‘The Little Mermaid’ Draws Criticism For Flounder’s Uncomfortably Lifelike Design

Topline

Weeks before its highly anticipated premiere, cast posters and a trailer for the Little Mermaid live-action film dropped, sparking criticism and memes about what some say are unnecessarily realistic animated fish—the latest in a series of viral controversies for a film that’s been an easy target for criticism.

Halle Bailey as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid.”

Disney

Key Facts

The Little Mermaid, a live-action remake of the classic 1989 Disney animated film, opens in theaters on May 26, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric.

Directed by Rob Marshall (who also helmed musicals Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns and Into the Woods) and produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the film has been in production since 2016 with much of the main cast attached since 2019.

With just four weeks until the film’s release, the official Little Mermaid Twitter account unveiled posters featuring each individual cast member—including Flounder and Sebastian, the animated fish and crab who are friends with Ariel and are voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Daveed Diggs, respectively.

The new Flounder, in particular, garnered criticism for looking almost nothing like his bright-yellow, joyful, chubby animation in the original film, with many social media users poking fun at and making memes about the updated appearance.

Some social media users criticized the fish for looking too lifelike and emotionless—a criticism that was once wielded against the 2019 CGI-animated remake of The Lion King, which opened to mixed reviews from critics who said the realistic appearance of the film failed to capture the emotion of the original.

It’s far from the first time the film has attracted controversy: Bailey, a Black woman, was a victim of racist backlash in response to her casting as Ariel, some expressed disappointment a drag queen was not cast in the role of Ursula, a character based on the drag performer Divine, and some viewers of the 2023 Academy Awards found the onstage promotion of the film to be among the show’s most awkward moments.

Chief Critic

Plenty of memes and reactions to Flounder’s new design went viral on social media this week. “Yes this is a crime- we’re just trying to find out which one,” the Southlake, Texas Department of Public Safety tweeted Wednesday in response to the Little Mermaid’s cast poster reveal for Flounder. Some users explicitly criticized Flounder’s thinner animation, a far cry from the plump fish he was in the 1989 film. One Twitter user joked the animators should “give him back his buccal fat,” garnering more than 100,000 likes. Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic procedure in which a surgeon removes fat from a person’s cheek area to give the face a more sculpted look. The procedure has gone viral in recent months as people have speculated which celebrities have gotten the surgery, and it’s become the subject of many internet jokes. Another user joked Flounder must have been put on Ozempic, a diabetes medication that has gone viral in recent months for its use as a weight loss treatment. Another user criticized the animation of a clip of Ariel holding Flounder by his fins: “The problem with the realistic design is that [Flounder] doesn’t look sentient. there’s no light behind his eyes. this doesn’t look like someone teasing her friend, it looks like someone doing animal cruelty,” the user tweeted to 100,000 likes.

Key Background

Bailey, 23, is known for her role in the sitcom Grown-ish and her music career as a member of Chloe x Halle alongside her sister, Chloe Bailey. After she was cast as Ariel—who was animated as a red-haired, white-skinned mermaid in the original film—she received both praise and racist backlash online, including from some who tweeted the hashtag #NotMyAriel. Supporters praised Bailey’s casting as positive representation for Black children, and many pointed out the race of a mermaid—a fictional creature—should not matter. Freeform, a Disney-owned network, blasted the racist backlash in a statement on Instagram in 2019, stating that if Ariel is considered Danish because the fairytale’s author, Hans Christian Andersen, is from Denmark, then backlash is unfounded because Danish people can be Black. The statement also praised Bailey as “incredible, sensational, highly-talented” and “gorgeous.” In 2023, Bailey said the racist backlash wasn’t a shock, but she instead chooses to focus on positive reactions from young Black girls watching her as Ariel. Melissa McCarthy’s casting as Ursula also drew some criticism from viewers who felt the character should be played by a drag queen, though McCarthy said her approach to Ursula was based on her own past experiences performing as a drag queen named Miss Y. Disney also drew some criticism for promoting The Little Mermaid at the Academy Awards, where McCarthy and Bailey took the stage to introduce the film’s trailer in what some considered an awkward moment.

Tangent

The Little Mermaid is just the latest film to face criticism for unsettling, lifelike animation. After The Lion King faced similar allegations of uncomfortably lifelike animals in 2019, Cats was panned for its cat-human CGI hybrids and Sonic the Hedgehog drew so much backlash for the character’s human-like eyes and teeth in the film’s trailer that the animators made significant changes to his appearance.

Surprising Fact

The forthcoming remake, which is set to include new songs, will be nearly an hour longer than the original film.

‘The Little Mermaid’ Draws Criticism For Flounder’s Uncomfortably Lifelike Design—The Latest Controversy For The Film