sixteen-bit
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They should retitle the film "Jesus and the Crazy Knife"ronito said:
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'Airbender' & 'Prince of Persia' were 'whitewashed'
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Jason's Ultimatum
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Tom Hanks as The Last Ni**a on Earth.
Also, for the main characters of The Last Airbender, the casting notices basically said "For the character of X, looking for Caucasian [Male or Female] or other ethnicities." I could have lived with the "whitewashing" if the four white actors were simply the best suited of an open audition, but that wasn't the case, the filmmakers went into the casting with a preconceived hierarchy:
BattleMonkey
Member
LOTR was white washed
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I don't see a problem with Prince of Persia, but I'll admit Airbender looks really damn weird to me with those kids in the roles.
I can't help but see the main cast as looking like "typical" hollywood kiddie adventure movie stand-ins; the same kind of white kids we've seen cast in every one of these movies that have been trying to cash in on Narnia and crap.
With the lush and fantastical look of the movie - which does look amazing IMHO - I do think it would have gelled better with some child actors who fit the appearance of the world and surrounding, and also didn't speak with the accent of 12 year old suburban white kids from Ohio. (Clearly, the kids the studio would expect to buy the most merchandise from the film.)
I can't help but see the main cast as looking like "typical" hollywood kiddie adventure movie stand-ins; the same kind of white kids we've seen cast in every one of these movies that have been trying to cash in on Narnia and crap.
With the lush and fantastical look of the movie - which does look amazing IMHO - I do think it would have gelled better with some child actors who fit the appearance of the world and surrounding, and also didn't speak with the accent of 12 year old suburban white kids from Ohio. (Clearly, the kids the studio would expect to buy the most merchandise from the film.)
Meier said:
The cartoon is stylized around Japanese anime, and your typical anime style is representative of Japanese features. Again, white people in anime might at times conform to those very features, but they are nevertheless often portrayed stereotypically. Your argument doesn't fly.
SolarPowered
Member
I'll just skip all the internet drama by not watching the movie when it comes out. There is no point in arguing with people who won't listen to reason or the facts when they're right in their faces.
I mean seriously. That chart should be more than enough to shut any argument down, but it's just going to keep going and going...harSon said:Also, for the main characters of The Last Airbender, the casting notices basically said "For the character of X, looking for Caucasian [Male or Female] or other ethnicities." I could have lived with the "whitewashing" if the four white actors were simply the best suited of an open audition, but that wasn't the case, the filmmakers went into the casting with a preconceived hierarchy:
WrikaWrek said:
For fucks sake, if you don't like how people take issue with characters with Native American or Asian backgrounds being passed over for some white kids, then go scream into your pillow or something. Opinions are different; you can either join in on the discussion, or you can bitch some more.
Sir Garbageman
Member
harSon said:
Pretty much this. It would be nice if we lived in a colorblind world, but it won't be happening in our lifetime. Hollywood "whitewashed" these films because they want to maximize profit. It's just sad that they're probably correct in assuming that casting non-white in a lead role would lead to less ticket sales. Hopefully audiences are better than that, but I doubt it.
On pure looks you can make the argument for Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince (even though the Prince from the video games is probably "whitewashed" himself), but a bunch of unknown caucasian kids plus that casting sheet is pretty bad for Airbender imo.
I won't be seeing either, but thats my two cents.
Prince of Persia I can live with, since the game series itself can't decide what race the Prince should be.
But Avatar just gets worse as time goes on.
Inuit actors are kinda rare, but substituting with a caucasian is just wrong.
Ever thought Hispanics could fill in the role? I always thought Katara looked Hispanic.
But Avatar just gets worse as time goes on.
WrikaWrek said:
Inuit actors are kinda rare, but substituting with a caucasian is just wrong.
Ever thought Hispanics could fill in the role? I always thought Katara looked Hispanic.
VGChampion
Member
Doesn't bother me at all. If the movies good, it's good. They could pick whatever race to do whatever part and I would be fine.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
Hollywood is a joke. First they ignore games as a source for movie Material, then when do use games or animie or cartoons, it's Turned into a mess with reduced violence, blood, story, etc.
I mean look at max payne. My god that movie was just garbage.
I mean look at max payne. My god that movie was just garbage.
Lesath said:
I did join in on the discussion. You just didn't respect my opinion.
In PoP's case, they are being faithful to the game. In Avatar's case, it has to do with a) it's a kids show and not an historically factual one, b) only people outside the target demo seem to care, c) it's about casting actors that can play a character.
And finally, there's the whole commercial reason, which from a business point you have to be sympathetic with. You can't go out of your way, risk not getting the best actor for the job, risk casting actors people don't want to see, just because 5% of the audience of the movie feels that Hollywood has to make a 150 million dollar budget movie with a cast made out of Hindu people.
Banjo Tango
Member
I completely agree the whitewashing thing with Avatar is pathetic, but I took this more to mean: "The charater's are named Aang and Katara, but it's OK if you're white to audition" not, "We would prefer it if you're white."harSon said:
That said, even though "Any Ethnicity" would be all-inclusive, it would probably be construed as "non-white", so they were trying to be explicit. Even so they should have gone with "Any Ethnicity". And yeah, casting all the heroes as white and the "villain" as the only major non-white role is just disappointing.
harSon said:
Are you kidding me? What are we talking about?
About a Martial arts epic about the elemental powers of wind and shit, taking place in the North Pole, or a movie that takes place in the United States and is about people in the United States and through its story represents mainly a segment of its population, one that has been very present in Hollywood ever since i personally can remember?
Apples and Oranges.
Banjo Tango
Member
You don't think there was a preference for white kids for the main roles, though?WrikaWrek said:
Also - a lot of people want to see big-budget roles for non-white races that don't fall into a stereotype. Avatar, despite being a "asian-themed kung-fu epic" provided an opportunity for this, and it was squandered.
If you're saying it's about business decisions and that the stable of available actors are almost entirely white - this is part of the problem.
I think referencing Tyler Perry movies in a thread about racial inequality is somewhat disingenuous. Has he had a white person in his films other than the white boyfriend or girlfriend that throws the rest of the family into a tizzy?harSon said:
One thing to bear in mind, whitewashing is done not just to improve the North American box office take.
Banjo Tango
Member
They were picked to best represent the roles to what was perceived as the biggest audience? And the director is an Indian American? This changes everything.WrikaWrek said:
bumbillbee said:
THIS is true. It has nothing to do with the skin color but instead the fact that the studio wanted to get an actor that EVERYONE knew. I'm sure there are some Iranian actors but at the top of my head I can't think of a single one, meaning that if they chose an Iranian actor, I and a majority of people seeing the commercials wouldn't recognize him either.
Of course the success of the movie doesn't always rest on a famous actor (see: Spider Man), but I think Disney really didn't want to take any risks, and I don't blame them. Personally I just don't care, because these sorts of things happen ALL.THE.TIME.
Banjo Tango said:
All i'm saying is. I have problems when it's not historically accurate. All i'm saying is, if you don't have a problem when a movie like Troy, or Gladiator or whatever is all spoken in american english, and the characters are played by american actors, then you shouldn't have a problem when stuff like that happens to adaptations of fictional work.
I'm one of those that say James Blond can be black. I wanted Will Smith to be captain america. Because it doesn't matter man. Unless it's history.
I'll be passing on both of these movies just because of the casting actually. Jake in Prince of Persia just looks stupid, completely turned me off from the movie. It's not cause he is white, he just really looks stupid in that role. Like Ben Affleck as DareDevil type stupid.
I just watched the complete season of avatar with my son, we watched the last episode last night together. It is so beyond obvious that the main characters in the cartoon aren't white, to cast them as white is ridiculous. I sure as hell don't think of little white kid, when I think of a boy monk with a freaking arrow tattooed to the top of his head. Grew up in a monastery, is the reincarnation of other Asians. Everything on the show is wrote in some kind of Asian language too.
So the cartoon can be hugely successful with that formula but the movie can't be?
Seriously stop with the Tyler Perry movie comparison. Nobody gives a damn if the cast of say something like Youth in Revolt is mostly white. It is about a white kid and his family life. Tyler Perry movies are usually based around some family setting and the families are black. Therefore most of the characters in the movie are black. Just like his 2 TV series, even though both have pretty diverse cast in them.
I just watched the complete season of avatar with my son, we watched the last episode last night together. It is so beyond obvious that the main characters in the cartoon aren't white, to cast them as white is ridiculous. I sure as hell don't think of little white kid, when I think of a boy monk with a freaking arrow tattooed to the top of his head. Grew up in a monastery, is the reincarnation of other Asians. Everything on the show is wrote in some kind of Asian language too.
So the cartoon can be hugely successful with that formula but the movie can't be?
Seriously stop with the Tyler Perry movie comparison. Nobody gives a damn if the cast of say something like Youth in Revolt is mostly white. It is about a white kid and his family life. Tyler Perry movies are usually based around some family setting and the families are black. Therefore most of the characters in the movie are black. Just like his 2 TV series, even though both have pretty diverse cast in them.
I also love the racist assumption that there clearly weren't any people of color qualified to play those roles. Really? You think no kid in America with dark skin was capable of doing this?
Seriously. The casting sheet for characters that were people of color originally says "we'll take caucasians! or anybody else, but only if they are WAY WAY BETTER than the white kids."
It's ridiculous.
EDIT: No real problem with the PoP casting, though. The guy in the game has a british accent anyway.:lol
Seriously. The casting sheet for characters that were people of color originally says "we'll take caucasians! or anybody else, but only if they are WAY WAY BETTER than the white kids."
It's ridiculous.
EDIT: No real problem with the PoP casting, though. The guy in the game has a british accent anyway.:lol
Keylime
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I didn't realize the kid in Avatar was white until I read this article.
...hell, would anybody have assumed he was white had there not been this article? Doesn't calling out the fact that the actor is white, when the film makers went out of their way to depict the child as another origin (and did a good job at least in that they fooled me) go against their cause?
My assumption was that the kid wasn't white, so in my mind I saw this as acceptance of non-white actors in Hollywood. If if the kid is white, it's not harmful to the cause unless everyone knows he white...and that's what this article does.
Catch 22 or something.
Maybe I'm too colorblind, but I had no clue. :lol
...hell, would anybody have assumed he was white had there not been this article? Doesn't calling out the fact that the actor is white, when the film makers went out of their way to depict the child as another origin (and did a good job at least in that they fooled me) go against their cause?
My assumption was that the kid wasn't white, so in my mind I saw this as acceptance of non-white actors in Hollywood. If if the kid is white, it's not harmful to the cause unless everyone knows he white...and that's what this article does.
Catch 22 or something.
Maybe I'm too colorblind, but I had no clue. :lol
It might be okay for Bond to be black, because Bond might be just a code name anyway.WrikaWrek said:
Will Smith shouldn't be Captain America, because it doesn't make sense for Captain America to be black, at least if you're going for the original World War II origin of the character.
CleverGirl
Neo Member
The casting for Avatar wouldn't be so bad if the casting call hadn't been so explicit in its preference for white actors. There aren't many primary roles in a summer blockbuster for Asians or in the water tribe's case Inuits.
Ninja Scooter
Member
In this thread: people failing to grasp how Hollywood is a business. Why cast a popular, Oscar award nominated actor as the lead of your big budget summer tentpole movie when you can cast a guy so unknown his name might as well be "that guy from Lost". We need historical accuracy from our fantasy video game adaptations damn it!!
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