IMDbhas officially givenDisney’s Snow Whitea review disclaimer after a slew of 1-star reviews tanked the movie’s rating. The live-action movie is a remake of the classic 1937 animated filmSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As in the case of most ofDisney’s live-action adaptations,Snow Whitereceived significant backlash before the movie even came out. Now, the movie has partially overcome this negativity, opening to a respectable $42.2 million domestically and boasting a $142.7 million worldwide at the time of writing.
In response to the review bombing,IMDbhas officially put a disclaimer atopSnow White’s rating. When clicking on more information about the movie’s score, which currently has a1.5 stars out of 10-star average, there is a pop-up box that says,“Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.“The user ratings below display that 91.4% of those who rated it gave the movie a 1-star review.
What This Means For Snow White
These IMDb Ratings Do Not Reflect The Film’s Overall Reception
It is important to understand thatSnow White’s reviewsoverall are not as bad as whatIMDb currently reflects. Critical scores have amounted to a40% Tomatometerfor the film on Rotten Tomatoes.ScreenRant’s Rachel Labonte gave the movie 5 out of 10 stars, taking issue with the film’s “artificial sheen” while praising Zegler’s performance. The Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews are generally positive, with 74% of audiences giving the movie a favorable rating. The IMDb score may look bad, but it does not tell the full story.
Snow White’s Review Bombing Explained: Why It Only Has 1.5 On IMDb (And No, It’s Not The Lowest-Rated Movie Ever)
Snow White has been surrounded by criticism, and its box office returns have not been great, but its 1.6 on IMDb does not tell the whole story.
The inconsistency in scores across different aggregate sites is part of why IMDb likely decided to give their disclaimer. The sheer volume of 1-star reviews is asign of review bombing, where large numbers of people take to the internet to offer extremely negative feedback or scores, often with the purpose of harming sales. While multiple factors may have contributed to this review bombing, the controversy surrounding leadsRachel Zeglerand Gal Gadot may have contributed to this phenomenon.
How Snow White Compares To Other Disney Live-Action Movies
It Is The Worst-Rated On IMDb
Though review bombing is clearly the cause, this dismal IMDb score positionsSnow Whiteas the lowest-scoring movie within their Disney princess adaptations. While the studio has been making animated princess movies for the better part of a century,it is only in the past decade that Disney has committed itself to making live-action versions. This kicked off withCinderellain 2015. In comparison toSnow White,Cinderella’s reviews are great. The film has an average of 6.9 out of 10 stars, and a 78% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes.
6.9/10
78%
84%
Beauty and the Beast(2017)
7.1/10
80%
71%
5.8/10
46%
7.2/10
94%
67%
1.5/10
73%
40%
BeforeSnow White, the lowest-rating Disney princess remake was the 2020 version ofMulan. The movie holds 5.8 out of 10 stars, but unlike this year’s title, it did not get review bombed, with criticism including hefty deviation from the source material and lack of emotional impact. Only 13.5% of users gave the adaptation a 1-star rating, and the mode was made up of 6-star scores (18.6% of user ratings).Mulan’s stats further show the extent of how muchSnow Whitehas suffered from the review bombing.
Our Take On The Snow White Review Bombing
Review Bombing Has Gotten Common
The review bombing trend has become common in circumstances where many audiences have an ideological disagreement with certain shows or movies. This was the case for two episodes ofThe Last of Usseason 1, which received review bombing largely from trolls who took issue with the show’s portrayal of LGBTQ+ individuals. In the case ofSnow White,people have taken issue with both Zegler and Gadot for their strong pro-Palestine and pro-Israel stances, respectively.As such,Snow White’s rating is less an indication of merit, but more a reflection of the political controversies it has evoked.
Rachel Zegler’s Snow White Controversies Explained
Though Disney’s Snow White remake is highly anticipated, the film’s controversies have cast some doubt on the success of this live-action reboot.
What is fascinating, however, is thatSnow Whiteis far from the only Disney adaptation that has caused controversy. In a racist reaction to the 2023 remake ofThe Little Mermaid, a lot of people took issue with the fact that the new version of Ariel was played by Halle Bailey, a Black woman. Despite this backlash, the film became the highest-rated of the Disney princess remakes in terms of IMDb score. This goes to show just how much fervor has been built up overSnow White, as its review bombing is the most extreme yet.
Snow White
Cast
A live-action adaptation of the classic fairy tale. The film follows Snow White as she escapes into the forest and seeks refuge with seven dwarfs to elude her jealous stepmother, the wicked Queen, who is threatened by Snow White’s surpassing beauty.
