'Olaf' voice actor Josh Gad defends 'Little Mermaid' star Halle Bailey as new trailer flooded with dislikes

MANILA, Philippines — After Darryl Hannah, Olaf voice actor Josh Gad defended the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in the upcoming live action Disney flick "The Little Mermaid." 

Gad posted his disgust when he retweeted the Twitter post of Call to Activism that shared about the deluge of dislikes from "MAGA (Make America Great Again) racists" on the new trailer of the upcoming Disney flick seen as inspired by the 1989 film about a mermaid who trades her tails for feet so she could experience living in the human world and meet the handsome stranger she saved after his capsized boat.

"Imagine being so broken and pathetic in life that your chief concern is the skin color of… a make-believe singing mermaid," Gad wrote on Twitter. 

Call To Activism said the mass "dislike" on the new trailer has 600,000 dislikes as of its posting last March 17. Its earlier teaser trailer also garnered 3 million dislikes when it was released in September last year. 

Imagine being so broken and pathetic in life that your chief concern is the skin color of… a make-believe singing mermaid. https://t.co/7F6F8LT2b9

— Josh Gad (@joshgad) March 16, 2023

"The Little Mermaid" posted its official trailer last March 13 and currently has 9.9 million views and 234,000 likes on the Walt Disney Studios YouTube channel. Its official teaser trailer was posted on September 10, 2022 and has 28 million views and 1.2 million likes. 

"The important thing about the controversy surrounding Halle Bailey's casting is that we remember a beautiful and talented actress won the role. We can’t allow racism to ever be normalized," Call To Activism added on its Twitter post. 

Back in September, another screen mermaid came to the defense of Halle. "Splash" actress Daryl Hannah shared her thoughts on Twitter. 

Hannah played a mermaid in the 1984 romantic-comedy film "Splash," opposite Tom Hanks. 

"The little mermaid is black / I met her / there!" Hannah's tweet read. 

The little mermaid is black
I met her
there!#dontbearacistdork

— Daryl Hannah (@dhlovelife) September 15, 2022

In her February 2023 interview with The Face, Halle spoke about the backlash she has been receiving after being cast as black Ariel. 

“As a Black person, you just expect it and it’s not really a shock anymore,” she said. 

“I know people are like: '‘It’s not about race.’ But now that I’m her… People don’t understand that when you’re Black, there’s this whole other community. It’s so important for us to see ourselves,” the actress said. 

"The Little Mermaid" screens on Philippine cinemas beginning May 24, 2023. 

RELATED: WATCH: 'The Little Mermaid' full trailer revealed at Oscars 2023