Girls’ reactions go viral amid hate on ‘Little Mermaid’ trailer

“The Little Mermaid” teaser trailer was released on Friday to mixed reviews.

Social media was flooded with adorable videos of little black girls excitedly discovering that the new Ariel, played by Halle Bailey, looks like them.

One viral TikTok, captioned, “when your favorite Disney princess looks like you,” shows a 3-year-old girl immediately sitting up once Ariel swims across the screen.

Little Avery gasps and becomes completely entranced by the trailer. She puts her hand over her heart and says, “I think she’s brown.”

Absolutely beaming, the young girl declares “brown Ariel is cute.” The video quickly amassed 5.3 million views and thousands of comments from people expressing their love for the heartwarming video, including Bailey herself.

“Oh my goodness my heart,” the R&B singer replied to the video.

In another viral video, a black baby girl becomes mesmerized by the trailer. When Ariel arrives on the screen and begins singing, the infant puts her toy down and stops playing, completely captivated by the trailer.

“Thank you for giving my baby this @halle,” mother Cheryl Neufville captioned the video, which has amassed 7.3 million views in less than 24 hours.

Bailey herself has reshared some of the adorable videos on her personal Twitter account.

“K I just sobbed watching this thanks she’s so sweet,” the singer commented on a video of a young black girl grinning throughout the whole trailer. “That is Ariel?” little Sienna asks her mother in the video as she giggles excitedly.

The actress also shared a video compilation of little black girls becoming overjoyed discovering that the new Ariel “is brown like me.”

“People have been sending these reactions to me all weekend and I’m in truly in awe this means the world to me,” Bailey said on Twitter.

Disney announced in 2019 that the “Grown-ish” actress would star as the popular princess in the live-action remake of the class and was immediately hit with a wide range of reactions.

The official trailer posted on the Walt Disney Studios’ YouTube channel on Friday has gathered 13.9 million views and counting in a matter of days. The video has 626,000 likes, but Disney was forced to disable dislikes after receiving 1.5 million thumbs-downs in just two days, Daily Mail reported.

Some have taken to Twitter to voice their upset over Ariel being played by a black woman using the hashtag #NotMyAriel, but many have poked fun at the ridiculousness.

Detractors’ comments have been tainted with racism expressing their disapproval of Bailey’s casting, noting that the original 1989 animated movie “The Little Mermaid” portrays Ariel as being white. Meanwhile, others have noted that the mermaid princess is a fictional character in a magical world where race does not factor into the character’s story.

The voice of the original Ariel, Jodi Benson, has supported Bailey’s reprisal of the iconic role since Disney first announced the casting.

“The most important thing is to tell the story,” Benson said.

Bailey’s version of “The Little Mermaid” will become a part of our world on May 26, 2023.