Remember when people got annoyed when they found out a black woman was cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid ? That reaction was so visceral. I hadn't seen anything like it since Will Young beat Gareth Gates to win Pop Idol in 2002. People were so angry that, not just a fictional character but a made-up half fish half human fantasy creature, was being represented by a person of colour.
Extending the imagination to a mermaid is doable. Extending the imagination to a black mermaid? Absolutely not. TOO FAR.
Meanwhile, a big chunk of the black community finally saw a glimpse of themselves on screen. Kids saw an iconic mainstream Disney character that looked like them, showing them that they are seen, and they do matter. Adults saw a character that looked like them that wasn't featured in a historical drama about slavery, or a token black character with no depth - E.
g. headmaster/ doctor/ head of police, all roles that suggest gravitas but only in their titles rather than the character development. But why were people so annoyed? Phrases like 'this is just going too far now' circulated online.
It’s one of the repercussions when Western society has grown up being fed narratives predominantly by one group of people. It's a group I fall into. The white, able-bodied, heteronormative group.
These characters have been centre stage since the dawn of Hollywood because the people telling the stories are from that very same group. They're the ones who have had to face the fewest hurdles to .