MOVIE
Black Mermaid, Tanned Snow White... Walt Disney in crisis of 'World Kkondae'
Choi Ji-ye, a reporter from TenAsia, tells the story of the movie. He analyzes every aspect of the film through vivid coverage of the scene, and writes with sharp perspectives in a fun way.
When so-called kkondae people cast 'Latte', the MZ generation silently lowers their heads. It's not that the message is bad, it's that the method isn't right. The main point that distinguishes a kkondae from a mentor is 'empathy'.
Recently, Walt Disney has the impression that it is becoming a 'World Kkondae' for audiences around the world. It is because of the lack of empathy. The movie 'The Little Mermaid' (director Rob Marshall), which was released on the 24th of last month, is a work in which Walt Disney's 'brave power' is concentrated, which only tries to teach without empathy.
Recently, Walt Disney, who has fallen into 'PCism' (Political Correctness), completely changed the appearance of Ariel in the live-action film 'The Little Mermaid' without considering the hearts of fans who dreamed and imagined while watching the original animation 'The Little Mermaid'. has changed Ariel, who had a white face and red hair, appeared on the screen as a black face and dark brown reggae hair. The nostalgia and memories of those days were destroyed, and the situation of having to look at an unfamiliar black mermaid as Ariel was even funny.
Domestically, it's even worse. 'The Little Mermaid' seems to be drawing a lonely period with only 630,000 cumulative audiences. Domestic audiences criticized not only the black Ariel in 'The Little Mermaid', but also the monotonous narrative, too dark screen brightness, and excessively realistic characters in the movie.
A bigger problem is that the PCism in this context will continue to work on Disney's new works that will be released in the future. Disney announced that it would produce a live-action film of 'Pinocchio' through its own OTT platform, Disney+, but it was controversial that black actor Cynthia Erivo was cast in the role of the blue fairy. The blue fairy that fans of the original work know is white.
Even 'Snow White' did not escape the original character's facial color change. Recently, Disney selected Latino actress Rachel Ziegler as the main character in the live-action 'Snow White' movie. She is 'Snow White' with black hair and skin as white as snow, but Ziegler's skin is more like a moderately tanned brown. When the controversy arose over this, Ziggler said, "I am Snow White, but I will not bleach my skin for my role."
I agree with Disney's value that blacks can be princesses. Of course. Skin, eye and hair colors are different, but not wrong. Black people can be anything. This applies not only to blacks, but also to all races, including yellows and whites.
However, destroying an original character everyone knows and giving it a different skin color is a separate issue from Disney's values. It is questionable why Disney does not create a new work that can freely unfold the value of PCism, which it so desperately cries out for. It would be possible to apply the PC principle through a newly created work without destroying the original work.
I think it is Disney's role to create works of good perfection that can be felt naturally without forcefully teaching the real value of PCism. There is no way that the PCism that is shouted out while damaging the work with the original work will be well conveyed to the audience. It is very regrettable that Disney chose to destroy rather than create.
If you make the right words feel bad, the true intention will fade. We look forward to the day when Disney releases a work that contains the true value of PC shares with a pleasant and engaging story.
Jiye Choi, staff reporter at TenAsia wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr
