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The live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid has been recently criticized by Marcus Ryder, a prominent media diversity advocate. Ryders claimed that the movie failed to acknowledge and demonstrate the horrors of chattel slavery that was rampant in the Caribbean during the 18th century, the timeframe in which the film is set.
Though the influential British campaigner and the chair of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art celebrated Halle Bailey’s Ariel, he took issue with the movie’s ritzy depiction of racial harmony and the erasure of slavery. Ryder shared his piece of critique via Twitter on May 30, 2023, but he later deleted it after receiving major backlash from netizens.
Marcus, who watched the movie with his six-year-old son, said that people do not do any favor to their children by pretending that slavery did not exist. He critiqued the portrayal of the world of the fictional islanders in The Little Mermaid, which has been demonstrated to be free from human rights atrocities.
However, the diversity advocate was severely criticized in turn for his demand that slavery should have been included in the movie. One Twitter user @Dreadful4Tymes quote-tweeted Deadline Hollywood's article about Marcus' blog and sarcastically asked if the viewers wanted to see Ariel on a sugar plantation.
Diversity advocate comes under fire for The Little Mermaid's slavery controversy
Many people wrote that the movie is meant for children to enjoy, and the inclusion of heavy topics like slavery would have been unnecessary. Netizens were confused as to why the critic wanted slavery to be included in a Disney princess movie.
Some people also argued that the movie takes place in a fictional setting, so demanding the incorporation of slavery in a fairy tale, where reality is twisted, makes no sense.
Marcus Ryder draws a Jewish Holocaust comparison
The OBE diversity advocate said that the setting of the Disney remake in the timeframe of 18th century Caribbean and not acknowledging slavery is equivalent to a love story between Jew and Gentile set in 1940 Germany without the Jewish holocaust.
Marcus acknowledged that The Little Mermaid is a fantasy movie, so the story does not need to be meticulously faithful to history. However, he argued that children are not educated properly when they are made to overlook the past. He wrote:
“The 18th century Caribbean is a problematic time to set any children’s story, but that should make it full of creative possibilities as opposed to encouraging historical amnesia.”
Ryder suggested that Disney could have set the socio-political background of the film in Haiti after the Black population there had overthrown the shackles of chattel slavery. He added that after the epoch of slavery, Ariel’s meeting with Prince Eric set against the backdrop of a flourishing racial harmony would have made more sense.
Marcus concluded his blog by saying:
“We owe it to our children to give them the most amazing fantastical stories possible to help their imaginations grow. We do not do this by ‘whitewashing’ out the difficult parts of our history. We do it by embracing our rich history and empowering them with the truth.”
After Marcus shared his blog on Twitter on May 30, he received a blowback from users and was compelled to delete the tweet. Later, on June 1, he made a separate post and wrote that his viral tweet was “widely misunderstood.”
But the internet argued that the original animated movie told the same story as the live-action remake did. People told Marcus that they got his point, but it was not necessary to bring slavery and history into children's movies, making it a darker and heavier subject than it should be.
They said that children can be educated and made aware of the past existence of slavery through other films that dealt with this topic as a main theme. However, in the case of The Little Mermaid, where the prime focus is on fantasy and the setting itself is an imaginary world, including something historically accurate would have snatched away the childish innocence from the movie.
