Outrage as ‘The Little Mermaid’ gets bombed by negative reviews: 'All of this because lead role went to Black woman'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Disney’s latest live-action adaptation ‘The Little Mermaid’, which made its way to the theatres on May 26, 2023, has made $163.8 million following its global debut. However, the offshore launch is lower than estimated because the movie has been bombed by negative reviews, prompting some sites such as IMDb to put up advisory messages.
On IMDb, a warning read, as stated by Deadline, “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.” As per the outlet, the warning note appears on the US and Canadian sites as well as those for the UK, Brazil, and Mexico.
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IMDB added, “Although we accept and consider all votes received by users, not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system." However, the website did not disclose the exact method used to generate the rating.
'The Little Mermaid’ became subject to 'ratings terrorism'
Forbes reported, "The critic score is just 67%, while audiences are giving it a whopping 95%—significantly higher than The Jungle Book’s 86%. That film scored a 94% with critics." The reason behind this is that the negative reviews are receiving hundreds of likes, and positive reviews getting thumbs down. As per Deadline, on the day of release, the score was 1.96, which has now come to 6.67 as many have applauded Halle Bailey's character. But on the other hand, many viewers slammed the idea of having a Black mermaid as lead with one writing on IMDb, "2 hours 15 minutes of boredom."
Korea’s SBS News reported that the film had been subject to “ratings terrorism” in an article whose title Korean entertainment website Zapzee translated to “Backlash Against ‘Black Mermaid’: Appearance Ridiculed, Ratings Drop on Day One." In Germany, Moviepilot showed a rating of 0.7 out of 10 before the release.
'All of this because the lead role went to a black woman'
Many social media users were quick to react to the review bombing. One wrote, "All of this because the lead role went to a black woman. Y’all are sickening." One more commented, "I don’t get how insecure incels go behind their screen to review bomb a CHILDREN’s movie simply because of the race of a mermaid (a fictional character btw). Little do they know that the whole entire story is written by a gay man."
"Review bombing a children’s disney movie is extremely sad," wrote another. While an individual said, "Racist’s mad because the movie is actually excellent."
All of this because the lead role went to a black woman. Y’all are sickening
— 🤨 (@SweetPea1636) May 28, 2023
I don’t get how insecure incels go behind their screen to review bomb a CHILDREN’s movie simply because of the race of a mermaid (a fictional character btw) Little do they know that the whole entire story is written by a gay man. https://t.co/RmtCJrCxk0
— josh ☆ (@josh_who_ahh) May 26, 2023
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