*Disney has removed Halle Bailey’s song in “The Little Mermaid” from its Oscar campaign.
The Alan Menken track “For the First Time” features Bailey and Lin Manuel Miranda and Disney submitted it for Best Original Score. However, the studio has now removed the song from its “For Your Consideration” awards campaign while continuing to highlight other stars from the film such as Awkwafina in the Best Supporting Actress category and Javier Bardem in the Best Supporting Actor category, Inside the Magic reports.
Bailey’s performance in the remake of “The Little Mermaid” was widely praised but the film faced criticism due to its overuse of CGI and the decision to cast a Black actress to portray the fictional white mermaid Ariel.
Many industry experts also believe the animated feature destroyed Disney’s billion-dollar box office trend.
As Screen Rant reports, 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast,” 2019’s “The Lion King,” and 2019’s Aladdin all earned $1 billion at the box office. “The Jungle Book” made $966.6 million and “Mulan” is an exception because it was released on Disney+ due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Little Mermaid” grossed over $569 million worldwide.
We reported previously via CNN that “The Little Mermaid” bombed in China and South Korea amid racist critiques over the casting of Bailey as Ariel.
The backlash also impacted the film’s reviews on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). According to People, Disney’s live-action re-imagining of the beloved 1989 animated classic received “unusual activity” on IMDB, specifically when it comes to ratings for the movie.
According to The Washington Post, “The Little Mermaid” received 41,000 user ratings on IMDB but more than 39 percent of the ratings opening weekend were 1 star, Variety reported. IMDb revised its rating system as a result of the negative comments.
“Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title,” a statement on the page reads, People reported. “To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.”
On its FAQ page, the IMDB states, “Although we accept and consider all votes received by users, not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system.”
READ MORE: ‘The Little Mermaid’ to Crush Disney’s Billion-Dollar Box Office Trend
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