Black Nutcracker, Mulatto Little Mermaid and other heroes who changed their skin color

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When detailed information about the upcoming film Mulan appeared on the Internet a few months ago, especially sarcastic viewers joked: "How did the creators miss the opportunity to make the main character black?" There are grounds for such humor: Hermione, the Nutcracker Prince, the Little Mermaid, the new "Charmed" - over the past couple of years, such surprises as a change in the race of long-established characters are happening more and more often. And if earlier the audience simply did not understand where, for example, the dark-skinned knights at the court of King Arthur came from, then the latest examples of Hollywood tolerance cause sharp criticism and massive controversy. I was especially surprised by the information that in the future musical "Cinderella" the fairy godmother will be played by a dark-skinned gay man.

If we talk about successful examples of such bold experiments, then we must definitely remember about Will Smith. Oddly enough, but all the characters played by this actor are accepted by the viewer "with a bang." To be honest, today very few people remember that Robert Neville in the movie "I Am Legend" and Jay from "Men in Black" once had a different skin color. In the latter case, it was about comics of the 90s, and in the first, about the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. Moreover, until 2007, the book was filmed twice, and the fact that the main character is white was already well-established.

The audience accepted this wonderful actor in the role of Genie in the new version of "Aladdin", although not long before the premiere there were critics of this decision.

Morgan Freeman in the film "The Shawshank Redemption" is always named among the successful examples of changing the color of the characters' skin - in the original literary source, his hero was Irish. Holly Barry in the role of Catwoman also caused surprise in 2004, but the actress's charm managed to defeat criticism.

The first truly outraged voices began to ring after Hermione's unexpected image change in 2016. Fortunately, it was only about theatrical production of the new play "The Cursed Child", otherwise a world scandal would have been inevitable. J. K. Rowling herself approved the choice of the director and called all the indignant racists and idiots. However, the "literary mother" of Harry Potter has recently taken a great interest in tolerance, she is ready to change her characters not only by race, but also by sexual orientation.

Despite the scandal, and maybe just because of him, the theatrical production of the sequel to "Harry Potter" paid off - the audience flooded to look at the unusual Hermione. But with the recent adaptation of "The Nutcracker", everything turned out not so well. Of course, it would be too daring to shift the blame for the failure of the film to the change of the prince's race, since most of the criticism was caused by the weak plot. But, nevertheless, the lack of charisma of the protagonist was also noted. According to some critics, the guy, it seems, was himself surprised that he was brought to the fairy kingdom.

The remake of the beloved series "Charmed" also became a failure, and in many respects due to the unsuccessful selection of actresses for the main roles. After the bright and stylistically different sisters-witches in the old version, the new sorceresses look just monotonous - for the sake of political correctness, it seems that soon it will be necessary to defend the rights of the white-skinned population of our planet. The fact that one of the girls has also become an active lesbian is no longer even surprising. Fans of the original series were so outraged that one of the actresses was forced to openly address the audience, but that did little to help.

However, the latest scandal that erupted over black Ariel has surpassed everything seen so far. The new film adaptation of The Little Mermaid has not yet been released, but part of the audience is already ready to boycott the film. The main complaint of the indignant is understandable: it is not at all about racism, but about a sharp and unjustified change of the beloved image by all. Why, in fact, turn a bright red and light mermaid into a dark-skinned one, when there are a huge number of actresses and singers of a suitable type. The hashtag #NotMyAriel (not my Ariel) is gaining traction on social media.

However, the answer to the questions "Why?" and "What's going on?" everyone understands perfectly. The new standards of tolerance in Hollywood are so high that the number of black actors in each new production is a very significant value today. God forbid it will be below a certain mark - a bucket of dirt will pour out on the creators of the next masterpiece. So they have to populate medieval England with knights who would actually shock King Arthur himself (in the film adaptation of Guy Ritchie, for example).

Discussions about the conventionality of the perception of art become a common excuse. Well, or: "Nowhere does it say that Hermione is white." However, these costs of tolerance seem to irritate viewers more and more. Many reasonably note that if it were a film about Africa in the old days, then white-skinned actors in the role of the local population would also cause surprise.

However, the raging defenders of the rights of recently oppressed peoples and minorities seem unstoppable. Therefore, soon we will all have to watch the play of the openly homosexual Billy Porter, who got the role of the fairy godmother in the future musical "Cinderella".