Trevor Noah's Brutal Response To Little Mermaid Criticism Hits All The Right Notes
Being a daughter of Triton can lead to a yearning to be a part of our world, or it can lead to poor unfortunate souls. Okay, now that we've made three references to the soundtrack of "The Little Mermaid," we are free to discuss the growing vitriol surrounding Disney's latest live-action remake. Apparently, there is a group of people who have aggressively "disliked" the trailer for "The Little Mermaid" for the audacity of casting a woman of color in the leading role.
Who knew that there were militant Hans Christian Andersen fans out there that wanted "The Little Mermaid" movie to stay true to the original story? That is to have the fictional scaly mermaid character suffer incredible pain and body horror from an ingested poison that feels like a sword passing through her body, transforming her into a mute human. Of course, then the character is forced into a choice to either kill the prince and drizzle his blood on her magic dancing feet to live or to die and be horribly and excruciatingly dissolved into sea foam. Suppose these were the same people that would get upset when a lobster breaks out into a ballad and speaks with a Jamaican accent. Not quite sure how many Jamaicans were hanging out in Denmark around 1837, but then again, "Kiss The Girl" is a jaunty tune. It seems now that even Trevor Noah from "The Daily Show" has expressed his own opinion on the matter, and it sure seems like a case of deja vu.
Trevor Noah wasted no time in pointing out the ridiculousness of arguing about a fictional character
On the September 15 episode of "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah wasted no time in bringing up the topic of "The Little Mermaid," which is available on YouTube. When introducing the subject, he rhetorically questioned if we are doing this again, making a reference to the reoccurring trend of internet brigades attacking what they deem as controversial casting decisions. Besides "The Little Mermaid," Amazon's "Rings of Power" has shared a similar fate, which actually caused the company to suspend reviews on its service.
He poked fun at the people who complained that the live-action "The Little Mermaid" looks nothing like the animated version, and said "Nothing like? They both have the tail, they both have the red [hair]. Once again, a bunch of Internet racists are upset that a fictional character is being played by a Black person. This is so ridiculous." He later added, "Look, stop being ridiculous. It's imaginary. I hope this scandal doesn't overshadow the rest of the movie. 'The Little Mermaid' is a beautiful story about a young woman changing her core identity to please a man. Let's not forget about that, people."
Joking aside, it appears as if Noah feels like this entire conversation regarding the casting of a fictional and mythological character in a movie is a little played out and entirely pointless. It's not like "The Little Mermaid" is based on a real person, mainly because mermaids aren't real (as far as we know), and the story itself has already been heavily changed since the original, exceptionally grim fairy tale.