The teaser trailer for The little Mermaid live-action remake recently released by Disney gave our best look yet to main star Halle Bailey as the new Ariel. While the teaser was brief, it also provided a sample of Bailey’s singing as Ariel by including her rendition of “Part of Your World.” The teaser, which you can watch below, ends with a close-up of the new Ariel, which introduces Bailey as Disney’s first live-action black princess.
After the trailer was released, a video went viral detailing some of the reactions young black children had to the footage. The video shows how several children become ecstatic when they see the revelation of Bailey singing the famous song.
“She’s black!” says a child surprised.
“She’s just as brown as I am!” says another girl.
It wasn’t long before Bailey started seeing these reactions. She posted on Twitter how emotional she had been from people sending her comments like the ones in the viral video since the trailer was released. She wrote: “People have been sending me these comments all weekend and I’m really impressed. This means the world to me.”
You can see the tweet with the viral video below, along with Bailey’s response.
Halle Bailey hoped for this result
This is something Halle Bailey had hoped for when she took on the role of Ariel in The little Mermaid. In an earlier interview with Variety, the singer and actress spoke about how excited she would have been if she had seen a black woman in a movie play a Disney princess. She also shared her hope that this would be the effect of young black children today when they see Bailey in the film.
“I want the little girl in me and the little girls like me watching them to know that they are special and that they should be a princess in every way,” Bailey said. “There’s no reason they shouldn’t be. That reassurance was something I needed.”
When Bailey’s casting was announced, some people on social media had criticized the move, arguing that the fictional mermaid’s skin color should not have been changed from her transition from animation to live-action. Although it was shocking to watch, Bailey was able to see the importance of her casting after talking to her grandparents about the situation.
“It was inspiring and beautiful to hear their words of encouragement saying, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you,'” Bailey explained. . “What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything. Things that seem so small to everyone are so big to us.”
Rob Marshall directed The little Mermaid. The film stars Halle Bailey, Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina, Jonah Hauer-King, Art Malik, Noma Demezweni, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy.
The little Mermaid will hit theaters on May 26, 2023.