The Disney remake of The Little Mermaid was predicted to go big at the box office due to a combination of the exciting casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel and seeing this beloved Disney classic come to life in live-action form. While box office expectations were met, a number of negative reviews surfaced on certain movie rating websites that questioned the audience’s overall reception of the movie. On the other hand, any strange activity of an increase in negative reviews did not stop The Little Mermaid from achieving a Rotten Tomatoes milestone.
Some fishy activity occurred after the release of The Little Mermaid when it got review bombed in a strange fashion. Over 13,000 voters on IMDB gave this Disney remake a one-star rating and AlloCiné received a similarly strange surge of negativity towards the Disney film as well. It could be that users have been trying to bring this movie down because of the racist backlash Halle Bailey received for being a Black actress taking on the traditionally caucasian role. Luckily, these sites have detected this odd voting activity and applied an alternative weighting calculation to ensure the site’s reliability. Conversely, Rotten Tomatoes ranked all 21 of their live-action Disney remakes and The Little Mermaid holds a spot in the Top Ten regarding critical ratings at number nine.
The Little Mermaid currently has a 68% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. The live-action Beauty and the Beast beat out the Rob Marshall movie by 3% with other toppers including Christopher Robin, Cruella, the 1994 remake of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Pete’s Dragon, and number one being the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book at 94%. I will say it is somewhat questionable that the 75%-scored Cruella would be on this list considering it’s not even a Disney remake. Instead, It’s a prequel and alternate origin story of the notorious Dalmation-wearing Cruella de Vil. But maybe Rotten Tomatoes felt the need to include this movie since it’s in connection with the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians? If not for the Emma Stone-fronted movie, I'd like to believe The Little Mermaid would have a leg up (or fin) on the ranking list.
Other than ending up on Rotten Tomatoes’ top Disney remakes ranking list, The Little Mermaid achieved another milestone related to the aggregator website: its stellar audience score of 95%. The Disney remakes that beat out this under-the-sea musical fantasy film had high critical scores in the 90-80 percent range. Strangely enough, there are Disney remakes out there that topped The Little Mermaid on the list that received more middling audiences ratings like Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book at 56%, Cinderella at 78%, and Pete’s Dragon at 72%. If you were to take the questionably-included Cruella out of the rankings system that has an audience rating of 97%, you can rightfully say that The Little Mermaid has the highest audience rating out of all of the Disney remakes at 95%. It's currently tied with Maleficent: Mistress of Evil at 95%, but beat out Aladdin's 94%. So any critical reviews of The Little Mermaid that remarked dissatisfaction with its special effects or favored the tone of the animated version don't necessarily vibe with what audiences thought.
As The Little Mermaid swam its way to the top of the box office and had a great audience reception, smart moneys ays Disney remakes won’t be stopping anytime soon. After all, upcoming Disney movies that plan on bringing reviving classics for the big screen are Snow White and Mufasa: The Lion King which are both expected to have 2024 movie releases. There are also other Disney remakes like Moana, Hercules, The Sword in the Stone, Bambi, and more in the works. The best part of Disney remakes that seemingly makes audiences continue to race is because of their star power. The remakes provide more modern takes for younger generations, while also delivering on nostalgic moments. In the case of The Little Mermaid, you might say that hearing Halle Bailey singing “Part of Your World” in the first trailer was enough for audiences to know this movie would end up on their watchlists.
It’s an amazing feat for The Little Mermaid to reach the Top 10 of Rotten Tomatoes' highest-ranked Disney remakes despite any review bombs that were thrown. If you want to join in on the underwater fun, you can watch The Little Mermaid in theaters now.
