IMDb is trying to combat review-bombing for the live-action version of Snow White, but will it work or are the trolls too strong?
Snow White was poisoned from the start. From the casting of Latina Rachel Zegler in the title role to the handling of the dwarf characters to the openly publicized political stances of its stars to the sheer existence of Gal Gadot, there was just no chance for it. As such, it has only taken in around $70 million domestically on a budget pegged upwards of $270 million. But forget the box office — moviegoers hate it! At least, those who claim they saw it do…
As it stands, Disney’s 2025 reimagining of beloved animated classic Snow White holds a 1.6/10 on IMDb based on 311,000 reviews…and 91% are one-star ratings. (The 2.7% of 10-star reviews are clearly from people who didn’t see it, either…) This looks to be an obvious case of review-bombing, which always hits a movie that has some sort of controversy heading into the release. It had even been so hazed that it was temporarily on the list of lowest-rated movies on the site, sitting alongside the likes of Manos: The Hands of Fate, Birdemic: Shock and Terror and Baby Geniuses 2. It has since been removed.
As a result, IMDb has issued a unique warning for Snow White which indicates “unusual activity”, point to “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.” Just for context, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas holds no such disclaimer…
Movie fans — or at least those who claim to be — have no problem hitting review sites and forums with their opinions. And while there’s nothing wrong with that and it’s obviously encouraged if constructive, it’s those users who take it too far (as in the case of Snow White and IMDb) that don’t really serve a function other than to troll. We’ve seen it so many times before on various platforms but it really says something when one has to start issuing alerts. But will any others follow suit? Or is this just a futile gesture on their part?
How do you feel about IMDb’s disclaimer for Snow White? Could this in any way deter trolls from review-bombing?
