Little Mermaid === [00:00:00] Intro --- KT: It's another week in the foyer reference household, and it is another quid promo oti. We are living in the world of the re-imagining. Oti: Woohoo KT: Uh, and thank you so much to Tim for inviting us as his very first guest in the re-imagining of Popcorn Pals. We're working on popcorn, friends and lovers. I'm very sure. Um, this is the second time we've ever done this. Friends and lovers shout outs to late to the show. Hopefully you guys are doing well. We did a collab where we did into the Spider us, which is timely cuz it's coming out soon. But we had so much to say. We had to do a full review on our podcast, which is exactly what we are doing. Again, thank you Tim and the team at Popcorn Podcast. Go and check out that episode. Tim shares a lot of very personal experiences with Ariel, which we won't spoil here. Um, but we're also going to get into some detail as [00:01:00] well. hi doggy. Let's get on the show. Start --- KT: Hey friends, and, but. Oti: scared of Matt. KT: Scared. Oti: scared of Matt. KT: Friends and lovers. Welcome back to the Foyer Reference Household. You got your host, Katie Oti: and oti. KT: If you wonder why we don't cover, um, age appropriate for Children movies, you'll start to see friends and lovers. Set the romantic boat scene with heartfelt vocals, lovable misfits, and daddy approval. yay ha. Succumb to exposition tentacles with the 2023, the Little Mermaid this week. Oti: Woohoo. KT: Ooh. [00:02:00] Ooh. Okay. Well, um, let's get into general information. We kind of did some first impressions, um, over at Popcorn Pals, uh, but let's get into it, shall we Director Rob Marshall, uh, most notably for Pirates of the Caribbean or Caribbean, our fellow correspondent. Oh, Oti: Oh, Caribbean. KT: Wow, you gave us a third option. Uh, okay. Um, screenplay by David McGee, released May, 2023. Obviously with Pamela's Penguin, paninis Pamela around the world. Wow. I, I w I got two panels cause I feel bad for not watching Tom and Pam. I can only listen to one talking dick, friends of lovers at a time. Wow. Cast, cast, cast, Hailey Bailey. That's all that matters. Oti: Yeah. That's all there was, KT: literally. Um, but if we must [00:03:00] Jonah, how King Melissa McCarthy, Javier. I dunno man. I could have been like David Diggs wife. In the third option of the pronunciation you just went through, um, Noma, Dez, David Diggs, Jacob Tremble, Aquafina, um, and a whole bunch of trinkets all along the way. Let's get into first impressions. Um, You gave us a very interesting fact that, you know, I learned to stop fact checking you because I also don't like to be humbled. Um, but you, you, you taught us something in popcorn power. So, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. Thirsty. Thirsty, thirsty. Oti: Haley Bailey's compelling portrayal of aerial emerges as a highlight. Her exquisite vocals and perfect embodiment of the character Ibu, A sense of [00:04:00] grace, despite the love action adaptations. Struggling to capture the originals vibrance. Look KT: Look at you burying the lady. Oti: I find it weird how it, it was, it was laid out, I think halfway through. I, I was struggling a bit with it. I think with Haley's performance, I think that was the only sort of saving grace by the end of it. I think, uh, even me, Lisa McCarthy was quite good. KT: You know, Lizzo auditioned for the role of Ursula. Oti: Oh yeah. KT: And even Melissa McCarthy was like, why the fuck am I? And it's like, no, get out of the way then. Oti: Wow. KT: Stop this. Disingenuous if you genuinely believe that you weren't right for the role. Step aside, and I'm also speaking to the colorism of Lilo and Stitch. You could have timed her friends and lovers. Of course, I was going to say it. Oti: you wanted Aeriel, Taika and KT: Also all the things that you seemingly forgot to say on Popcorn Pals. Hey, [00:05:00] I think I scared Tim with the Sandman reference. It was a very specific reference. Um, for all of the Sandman notes, you are reading it. How's it going? Loving it. Does it explain why Javier has so many different daughters? It Oti: It does. KT: Okay. Well, thank you. Oti: Oh, I just remember enjoying, sort of watching the show. Cause it, there was those, a TV series at the time. Mm-hmm. And I had forgotten the core sort of storyline of Oh, the movie about how just fasting, yeah. And looking for legs. Fuck that. It was Adventures Under the Sea. And you'd have, you'd have Adventure Sebastian. Flounder. Scatter even, you know, it was five times. Yeah. She wasn't looking for legs in that. So I had completely forgotten sort of the narrative. Cause we didn't watch the movie, uh, we didn't watch the original world going into it. KT: No, it, we are learned friends and lovers, but, um, I, I guess we only have so much time. Oti: Yeah, it had been a while, but wow. I think that just took me [00:06:00] aback cause it's, the storyline was so weak that you don't build a lot of action around it, to my opinion. KT: Okay, cool. I agree. I just didn't know we were going so Oti: No, KT: don't Oti: I'd say, I'd say it. I'd say it. Alright. KT: All right. Um, so this, this is was too much of a sad Katie story that I didn't say it on popcorn pals. Um, but when I was like five or six, um, me and my sister wanted to be with like the older siblings and the older cousins, and we were out at the beach. Um, and I don't understand irony. Maybe this is irony, um, but me and my sister went out too far than we should have. And we both drowned. Spoiler alert, I'm still alive. I'm a fucking ass, but I'm Oti: I'm still, KT: Um, but during that time, my sister was, she, she was in a bit more of a serious condition. So, um, I, I guess, you know, between my therapist and new Friends of Love, as you can decide how that affected me. But they were spending a lot more time, [00:07:00] understandably, with my sister. I was a bit more conscious and I was just sitting there and Disney movies kind of became my thing. Oti: Mm. KT: So it's interesting because it's one of those shout outs to Astronomy Club. One of the greatest sketch shows out there. You know, you can talk about Netflix, you can talk about whatever it is, but the astronomy club, great, great, great. And they have a sketch of like trauma that you didn't realize that was trauma. You can't even sleep laying down anymore. Like, you know, those sorts of, um, anecdotes. Right? So I, I, I don't think I've ever watched The Little Mermaid since then, but I watched it. On loop when I was a kid in the hospital like Archer at a lacrosse gate. Um, and Oti: there a puddle? KT: damn dark is there like a little OT in the corner? Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: That's not how you use time travel, by the way. Um, so again, it, it's interesting that it's about water, but yeah. So I would watch The Little Mermaid a lot [00:08:00] and not since that time I've ever watched The Little Mermaid. Um. So I didn't know anything. Um, I love Aquafina, so it's not, it's not scuttle Orisha, but I actually didn't remember that there was a scuttle character. Okay. I was a, I, I understood that there would be new elements, so I was assuming it was like, you know, cuz Aquafina is, you know, Top gal, she's top villain at the moment. She's everywhere. Right? Um, so I just assumed they just created a character to have her there. Mm. Um, I didn't know anything about the TV show. I wasn't necessarily like a diehard fan of The Little Mermaid. Um, but I got it. Like I understood it. I, I preferred other Disney's and don't worry friends and lovers in the list of themes. The first one is comparing live action Disneys that we've had so far. Um, but yeah, I, overall, I. I agree with everything that you are saying. Um, a, I think I didn't necessarily write it as a theme, but even just trying to understand what the audience was because [00:09:00] kids were there and they were bored, I was also bored. So like, who was this for? Um, but yeah. You know, the thing to take away from this is, you know, Halle is the. Benchmark. Unfortunately, it didn't. They didn't, they needed to match her, and it didn't necessarily, I would say get there. You know, Halle Bailey floats to the surface in a heartfelt vocals, vibrant performance, and natural charm. While this re-imagining had a lot of interesting trinkets, it dulled in comparison to her sparkle and shine. Oti: Ok, I hear you. KT: I think what I will say, um, friends and lovers, whether you've watched the film, whether you have no interest in watching the film, um, if you're one of the nasty friends and lovers that have no interest and you're gonna listen anyway, then you know, sit on our laps and continue along the journey. Um, for those that won't be listening cause they don't want to get spoiled, um, I will give the same preface that I gave in Woman [00:10:00] King in that. How we feel about the film should be how we feel about the film. However, if you talk about like China Box Office for example, um, interestingly, the audience score on Rodden tomatoes is higher than the critic score. Perhaps, perhaps why we also are doing an episode right now to contribute positively to that. Um, so to have the discussion. To have the review, to have the analysis is in and of itself. However, when we live in a world where hashtag not my aral, hashtag all white mermaids matter, then we can't fucking have nuance, right? Oti: No, we can't. KT: We're going to have it for the rest of this episode, but the reason why I need to preface this is this is, I would say, one of the best live actions of Disney that we've seen. There's a broader question of is it necessary? I would say nay. [00:11:00] However, they will and it continue to have live action films, right? So in that, in to that virtue, it is one of the best that is out there. Also, it is very important to highlight that while apparently in the casting it was all ethnicities, we have a young black lead in Halle Bailey, and it's not just the gesture or the visual of her being in this, she fucking killed it. Oti: Here's the thing, right? You've got people from around the world. For whatever reason in Germany, the rating for this movie was a 0.97, huh? And it later reset to five. There's been an influx of really, really bad reviews or review bombing for this movie just because of a black lead. KT: You know, in China they made the movie posters blue. Well, they made a skin blue. Oti: They did. Yeah, they did. And they don't even fucking rate it there now. Yeah. One of the, the reviews KT: all the competitors. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oti: So it it, it goes [00:12:00] to a bigger question of not only what the fuck, but we've been here several times. KT: Yeah. Oti: Yeah. We know the issue is there, but they'll go, they'll, they, they'll use this excuse of, oh, it's the live action that they don't need to do. Fuck it. They did. Lion King. It was awful, but people went Yeah. Despite the fact that, you know, you don't, you don't get to see those black faces. KT: well say. They probably think they're still black. Oti: Yeah. Yeah. I think even when it, when people Google and find out that that Vader is voiced by a black person, people will fucking freak out. KT: Yeah. Oti: my Vida. Oh. So, KT: But, but that's, but that's what I'm saying and that's why it's so important to preface this because fuck off, like literally if we can't have a place, cuz the foyer reference household as nasty as it is. As splush as it is, it is also a place of nuance. So while we say there are things that didn't [00:13:00] necessarily work or we didn't necessarily care for, that's the film. As a film, you know, don't hide behind. Oh, I didn't like it. No, you just don't fucking like black people to say that. Oti: Yeah. KT: Like it makes you uncomfortable to have a young black woman lead. Just say that. Oti: Yeah. And, and again, this question keeps on popping up. You know, uh, you did cast a black person in a, in a Star's adaptation. People will freak out because a, what the fuck? There are no black people there, right? Mm-hmm. So, and it's this thing where in a fantastical world, People don't want to see black people because they wanna see black people in their fantasy. It's my fucking fantasy. I don't wanna see a black person there. Yeah. So, so you can, you can sweep it under that rug. You can say it's love, action. The movie is boring, but nay, this movie is not 0.97. Bad. Even Jesus rolls was not two. Um, but, KT: and we all, we all don't prescribe to white Jesus in the [00:14:00] foyer reference household. Oti: Mm. But it's true. Right? So there's this underbelly that KT: Like, just say it with your chest. Don't be like, oh, this isn't historically accurate. Oti: Yeah. Say it with the chest and then we can move on. Yeah. You know, once you say it, then at least it's out there and, you know, we, we, we can have a discussion and we can try and tackle it in a, in a, in a more direct manner rather than, oh, being subliminal. Yes. And not getting to the issue. So whether you wanna call it PC or I saw there's a tablet in China saying how, because Disney's um, Disney is into the PC work culture. That's why. Or they had to put a black person on. They don't really wanna see black people there, apparently. So. Fair enough. The, KT: the math is mathy, whatever you wanna say. At the end of the day, guardians of the Galaxy, fast X. But I think specifically you talk about Disney, so you're talking about guardian guardians of the galaxy, right? Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: You got all of these purple, green, blue, like, and this is also a popular sort of ip, so [00:15:00] if it's not doing well, you can't hide around that shit. It's very clear. Oti: Yeah. But anyway, there's, there, there is a bigger issue and I think that's why I drove, because initially we weren't even planning to cover this movie at all. Mm-hmm. Uh, we'd done it with, um, Tim in popcorn KT: Yes. And Tim was very gracious, so thank you Tim, for having us on. Oti: but I think there's an importance to this and just to highlight the, the, the ridiculousness that is in the market and however you thought the movie was. Yes. It wasn't the best, but there was the, the one thing the people hated for, she was the shining star of the whole thing. Yeah. Mm. Makes you wonder. KT: Um, we do have race swapping on here, but we will go to something lighter. Um, friends of Love Us. Let's go to the live action Disney, cuz I was even saying it, I think it was after the screening, um, with you and Tim, and I said, you can feel the difference. From Lion King to now so much in way of production, not [00:16:00] necessarily storytelling, but you know, a lot has been done in the technology space since Lion King. Mm-hmm. I don't necessarily care for the Aladdin, um, live action. Oti: Oh, is it because you consulted Willie? Oh, big Willie. Don't live here no more. Some, KT: Some, sometimes you need Big Willie, you know. Oh, maybe Big Willie needs to visit these box offices. Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: Um, Mullan. We also need to acknowledge the lack of humanity, um, in regards to the Uyghur people. So, um, the production of Mullan. Obviously you can't not acknowledge that. Um, but also it had everything going for it. It just wasn't great either. I don't know, like I don't think I passionate. It's kind of the same as like the fast franchise. Like they kind of all exist on the same banding. Mm-hmm. For me personally. Um, but there was a lot of things [00:17:00] that definitely worked in the Little Mermaid. Oti: Oh, a hundred percent. Oh, I think weirdly enough, Mullan was my favorite so far. KT: Okay. Stacked cast, Oti: then you're just floundering with options afterwards? KT: Yeah, I guess so. Um, let's move into race swapping. I called it Bridgeton. I love Shonda Rhimes, by the way. Um, but I call it Bridgeton because as far as I understand, Bridgeton is set, like the setting of Bridgeton doesn't necessarily denote to race more so in regards to class. Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: Right. Um, you know, that's why everyone still has wet dreams about Reg on page, right? Mm-hmm. I still see him as chicken George, but I guess that's my problem. Um, the film kind of did this, um, which we can talk to in a second. Um, so I, I guess there, there's something that I need to make very clear, um, because we are a black and brown space, friends and lovers, but when there's time to talk about [00:18:00] Lilo and Stitch, we're pulling up and we're a holy brown space. Friends and lovers. Um, like, leave my Lilo and Stitch alone. Go and play with Moana. Like I've always really loved Lilo and Stitch. But anyway, I need to make a distinction between these two things, and I'm sure eventually in a proper format we will talk about the colorism and the futurism in regards to the Lilo and Stitch casting. I hope this sounds like an antiquated relic in the future because they've done fucking right by our brown people and they've casted correctly. But maybe not. Right. So casting according to, you know, and even when we did, um, the Harder They Fall with James Samuel, I said, it's not on him to take the burden of the industry. When they talked about Stage Coach Mary, Because, you know, Zazi beats as much as we love, she is light skinned. Um, and that wasn't reflective of Stage Coach Mary. Right. And also, I'm not black, so I was leaving space, um, for you and for others to [00:19:00] comment on that. Right. Re like the casting in regards. To colorism. Um, in regards to Lilo and Stitch, we're not playing into blood quantum cuz that's gross and disgusting. If you don't understand that or you wanna have a bigger conversation, meet me in the dms, friends and lovers. But you know, when you have the cartoons look more native Hawaiian than. What's being casted, then there's a bigger conversation. But that's not the same as race swapping is my point, because in this conversation people are like, oh, you have a problem with these light skin, brown people with European features, but what about a black manmade? And it's like, Fuck off. They're not. No, but really they're not the same conversation. And if that's the energy you wanna come with, then literally fuck off. It's not the same thing. So going into race, swapping, I'm gonna say something controversial, ot. Oti: Oh, all the other things you said weren't KT: No. To my [00:20:00] brown people. Yes. Um, I am conscious of, you know, we just talked about the box officers all around the world, the way the Little mermaid is getting review bond and that sort of thing. I am so heartbreakingly aware of how ugly and gross and unnecessarily disgusting this world is. Especially in regards to young black women, right? I'm aware of that. However, I also function from story sovereignty and from independence of ip. And what I mean by that is I don't need a female Ghostbusters. I don't need a female Oceans 11. Oti: Wow. KT: But you see what I'm saying? Like, people should be interested in a story, not because of the proximity to the ip, because then that's what you get. You get people that are like, oh, this was, I was suckling at the teets of this ip, and it means so much to me. Fuck off. Right? That's a different conversation. But what I'm [00:21:00] saying is, you know, even que, even though we didn't necessarily enjoy it, We appreciated the production and the, the attention that was put on your skate. You know what I mean? It wasn't just making a black Samurai jack, but I think that's just Afro Samurai, Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: But you know what I mean? Like you wouldn't make like a black Johnny Bravo. Oti: I'd love to see that. Okay, fine. KT: I, I guess, Oti: I dunno KT: if you're being a dick or if you're being genuine, but my point is, I, I prefer to dabble away from existing and having proximity to IP and having standalone stories. Oh, Oti: Oh, a hundred percent. I, I, I know where you're coming from. I do agree with that aspect of it. I think the, I think the issue with how stories are done now and how people see, oh, because I grew up watching Little Mermaid, I just need them to regurgitate whatever it is that I loved. Yes. Exactly the way it was, but then what's the point? You [00:22:00] already have it in that form from back then. You can just rewatch it. You can pop in the DVD v d and watch whatever the hell you wanted to watch from back then. Yeah. So it's not, oh, I, I need to pass it to my kid so my kid knows what it's like. It's still there. It's not going anywhere. Um, and, and this is the thing, right? Disney will continue doing live action adaptations because, It's a different spin on how stories are told, especially with the originality of shit being really low. Mm-hmm. It's a way of them doing, oh, let's do this. Let's tweak one or two things in this, and then, but KT: it, it, it plays into that argument of it's not as good, you know, Oti: Which KT: I would also say another controversial thing. A lot of like POC leading representation happened at the end of the peak of the height. Of Marvel, right? Mm-hmm. So people are already fatigued and it's like they're using that as an excuse to say, I don't like this. You know? Yeah. Even though I have very firm feelings of [00:23:00] Shachi in the 10 ring. Um, but I, I guess what I like, what I want to come to, At the end of the day, Halle Bailey was casted. Right. Even though I don't necessarily, like, I see why, you know, I see the cogs. I understand why race swapping happens because some people won't go to watch a Black Mermaid film if it didn't, if it wasn't existed in this ip. Right. I understand that. It just makes me sad. It just makes me sad that that's. That's the level that we're in. However, now that we know I'm all the way in with this film. Right? Yeah. Like whatever I have to say or critique about it isn't on that basis alone. Um, I would also make very clear friends and lovers. Uh, I guess, um, if it isn't apparent, Uh, black and brown and indigenous peoples all over the world have some sort of law in regards to half human, half existing in the [00:24:00] ocean, half fish and that sort of thing. Yeah, me Oti: More people. KT: Yeah. We got the I was telling you when we were watching, I was waiting for Naor, um, to show up and it would've made it complete. Um, one more thing I wanna say before we move on to the themes in regards to the Little Mermaid is Christian Navarro, um, was very keen on auditioning and he was very publicly, very upset. Um, that he was not casted as Eric. Oti: Oh, really? KT: Um, he is very attractive. He is someone that I would forget about the rotting vegetables in my fridge. Um, if you've listened to Popcorn Pals, you know what that means. Um, but I just want to. Read this to you. I just wanna get your thoughts. Essentially, he talked about how Disney went through a who's who's list of actors of color and still went with the white guy from Prince Eric's role so much for diversity. I guess two brown leads would've tanked the movie, right? Boring. Oti: [00:25:00] Well, one black lead is dunking the movie according to them, but KT: maybe, maybe it would've been worse. Oti: Yeah. Um, I think, and, and that's why you get the territory of, oh, you can have two black leads then, because it's a, KT: It becomes a black film. Oti: It does. Um, yes. KT: Which, um, Charlottes is Ansari a master of none. They literally, um, explored that You can't have two Indians, cuz then it becomes an Indian show. Okay. So focusing back on. Ariel, I wanna talk about her sort of naivety, right? Because, um, as far as I understand, I think Tim also clarified it is pretty much in the vein of the original of she n she was kind of in a bubble in the sense that she was insulated from the very real pain and damage that humans can cause to mur people. Her older sisters were very cognizant of it, and her dad was very cognizant of it, but she, I don't think it was ever [00:26:00] really explained to her either. She was just told, you know, pretty much like Simba, like, don't go over there. You're not supposed to go over there. Oti: Nah. She was told, don't go over there because those people killed your mom. And actually, yeah, KT: yeah, Oti: she still went. Not like, and, and, and I think this is where when you dig through the movie, at least the law, because Tim mentioned that in his opinion, that there was in the original aerial is more thirsty there, where there's no really. A story. It's Ariel saying Eric and being like, bam, I'm in love. Yeah. While here. Yes. It wasn't as immediate. We still didn't get to see that connection being built in a more realistic way. You know, when when everything's looking like a, like a documentary. It just didn't feel like she interacted as much with Eric. KT: No, it was all about him. Oti: Even like it was more, oh, take the ma dear call one interaction. But I think most of the time what I remember it was. Eric just doing all the talking and not even having Ariel respond or, [00:27:00] yeah, try and communicate in any way she KT: But I think she like, I don't think she was also, cause she was so bright-eyed, I don't think she would've like put him to task for something when he was showing his little maps being like, Ooh, look at this land. She was like, okay, this is great. This is that. Oti: Yeah. But, but then they did lay the foundation that she was always fascinated by these human objects. KT: I guess so. Um, and I did say it on Popcorn Pals, but um, if you haven't had a chance to listen yet, I also want to put it on the Foyer Reference podcast. I want a world where young girls, especially young black girls, can explore and be free in some sort of sense to have adventures that young girls should be having, you know, um, but sometimes. There is, uh, a consciousness of how the world works, right? So you don't, like, you don't want kids to be scarred, but you also want them to be aware of the very real danger, [00:28:00] right? And that's kind of what was missing in this film, um, coming from a non-parent. So take that as you will. Um, But you know, even with Daddy Trien, like I understood exactly what he was saying, but it, it's also that wisdom wasn't passed on to her because after a while, like saying stay away from them, you know, they killed your mom. It just sounds like words after a while to a young girl that wants to go and explore something that was really annoying, um, near the end of the film was Daddy tried in saying you shouldn't have to give up your voice to be heard, bruh. You never listened to her in the first place. Oti: He was reflecting even if KT: if she had a voice Oti: seeing growth. We're seeing growth is reflecting and accepting that, ah, girl, I should have listened to you KT: just like Thor's dad, even with two wives, you could only see half the truth. [00:29:00] Let's go into the next theme. This is social commentary. This is. Us versus them. It kind of goes back to race swapping. I guess my general sort of comment for this, the casting is confusing when they have dialogue of us versus them. You know, the see Gods hate us. This is our struggle. We need to hold onto our culture. Oti: Oh, I just took that as if it's humans versus nature. Us versus them. KT: Well, it was very clear between Thes and the Ians. Oti: No, but it was interesting just seeing how the queen navigated, you know? Um, and, and I think I mentioned this cause you have a lot of, so the sort of workers who are Caribbean who are black. Yeah, that'd be, you know, with, with accents, you know, and then the queen who's. Elevated has a British accent, Uhhuh. I was like, okay, so this this us versus them, bro. KT: Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Oti: But that's me just [00:30:00] picking, uh, picking at something. You know? It's not that it was overlaid like that. It's me trying to find something to just quarrel. KT: She also said something to the effect of, our worlds were never meant to be together. Oti: Mm-hmm. KT: It was just very confusing and I What do you think, just, we don't need to spend a lot of time on this, but what do you think about Eric being a young white boy, but him also being adopted as well? Do you think it was just a way to explain how he ended up in the story? Oti: Yeah, a hundred percent. How else would he, it's the only explanation they could have had for that, unless there's some different biology going around. Yeah. KT: Um, yeah, so the, the, the us versus them, you know, a, aside from the ambiguous sort of, um, arbitrary line, I would say, um, I don't think, it wasn't even a time thing because this film was over two hours. I just don't think it gave itself enough of a platform to explore it, you know? Um, because they were trying [00:31:00] to, but they didn't necessarily execute it, so it kind of fell flat to me. Oti: Yeah. But I don't even think they showed the struggle that they were going through at all. Cause Eric would say, oh, there's different tribes or different places that are doing X trades and more prosperous. But from my point of view, that looks, they're looking quite, we wealthy. KT: you're doing better than the people that are serving you. Oti: It, it just didn't seem, they didn't show that, oh, we are struggling. We try, we, we, we, we, in X amount of years or months, we want people to provide for our people. But that wasn't the focus, so it, it just felt, okay, so why are you bringing it up exactly into the story when you don't have enough time? They had enough time to inter intertwine all these stories that they laid out, but they didn't. KT: Yeah, and I think aside from the obvious of the me people, their struggles just felt the same, right? Mm-hmm. It didn't feel like they had unique sort of things. Um, also, I wanna immortalize this on foyer reference as well as popcorn pals. I feel like, um, of all of the good [00:32:00] things that The Little Mermaid did, it, it, um, approached environmentalism in a more earnest and more effective way than Avatar one. Ando. Oti: ridiculous statement. KT: Oh, excuse me. Did we have Eric become an avatar? Merman? No. He stayed the white man. Oti: Well, we dunno what the sequel brings. Fuck off. KT: If that's what happens, I'm gonna tank it. Ot? Oti: No, but I, I, KT: was more of an earnestness because the, the people that were indigenous to the Merman lands were the ones that were saying this shit. Not Jake Suli. Eric having his X-Factor audition on land. You wanna end on something light ot. Oti: what's up? KT: Um, before we do, Halle Bailey is not the first young black woman to be in a live action Disney film. Did you know? Oti: really? Tell me more KT: Brandy and Cinderella. Oti: Oh shit, KT: man. You are forgetting your law. Ot, Oti: [00:33:00] I'm forgetting my law. That was the only Cinderella I watched. KT: You didn't know Cinderella was white the whole time? Oti: Nah, hashtag KT: not my Cinderella. Oti: I thought it was just brandy and that's it. KT: That's a beautiful world to be in. Um, speaking of Brandy, um, the musicality of it all, let's talk about the songs, let's talk about the music. Oti: Uh, those are the best parts of the movie. Yeah. Uh, and the sea sort of brought the vibrance of the regional, which is what we all love to see. But then after that, it just went back to its sort of Dame documentary, like nature. Yeah. Uh, I just wanted them to exploit Father, but the songs were so nice in this, I think Hailey. Um, Ariel Osler really did great in this, even David. Yeah, Mm, I I really enjoyed the performances. I can't add anything to scuttle, though. KT: We didn't even have time to address [00:34:00] Aquafina in a black set. We didn't have time to address that. Um, but the crowd was eating up the scuttle butt. They wanted to know what the scuttle butt was. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, I, in regards to the music, I just wanna focus on Ariel. She made me feel things, man. Maybe if she was around, I wouldn't have drowned when I was a little baby Shamus. Oti: Maybe not. But then you'd also want to become a mommy, wouldn't you? Why KT: why can't I be, um, brought into shore? And I can be airy. Oti: Yeah. Why not? KT: Why not? Mm-hmm. Oh, that got real oie. Oti: It did. For Your Reference --- KT: Um, thank you for joining the first, uh, module of the fyr curriculum. We're gonna finish off in a segment we call Fire Friends, ot. Oti: I'm gonna reference Brandy's Cinderella. Oh, KT: oh, nice. Oti: What about you? KT: Um, I will reference [00:35:00] the animated version of Mulk. Oti: Nice. KT: If you would like to actually shout out to Mushu, Tim's dog. Um, I don't manage the social media account, but if you'd like to see non-US you related stuff on Twitter and Instagram where app. Oti: right us an email at hello ef podcast do com. KT: We're also on Halle Bailey for everything and everywhere in all the Places. Podcast, if you'd like to leave a rating and review and we'll see you guys next week. Oti: Halle. Oh, hallelujah. KT: Bye. Oti: Yeah.