Josh Gad condemns trolls amid backlash toward Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid

By Trevin Lund and Lillian Gissen and Kelsi Karruli For Dailymail.Com 19:27 March 18, 2023 Updated 19:46 March 18, 2023

Josh Gad slammed the ‘pathetic’ trolls who disliked the trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

Since Disney announced the casting of Halle Bailey in July 2019, the network has faced backlash online as it has taken numerous steps to become more inclusive in recent years.

The negative response to the film’s official trailer – the first real look at the film – has been so severe that YouTube disabled its dislike counter after it reached more than 1.5 million in two days.

Gad, who previously starred in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Frozen, took to Twitter on Thursday to write: ‘Imagine being so broken and pathetic in life that your main concern is the skin color of… a siren who sings in faith. ‘

Disney has made a number of moves to become more inclusive recently — including a gay kiss between two female characters in the movie Lightyear and casting Halley as a black Ariel in the upcoming version of the beloved film.

Haters out: Josh Gad, 42, slams backlash against upcoming live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid Ever since Disney announced that Halle Bailey would play the Disney princess in the adaptation, there’s been no shortage of backlash

The 22-year-old actress commented on the backlash when she told Variety that her grandparents offered her words of encouragement and reminded her how important her role in the film would be.

“It was an inspiring and beautiful thing 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,” an Atlanta native told the newspaper.

Bailey said seeing the iconic character Ariel as a person of color when she was growing up would have had a positive effect on her self-esteem.

“What that would have done for me, how it would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything,” the Grown-ish star said. “Things that seem so small to everyone else are so big to us.”

Many online attacks aimed at Disney have been tinged with racism over the decision to cast a black woman as a fictional character, who has mostly been portrayed as white in previous pop culture offerings, including the popular cartoon Disney’s 1989.

One Twitter user said: ‘If Disney wants more diversity they should have created another character… Before they respect all other ethnicities and cultures shouldn’t they at least respect origins??? #notmyariel.’

While others said that “race swapping is not okay” and claimed that the film was “a waste of money”.

Disney has gone to great lengths to become more inclusive — changing park policy to prohibit staff from using gendered salutations, implementing an anti-racism training course for employees, giving old characters makeovers and removing images offensive from travel and movies – however, some people think the company has gone too far in its smart changes.

The Little Mermaid has amassed over 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube after actress Bailey faced backlash over her casting from online trolls The Little Mermaid is a live-action adaptation of the Disney princess animated film starring an adult actress Bailey YouTube disables number of dislikes on video sharing platform on 9/11 Trolls have taken to Twitter to spread racial slurs with the hashtag #NotmyAriel and called Disney’s choice to cast a black woman in the film #wake Despite that she had several different ensembles during her years as a cartoonist. Minnie’s red and white dress had become a staple of the character’s look In January 2022, Disney debuted a new look for Minnie Mouse, which saw the character ditch her red polka dot dress in favor of a pantsuit ‘progressive’ blue.

One of those people is billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, who recently declared war on the company’s ‘excessive spending and mismanagement’.

And while many have praised the company for its change of direction, the question has remained in recent months whether they’ve taken it too far with the changes it’s implemented recently – from dressing Minnie Mouse in a pantsuit to hitting the a racism warning before the old. movies.

In January 2022, Disney debuted a ‘smart’ new look for Minnie Mouse, which saw the beloved character ditch her red polka dot dress in favor of a ‘progressive’ blue trouser suit designed by Stella McCartney.

However, the move was met with uproar online, and within minutes of the tweet being posted, dozens of users began expressing outrage at the iconic mouse’s style change, as her red and white dress had become a staple of the character.