what are you doing, Disney, you have All The Money, how are you screwing this up

[erinptah]

Look, I have no plans to see the Little Mermaid live-action remake. Any more than I’ve watched any of the other Disney live-action (or, in the Lion King’s case, CGI) remakes.

But. Two things.

One: I saw a trailer for it in theaters at some point…back-to-back with a trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water. And good lord. If you think the underwater scenes in TLM look murky and gloomy and uninspired in their own right, try watching them after a jump-cut from this:

…to this:

I just.

What gives? Who at Disney decided “sure, we have the technology to bring that kind of gorgeous, crystalline, sparkling-clear underwater fantasy world to the screen, but we could also just…not” and got the green light?

(I would say “why does the blue person get more-flattering lighting than the black person,” but, you know why.)

Two: so, okay, that screencap shows you how Halle Bailey is styled as Ariel in the movie.

Halle Bailey can also be styled like this:

Look at this. Look at these gorgeous poses. Have you ever in your life seen someone channeling the spirit of Ariel this hard?

I’ve heard parts of the soundtrack, her singing voice is also stunning, absolutely transcendent. I would totally believe she was cast based on that alone. But then to have this look, on top of that? Are we sure she’s not actually a magically-transfigured mermaid princess?

And that red hair is a stunning complement to her skin instead of blending into it…the lighting makes her straight-up glow…the outfit literally glows…they put some effort into giving her nice makeup…

How do you cast Halle Bailey and then not end up with an on-screen Ariel who looks like this?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Preach!