The Little Mermaid It doesn’t seem to get fair reviews on one of the internet’s largest community movie rating systems.
Following the release of the live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1989 animated classic last week, this time starring Halle Bailey as the mermaid Ariel, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) posted a note describing “unusual activity” on the movie’s reviews page. “It’s within the film’s ratings.
“Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this thread,” a note on the page reads on Thursday. “An alternative weight calculation has been implemented to maintain the reliability of our rating system.”
The Little Mermaid it has received nearly 43,000 user ratings on IMDb since its release last Friday; According to the website, 17,000 of these users gave the movie a star out of 10 and received 39.4% of the reviews for the movie. The film’s ‘unweighted average’ is 4.7, but IMDb is currently officially listing the film as 7.0 out of 10 possible stars.
IMDb representatives did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Thursday.
The movie, which opened for $117 million as the most watched movie at the domestic box office on Memorial Day Weekend, continues to receive racist reactions due to the role of Ariel by 23-year-old Bailey. Since the casting was announced in 2019, Bailey has made racist comments against her online.
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Broadway legend Stephanie Mills took to Facebook last Wednesday to write an open letter to Bailey in support of her, as she recalls her own experience with the racist backlash against her casting as Dorothy for the Broadway musical. Wiz in 1975.
“Halle, God put you in this place and time… So let your light shine,” wrote Mills, 66. in an open letter. “Hold your head high, walk in peace, and celebrate the greatness you are.”
Courtesy of Disney
The film’s director, Rob Marshall, recently told Deadline that he “didn’t think it was a big deal to choose a woman of color” while pointing out past online comments against the film’s star.
“I thought, ‘This is an archaic way of seeing the world,'” he said of those who opposed the casting of Bailey in 2019. comes from another century. Are we really still there?’ ”
Among his directing work, he also Chicago (2002), into the forest (2014) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018) noted that Bailey’s cast gave kids the opportunity to see themselves in one of Disney’s classic stories.
“But the bonus that came with that cast, which I wasn’t aware of at the time, was that black girls and black boys would look at her and think, ‘Wow, I’m being represented’.” said. “It was very, very touching for me.”
The Little Mermaid now playing in theaters.