Million dislikes for “Arielle”
Disney star calls racist trolls ‘pathetic’
03/19/2023, 5:50 p.m
Disney has cast a black leading actress in the new “Arielle” film. This attracts masses of racists who post their comments on YouTube. Fellow actor Josh Gad calls the trolls and their hostility “poor”.
During the Oscars a week ago, the first full-length trailer for upcoming Disney movie The Little Mermaid, starring 22-year-old Halle Bailey, debuted. The preview video for the new live-action adaptation of Disney’s classic cartoon of the same name currently has 1.2 million thumbs down or dislikes on YouTube (as of Sunday, March 19). This is mainly due to the activity of toxic trolls, who also post racist comments against the leading actress. Disney star Josh Gad has now defended himself against this on Twitter and defended the various cast of the upcoming film.
The 42-year-old actor is best known as the original English voice of the lovable snowman Olaf in the two Frozen films and also appeared in the Disney live action adaptation Beauty and the Beast (2017). On Twitter, Gad wrote to the commenters: “Imagine being so broken and miserable in your life that your biggest concern is the skin color of a singing mermaid, which is a product of fantasy”.
“A dream comes true,” said African-American singer Halle Bailey in 2019 on twitter written when she publicly announced she had landed the lead role. For Bailey, who is best known as the R&B duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Chloe, it is the first big screen role.
The racist hostilities against “Arielle, the mermaid” came up immediately after the casting of the young actress was announced. A teaser trailer from September last year has 3.5 million dislikes on YouTube – a phenomenon that has recently been observed frequently. For example, the two fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “House of the Dragon” that were released last year were exposed to racist hostilities from toxic fans, who were also bothered by the various casts of the two major productions.
“Arielle, the Little Mermaid” starts in cinemas on May 25th.