IMDb making "adjustments" to Little Mermaid reviews after mostly negative ratings

[Harpy Eagle]

The movie The Little Mermaid starring a black actress playing in white character have received mostly 1 out of 10 Stars ratings in the website IMDb.

But the company is arguing that conservatives are giving bad reviews to this movie in bad faith because the actress is black so somehow the average is 7.1.

The Little Mermaid (2023) - Ratings - IMDb

The Little Mermaid (2023) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

m.imdb.com

Taking this into account they may have a point...

 

[rightwinger]

It is a good benchmark.

And one of the most consistent complaints that has been said over and over is how freaking dark it is. And they do not mean the story, but how almost every scene looks like it was filmed at midnight and it is hard to see almost anything.



Even most video games at night have more and better lighting than this. And they spent over $200 million on that?

Compare to the original 1989 version.



Most of the issues have been related to the lighting and the horrible CGI.

I see that in many films today
My wife asks me……why is it so dark? I can’t see

 

[White 6]

If you look below, they say in the fine print that the actual unweighted mean score averages out to 4.7, which looks about right to me. Not exactly a glowing score. And just yesterday, Golfing Gator was bragging what a HIT the movie was!!!

Apparently many went (it was a holiday weekend), but few were impressed. Another WIN for Disney.

If you were a movie maker, would you rather have a high or low score by critics (conservative or otherwise) or would you rather your movie made $117.5 Million Dollars on Memorial Day weekend?

 

[rightwinger]

If you were a movie maker, would you rather have a high or low score by critics (conservative or otherwise) or would you rather your movie made $117.5 Million Dollars on Memorial Day weekend?

I would rather have high ratings from movie goers
They are the ones who buy tickets.

But when people who have not even seen it flood review sites with one star reviews it is difficult to gauge

 

[john doe 101]

You a pretend Injun now?

You're pretending to be a woman.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

You're pretending to be a woman.

You go with that.

I really don't care. How's that?

Freaking sock

 

[Moonglow]

You a pretend Injun now?

Yes...

 

[rightwinger]

You go with that.

I really don't care. How's that?

Freaking sock

OMG!
Sassy says she really doesn’t care

Stop the presses

 

[SassyIrishLass]

OMG!
Sassy says she really doesn’t care

Stop the presses

Will you stop being a redundant ankle snapper. You're a goddamn idiot

 

[Moonglow]

OMG!
Sassy says she really doesn’t care

Stop the presses

Which is why she is not here, she doesn't care.

 

[rightwinger]

Will you stop being a redundant ankle snapper. You're a goddamn idiot

Oh. NOoooo

Sassy now turns to personal insults
What next?
Order people to go away?

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Which is why she is not here, she doesn't care.

Why don't you two get a room and make each other pregnant?

 

[Mushroom]

I see that in many films today
My wife asks me……why is it so dark? I can’t see

In the modern era, most times it is to cover up bad CGI. And that also has been a huge complaint in this version.

Well, it can save money for the parents. No more need to buy Sebastian or Flounder toys. Just get them at the supermarket, and when the kids are done playing with them they can be dinner.

 

[JoeB131]

I have mixed feelings about this.

Disney moved away from doing classic animation with the disaster that was "Treasure Planet". Since then, they've been doing a combination of computer animated properties and live action remakes of their classic properties (heavily augmented with CGI).

I don't see a point to this film. The original film is perfectly fine. Why do this one.

The biggest thing the Trump-World Racist throngs are upset about is that (GASP) Ariel is black now. Yes, insisting that mythical creatures have to be white don't make you racist nitwits at all. Making her animal friends "realistic" is a weird choice. (Sorry, cartoon crabs are cute, real crabs are ugly.)

If I had to keep some children mildly entertained for a couple of hours, I would go with the original. If I wanted to appreciate the artistry of animators, I'd still go with the original.

 

[Dreadnaught1968]

The movie was good. They added almost an hour to the runtime of the movie. But there were parts that were hard to see because it was so dark. The underwater scenes were hard to see what was going on.

 

[miketx]

Lol, loser lefty scum kills everything.

 

[miketx]

It is the Bud Light crowd turning to movie reviews

They drunk?

 

[john doe 101]

I have mixed feelings about this.

Disney moved away from doing classic animation with the disaster that was "Treasure Planet". Since then, they've been doing a combination of computer animated properties and live action remakes of their classic properties (heavily augmented with CGI).

I don't see a point to this film. The original film is perfectly fine. Why do this one.

The biggest thing the Trump-World Racist throngs are upset about is that (GASP) Ariel is black now. Yes, insisting that mythical creatures have to be white don't make you racist nitwits at all. Making her animal friends "realistic" is a weird choice. (Sorry, cartoon crabs are cute, real crabs are ugly.)

If I had to keep some children mildly entertained for a couple of hours, I would go with the original. If I wanted to appreciate the artistry of animators, I'd still go with the original.

The point....Disney, like all publicly held corporations, has a goal of turning a profit for their shareholders. They felt they could turn a profit with making a remake...and it looks like they were right looking at the initial reception.

 

[White 6]

I have mixed feelings about this.

Disney moved away from doing classic animation with the disaster that was "Treasure Planet". Since then, they've been doing a combination of computer animated properties and live action remakes of their classic properties (heavily augmented with CGI).

I don't see a point to this film. The original film is perfectly fine. Why do this one.

The biggest thing the Trump-World Racist throngs are upset about is that (GASP) Ariel is black now. Yes, insisting that mythical creatures have to be white don't make you racist nitwits at all. Making her animal friends "realistic" is a weird choice. (Sorry, cartoon crabs are cute, real crabs are ugly.)

If I had to keep some children mildly entertained for a couple of hours, I would go with the original. If I wanted to appreciate the artistry of animators, I'd still go with the original.

What if the reason for making the new movie was to make $117.5 Million Dollars on Memorial Day Weekend? OMG! What if it is some sort of business model to make a buck, not a pure artistic performance, but a profit motivated business endeavor? Wow!

 

[Mushroom]

and it looks like they were right looking at the initial reception.

Likely not.

It is more than "making a profit", what really matters is ROI or "Return on Investment".

To compare, the last major non-Disney animated theatrical movie was "Into the Spider-Verse". Which made just under $400 million on a $90 million dollar budget (around $105 million with marketing). And in a few more days, Across the Spider-Verse hits theaters. And Across is already predicting an opening weekend of around $85 million and possibly $800 million in it's theatrical run.

And the cost for that movie including marketing? $115 million. That is around 1/5 the cost of Mermaid.

That is going to be a huge ROI, especially when compared to The Little Mermaid. And I bet when the next weekend results are in, Mermaid sinks to second if not third place and Miles Morales will be the new box office king. And the next week Mermaid will unquestionably be in third place if not lower, as then it will be against both Spider-Verse and the newest Transformers movie. Then after that, The Flash. I doubt it will be above 8th place by the time of the end of its run.

Which will be about the time the last Indiana Jones film hits the screen. And early predictions are that will bet yet another bomb.

If I was an investor, I would be pulling money from Disney and putting it in Sony. They have had a series of successful movies, and Disney has been in the doldrums for most of the last decade. It is not enough to just "make a profit", and Mermaid still has a hell of a long ways to go before it can do that. It has to be a return on the money invested. And when compared to movies with less than half the budget and a fraction of the marketing will likely blow away Mermaid, that is not looking good.

Disney is making the same mistakes much of Hollywood did in the past. Budgeting every movie they make as a high dollar blockbuster. And that strategy (on top of endless remakes) is simply not working.