The Little Mermaid Remake Has A Request From PETA

[veu]

Source: Cinemablend:

Disney’s Little Mermaid Remake Has Already Received A Request From PETA
SARAH EL-MAHMOUD
PUBLISHED: JUN. 16. 2021 3:12 PM

Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid is currently filming following a number of successful remakes from the studio’s Renaissance era. Although we’d expect the creatures Halle Bailey’s Ariel interacts with to be computer generated creatures of the sea, animal rights organization PETA is concerned about one aspect of the film and has sent out a letter to Disney with a particular request.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) penned a letter to Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, asking that the Little Mermaid production refrain from serving fish to its cast and crew while they film in Sardinia, Italy over the summer. As the PETA letter noted:

"Disney’s The Little Mermaid got it right in 1989—fish are intelligent, emotionally complex, and playful, and they experience pain just like we do. I’m writing on behalf of the many Disney fans at PETA and animal advocates everywhere to ask that the live-action production be completely Flounder-friendly by providing only tasty, vegan, fish-free food for the cast and crew on set."

The letter written by PETA’s senior manager of animals in film and television, Lauren Thomasson, requests that The Little Mermaid adopt a vegan menu for its production. The organization shared that the easiest and most effective way humans can protect animals is through a plant-based diet, devoid of meat and dairy products. The letter went on to say this as well:

"Up to 5 million fish are caught and killed every minute—far more animals than in any other industry—while more than 700,000 tons of equipment gets dumped from fishing vessels into our oceans each year. And fish aren’t the only victims—the indiscriminate industry traps, drowns, and mutilates countless turtles, dolphins, whales, seals, and birds callously accepted as ‘bycatch.’ At humans’ current pace, we could see fishless oceans within our lifetimes, but your film can help us change course."

This isn’t the first time PETA has called out Disney; in fact, earlier this year, the organization had something to say about Cruella as well. The organization looks to be taking the subject matter of The Little Mermaid as an opportunity to remind the folks over at Disney, alongside its audiences about the importance of saving the population under the sea where Ariel hails from. The 1989 movie certainly touched on topics of fish consumption during its runtime too.

For one, its audiences form attachments to its fish characters, such as Flounder and Sebastian. And in one memorable sequence, Sebastian runs from being cooked with a round of freshly caught fish for the “Les Poissons” number. The song gives us a look at what it's like to see a fish be prepared for dinner from their own eyes as the lyrics get graphic with “I cut off their heads and I pull out their bones.” From their point of view, it’s a horror movie.

As the letter notes, The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey is already a vegan. But PETA hopes the rest of the surely massive production will follow in her footsteps (or fins) and choose to also eat plant-based diets. There has certainly been a rise in more people adopting veganism in the past few years, but reportedly the lifestyle only makes up less than one percent of people in the world.

The Little Mermaid will star Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Melissa McCarthy as Usrula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Awkwafina as Scuttle and newcomer Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric. The movie directed by Mary Poppins Returns’ Rob Marshall has yet to receive a release date, but it’s coming closer as the production continues to shoot in Sardinia, Italy.

[veu]

Source: Insite The Magic

PETA Issues Urgent Plea to the Set of ‘The Little Mermaid’
IN MOVIES & TV

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Thomas Hitchen

The Walt Disney Company’s live-action catalog is about to get a new addition. Joining the likes of Maleficent (2014), The Jungle Book (2016), The Lion King (2019), and Cruella (2021), The Little Mermaid remake will hopefully release sometime next year.

While not much is known about whether the adaptation will draw directly from its animated counterpart, 1989’s The Little Mermaid, information regarding the upcoming Disney movie has been steadily trickling in. Now, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has issued an urgent plea to The Walt Disney Studio.

In 2016, it was reported that a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid was in early development with Moana‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Marc Platt co-producing the undersea adventure.

Director Rob Marshall was attached the year after and 2019 saw the full cast announced. The impressive lineup features the likes of Halle Bailey in the title role of Disney princess Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as the evil sea witch Ursula, and Javier Bardem as Ariel’s father, King Triton. Rounding out the cast are Daveed Diggs and Jacob Tremblay as Ariel’s sidekicks, Sebastian and Flounder, respectively, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.

Harry Styles was long rumored to play sailor and love interest, Prince Eric, but the role ultimately went to A Dog’s Way Home‘s (2019) Jonah Hauer-King. Filming rehearsals with the cast are underway — these set photos gave a first look at Bailey’s Ariel, who of course, was originally voiced by Jodi Benson — but the movie has recently come to a halt due to a reported COVID outbreak on the set.

With production well underway, Disney has now received a request from one of the world’s most vocal organizations. PETA stands by the notion “that animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.” And while it is rather unlikely The Little Mermaid remake will feature real animals in its movie — we’ve seen excellent life-like CGI used in Jon Favreau’s The Lion King for example –, PETA’s urgent plea comes in the form of something else.

In a press release online, PETA said:

Out of concern for Ariel’s friends under the sea, PETA sent a letter to Disney today asking that the live-action Little Mermaid leave fish off the hook and offer only vegan food to cast and crew on the Sardinia set this summer. The group notes that the film’s star—Halle Bailey as Ariel—is already vegan and that fish-free dishes benefit the planet on top of sparing animals violent deaths.

The organization’s Senior Vice President, Lisa Lange, goes on to suggest that Disney should practice what they preach:

“Ariel would recoil with horror at the thought of eating her pelagic pals—and the 1989 film even includes a scene in which Sebastian the crab escapes a ruthless chef,”

In their letter addressed to Sean Bailey — the current President of production at Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production — PETA highlights their concerns regarding the making of The Little Mermaid.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid got it right in 1989—fish are intelligent, emotionally complex, and playful, and they experience pain just like we do. I’m writing on behalf of the many Disney fans at PETA and animal advocates everywhere to ask that the live-action production be completely Flounder-friendly by providing only tasty, vegan, fish-free food for the cast and crew on set.

The letter is wrapped up with PETA’s solution, imploring The Little Mermaid cast and crew to go vegan during the making of the new Disney remake. Referencing a character from the classic animated film, they said:

Sebastian famously reminded Ariel that “under the sea, we’re off the hook,” and the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid is the perfect opportunity to do him and all animals proud by offering only vegan craft service.

You can read the full letter here.

Disney has in fact referenced PETA’s sentiments before somewhat in Finding Nemo (2003). When Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) stumble upon a shark’s lair, Bruce (Barry Humphries) matter-of-factly states, “Fish are friends, not food.”

It will be interesting to see if anything comes from PETA’s plea to the House of Mouse, or whether they will even acknowledge the request at all.

The Little Mermaid is currently filming in Sardinia, Italy. The exact release date for the film is still to be announced.

[veu]

Full letter from PETA:

PETA Makes Waves, Urges ‘The Little Mermaid’ Set to Go Fish-Free

For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Los Angeles – Out of concern for Ariel’s friends under the sea, PETA sent a letter to Disney today asking that the live-action Little Mermaid leave fish off the hook and offer only vegan food to cast and crew on the Sardinia set this summer. The group notes that the film’s star—Halle Bailey as Ariel—is already vegan and that fish-free dishes benefit the planet on top of sparing animals violent deaths.

“Ariel would recoil with horror at the thought of eating her pelagic pals—and the 1989 film even includes a scene in which Sebastian the crab escapes a ruthless chef,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA’s message to Disney is simple: Fish are our friends—not hors d’œuvres.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, visit PETA.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Disney follows.

Sean Bailey

President, Production

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Dear Mr. Bailey:

Disney’s The Little Mermaid got it right in 1989—fish are intelligent, emotionally complex, and playful, and they experience pain just like we do. I’m writing on behalf of the many Disney fans at PETA and animal advocates everywhere to ask that the live-action production be completely Flounder-friendly by providing only tasty, vegan, fish-free food for the cast and crew on set.

Eating vegan is the easiest and most effective way each of us can protect animals and our planet—just ask cast members Halle Bailey, a vegan, and marine life enthusiast Javier Bardem.

Fishing takes marine animals from a life that’s “the bubbles” and makes them “poor unfortunate souls.” Up to 5 million fish are caught and killed every minute—far more animals than in any other industry—while more than 700,000 tons of equipment gets dumped from fishing vessels into our oceans each year. And fish aren’t the only victims—the indiscriminate industry traps, drowns, and mutilates countless turtles, dolphins, whales, seals, and birds callously accepted as “bycatch.” At humans’ current pace, we could see fishless oceans within our lifetimes, but your film can help us change course.

With healthy, plant-based, fool-your–taste buds versions of every sea animal readily available, there’s no need to sacrifice flavor—or a life. Sebastian famously reminded Ariel that “under the sea, we’re off the hook,” and the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid is the perfect opportunity to do him and all animals proud by offering only vegan craft service.

Thank you for considering this lifesaving proposal.

Sincerely,

Lauren Thomasson

Senior Manager

Animals in Film and Television

PETA

[buckmana]

I don't like to talk too much about PETA, but truthfully, they're hypocrites.
You're better off not knowing what they've done, but they don't adhere to the principles they claim to advocate.
So any time they claim to be interested in animal welfare is a lie and a publicity stunt.

That being said, I do agree with the sentiment here.
I am a vegetarian and I don't approve of fish or any other living creature being served as food.
Especially since one of my primary passion is marine life and fish aren't just mindless creatures.
I actually had fun at Melbourne Acquarium where I raised my finger up to near the glass (don't ever touch the glass, the tapping sound is distressing to fish) to see what what would happen and one of the fish looked directly at the finger, then followed the movement as I shifted the position of my hand.
To be aware of something happening outside the tank and to observe/react to it means a level of intelligence exists.

I was disconcerted that the behind-the-scenes feature of Raya and the Last Dragon made a big deal of serving shrimp, both onscreen during the movie and to the cast.
One of their crew actually had to reject the shrimp soup because they were vegetarian.

[merprincess]

buckmana Yeah, I agree. Their publicity campaigns can be a bit...out there. Their intent is usually in the right place, but they usually drop the ball with the execution and it can be a bit messy. They quite often act antithetical to their core message (check out petakillsanimals.com/, though I will warn that the material there is graphic).

And good on you for being vegetarian! I'm trying to be more mindful of my meat consumption, cutting it out whenever possible, even if some of my favorite foods are harder to give up. I think I've gotten better over the years with it, definitely taking many baby steps! But when I do eat meat/animal products, I try to source it as ethically as possible.

I love that aquarium story! Fish & marine life, and animals of all sort really, are absolutely capable of more intelligence than we may think. I love zoos and aquariums that preach conservation & rehabilitation & education of these incredible creatures. My local zoo used to have dolphins when I was a kid, which are my favorite animals. I knew them by name and could recognize which ones were out on exhibit just by looking at their appearance & markings. Sometimes we would play games with each other where I would run from either side of the glass on my end and one of the dolphins would swim after me from side to side from the other side of the glass in a little race. I live in an area where it'd be impossible to find dolphins in the wild, so it made for a fantastic learning experience.

[buckmana]

Yes, that is what I was referring to.
According to their founder's mission statement, domesticated animals (i.e pets) are suffering, so confiscating them from their human owners and euthanising them is "relieving their suffering".
One PETA euthanoligist actually had a nervous breakdown after one week on the job.

To contrast, a lesser known Animal Shelter stated for the record, 95% of their confiscated or donated animals are given up for adoption, for them, euthanasia is an absolute last resort to be avoided completely if possible.

Getting used to new flavours is the hardest part, but over time, your body will adapt.
I read that vegetarians cannot tolerate the scent of meat after they've been on their new diet for 6 months or more.
That I can confirm, I can't even walk near a butcher now without feeling queasy.

Thank you for sharing the story about the dolphins.
As one of the higher order marine mammals. they are definitely capable of cognition.
In my country, we have much readier access to wild cetaceans and they integrate well into human cultures without formal training.
One story from New Zealand is that a wild dolphin who became friendly with local fisherman rescued a fisherman who fell overboard while in rough seas, fought off the shark who tried to attack him and then carried him home on her back.

Sharks too have their moments, black tip reef sharks are well known for seeking out humans to entice the divers to rub their noses.
And I saw a video of one tiger shark who was a lot smarter then the rest, he learned what spear fishing was, then whenever he saw a spearfisher, he would track them through the water, then snatch the fish off the spear before the diver could reel their catch in. A very good example of learning rather then mindless predation.
Wild rays are also known for socialising with humans of their own volition, sometimes the pacific rays amuse themselves by teasing human divers.

I found it intriguing the cartoon series of Little Mermaid promoted the no fish consumption message long before anyone ever considered it.
Once specific scene shows a party hosted by King Triton, the main course menu was seaweed pizza. Yes, that's right, in TLM, all merpeople are vegetarian or possibly vegan.
There were several other similar scenes, whenever the merpeople were shown to be eating, it was always plant based foods.

[merprincess]

Wow! There's a lot to unpack there for sure.
That's amazing that you get to see whales and dolphins and sharks and other marine life so often where you live, and in their natural habitats! They can be really friendly with people, it's wonderful to see.
I noticed that as well with the TLM TV series! Lots of seaweed-based dishes!

And when you ask Ariel what her favorite foods are at the Disney Parks, she usually responds with lots of different seaweed dishes too, all plant-based (but also the occasional peanut butter and jellyfish jelly sandwich. only with imitation jellyfish jelly!). People will ask her sometimes what her thoughts on humans eating fish are, and from what I've seen, she's said she personally would never do that to her undersea friends but she understands that many humans do it, even if it's a little upsetting. So she's probably some form of vegetarian/vegan.

The videos are gone from YouTube unfortunately from Fatima Lakhani's YouTube channel, she & her family had so many great Disney & Universal character meet & greet videos but they got taken down due to an unfortunate personal family situation.

Though I'm glad I wrote down what Ariel's answers were to a video at Disneyland where she was asked about seafood/food in general, since I used these videos for my character research for my princess work. Here's some of what she had to say in response:

(she's asked "do you like seafood?/what do you think of seafood?"): "Like seaweed? Oh, you mean fish? Oh no! I know that’s what many humans like and I try not to interfere, as it can be a really good source of health, you have to make yourself healthy. So I understand, but it makes me a little sad *giggles* But it’s ok! Do you like seafood? (person responds "no") I didn’t think you would! You seem like a good human, I understand!"

(other person responds "yes")
"Oh no! You still seem like a good sport though, but maybe I need to hide my friends from you haha..."

(asked about what foods she likes): Seaweed pie, seaweed birthday cake, kelp cake, seaweed sandwiches ("my favorite!")

"Peanut butter and jellyfish is a treat I like to make! with IMITATION jellyfish, of course, I would never do that to my friends. Imitation crab is not so bad, it still feels a little weird but at least I’m not eating my friends!"

[buckmana]

Not all of those examples I cited were from Australia.
The black tap reef sharks are near the tropics somewhere, the tiger shark near Hawaii.

Another story from Melbourne acquarium, there's this tank where they put the younger animals to grow bigger before sending them to the ocean tank, it's open topped, so the residents can look out and see the people nearby.
Everytime I went near this tank, this spotted eagle ray kept rising to the surface and splashing at me.
He even let me pat him on the head a few times.
This wasn't a trained behavior, he did it on his own.

Here is a playlist of videos I made while visiting marine life attractions around Australia and New Zealand.
My Marine Life videos
The seals are wild seals, but as long as you keep a relatively safe distance, they're not that bothered by all the humans wandering around their beach.
Also note one of them actually moved inland to use the human built walkway as a resting spot.

The most distressing marine meal preparation I learned about is lobster (and potentially other crustaceans).
A lobster has a venom sac in their body, but this venom is neutralised by heat, the catch is, this can only be done while the animal is alive, if the animal dies, the venom sac releases it's contents and well, everything in the water nearby is lethally poisoned.
What makes this most cruel of all is, a lobster's central nervous system is not like that of a mammal, which shuts down when extreme pain is experienced. A lobster's central nervous system remains fully active up until the moment of their death, meaning they feel every second of the pain of being boiled alive.

Since we're sort of on the topic of consuming marine life for food, the one thing that disconcerts me most is the whalers coming into Australia territory and hunting whales for alleged scientific research.
What they actually do is send the meat to gourmet restaurants in their country of origin and charge significant amounts of money to do so.
Keep in mind whale watching tours are a significant amount of tourism income in Australia and the whales only just started trusting us enough to come near boats again, this active hunting will discourage that response and well, a whale watching tour with no whales will shut down the industry!
They wouldn't like it if I went to their country and started a business based on destroying their tourism while claiming it was for scientific research.

In the wild, if a humpback whale becomes aware of humans (there's a blindspot in front of their head where they can't see), they'll actually slow down to avoid harming the person swimming nearby.
I've even seen dolphins surf the bow wave of ocean going vessels, it conserves energy if they allow the bow wave to push them along, so they don't need to use as much energy swimming.
I think I even saw a seal do this once, the skin was too dark to be a dolphin.

Here's a pun you could potentially use:
Seafood? Yes, I see food.
Then point to something vegetable based or if you really want a laugh, point to the nearest plant.

It's actually interesting how many plant based products can be used to substitute for animal based equivalent, for example, glucose instead of gelatine in jelly.
I don't think there is any food we could not replicate using plant products.
The amount/range of meat imitation products has expanded a lot in my local supermarket lately and all of it is very tasty.