Following the release of Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, IMDb has been forced to make some changes to its rating system.
Ever since the announcement that Disney was releasing a live-action re-telling of the popular 1989 animated classic, the movie has been hit with strong backlash.
Some fans are just done with Disney's attempts to recapture the magic of beloved animated classics as lifeless live-action movies, with flicks like The Lion King, Mulan, and Pinocchio all failing to really convey the joy that made us fall in love with the originals.
However, in the case of The Little Mermaid, much of the backlash has come from the fact that Ariel - the main character in the movie - is played by Black actress Halle Bailey.
Not only was the movie's trailer bombarded with millions of dislikes on YouTube, but Bailey even spoke out about the racist comments being made about her on social media, telling THE FACE magazine: "As a Black person, you just expect it and it’s not really a shock anymore."
But following the movie's release on May 26, it soon became the number 1 movie in the US, with fans and critics praising it as Disney's "best live-action movie yet", with Bailey's performance being hailed as the film's biggest triumph.
As of this writing, the movie also holds a respectable 7/10 on IMDb. However, the website has been forced to release a statement regarding a change it has made to its audience rating system after the movie was slammed with over 13,000 1-star reviews.
A notice to readers at the top of the movie's page now reads: "Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title."
In response, and in an effort "to preserve the reliability of our rating system", the site has implemented "an alternate weighting calculation" for reviews on the movie.
Per IMDb's own FAQ page, this means The Little Mermaid will now be receiving "weighted vote averages" for as long as "unusual voting activity is detected".
Regardless of what her haters are saying, Bailey has stood firm on her casting in the movie, explaining just how important it is for a non-white actress to play such an iconic role (that children will undoubtedly adore).
Speaking on her YouTube Channel, Bailey said: "I know what it would've meant to me as a little girl to have been able to see a Black Ariel. If I would've seen that, it would have changed my whole outlook on life."
The Little Mermaid is out in movie theaters now!
