The 'Live-action Flounder Hoax' refers to a viral image that circulated on social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok ahead of the release of Disney's 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. The image featured a hyper-realistic, somewhat grotesque-looking fish that many users mistakenly believed was the official design for Ariel’s companion, Flounder. While the actual movie design was different, this hoax version became a symbol of the uncanny valley effect common in modern CGI remakes. The meme is typically used to satirize the transition from expressive 2D animation to hyper-realistic 3D, or to represent something horrifyingly unexpected in everyday life.