who wanted to become a human more than anything else in the world, so much so that she sacrifices her own voice to get there. The new Disney live-action film has captured the attention of millions after the teaser was released over the weekend, and many can't help but notice that Ariel's skin color has changed since the last time we saw her.
"The Little Mermaid" Trailer Brings in More Than 104 Million Views and Hundreds of Thousands of Dislikes on YouTube
The Little Mermaid live-action trailer was released during the D23 Expo on Friday, and Ariel is played by Halle Bailey, a singer who was discovered by doing Beyoncé covers on YouTube. She lends her angelic voice to the Disney film and sports dreadlocks in the brief appearance she makes in the teaser. While there are many people who are excited for this new version of the cartoon classic, there are plenty of people who can't help but wonder why Ariel is suddenly black.
The trailer shows Ariel swimming through the ocean while the song "Part of Your World" plays. We only get about 90 seconds of a teaser so there isn't much more we know about the film, but there are some thoughts on why Ariel's skin color is different in this version—and what the reaction might be if a classic black protagonist were recast as a white person.
Naturally, there were people on the other side who criticized anyone who dared to point out that Ariel wasn't originally black.
Amidst all the conversations about the new Ariel, the trailer raked in more than 104 million views over the weekend, a record-breaking high. At the same time, it's being reported that the trailer has amassed more than 700,000 dislikes on YouTube.
Dislikes aren't public on videos anymore but there are extensions you can download in order to see how many dislikes YouTube videos have. The fact that this trailer has nearly 1 million dislikes has sparked a conversation about whether people are racist because they would rather see Ariel remain white like she was in the original movie.