The Little Mermaid was the film that brought Disney back from the brink of bankruptcy and started its renaissance. The movie was widely praised for its dynamic animation techniques, its catchy music and its return to Disney's fairy-tale roots. While Disney took many liberties with Hans Christian Andersen's original story (starting with dropping the bloodshed), The Little Mermaid soon became a Disney classic to be enjoyed with the whole family.

Ariel, for the time, was a revolutionary protagonist -- a curious, proactive, spunky teenager hungry for adventure and knowledge. Yet, her most visually striking trait was not her fishtail, but her flaming red hair, which distinguished her from previous Disney princesses. Let's take a look at the history Ariel's red hair.

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Red Hair, For Uniqueness

Ariel gleefully swimming with Flounder in The Little Mermaid.

Right before Disney decided to make The Little Mermaid, it had been deep in production on the sequel to Splash. The original film, 1984's Splash, a mermaid-meets-'80s live-action fantasy comedy, had been a huge success, and its protagonist, played by Daryl Hannah, was blonde. According to the official Disney blog, red was chosen for Ariel partly to distinguish her from Hannah, and partly because red is green's complementary color. Ariel's tail was always going to be green  which is to this day known in-house at Disney as "Ariel" green.

Red Hair Really Scared Toymakers

Ariel-Little-Mermaid

According to Cinemablend, the Tyco Toys company was terrified of a redheaded Disney princess. The company tried to argue with Disney that its research had shown redheaded dolls didn't sell. When filmmakers wouldn't budge, Tyco still went ahead and made a first batch of Ariel dolls with strawberry-blonde hair. Needless to say, they didn't exactly fly off shelves. People wanted dolls with Ariel's signature hair color, so Tyco Toys had to remake them with her vibrant red.

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Red Hair Is the Remake's Detractor's Racist Dog Whistle

Since Disney announced the casting for its live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, some have complained about Halle Bailey playing Ariel. According to them, Halle Bailey, a young black actress who sings R&B and looks like a mermaid, couldn't possibly play the role because she doesn't have red hair -- nor white skin -- like the character in the 1989 animated version. Others have tried to justify this opinion by claiming that since the original The Little Mermaid tale was written by a Danish writer, the titular character couldn't be black.

Finally, there's the argument that redheads need more media representation, and that taking away Ariel's red mane will go against their rights; this last argument falls under the weight of the many, many redheaded Disney characters: Peter Pan, Brave's Merida, Toy Story's Jessie, Kim Possible, Frozen's Anna and Hans, Up's Ellie, Hercules, Quasimodo, Jessica Rabbit and even both the animated and live-action versions of Giselle from Enchanted. However, one thing Disney animated movies are missing as a whole is a black protagonist who doesn't spend most of her own film turned into an animal. While the Mouse House is creatively conservative and will probably base the world of The Little Mermaid in a magic kingdom where race is not an issue, filmmakers knew they were due for more diverse casting.

Directed by Rob Marshall, the live-action version of The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King and Daveed Diggs. The film does not yet have a release date.

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