A lot has been said about the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. Most recently one of the big topics of conversation has been the realistic and also fairly unsettling looks for the animal characters like Flounder and Sebastian. Still, now we’ve apparently moved on from what they look like to what they taste like. Somebody actually asked Hallie Bailey which one she’d rather eat. Yes, she was horrified.
Halle Bailey attended the recent Met Gala and was asked between Flounder and Sebastian, which one she’d rather eat. The question and response were posted to TikTok and I'm loving it. She is noticeably (and fairly) horrified by the question, which she also rightfully avoids answering, but the whole interaction is just wild to watch. Check it out.
@thecut ♬ original sound - the cut
As somebody who frequently needs to ask famous people questions, I know that sometimes you want to ask them a serious question about their new movie, and sometimes you might want to try something more fun or silly. Sometimes the sillier questions get the best answers, which was clearly the intention. Bailey doesn’t get so offended that she can’t tell that fun was the intention here, but she’s also really not going to answer the question. If she did Disney would probably get upset.
I mean, if we were going to take the question seriously for a second it’s ultimately a question of if you prefer fish or shellfish. Personally, I prefer crab to most fish, but it would honestly depend on how it was all prepared, right? Flounder isn’t a fish I would gravitate toward on most seafood menus, but who knows? It certainly can be really good.
The ultimate question is, does the fact that they can talk impact the flavor? It certainly impacts the way the characters look, which has been one of the major topics of conversation leading up to the release of The Little Mermaid. The sea creatures look fairly realistic, but the fact that they need to have mouths that speak makes them look just that different enough that they are a bit disconcerting. Even Scuttle isn’t immune to this criticism.
Considering how popular many of Disney’s live-action remakes have been at the box office, and how popular The Little Mermaid already is, as the film that kicked off the Disney Renaissance of the ‘90s, the new Little Mermaid is one of the most anticipated of the upcoming Disney movies and is poised to be one of the biggest movies of the summer. While Flounder and Sebastian are potentially weirding people out, it’s unlikely that’s going to keep anybody out of the theater to hear their favorite songs, along with some new songs from Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The original movie actually dealt with the fact that humans ate fish a little bit, and based on everything we know about the Little Mermaid remake, the new film will be following the original's plot quite closely. So maybe the topic of eating these two sidekicks will actually be addressed.
