The Little Mermaid Trailer: Disney Fans Are Tired Of Drab Live-Action Visuals

Disney has seen a great amount of financial success turning its beloved animated properties into live-action adaptations. Even though 2019's "The Lion King" didn't use actual animals in its cast, the reimagining still brought in over $1.6 billion at the global box office. "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "Alice in Wonderland" similarly cracked the $1 billion club, meaning these adaptations are obviously cash cows for the company. 

Disney doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon with the impending release of its next live-action tale, namely "The Little Mermaid," which sees Halle Bailey take on the lead role of Ariel, the mermaid. But while these films capitalize on the audience's nostalgia, they don't exactly earn a ton of critical praise. Critics have certainly had their say as to how Disney's reanimating old corpses, but even a certain percentage of the audience has grown tired of Disney telling the same story in a different medium.

In the aftermath of new posters and a trailer that came out during the Oscars, fans have taken to social media to discuss the disappointing phenomenon of live-action Disney remakes looking so much duller than their animated counterparts. Twitter user @aper6014 summed up a lot of people's feelings: "so tired of the dull dark 'realistic"'disney movies! they need to [hire] someone to actually color grade and make them bright and colorful like the cartoons smh." Apparently, this is a major source of contention amongst fans who want to see these remakes done right.

It would seem in Disney's search for realism and transposing their animated projects into live-action, Disney has made a decision to make their movies dark and drab. It hasn't gone unnoticed by fans, who are naturally worried this will negatively affect the emotional impact of the films. For example, @ComplexlySimple wrote, "I REALLY hope the movie isn't going to be this dark. I'm tired of the color correction for Disney movies nowadays having the brightness slider down." Some fans may have written it off as a one-time thing, but audiences also recently got the trailer for another live-action remake — "Peter Pan & Wendy" — which seems to suffer from the same problem.

Quote tweeting a post featuring images of Tinkerbell from "Peter Pan & Wendy," @z0mbiemann stated, "so are all future disney movies gonna look dingy and dark as f*** or is it just this and the little mermaid." It's particularly disappointing because the original animated films are beloved for many reasons, one of which is that they're so saturated with vibrant colors. Even before the new trailer for "The Little Mermaid" came out, @inkfycreates noticed this was going to be a problem, writing, "The Little Mermaid is one of the most colorful Disney films...everything is so dark and drab. I feel bad for the lead actress because she's giving it her all and she's a good singer, but you can barely see her in some shots."

It's particularly weird because the real world is filled with color. It isn't always dark and dour, and making a world feel unique and lived-in helps the audience connect with the project emotionally.