Thursday, July 1, 2010

Racebending, White Washing, and Films Sucking

If you're not going to a little thing like the race of your main characters right, why would one expect you to get things like plot, characterization, coherent storytelling, etc...

(So you're worried about casting Asians in your films because you're afraid that it will hurt the overall appeal of your film, huh?)

The Last Airbender


TOMATOMETER: 08% (rotten)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time


TOMATOMETER: 37% (rotten)

Dragonball: Evolution


TOMATOMETER: 27% (rotten)


mean while...

UP


TOMATOMETER: 98% (certified fresh)

(That is interesting, isn't it?)

-Noface

4 comments:

uglyblackjohn said...

Video games do this all the time (although they are not as bad).
Many are owned by Asian companies and created by Asians but even the Asian characters have more European features.

Mr. Noface said...

The difference being, that video games are often the "source material". True, you'll undoubtedly get an Italian plumber (Mario), an elf with Anglicized features (Link), a blond bombshell in a battle suite (Samus/metroid), a american super soldier/spy (snake), or a roaming Japanese martial arts expert with ethnically ambiguous features (Ryu); all of whom were created by Japanese companies. However, with these characters there is a clear indication of what race or ethnicity these characters are supposed to be portrayed as.

As for Avatar: The Last Air bender and Prince of Persia, those two properties were created by American companies (Nickelodeon and Ubisoft respectively). One was an american cartoon drawn in anime style with themes and characters drenched in Asian and Inuit culture while the other was about a Prince of a country that placed squarely in the middle east. For any movie to get those to very basic things wrong, creates doubt (for me at least) that anything else that movie has to offer, will be any good.

uglyblackjohn said...

Yep... I agree with everything you said.
It's just odd that "white" has become the default even for other races or cultures.

Mr. Noface said...

The blatant disregard for anything darker than light light tan being portrayed in any real way in Hollywood has really gotten ridiculous.