After Disney fans were given a glimpse at Halle Bailey’s incredible debut as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, many have pointed out the impact the singer’s new role is about to have on children watching the film.
Halle, 22, best known as one half of Chloe x Halle, stars as the iconic mermaid in Disney’s upcoming live-action film.
A powerful trailer was released this week, showing a snippet of Halle’s version of the song Part Of Your World, which was originally sung by Jodi Benson (who is a fan of Halle’s casting, by the way).
Various videos of Black children, particularly young girls, watching the trailer for the first time have been posted on social media – and they’ve left everyone emotional.
Collating some of the most-watched in a Twitter thread, Twitter user @normanination4 said: ‘As I stroll on TikTok, I keep seeing parents video their children reacting to The Little Mermaid trailer. So instead of focusing so much on the negative, I thought I’d show a thread of the little black kids who are excited to see their favorite princess look like them.’
One video shows two little girls lighting up as they see Halle on screen, while another shows a three-year-old saying: ‘I think she’s brown! Brown Ariel is cute.’
One more shows two boys reacting to the trailer, saying: ‘She’s pretty. And she’s Black!’
Director Rob Marshall recently opened up about why he cast Halle, explaining to Variety: ‘We saw everybody and I will say that Halle was the first person we saw.
‘I had seen her [at] the Grammys and I asked if she could come in to see if she could do this, and I remember at the end of her singing this song, Part Of Your World, that we just hear her singing today, I was in tears. And I thought, “Oh my god, she’s so deep and so emotional and so beautiful.” She set the bar very high and no one ever crossed that bar but her.’
Jodi, who originally voiced Ariel in the 1989 animated film, was among the many supporting Halle in the role.
She told ComicBook.com: ‘I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters.
‘And the outside package – cause let’s face it, I’m really, really old – and so when I’m singing Part of Your World, if you were to judge me on the way that I look on the outside, it might change the way that you interpret the song.
‘But if you close your eyes, you can still hear the spirit of Ariel,’ she said. ‘We need to be storytellers.’
‘And no matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the colour of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever colour, we really need to tell the story.’
The Little Mermaid is set for release on May 26, 2023.
