I feel terrible for not writing a post with any real depth for a while now. Most of them just update you on my social/home status...that's what twitter is for. But the truth is, there is not much to talk about.
So I started looking and I found that two movies for 2010 that are dealing with some controversy. Both are something that everyone can dig into, because everyone has something to say when it comes to the touchy subject of race.
The first is the controversial issue of the casting of 'The Last Airbender', an action film based off of a Nickelodeon animated television show named 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. It's known to be the first of three movies in the 'Avatar' series and uses the storyline of the first season as its inspiration.
Personally, I think making 'Avatar' into a movie is a dumb idea. Apparently, Hollywood has learnt nothing from the reactions of the people to the 'Speed Racer' and 'Dragon Ball' movies. There are quite a few reasons why those movies sucked.
1.- They were based off of Japanese animations and produced in America.
-That's fine for Avatar, I guess, because the animation was created and produced in the US.
2.- The direction and costuming was shit (the first in the case of Speed Racer, both in the case of Dragon Ball).
- Avatar may not have that problem. I love the work of M. Night Shamaylan, who happens to be the director for this movie. And based on pictures and the teaser trailer, I'd say that the costuming shows a lot of promise.
3.- The casting was racist. Simple. The characters were Asian, created by Asian people for Asian people. The protagonists and majority of the casts for both movies were white.
- >.> Same thing here. The fictional world that the characters of Avatar live in is clearly based on Asian culture. The creators have said so themselves. So why is over 95% of the cast white?
Several people have arguments for this casting. The link posted above shows nearly argument and then shows just why it's wrong. I'll supply you with a few quotes:
-"But all of the nations are fictional, therefore the characters can be any race.
Yes, but the default physical appearance for all heroes in live-action fantasy worlds should not be Anglo-Saxon, western European facial features and coloring. Fantasy does not equal Caucasian people only.
The characters in The Last Airbender SHOULD be diverse, but they’re not. The casting calls have ensured that both the Water Tribe and the Air Nomads will be white."
-"Didn’t they pick the best actors for the roles?
No, they did not. By writing “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” on the casting sides, the production made their preference for Caucasian actors clear form the beginning.
Normally when ethnicity is left open-ended, casting sides read “Any Ethnicity.”
THE LAST AIRBENDER labeled non-Caucasian kids as ‘Others.’
One of the casting side for extras reads “All Ethnicities”. See the difference?
Hollywood has a history of reserving lead protagonists roles for white actors. According to the research done by the Geena Davis Institute: 85.5% of the characters in G-rated films are white, 4.8% are black, and 9.7% are from “other” ethnicities. No differences emerged by character gender.
This is a powerful statistic that shows just how much Hollywood has insured that children grow up believe Caucasian is the norm, while other races fall into the sidekick, extras or villain categories. The Last Airbender is proving to be no different."
-"Many of the voice actors weren’t Asian or Inuit. If that wasn’t wrong, why is casting white actors in the live-action such a big deal?
You underestimate the power of visual cues. Visually, a cartoon is very different from a live-action movie – the former is less tangible than the latter. A grown woman can be the voice actor for Bart Simpson, because no one sees her. But if The Simpsons was ever made into a live-action movie, they wouldn’t cast the voice actor, they would cast a boy.
See the difference?"
If you want to read further, I suggest taking a look at the website. They have a lot more to say on the subject.
The next movie I want to point out is actually releasing on December 11th of this year, so my previous statement about it being 2 2010 movies is inaccurate, but I can't bother to change that. The movie is titled "The Princess and the Frog". It is produced by Disney and will be the introduction of the first ever African-American Disney Princess, Tiana.
That's right. She's black. And no, that's not the controversy. People are riled up because of a few other things in this movie. The first is this:
Something look a bit off to you? That's because the prince is white. The stills show him quite a bit darker than promotional imagery. Now, many people think that because the princess is black, it would've made sense to introduce a black prince alongside her. The question most people have on their minds is "Was this an attempt at reflecting the great melting pot that has become America, or is it simply a matter of representing- whether consciously or unconsciously- the idea that a relationship between two black people is simply not strong enough to last?" Supposedly, the character is actually from a fictional "Spanish" country and he is being voiced by a Brazilian actor. But, he looks more white than anything else in photos released by Disney. Personally, I'm not making a big issue of it because Disney has made a LOT of changes to this movie because of the amount of controversy surrounding it.
SIUcommunity on the white prince
Why did Disney have to edit their original story? It’s best that I point these things out and either leave them for you to research, or expand on this later.
-The princess was announced with the name 'Maddy' and her occupation was a housemaid.
-The movie was originally titled "The Frog Princess", which also received some bad reviews.
-The main character is a black girl placed in pre-Civil rights New Orleans
-Her features are stereotypically black.
-Disney’s first black Princess is a frog for most of the movie.
From what I can see, Disney has corrected the first two. I don’t really think Tiana looks stereotypically black. Sure, she has big hips and lips. But has anyone taken a good look at Megara or even Esmarelda? True, neither were princesses, but it’s a known fact that Disney perpetuates a specific image of beauty when it comes to women. Does anyone remember what the girls in Lilo and Stitch looked like? I’m just saying, it has nothing to do with her being black.
But it’s like I always say. Decide for yourself whether these movies have intentionally racist imagery.
