History YMMV / TheLittleMermaid2023

** Even some of her doubters have admitted that [[Creator/MelissaMcCarthy Melissa McCarthy]] absolutely ''nailed'' "[[https://youtu.be/o7yLYGmE1E0 Poor Unfortunate Souls]]," with a lot of people outright saying that Creator/PatCarroll would've been ''proud''.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Before Ursula transforms into Vanessa, [[{{Padding}} there's about half-a-minute]] of her scrambling around her lair for the right potion [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt as if she won't be able to find it]], the music even builds up to a crescendo and she lets out a BigNo before just randomly finding it.

** Ariel's RaceLift has been a very big point of contention ever since it was revealed. Many people complained about it for different reasons, among those being that a character's race should be respected, that it was [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory historically inaccurate]] given the time period the story is set in, and others feel it was yet again another very cheap attempt at being more inclusive. Others however defended the change, with some invoking the [[AbilityOverAppearance actor's ability]] would make up for it and/or that it was nice way to differentiate the film, with some accusing the detractors of being racist [[note]]This is despite that fact that many black people weren't particularly impressed with the race swap either for the third reason listed, with Halle Bailey herself being rather surprised she was chosen for the role[[/note]]. Of couse, there's the third camp that's neautral about the whole deal.

* FanartAtFirstSight: Fanart featuring Halle Bailey as Ariel began appearing almost as soon as her casting was announced, well before the film's release date was even confirmed. This has only increased since the first official look dropped. A popular subject is drawing Halle's Ariel in the dresses Ariel wore in the original film.

* BrokenBase: The change to have [[spoiler:Ariel be the one to defeat Ursula via ramming the ship into her instead of Eric]] has split viewers. Some liked the change as it [[spoiler:allowed Ariel to be the one to defeat the villain responsible for her torment while still allowing Eric to help via keeping the sea witch distracted. Others dislike the fact that it robbed Eric of his defining moment from the original film, which is also agreed to be the moment where he convinced King Triton that humans weren't all horrible.]]

* BrokenBase: The change to have [[spoiler:Ariel be the one to defeat Ursula via ramming the ship into her instead of Eric]] has split viewers. Some liked the change as it [[spoiler:allowed Ariel to be the one to defeat the villain responsible for her torment while still allowing Eric to help via keeping the sea witch distracted. Other dislike the fact that it robbed Eric of his defining moment from the original film, which is also agreed to be the moment where he convinced King Triton that humans weren't all horrible.]]

** Some fans weren't happy with the fact that Chef Louis and his song ''Les Poissons'' were AdaptedOut. Even though the song added very little to the story, they had been looking forward to seeing him rendered in live action.

*** An 1911 publication of Andersen's story featured [[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Stories_from_Hans_Andersen_with_illustrations_by_Edmund_Dulac/The_Mermaid illustrations by Edmund Dulac that depict the prince as Middle-Eastern]], likely because the original text describes the prince as having coal-black eyes and living in a marble palace with dancing slave girls in gold and silk.

* PresumedFlop: The film grossed around $569 million in the box office against a total production budget of at least $250 million, and these numbers have been analyzed by many to fit a variety of narratives, with many critics and pundits (especially those magnetized to the film's casting controversies and "Go woke, go broke" narratives) pushing the film as being a BoxOfficeBomb. The truth is rather hazy, [[UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting in no small part thanks to hidden numbers]] -- the general rule of thumb for determining box office success is that a movie has to gross 2.5 times its production budget to be profitable (the initial number almost never includes marketing and post-production expenses), and thus $569 million would be well below the hypothetical $625 million break-even point. However, [[https://deadline.com/2023/05/little-mermaid-box-office-profit-loss-halle-bailey-1235383099/ some insider reports]] estimate that the actual global marketing costs for this specific film were only $140 million, alone putting the break-even point somewhere around the more generous $400 million range, and even when including other additional costs from the likes of theatre payouts, participations, and residuals (along with the more invisible gains from things like streaming and merchandising), it would still mean the movie was marginally profitable (some further estimates taking those numbers into account put the "true" break-even point as being around $560 million, which it still surpasses, if only barely). While it is certain that the film fared objectively worse financially than previous Film/DisneyLiveActionRemakes (many of their bigger entries with the size and marketing of ''The Little Mermaid'' were able to consistently cross the $1 billion box office mark), and ''The Little Mermaid'' would be considered a box office disappointment, signs still point to the film having made money, and that even if it technically was a loss, it would be nowhere near as monolithic and clear-cut a bomb [[AccentuateTheNegative as some critics make it out to be]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** The film hasn't done too well internationally, but it's been a smashing success in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}. Film/DisneyLiveActionRemakes tend to do very well there.
** Japan is no slouch on the trope either: despite the initial negative reception, they ended up loving it too and was no. 1 in ticket sales Asia-wide (compared to the Philippines having no. 3 in ticket sales in the region). In fact, there were reports that many viewers even watched the subtitled version just to hear Halle Bailey's performance.
** The film also did quite well in some Western European countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK, especially considering how small those countries are.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The controversy surrounding the race of the actress playing Ariel seems to dominate most discussions about the movie. Mentioning it in a comment section has the chance to ignite a FlameWar between supporters and detractors of the film.