The Little Mermaid is being review-bombed but IMDB is taking action

The live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid is already getting review bombed online but sites like IMDB that are dedicated to audience reviews have issued statements encouraging people to not participate.

The original Little Mermaid first came out in 1989, became a massive hit, and is now one of the most beloved animated films of all time. 

Disney has been re-imagining many of their most famous animated films and transferring them into the live-action world in recent years. From Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, to Aladdin, The Little Mermaid is the latest classic to be given the live-action treatment.

Ariel saves Prince Eric after his ship crashes, she then enlists the help of Urzila, played by Melissa McCarthy, to become a human and walk the earth. However, the lead-up to the movie has been plagued by racism. With some online users expressing their disliking of the casting of Halle Bailey, a woman of color, as the leading role of Ariel.

While many actors have called out these racist comments, including Bailey herself, early reviews for the movie on sites such as IMDB and others indicate that The Little Mermaid is the latest movie to be review bombed online.

The Little Mermaid live-action gets review bombed online

While these sites are usually more reactive in their response than proactive, it appears that they have been more on top of minimizing review bombing and potentially harmful reviews on sites.

As first reported by Deadline, a French movie review site wrote on the day of the movie’s launch, “We are currently observing an unusual distribution of scores which demands the need for caution. We encourage you to make up your own mind about the film.”

Furthermore, IMDB issued a warning on their American, Canadian, British, Brazilian, and Mexican sites that reads: “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 well as this, IMDB further elaborated on how their aggregate numbers are generated and how the site settles on its final rating.

“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.” 

Time will tell if the review bombing manages to affect The Little Mermaid in the long run of its box office feature.

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