Little Mermaid FLOPS Journalists ATTACK FANS For Failure 

The Little Mermaid live action adaptation is a critical and box office success if you listen to some Journalists about it. While others will say it ONLY failed because of the international box office and some countries prejudice. Ignoring the irony of the journalists coming out with this while judging entire countries themselves, they never consider the problem could be The Little Mermaid. Instead Disney deliberately makes changes to these "reimagined" movies, because of a perceived past of harm with their IP's. But they don't realise, what they're removing, is the very reason people like the movies. And no matter how subtly you change them, no matter how much you try to hide the changes from audiences. They will recognise their loss, because you're replacing them with no values greater than "but it's about ME". But what did you think of The Little Mermaid and the changes they made? Do you like Disney's idea of updating their past movies? Let me know your thoughts down below and as always, thanks for watching :)

I love how entitled Hollywood is, we'll make movies no one wants, demand your money, ignore your opinion and call you pejoratives if you don't watch our films.

Disney remakes will always have the inherent problem of "why would I watch this when I can just watch the original that's better in every way?"

When Halle Bailey said "it's about much more than a girl leaving the ocean for a boy", I instantly knew she had no idea what was going on in the first movie. The only reason Ariel goes to land is NOT because of a boy, but because Ursula takes advantage of her naive crush she had on Eric. Ursula knew Ariel had always wanted to go to land before, but it was only when there was love involved she decided to send her plan into motion. If anything, the movie has an underlying message of "people WILL take advantage of naive people who are in love". The only reason Ariel succeeds and threatens Ursula is because Ursula underestimated JUST how much AGENCY Ariel has over her own life and her own decisions. She chose to sacrifice her voice for legs? Then she's going to do absolutely everything in her power over those 3 days to succeed. It's something her father struggles with and continually underestimates about her too! Ariel made her own decisions, took action to achieve her own wants and desires despite the odds against her, and because of that her dad had difficulty controlling her adventurous and rebellious nature. Ariel was always an independent land-loving mermaid who went there for land just as much as she went there for Eric. But FORBID Ariel is allowed to fall in love with someone just as enamoured with the sea as she is with the land. The only difference in messaging is "falling in love and pursuing love is for the weak" when falling truly in love is such a beautiful and powerful thing. Giving up your own wants and desires for someone else. True self-sacrifice for a partnership instead. Instead of "me me me," love is about sharing life with someone else. But apparently to modern Hollywood, that's evil. And that's why modern hollywood sucks: It's all about me me me instead of stories about coming together.

"It's all about herself...and what she wants." That's called being shellfish

"Why don't the people we insult and bully pay to see our movies?!?!?"

Crikey, so they’re blaming racism? How’s it doing in Africa? Are they pointing the finger at China and South Korea too? Thought not, selective criticism towards a certain demographic group is the definition of bigotry. 🙄

I don't understand how Disney can't realize that FAMILIES are their main audience, like...? If they're conditioning children, particularly girls, to vehemently avoid romantic relationships and be absolutely phobic at the idea of having children, who exactly is going to be around in 20 years for Disney to pander to?

Here in South Korea, my daughter went to see The Little Mermaid. She was dismissive about Ariel being black and everything, so she didn't think too much about that. Instead, she complained that a lot of the underwater scenes were just too dark. The cartoon had a lot of color even at the deepest depths of the ocean. In the movie, she could hardly see anything. Everyone understands that in the deep ocean everything is dark, but the problem is that the live action remake tried to do everything more realistic. She also hated the "Under the Sea" scene, saying the original was much better. In the cartoon, the fish and ocean life were far more animated and interesting. In the movie, they were just sea life swimming around. Boring. I saw a clip of it and I agree. I didn't like Sebastian's voice, either. The cartoon Sebastian had a very colorful and charismatic voice, full of character and sounding unique. The movie Sebastian sounds like some average guy hired to mimic the original voice. As for Ariel, she said Halle had a good voice, but her eyes were just too far apart. She said it made her look like the fish she was swimming with.

I take issue with Halle Bailey saying "my version of the film." She had no hand in writing, directing or producing this film. Hell, she didn't even act in it. She showed up, put her mocap suit on, and spit out some lines with about as much emotion and expression as a patient on Valium. The remake and the people involved have done nothing but deliberately destroy the original. I'm thrilled the world wanted nothing to do with it and are already forgetting about it.

Ariel in the 1989 movie left the ocean for "more than a boy". She was curious about the land and wanted adventure. And yeah she was also crushing on Eric but she'd been wanting to leave the ocean long before she ever clapped eyes on him. You don't progress new movies by deliberately misrepresenting what came before.

King Triton is probably my favorite character in the movie. As a little girl I might not have liked him more than Ariel, but after watching the movie as an adult he reminds me so much of my dad that it's hard not to cry for him when he tries to protect her from the dangers of the surface, and when he sacrifices himself to save her at the end. Disney is full of people who only think of themselves and can't understand anything outside of current politics and me me me. I refuse to watch this remake and anything else they crap out now.

The biggest change I've noticed in my lifetime about Hollywood is that even if there have always been scummy producers trying to dupe the public into watching crap movies, at least before they weren't so brazen in blaming the audience when the movie flopped, they'd just take the L and try again. From somewhere around Ghostbusters 2016 it has been non-stop openly blaming the audience every single time a movie flops. We're closing in on a decade of that attitude and, in general, movies are flopping harder and harder. And I'm just sat here pointing and laughing.

They keep saying that if you don't like something, you shouldn't go to see it, but when you choose not to go see it, they attack you anyway.

Gotta love how Across the Spiderverse is doing well internationally but people are apparently racist for not liking TLM.

Some of those older movies have such thoughtful moments. It was just a second or two where you see the father showing some remorse before leaving his crying daughter, but it showed so much about his character. That deep down he cared.

The original was about a girl who fell so hard for a boy that she gave up her voice to be with him, only for him to fall in love with another woman who had her voice. You'd think that in a time with so much emphasis on "being heard," this would be an important lesson for boys and girls alike. Out of all the things you should give up for love, what makes you *you* isn't one of them. Unfortunately, in the age of the "empowered woman," we can't learn from a woman's mistakes because women can't ever do anything wrong.

It's always gaslighting and projecting. It's really pathetic.

How do you attack the fans of a movie that has no fans?

A side issue I have with Hollywood writers is that "childhood trauma" comes in many forms. It isn't all "oh, my parents were terrible!" There are a lot of things which can trigger a trauma response in the childhood years. So if you want to write a character with childhood trauma, they type of trauma matters, and it's the way they deal with that and how they grow from it that creates an interesting character. Minor compared to many of my other problems with Hollywood writing, but I though it was worth a mention.

Wow, I didn't watch the new movie but to hear what they did to King Triton is really sad. I think a lot of fathers would relate to King Triton wanting to be overprotective of their daughter but to just make him like an abusive father is terrible.

Soon they won't be attacking "fans", as there won't be anyone left.

The last spoken line in the original Little Mermaid is "I love you, daddy." The cartoon is clearly framed primarily within the context of a girl and her father, to be loved and let go to live your own life. There was a beautiful blog online someone had written years ago pointing this out in criticism of people not understanding that about TLM. It's pretty clear the live action version didn't seem to understand or care about that aspect either, and were willing to assassinate Triton's character to "fix" a problem that didn't exist. What a bunch of clowns.

In high school I wrote a story about a boy raised in poverty, who fell in love with a princess only to find out her father, the king, killed his parents. I focused on the struggle of honoring his parents versus hurting the girl he loves. I've never been homeless and my parents are alive and well but I still got an A.

My favourite part was when she ditched the guy and focused on her career in an HR department.

I've just been attacked for FIVE HOURS on FB because I said it's "average." I was being exceptionally generous, I thought. It was in response to someone calling it "mind-blowing," and all that's happened since is I've been called racist. Nobody has reinforced WHY it's mind-blowing, just attacked my imagined character. One woman even told me to die. Calling The Little Mermaid average = Racist, apparently... The whole, "why are you even bothered about it being average when it's made for children," is a common retort, although I'd be more concerned why a grown adult is finding said children's film mind-blowing...

At one point not long ago people like me went to see a Disney film blind, just knowing it was Disney. We knew we would be entertained and excited, we knew we would come out singing the songs. Those days are gone now. We wait to see what other people say about it and would rather save the chance of wasting out money by watching it on streaming.

There’s one big flaw in Disney pretending Ariel is just leaving the ocean to “explore” and that marrying Prince Eric is tangential but not an important goal. If Ariel didn’t marry Eric she would’ve been an uneducated, unskilled, penniless woman whose only worthwhile features would be her voice and her looks. So unless Prince Eric pulled some strings to have her be an official singer for the royal court, Ariel would’ve been living as a lounge singer in some saloon, a barmaid in a saloon, or a stripper/prostitute. (And I’m not saying this to be a jerk. Even in “The Wolf Among Us” you see a version of Ariel who isn’t married to a prince and has to work at a strip club). So either marrying Prince Eric or being associated with him in some way are the only situations where Ariel would have a happy ending and actually be able to “explore” the surface world. So the supposed “girl boss” is completely reliant on the man being the provider in their relationship as she lacks any skills to adequately provide for herself. Remind me again how this movie is supposedly “progressive?”

The reason Disney and others keep failing is that the writers, showrunners, and executives all think the audience is as selfish, narcissistic, and disgusting as they are. And spoiler, people are actually pretty decent. Also Disparu is spot on, we need to start saying "California" every time we see "modern audiences".

Hold on a sec... They're trying to claim THIS version wasn't about Ariel giving up her voice to chase a man? Because that's literally why and how Ursula convinced her tomake the deal. It does explain why Ariel was so uninterested in the prince once she had alone time with him... but really?? THAT's what they were going for??!

The fact she said it's way bigger than being about a boy, it's about herself; is hilarious to me. Is selfishness noble now?

The 1989 Classic: "I'll destroy the objects which are making you attracted to the dangers of the surface world! I don't want to do it, as you'll hate me for it, but I must protect you." The "modern" version: ME HATE HOOMANS BECAUSE ME AM BIG GIT!

1:59 But the whole point was that it was a _bad_ thing for Ariel to give up her voice. Has she never seen the movie? If your kids didn't get the message, that's a parenting problem, not a movie problem. 😵‍💫

I didn't make the movie suck, don't blame the fan that it's a flop

"It's about HERself and what SHE wants." I'm sorry, since when was the '89 Little Mermaid not about what Ariel wanted? Just because what she wanted happened to be a particular man doesn't make it any less valid of an objective, nor the efforts she went through to be with him any less her own. Since when did "for love" cease to become an aspirational goal? All modern Disney has succeeded in doing is turning their heroines into unlikable narcissists.

250m production budget + 140m in marketing, considering a 60% share of box office that Disney demands, the breakeven point is $650 million. This movie looks set to make $500 million and therefore should incur a $150 million loss for Disney.

Hollywood: Don't like it? Don't watch it. Audience: Ok Hollywood: How DARE you not watch our movie, you racists!

Ariel never entirely left the ocean for Prince Eric though, Ariel was curious about how the world worked even before she met him. He just was the trigger that catapulted her into the world of the humans after she saved him and her cave of trinkets was destroyed bc Triton found her cave, along with the statue of Eric.

I and my sister are Asian. We don’t watch TLM because we don’t want to ruin our childhood memories of how Ariel looked. Ariel’s fictional character is a white redhead. If you portray her as anything else, she’s no longer Ariel. They can create many versions of The Little Mermaid with a new name, a new character, a new storyline but so far there is only one Ariel, who is meant to be the same Ariel from the original. However, we went to watch Spiderman instead. It's a good movie, and we love it, plus Miles is his own character; he was an original black Spiderman from the start just like Black Panther. Miles didn’t come to replace Peter Parker. I would be mad too if Black Panther was played by a white man. In conclusion , even we are Asian, but we don't want Ariel to be Asian like us either; just stick to the source of the material. Is it hard to understand? Calling us racist doesn’t make us rush to the theater to watch the movie. I’m so done with Disney. When will they listen to fans?

Hollywood is going so woke, they deserve to go broke. When I go to see a movie, I want to be entertained, and NOT see garbage of how we are to live our lives, or have us told how evil we are because we don't think like them.

Bravo! Spot on, inciteful... A real pleasure to listen to a presenter who thinks critically and clearly. Subscribed.

Little Mermaid has been one of my favorite movie since I was a little girl. Every time I was in the bathtub, I played with my Ariel Barbie and tried to mimic the pose she did when she sang the climax of the Part of Your World reprise (never did replicate it, fyi). I would go around the house with a plastic shopping bag and pick up a fork (“dinglehopper”) to brush my hair with, much to my parents’ exasperation. To see one of my favorite movies get remade into a soulless cash grab makes me feel betrayed and sad. I can’t imagine growing up to this one because there’s no magic, color, heart, or love. I bet this feels like a slap in the face to the animators of the original.

The whole "Look pretty and it'll all work out" attack on the animated version is stupid. The author is actively ignoring the fact that it's the villain of the story saying all of that in order to manipulate Ariel. None of the protagonists say anything close to it.

Ariel yearned to go to the surface BEFORE even meeting Eric. Eric and her dad destroying her grotto were just the catalyst

Each video is better than the one before! 👍🏻Thank you for continuing good analyses🙏🏻

As a Straighte White Male, I thought I wasn't allowed in cinema to see it. Marketing seemed pretty clear about that.

Fun facts: In the original Danish fairy tale, by Hans Christian Andersen, the little mermaid is described as having "white hands", "lovely white arms" and a "pretty pair of white legs". Furthermore, illustrations in the book clearly show her as a young, white girl.

I cancelled my Disney + subscription months ago. Everything nowadays has to have some "message", and it just gets exhausting to watch.

It's so ironic that Hollywood and the media think they're the progressive ones when they still live in 2017. The whole 'girlboss' narrative is so incredibly out-dated even women don't care about it. Also, my jaw literally dropped at that quote by Nomvete. Imagine being this self-important. My god, the second-hand embarrassment. Your sarcasm was the only thing making it bearable.

That bit about tyrants at around 9:00 reminded me of the quote by C.S. Lewis: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” Except this isn't even for the good of the victims, it's for the good of the tyrant who has deluded himself into thinking that if it's good for him then it's good for everyone. Obviously he's feeling good so all must be right in the world, since he's the only thing that exists in his world.

Since this movie was not about losing her voice for a boy, it would have made more sense for her to refuse the deal of becoming a human to kiss the boy within 3 days.

Dude!!! You totally crushed it. You explained exactly the way I've been seeing it play out. Keep up the good work .

Man, the voice acting in the cartoon was way better than the "acting" in the remake. 😮

"Humans and mermaids aren't enemies"...as long as they're both woke. Those evil non-woke mermaids and humans, however, will of course need to be dealt with.

as a student in Psychology, I just wanted to say childhood trauma is quite common among people worldwide, but that doesn't mean I want that shoved in my face while watching a Disney movie. When people go watch movies, especially Disney cartoons, we want to see a fairy tale, not our own problems, otherwise, we could just look around our daily lives without paying at a cinema. Lastly, if people are suffering from childhood trauma, go see a psychologist, stop writing their problems into movies as a form of dealing with their own personal issues.

"Entertainment without morals" you hit the nail on the head with that one.

You hit on something underratedly important: No matter how much Disney makes on The Little Mermaid live action movie, they will come nowhere close to the piles of cash they've gotten from the animated version's VHS and DVD releases on top of the box office bank they made. To compete with the 1989 version, which earned 5x its production cost in box office alone, the live action version would have to make $1.25B. Good luck with that, Disney.

They can blame whatever and whoever they want. It changes nothing. They're losing.

"Daddy why are all my sisters different colors than me?" I would have rather seen a movie where King Triton had to speak about Ariel's mother and all her boyfriends. A cuckold King Triton is something that should REALLY be at least mentioned! Or is it that he's got a Harem but they didn't want to mention that because of all the "positive birthing person representation" this movie was supposed to portray? At least being cucked would explain his anger issues, which would be something for this film. Not to mention that erasing Ariel and Eric being in love means there is literally no motivation for anything to happen, yet somehow still does...for some reason? I don't even know why Eric was still in the movie honestly. Oh, and he's "adopted" so that is why he's still white...WHAT!? Honestly, what is the point of that or him still being in this? And where are they going in the end and WHY? Honestly, there are so many gargantuan plot holes in this movie it is kind of ridiculous. Who can look back on this when they are older with fondness when they start realizing just how little sense this movie actually makes. I took my niece who loves the classic movie. She thought Ursula was trying to teach Ariel a lesson because of her attitude. This move literally made my 8 year old niece think that Ursula was the GOOD guy now. She thought this movie purposely subverted the original one (though she obviously didn't say that). She actually made me rethink the whole movie in that way and honestly it makes just as much if not more sense AND makes it more enjoyable. I started thinking Triton and Ursula were having an affair and working behind Ariel's back by the end of it! I also can't wait for all the kids that now think birds can breath underwater to drown their families' chickens or something. No one should have to respond to an 8 year old girl worried that "Scuttle is gonna drown" during a DISNEY movie. Then explain that "no birds can't breath underwater. Don't worry your uncle is confused too". She has a bunch of little mermaid toys and dolls (I KNOW my brother and sister-in-law are actually bringing her up as a GIRL, the heathens) so I asked her if she wanted to check out Wal-Mart and get something new for this new little mermaid. Here's the cutest part...She just asked if they had anything new for the REAL little mermaid and asked if we could watch that when we got home. Well, after that (and honestly so I could have fresh reference for differences) we enjoyed the REAL Little Mermaid before bedtime. If Disney were smart, they would be making sure plenty of new 4K upgraded versions of the REAL Little Mermaid available for sale. They MAY get some more of their investment back. BTW Oh God, that song. I heard it was bad. But if I have to say anything about it, it really did sound like a bird "rapping" underwater.

We were scrubbing our skivvies outside during marine boot camp and a drill instructor from a different platoon made us sing “under the sea”.

That scene of him destroying everything in the original was so impactful. They nailed his expression of sadness afterwards. We all knew he didn’t want to do it.

I can't believe after all these years, even seeing that scene in the cartoon version makes me emotional. There's no reason to change the father figure, to change Ariel, which just shows and proves how out of touch these writers and executives are at Disney.

They’ve always been using words like “reimagining” and “restructuring”. And using them in a way for them to think people would be dumb enough to not know that it was a “rewrite”

Disney is losing its mind. Calling your paying customers racist will not help with the business.

You actually pointed an interesting topic. Writers always put something of themselves into their writings, and let's be real; stories from the past are much better than todays. If stories actually reflect their writers or at least parts of them, then past writings reflect positive caring decent poeple, and writings from today reflect damaged egotisitical narcissists. In short; writers were good people before, and now they're not.

"Modern" storytelling is such a bizarre term because when these older stories were originally written they were made for a modern audience. As in the audience that existed when the story was written. Our society and culture is likely not going to look anything like it does now in 100 or 200 years. So all these "modern" stories aren't going to stay relevant or modern for very long. Also I hate the idea that past writers weren't writing badass women. They made plenty of stories full to the brim with them. What you going to just turn a blind eye to Tolkien, CS Lewis and so many more. What about the ballad of Mulan? What about the stories/myths of Goddesses? Oh yeah those Greeks didn't like powerful women. Hated them so much in fact that six of the original twelve Olympians were women? Oh wait that goes against the narrative my bad. Is even godhood not powerful enough now for modern writers? Let's also not pretend that men in stories weren't also stereotypes as in most stories their one defining trait would be they're your typical hero type. Also just to be clear there's nothing wrong with a stereotype as literally every character trope and combination has been done already. So how can you avoid a stereotype when everything has been done before?

Thanks for another great episode.

Great video. I was such a movie junkie, loved going to the theatre but now there is so little I want to see. There are better ways to spend my time and money. Subscribed

If Hollywood was still about the quality of the product "the fans are wrong" would be nonsense. On one hand they say the backlash has nothing to do with quality while tacitly acknowledging the political game is the only thing they care about.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” - CA Lewis.

You make a great point about cultures that are more distant from you having less empathy for / patience with your particular hang-ups.

There is a lot of fake news these days. That box office is miserable compared to other Disney live-action movies. The worst part is that they fake information because of their tendencies.

That’s how the entertainment industry works, right. They put out movies of whatever quality they like and the general public HAS TO like it and give them money.

I keep seeing people on social media saying that representation is good, I agree with them when it's done correctly What they fail to understand is that race swapping is one person's representation at the expense of somebody else's

Disney would be rolling in his grave

You pretty much nailed why so many of our beloved franchises suck so bad right now

I'm pretty sure the original film, Ariel's motive to want to be human WASN'T because of a boy. The boy part just sort of sealed it.

The writers at Disney have replaced lived experiences like world travel, warfare, love at first sight, and death with childhood trauma, daddy issues, and being a single thirty-something in Los Angeles.

Couldn't care less about this movie but to be told if you don't like a piece of entertainment you're wrong and have to change and consume whatever shite they turn out is unbelievable

I think your points shine the best in this video, well done sir.

I can't imagine Hollywood having an "are we the baddies?" moment...

One of the Primary Rules of Acquisition is: Find out what the public wants to buy and sell it to them, not try to convince them to buy what you want to sell. BTW if the movie had REALLY been updated for the Modern Audience? They would have bought it, Nope it was updated for the Woke Progressive Audience which cannot pay for the production of a film

You are really insightful and articulate. I love your videos. The best to you and your channel.

I think this guy makes the best deconstruction of deconstructions I’ve seen, Great work 🇨🇦🙏🏻

Last words of a grandfather to a grandson: a boy tells you his values with his words. A man shows you his, with his actions. The grandson's last words to his wife before going to battle: the price for liberty is blood, and I'll gladly pay it for you and our children. Disney may not think men are not important or strong. But they are. The original king triton and eric were better.

Great analysis

Always the best societal analysis through film review!

It’s really confusing to me when people say “Halle had the best audition that’s why she was picked” but…. she should’nt have been auditioning in the first place. She doesn’t look the part. She does not look like Ariel. Surely, they saw pictures first then they called for singing/acting auditions. If Disney doesn’t have an agenda, they wouldn’t have asked her to go for an audition.

Yet again media people preaching about how this version is clearly better because now Ariel isn't leaving the ocean and giving up her voice for a boy... Except it never was about that. It was always about Ariel wanting to be part of a different world and giving up parts of herself in order to achieve that, misguided though this was. The boy happened along the way, and depending on the story the love she decides she feels for him results in different things. More gaslighting and trying to reframe how we remember the original animation to make themselves appear superior. Pathetic.

I love how well you break down and analyze the subject. I follow quite a few similar channels that cover similar subjects, so it can be tiresome to have different people beat the same dead horse. But the way you do your videos is awesome. Another great video, bro 👍

Well said good observation

The scuttle rap made me appreciate and be jealous of deaf people

I was waiting for the grotto scene and the destruction of Ariel's things. I was very curious as how, in the modern cinema climate of male role-models being bad, if they would portray King Triton as anything other than a concerned father who only did what he thought best to protect his daughter. I was not surprised at all when they turned him into a giant man-baby who allowed anger and "toxic" masculinity to override any sense of family the animated movie had. I don't think it bodes well for us as a species...

Very good analysis.

Any time I hear “remake” or “live action” it has become synonymous with “a movie I’m not going to want to watch” kinda sad and funny all and the same time

If anyone actually thought this movie was going to well in the box office returns, they literally had to have been born last month. The reasons for this movie failing have nothing to do with the same old song and dance Disney had been doing each time a movie they made fails. At this point, Disney should make an animated musical about calling the audience "racists"

"If you can only understand your own experience, then representation suddenly seems like the most important thing in the world" Dude, so well said haha. Keep up these videos. I literally share all of your videos and love them because their intelligent, well researched, funny, and you literally prove your points with words straight from the horses mouth so to speak. If you didn't have these articles and direct quotes, you'd just be rambling lol but somehow you find these pieces and articulate what the people are saying. You do it so well I'm thrilled every time you drop a video. I'm at a point where when I debate with friends over Disney or crap, I just quote you haha. Keep it up!

You're the man! Such a great break down as always!

Selfishness being the be all and end all of the Disney message is as pathetic as it is destructive

Serious question: are on-site parking, snacks and drinks included in the revenue figures? ‘Cos if they are, that’s 2/3 of the money right there.