So the little mermaid controversy has heated up. However there’s something that people brought up that made me want to make this thread. People are claiming that the reason people do not like the casting of the little mermaid is because the actress is black. It’s only racists -
That don’t like her. “So if you don’t want to be labeled a racist, you better not give any criticism towards this casting choice.” Basically it’s the whole shaming people into liking something tactic. Which never works. But then some other people brought up something that-
Proves the point of the title. They say that people didn’t freak out over Tom Hanks playing Geptepto, or Liam Neeson playing Rhas Al Ghul, or Johnny depp playing Tonto. They try and say these things to suggest that people have no problem when it’s white actors playing roles.-
But the people who do that are either being obtuse at best, or disingenuous at worst. And while there were people who complained about some of these examples I brought up, ( I mean they complained about the actress for jasmine not being dark enough) for the most part you won’t-
See an uproar over Tom hanks playing Geppetto over Hallie playing Ariel for this one simple reason. With someone like Tom hanks, they actually go to the effort to make him look like the part he’s supposed to play. While with Hallie they put in very little to no effort.-
When it comes to casting these parts, most audiences want to see the characters that come from either animation, or comic books, to come to life on the big screen. Casting is a big part of that. With that aspect, it’s either go big, or go home. And with diversity castings, more-
Often than not, there is little to no effort in making these actors look the part. And so the character becomes an “in name only” type of thing because it does not look like the role they are being hired for. I will share a few examples. First we will start with Anna Diop as -
Starfire. In theory there should’ve been nothing wrong with this casting. All it would’ve taken was some body paint to make her gold, a good costume, and some fine tuning on the hair. But then the photos came out and you saw the lack of effort that went into that.- 
The show put little to no effort into a lot of the looks as we had a white beast boy and a teeny tiny raven. However the activists were rabid in defending Anna diop from all the criticism, trying to make it out to be a race issue. Instead they alienated big portions of the fans.-
And again, there would be nothing wrong with a black actress being casted in the role, if only they put effort into the looks. It says a lot when mere cosplayers can pull off the looks better than the actual million dollar studios. But they were intentionally lazy because the-
Drama was pretty much all they had to profit from thier show, as with most diversity castings. Another example is Johnny Storm from Fant4stic. The movie was doomed from the get go. However nothing spoke as a miscast more than Michael, being cast in the role of Johnny Storm.-
From the pictures above, being compared, nothing about Michael looked the part of Johnny Storm. No spiky haired young blond can be seen in the actor. This may be harsh for some people to hear but this is the truth nonetheless. When it comes to castings like this there are just-
Some looks that black folks can’t pull off. And when you can’t pull off certain looks to make you look like the character you were hired to play, especially iconic, and well recognized characters, people are naturally gonna notice. And when they notice you can’t call them racist-
Simply for having eyes. Let’s look at one of the most famous race-swaps that worked in film. Michael Clarke Duncan as Wilson Fisk, the kingpin of crime. Just look at this. This was something that they put care and effort into making him look the part. His portrayal in that movie-
Is considered an absolute standout. And more importantly, he looks the part. The look of Wilson Fisk is not hard for a black man to pull off. In fact I’d have no issue if a black man wanted to play Lex Luthor, or the Osborns as those looks could be pulled off easily.-
There was also the casting of Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s 1989 film of Batman with Billy Dee Williams. This had little to no complaints, as by this time, the character was an unknown. However if the character was to continue, the look that would matter, that people would be look-
Ing for , is the split face. This brings us back to Hallie as Ariel. She doesn’t look like the part she’s supposed to play. Simple as that The only thing that looks accurate is the bottom half. The top half, is where it loses people. Her eyes are too far wide apart, her face-
Looks too scarred at the top to the point it looks like she’s sporting a unibrow. And her hair, is not only light years away from being any type of bright vibrant red, the style of it doesn’t fit the character. Long Beach Griffey called it.-
She looks far from the part she’s supposed to play. The usual defenders go on to say that she’s the best choice for the part as she was hired exclusively for her singing voice sounding similar to the original voice actress. But that seems like a silly thing-
To focus on in casting as in the animated film, she sings a total of only one song. She sings one song throughout the entire film. And she doesn’t have her voice throughout a majority of the film. And if live action Disney movies are anything to go by, this was a dumb decision-
On their part. So next time someone accuses you of racism for thinking actors or actresses are miscast, point them to this thread. Though I doubt it will help as the defenders and advocators for these types of things are activists first, and fans last. They are in desperate need-
Of wanting to find a dragon to slay, and when none are around, they will settle on terrorizing innocent people of the village. That’s what it always boils down to. Activists wanting to feel good about themselves, even if they have to antagonize the whole world. And again when-
You find that cosplayers come closer to looking like the characters than the actors or actresses hired by the billion dollar companies to play them, you know there’s a problem.
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