What color is a mermaid? (The Little Mermaid debate) - The Mythology Guy

Saying that Disney could find an actual living, breathing mermaid, and that the movie will still suck... is the most accurate thing said about this entire debate. 😂

I am Danish, and I just wanna give my 2 cents about the "skin as clear and delicate as a rose leaf". The words used for "rose leaf" are actually "rosenblad", which is not a leaf, but a petal. So he's saying that her skin is as clear and delicate as a rose petal, which is not green (can be though) and it will therefore make sense if it's purely the texture of her skin being described here and not the colour.

I think Hans mentioned so many times that her skin was white not because he wanted to say that she's just Caucasian. I think he literally meant white, because being extremely pale was pretty in those times. Being pale = you're not working in fields = you're royalty and you're skin is delicate and undrained since you don't have to work.

Hello! I’m Danish, and I’ve always loved the animated Little Mermaid movie. It’s beautifully made and has fantastic music. I grew up reading and listening to the story, both the original and the more kid friendly version. I understood then that there were both structural and thematic differences between the two, and they were trying to tell different but related stories. I have also read/listened to other fairytales by H. C. Andersen – many of which also feature difficult themes, characters suffering, and maybe even without a happy ending at all. About her being white, my interpretation is more about her being young, beautiful, and innocent, and not about her race specifically. Often when her skin colour is mentioned, it’s evocative of her beauty, frailty, innocence, purity, or youth – which, culturally, is tied to ghostly pale skin. Whenever she is referred to as white, it is not the same as ‘of the white race’. This is to say, the racial identity of the character is subordinate to her qualities, and this expression is rooted in the cultural fixations of the time – if she were dark-skinned, she would still be beautiful, youthful, and innocent, but expressed in another manner. Naturally these cultural associations are (to this day, even) the basis for racist understandings of skin colour but were not written with the intent of associating the mermaid with a specific race. As an adult, I see the story more as an allegory for Andersen’s own struggles with his sexuality. About the mermaid being leaf-green, that’s a poor translation. She’s likened to a ‘rosenblad’, which was translated to rose leaf when really, it’s meant to be a rose petal. Danish doesn’t make the same distinction as English does with leaf and petal, using just the one word, ‘blad’.

You are right, If Disney wanted to create another mermaid movie, they should have picked a new story from the countless you described. I really wish Disney would make a new movie with new princesses such as an Indian Princess in India or an African Princess in Africa or Chinese. There are so many new stories to open for Disney.

What did we learn today class? - Blind Ignorance speaks the loudest. - We need a translucent mermaid horror - Sea women of any culture are awesome - "Common Mythology Guy W" 😎👍

"white arms" is mentioned a lot because being tanned back in the day was not considered pretty. Being super pale was all the rage, it was a sign you were a well bred lady who didn't work out in the field. Hence "white arms" to signify that the little mermaid is pretty and "pure".

"Even if they cast a real, live mermaid, it would still suck!" That made me laugh out loud. I agree, it really doesn't matter.

Hard to believe they ever let Moana happen. Someone over there actually went out and looked for stories that haven’t yet been thoroughly explored from different cultures and decided to try and tell that. Also does Disney just hate animation now or something?

“The witch cut her tongue” Thanks, now I remember Ursula in the film throwing a severed tongue in the cauldron. BTW it’s actually interesting that the one thing the original movie creators spent most of the time discussing was what the sea witch is supposed to look like. And in the end, made her half terrifying woman, half kraken.

Luca is a better "mermaid " movie than any Disney remake. I would love to see some new cultural mermaid stories that I'm not familiar with.

You're absolutely right, Disney's been capitalizing off of their classics for years, at this point it's just for nostalgia and hate watching, and these arguments are a godsend of wasted time for their audience to get distracted by

I wasn't sure about this video because I find the whole "little mermaid skin color" argument is ridiculous, but the mythology guy found a way to make this interesting. Through depth of mythological research and critical thinking on the matter you were able to create a thought provoking video that found a way to branch in a separate positive idea. So glad I decided to click on this vid for my break

On a Scientific point of view, the color of mermaids would depend on where they live. The Little Mermaid type mermaids look like they're more tropical/Reef dwellers, so an assortment of different colors are almost certain. If they live in the open ocean, than they would have had countershading, like Orcas and Pelagic Sharks do today (So one could argue they underplayed Ariel's skin color). And deep sea can range from Translucent, Black, or even Red(Since alot of animals in the deep sea can't even see red)

As a Greek person I have to say that I never knew that mermaids were like this . Thanks for making an interesting video about this 👍

I honestly had no idea there were so many different kinds of mermaids... It really wouldve been interesting to see other cultures mermaids adapted... There is so much potential... Imagine a movie with some character traversing the ocean and encountering all these different mermaids... But disney doesnt have the ability to accurately represent any culture they decide to adapt so it probably wouldn't work in my lifetime...Thanks for the great video...

My issue with this, probably like many, is that these remake movies are made so often and the change in a slight casting/portrayal detail is used to make Disney look more 'representative' of other cultures by retelling the exact same stories constantly.

Supposedly, the reason Hans Christian Andersen had such a focus on feet was that his father was a cobbler. Feet and footwear also get focus in other HCA tales like the Little Match Girl and The Girl Who Stepped on Bread.

This movie saved my life and my mothers. I was 3 years old in 1999 and we didn’t know there was a storm coming. It was bath time and being a toddler we took our baths together but apparently this particular time I really wanted to watch the little mermaid instead of having my typical long soak so we took a quick shower instead right as I was dried off and this is the only part I really remember the lights burst and the house shook nearly tearing of the patio. Lighting had just struck the house less than a minute after a short shower that was originally going to be a long soak in a tub. To this day we still say that movie saved our lives cause I really wanted to watch it before bedtime.

There’s a movie called “Little Mermaid” that’s a modern take on the Hans Christian Andersen story. There’s also a movie called “The Lighthouse” that has a sexy yet creepy mermaid sequence. But I agree, there needs to be a mermaid horror film.