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1. Racism Link Roundup | racismreview.com on 20 May 2009 at 11:05 am

   [...] Racism & Avatars – LaToya, Carmen (and other folks) at Racialicious continue to do a great job on all things race and pop culture.  This recent post examines the controversy over the anti-Asian racism in the choice of avatars for an animated film adaptation. [...]

Comments

1. vodalus wrote:

   Ugh, the image at the top of this post really sums it up nicely. This is such a hack job of whitewashing–they aren’t even pretending.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:07 pm ¶

2. Jennifer Gandin Le wrote:

   Fantastic graphic that says it all. This is beyond lame.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:11 pm ¶

3. CDF wrote:

   LMAO!!!

   That’s straight up blatant. I never watched Avatar that much, but always assumed it was Asian. The common senser in me says, “ok, let’s scout for the live-action that could resemble the drawn characters”. The cautious senser in me asks, “Is Hollywood doing this?”. When the latter approaches, just sigh because you know whats next…

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:16 pm ¶

4. AintIAWoman wrote:

   WOW.

   I’ll admit I never heard of Avatar until Racialicious started posting about it. But that is unbelievably wrong and offensive. Actually, strike the ‘unbelievable’ part, as it’s not really unbelievable that Hollywood is this racist.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:21 pm ¶

5. Aris wrote:

   WOW @ the skin tone switcharoo…… Katara and Sokka are white as rice now, wow.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:24 pm ¶

6. EMP wrote:

   Arrrgghh!!!!!!

   I really hate how Hollywood execs think. The Avatar cartoon is popular. So why wouldn’t the same viewers not accept Asian characters in the live action movie?

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:25 pm ¶

7. gatamala wrote:

   I will not see this ever. It seems so hopeless sometimes. I would contribute $ to see an alternative/indie Asian version made.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:56 pm ¶

8. Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! wrote:

   M. Night Shyamalan ain’t worth shit. It was only after an outcry from people that he decided to cast a non-white actor in the cast. He can eat my shit for all I care.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:02 pm ¶

9. Phil wrote:

   Unbelievable. The Avatar series has serious fans. I’ve been watching the series for months now, an am impressed with the animation and storytelling very much. The studio’s inital excuse that the story has charcters that are “racial composites” in some idealized world is insane. Why? Because, according to this studio and the above pictures, when you “blend all races” you get lily-white people!

   I don’t know if this movie is going to get made.

   Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:13 pm ¶

10. cytoken wrote:

    Seriously, Asians have to speak up a bit louder on this and bring it to national attention. The only place you read about this is on sites like racialicious.

    This wouldn’t happen to African Americans because they’d make sure they were heard, for better or worse.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:15 pm ¶

11. inkst wrote:

    Aside from the racist casting, why does Katara look like she’s nine years old?!

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:16 pm ¶

12. eccentricyoruba wrote:

    I’ll be boycotting the movie. I’m actually glad that there have been large scale protests. I had hope that things would change but that doesn’t look like it’s happening. And I second gatamal, I’ll definitely pay to see an alternative version made. I mean coudn’t they at least find other actors that resembled the original cartoon characters just a little bit. smh.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:21 pm ¶

13. cocolamala wrote:

    This is where that debate about Storm’s blue eyes comes into focus for me.

    it is okay to marginalize Katara and Sokka’s non-white racial features when casting real actors for the part–but their character’s blue/green eyes absolutely remains consistent from the cartoon through to casting.

    I think their eye color makes it easier for the general audience (and casting agents) to assume the racially ambiguous characters would actually be white in real life.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:21 pm ¶

14. eccentricyoruba wrote:

    *gatamala, sorry about that.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:22 pm ¶

15. cocolamala wrote:

    but i also notice they cast the hazel-eyed villain as an asian/indian man.

    where is the hand wringing over that?

    why didn’t casting go about finding a hazel eyed person with lighter skin for this role, so it would match?

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:27 pm ¶

16. Camille wrote:

    I sent letters and made calls about this right after the movie was announced as part of a board of which I was a member. I wanted to emphasize the need for there to be a cast that was much more than white.
    One thing that I want to emphasize that will probably end up sounding like a defense of the casting, even though I’m against the casting, is that Zuko is one of the most popular characters on Avatar and he is hardly considered a villain by most Avatar fans. He is ’shipped with Katara all the time, almost obsessively. He’s definitely a more important character than Sokka and I’d say he’s more well-liked, or at the very least, his fans are more passionate.

    I really can’t believe that Katara’s eyes are green. WTF?

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:27 pm ¶

17. Alston wrote:

    @vodalus: It’s true. They aren’t even pretending. At least other whitewashers before them would have the “grace” to try to make up some kind of bullshit. How do they get off being this brazen?

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:32 pm ¶

18. cb3n wrote:

    Man you know what would have made that Star Trek movie so much better and more successful. If they had cast like Brad Pitt or Edward Norton as Sulu and Jennfier Garner or Scarlett Johansson as Uhura. That would have rocked cause American audiences only like to see white people when they go to the movies. Also, in the X-Men movies, Halle Berry as Storm makes absolutely no sense. I read somewhere else on this site that the original character has blue eyes. So one of the Hilton sisters would have been better. That’s why both Star Trek and X-Men were such box-office failures.

    Oh man and what was the deal with that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film a few years back? There wasn’t a white person in sight, which is why no one in America went to go see it. Give me Zack Effron as Li Mu-Bai any day.

    j/k obviously

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:35 pm ¶

19. Karen wrote:

    I hope Avatar doesn’t turn out like the live-action Dragonball movie.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:43 pm ¶

20. Persia wrote:

    EMP– That’s the part that drives me batty. The cast of High School Musical– which was so popular it got a live-action movie for its third installation– is multicultural. All the little ‘tween’ shows– from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody to Avatar itself– have multiracial casts. I suspect that in general, the kids are all right; it’s just the idiots in the studios who can’t or won’t see it.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:44 pm ¶

21. ksteiger wrote:

    We actually wrote about this more in-depth on Campus Progress.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:09 pm ¶

22. vodalus wrote:

    Give me Zack Effron as Li Mu-Bai any day.

    hahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahaah

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:19 pm ¶

23. Belial wrote:

    Wait….

    How did viacom have the authority to make them pull that storefront? How is that even mildly okay?

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:35 pm ¶

24. Miles Ellison wrote:

    The fans of this cartoon need to boycott this movie. This is a disgrace in a long line of disgraces.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:48 pm ¶

25. Fiqah wrote:

    You know what’s gonna piss me off is gonna be when the directors add an Asian cast member…as the voice of Apa.

    :/

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:52 pm ¶

26. Mary wrote:

    That graphic is the perfect encapsulation of what’s wrong with the casting for this movie. The brown heroes turn white and the villain turns brown. And I love the “But we don’t see color!!!” defense. If this whitewashed casting all happened by coincidence then damn, I would love to know what the laws of probability are on the planet where you live.

    Can I admit something, though? I’m so intrigued by sweet, likeable Dev Patel playing a villain (or anti-villain from what I hear about Zuko). I just wish it were under less f’ed up circumstances.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 3:15 pm ¶

27. Kaonashi wrote:

    Another bullshit movie that won’t be getting my money.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 3:17 pm ¶

28. Bagelsan wrote:

    I think their eye color makes it easier for the general audience (and casting agents) to assume the racially ambiguous characters would actually be white in real life.

    I think the show’s audience generally realizes that the eye color doesn’t translate to actual races, though; it’s all about which element that culture bends. I don’t think most kids would find it all that confusing to be honest. The “whitest” looking characters (using that term very VERY loosely) have *yellow* eyes for pete’s sake and that’s not a particularly common color among any race.

    (I think that the only acceptable way to cast white people would be to cast them as the Swamp tribe, because it would still be inaccurate but it would also be *hilarious* )

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 3:27 pm ¶

29. Clara wrote:

    @#12 cocolamala:

    Agreed! I also think it’s a shame that people use the characters’ eye colors to justify the white-washed casting. It’s like, well, what about the rest of the character’s face? Like their SKIN COLOR?

    For those who are unfamiliar with the series, the characters’ eye colors correspond to which Nation they are part of. Taking the main characters as examples, Katara and Sokka’s blue eye color correspond to their water nation status, Zuko’s eye color is yellowish (fire), Toph’s is green (earth) and Aang’s eyes are grey (air). This eye color scheme has been mostly consistent throughout the series, I think.

    I thought this was a very neat idea and I think the creators of the cartoons used the color scheme well enough such that the eye colors didn’t take way from the Asian-inspired details. But it sucks that now it’s being used against the series. It really pisses me off.

    And as a side…

    What do you want to bet that they’ll make Dev Patel play Zuko with a really thick non-American accent? Obviously, evil people are never American (because Americans are the best people ever!) and must have sinister foreign accents!

    Ugh.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 3:29 pm ¶

30. Sarah wrote:

    What’s really disturbing is that the director connected to the film is of color, M. Night Shyamalan….I read somewhere that he said he became interested in the project because his daughter was such a huge fan.

    Now how could a father take an image that his daughter, (which I am assuming is a brown skin girl even if she’s half white),
    identified with so strongly and whitewash it. It’s like telling your own child that their skin isn’t good enough.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 4:17 pm ¶

31. Persia wrote:

    Can I admit something, though? I’m so intrigued by sweet, likeable Dev Patel playing a villain (or anti-villain from what I hear about Zuko). I just wish it were under less f’ed up circumstances.

    At the risk of spoiling you slightly, Dev Patel would be (if the movie covers the whole Avatar series, which is unlikely, or if they make a trilogy or something) the Person of Color who learns to be better thanks to the Nice White People. Which makes the whole thing even more unbearable.

    As others have noted, he’s a shoe-in, looks-wise, for Sokka, one of the heroes, who’s kind of the snarky smart-alec of the group.

    I just want to kill things. And it makes me never want to buy another Avatar anything again, and the cartoon’s so good, it’s a shame.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 4:22 pm ¶

32. SepiaScreen wrote:

    What bothers me the most is that no one, other than the fans and industry watchdogs, is willing to take a stand. In particular, M. Night. If this is truly his vision as to how the characters should be, then he’s already had too much of the Kool-Aid and may be a lost cause. If it is not his vision and he’s only doing this to please the Hollywood powers that be, he should man-up. Directors leave projects all the time for “artistic” differences.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 4:36 pm ¶

33. Whitney wrote:

    I really just don’t get this. I mean, like, really? Seriously? It’s like one step forward, three steps back for Hollywood.

    I went on IMDb and looked up “Avatar” and it seems that James Cameron is making a movie by that name, but it has nothing to do with this movie, which apparently is now called The Last Airbender. Hello confusion!

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 4:59 pm ¶

34. embarcadero13 wrote:

    No, no and NO! Can I join a group against this? Definitely going to boycott.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 6:43 pm ¶

35. uu wrote:

    I live in the bay area, in an area where there are alot of Tibetan-Americans and I tell you the kids are some of the most charismatic bunch I’ve ever met.

    I don’t know why the casting director’s couldn’t find some Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Laotian, or Hawaiian, etc, with a martial arts background, slap some colored contacts on them (hi welcome to 2009, where we can put contacts in your eyes to make them a different color), shoot the movie, cut, print, and show in the movie theaters, it doesn’t take rocket science to accomplish that folks.

    geez!!

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 9:29 pm ¶

36. Medusa wrote:

    Yeah….I’m part of the “I don’t know anything about Avatar” group but seriously, looking at that picture… This is actually making me angry.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 9:40 pm ¶

37. RCHOUDH wrote:

    Love the graphic! Sums up the color casting issues perfectly. And I agree with the posters who mentioned about how the characters’ eye colors are used to justify hiring white actors (because you know only Europeans have light eyes/sarcasm). I believe the producers and/ M. Night probably believed that a larger audience (that is people who’ve never watched the cartoon series) would have been taken out of the movie if they saw real Asian actors playing the characters while sporting light eyes (especially natural ones). They would be too busy questioning how such actors could have light eyes and be Asian, or if the actors wore contacts, then the question would be why make them wear ugly contacts and not hire someone with naturally light eyes (which in their minds is only found among Europeans and nobody else!/sarcasm)

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 9:53 pm ¶

38. Phrone wrote:

    Every news I have heard about this movie has been bad, bad, bad. And it keeps getting worse. What the hell, Viacom?! You pissed off a MAJOR segment of your potential audience, and you keep making it worse. This is ABSURD. I love Avatar. I wanted to see the movie. There is NO WAY in HELL that anyone can make me see it now. Not even if you paid me.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 10:13 pm ¶

39. Ada wrote:

    Very insulting, blatant colorism, making the yellow/brown character the evil foil to the pure and good white characters. Viacom’s done a great job of pissing off its fanbase. Whose going to want to see this movie now? So much for the “age of Obama” hahahaha this Avatar disgrace proves just the opposite of what the media keeps trying to make us believe about race issues.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 10:48 pm ¶

40. Kutsuwamushi wrote:

    I’m glad to see that this is getting attention outside of fandom-only blogs…

    There are a lot of Avatar fans who are angry at the casting choices and are going to boycott the movie. I keep hoping, probably in vain, that this will get enough publicity that it will financially harm the movie and studios will wise up that this isn’t okay, and their audiences aren’t as racist as they are.

    Posted 14 May 2009 at 11:19 pm ¶

41. Arabi wrote:

    Don’t know how they justify this, but it gives me reason to cast Russell Wong as Aragorn in my Lord of the Rings remake.
    Of course, imagine if a non-white person was cast for any role in LOR. The outrage would have been terrifying.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 5:02 am ¶

42. Lxy wrote:

    Ward Churchill said it best:

    The American media and Hollywood in particular specialize in peddling Fantasies of the Master Race.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 5:22 am ¶

43. Westerly wrote:

    It just goes from bad to vomit-inducing.

    I seriously hope this movie crashes and dies spectaculalry at the box office, since that’s all they care about anyway.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 5:28 am ¶

44. Blackadder wrote:

    Huh. They make Katara and Sokka white and Zuko darker.

    And I thought we are in 21st century. . .

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 6:13 am ¶

45. Kaonashi wrote:

    Honestly, he should have went with unknowns; there are plenty of biracial kids who act that can fit the description of all of these characters to a T and would have LOVED a role in this movie.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 7:13 am ¶

46. Nan wrote:

    I won’t be seeing this ”movie”. I watched the Avatar religiously, I even tried to make Avatar costumes last Halloween(epic fail lol)and I am very angry that us fans are being ignored on this. They are blatantly butchering The Last Airbender before our eyes. Aang ain’t white!!!

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 7:40 am ¶

47. chris chambers wrote:

    This comments going to get me villified as hell, but I am donning horns and playing Devil’s Advocate. Again, I’m just throwing this out for debate:

    1. Asians are America’s so-called “model minority” so does anyone really think en masse they are going to climb out of their comfort zones and truly rock the boat? The key to success and getting along for generations was NOT to get too uppity or loud or aggressive, like the brothas and Latinos?

    2. Patel is in it, M. Night is directing. That’s two South Asians.

    3. It’s only a movie; a lot of its audience are vanilla white suburban kids anyway, and they seemed to accept “Dragonball Z” with white faces (tho the box office was dismal).

    OK that’s the Devil’s Advocate. Now the real deal. This whole thing sucks. And M. Night isn’t Mira Nair. He’s always trying to be Ron Howard with a deep tan–and his last few films blew.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 9:49 am ¶

48. Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! wrote:

    reading the discussion here about eye colors, I am reminded of a silly, strange hate e-mail I got a while back ago from a white chick who wrote:

    “nobody likes dark eyed girls. shut the fuk up and stop writing crap!”

    yes indeed.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 10:08 am ¶

49. Persia wrote:

    There are plenty of biracial kids who act that can fit the description of all of these characters to a T and would have LOVED a role in this movie

    A lot of people in the blogosphere have talked about reasonably-known actors who could have played roles. Dev Patel, as one example, could’ve made a pretty decent Sokka; Slumdog Millionaire made $326,000,000 worldwide. (Twilight is at $379,912,947, for quick comparison.) Taylor Lautner, who played Jacob in the Twilight movie, has Native American ancestry and might have served as Sokka as well… it’s just. AGH.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 10:13 am ¶

50. Terrie wrote:

    I can’t help but compare this to the Harry Potter movies, where they were very focused on getting the right look for the characters, even if it meant less experienced actors. But here, where we have even stronger visuals of the characters, no, it’s perfectly okay to switch up the looks. *gag*

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 11:17 am ¶

51. cathy wrote:

    I’m a huge fan of the origional series and that image of the new movie is just creepy. Personally, I always thought of Katara and Sokka as Native American, maybe Inuit, because that’s how the southern water tribe struck me. I always saw Aang, Toph, and Zuko as Asian (mostly because I thought of Iroh as Asian, and that’s Zuko’s uncle). The only person I really thought of as being white was Bumi.

    I’m wondering too, with the movie actor for Zuko, what that will mean for the look of Azula and the Fire Lord, who are major villains (Zuko’s kind of a nice guy deep down character, but his dad is evil and his sister gets pretty bad). Zuko being dark doesn’t just mean Zuko being dark, it probably also means the main villain of the series, the Fire Lord (his father) will also be dark. It means that the invaders of lilly white Katara’s home will be dark. To explain to non fans, Zuko is the prince of the Fire Nation, which is depicted as an evil invader.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 11:32 am ¶

52. gatamala wrote:

    Fiqah wrote:

    You know what’s gonna piss me off is gonna be when the directors add an Asian cast member…as the voice of Apa.

    The man who taught Aang the avatar state is going to have the most “Indian” Indianized accent ever. The cabbage cart guy, as comic relief, will undoubtedly be Asian.

    uu~ here in DC they had casting calls for everyone from Mongolian-Americans to Laotians. Let me guess…background filler.

    chris~”it’s only a movie” doesn’t wash on this particular blog (it would be like telling you…it’s just a book ). FTR, the reason why it’s an issue here is b/c there are shitloads of non-whites across the country who watch TV and Avatar in particular.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 11:56 am ¶

53. elle the elephant wrote:

    I just discovered Avatar a few months back, and I can’t believed I didn’t know about this great cartoon earlier! I now have my faith in American animation restored, and to hear and see how they are whitewashing Avatar is making me sick to my stomach! It isn’t really surprising though, this is hollyweird after all, the same group of closet racist hypocrites that brung us Crash, The Last Samurai,and 300.

    Luckily there is hope. The Dragonball movie released a few months back bombed with both the box office and the critics, and was derided by the Dragonball fandom in general. As you know, Goku, the hero of dragonball, was also completely whitewashed,which angered a good chunk of the fanbase. Taking from Dragoball, I think the same thing will happen with Avatar, with the fanbase hating it outright, plus it has M. Night Shyamalan attached, and going by his track record, you know its going to suck and bomb at the box office.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 12:52 pm ¶

54. inkst wrote:

    @cathy: according to imdb, it looks like Ozai is going to be played by Cliff Curtis. I didn’t recognize his name, but his face was familiar. I feel like he’s been the terrorist bad guy a few times before…

    I am with everyone here. Great show, sad news

    Some things just don’t need to be a movie!

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 3:54 pm ¶

55. Bagelsan wrote:

    The only person I really thought of as being white was Bumi.

    It’s been addressed lots of places already, but really *no one* in the show is white. No Europeans/Caucasians. Zip. (Definitely not Bumi either. Why would the king of an entirely Asian country be white?) No, no white people at all. And plenty of white fans are genuinely *okay* with that and even *like* that.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 3:58 pm ¶

56. embarcadero13 wrote:

    I kind of wonder if the studio retained M. Knight just to have a cover up? You know, so he’ll take the heat and they can point to him as the POC Director who whitewashed the movie? Considering M. Knight’s recent films, I feel like he is in a vulnerable position and has to “play ball.”

    But then again, maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. I can’t fathom selling out on this level.

    No, seriously, where is the Facebook group?

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 4:33 pm ¶

57. Theotherion wrote:

    @56 embarcadero13

    The Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54866461619

    If I recall, the casting director has been pretending the outcry is coming from a few fringe fans who would get mad over any tiny differences between the movie and animation. Given the fact the “fringe fans” in question have been repeatedly pointing out that this is yet another entry in an established historical pattern of whitewashing characters of color and casting white people to play Asians? It’s a grossly impressive display of putting the metaphorical fingers in the ears and shouting “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 7:31 pm ¶

58. Pheagan wrote:

    “I kind of wonder if the studio retained M. Knight just to have a cover up? You know, so he’ll take the heat and they can point to him as the POC Director who whitewashed the movie?”– Directors do have final say on casting. And yeah, he is in a tenuous position considering how badly his last movies have done, but he hasn’t exactly been a shinking violet about anything else before this.

    People– perhaps members of this community, should make the boycott a big thing. I’m thinking standing in front of movie theaters with signs in order to discourage people from seeing it on opening night.

    Posted 15 May 2009 at 10:42 pm ¶

59. Ayyo wrote:

    first Dragonball now this seriously wahy arent asians getting any roles, stupid white washing fools i hope this movie fails terrible i just knew they were going to cast a person of colour an asian man as the villian seriously and the direct himself does not see anything wrong with this

    i wonder what will be next to get white washed?

    Posted 16 May 2009 at 9:00 am ¶

60. M&M wrote:

    They need more AUTHENTIC ASIANS playing REAL ASIAN characters! We should boycott Avatar for being so racist it makes it harder for the HAPAS and other Asians to succed. Look at Celeste Thorson http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2294576/ I heard she auditioned for Avatar and wasn’t Asian enough! Now Look at KATARA! They should have picked Brenda Song for some character.

    Posted 16 May 2009 at 9:43 am ¶

61. Westerly wrote:

    Bagelsan wrote:
    “The only person I really thought of as being white was Bumi.

    It’s been addressed lots of places already, but really *no one* in the show is white. No Europeans/Caucasians. Zip. (Definitely not Bumi either. Why would the king of an entirely Asian country be white?) No, no white people at all. And plenty of white fans are genuinely *okay* with that and even *like* that.”.

    Yes – and even if they didn’t – too bad. I’m relatively new to this cartoon and I find it so disturbing that even when people will concede that *duh* Katara and Sokka aren’t white, they will almost always rush to suggest that some other character is white or could at least be ‘reasonably’ perceived or speculated upon as white, while completely ignoring narrative plausibility (i.e. What would a lone white character be doing on an explicitly Asian world full of pagodas, igloos, han-boks, and kimonos not to mention various Asian peoples?)

    It’s as if the absence of whiteness is invokes deep-seated anxiety to the point where people they insist on seeing things (i.e. the presence of white people) that aren’t there.

    Simply saying – oh well – Aang/Suki/Ty Lee/Bumi have fairer skin so they *could* be white people is just deeply illogical and bordering on desperate. Is it really that hard to grasp the idea of fantasy that places Asian people centre-stage?

    Posted 16 May 2009 at 7:43 pm ¶

62. A. wrote:

    If this film fails, I would like to see a few Avatar fans create their own independent version of the series online, though that could possibly create it’s own problems.

    I want for someone to show Hollywood how to do it right, and if they refuse to, they’ll continue to lose money.

    Posted 16 May 2009 at 8:39 pm ¶

63. Kwesi K. wrote:

    It appears the BBC is one step ahead of you…

    http://www.boandthespiritworld.com

    Posted 17 May 2009 at 12:29 pm ¶

64. BSK wrote:

    I find it somewhat interesting that, in the original drawings, the villain has more stereotypically Asian features, especially his eyes. I am not at all familiar with Avatar, though I appreciate receiving enlightenment here about some more Hollywood BS, but I’d be curious to hear if the difference between the hero and villains eyes displayed here is consistent throughout the series.

    Posted 17 May 2009 at 2:48 pm ¶

65. Kaonashi wrote:

    3. It’s only a movie; a lot of its audience are vanilla white suburban kids anyway, and they seemed to accept “Dragonball Z” with white faces (tho the box office was dismal).

    Um, no.

    They WEREN’T okay with DBZ; a lot of people were wondering why a lot of the people were so miscast, so they (along with POC fans who are tired of whitewashing) stayed away in droves.

    Posted 17 May 2009 at 10:43 pm ¶

66. JC wrote:

    I think I’m quite desensitized by Hollywood’s racist casting and plots… I usually throw a “WFT” out there and then let it go – just another day of dealing with racist American media. But I am actually getting angry at this – this is wrong is so many levels. The message I got is, even though the kids today are so much less racist, the big shots in Hollywood THINK they are OR they SHOULD be racist. Whites should always be the hero and save the day, even though the entire world they live in is Asian. I feel terrible about the future of Asian American in White Media (let’s just call it what it is) – this blatant racism will never stop.

    M. Night, if you go through with this racist crap, I will boycott not just this movie, but every single movie you will ever make in the future. I will no longer think of you as a AA filmmaker – you’re no better than Bai-ling in my eyes now.

    Posted 18 May 2009 at 6:19 am ¶

67. max wrote:

    Is Mickey Rooney still alive? Hey, maybe he can play Uncle Iroh [/sarcasm]

    Serioulsy though, how sad is it that in this day and age (almost 50 years later) such a thing is still a possibility.

    Posted 18 May 2009 at 7:40 am ¶

68. Persia wrote:

    Considering M. Knight’s recent films, I feel like he is in a vulnerable position and has to “play ball.”

    Rumor had it that M. Knight would’ve had more leverage if “The Happening” hadn’t done so poorly (and been so terrible).

    BSK: You can Google Image search it, but the short answer is that the younger the character generally, the bigger the eyes– Zuko’s the oldest of the three pictured here. This, for example is one of the older Water tribe men– the same tribe as Sokka and Katara.

    Posted 18 May 2009 at 11:54 am ¶

69. BSK wrote:

    Persia-

    Thanks for the info. I am not familiar with Avatar or the animation style. I assumed, based on the posts here in favor of hte original cartoon, that the graphics avoided such obviously racist imagery, but it did stand out simply based on those three photos. Thanks for the clarification.

    And for everyone who thinks that this is no big deal, how about we make Jesus black in his next film (ignoring the fact he was almost assuredly anything but white)? Hell, let’s start simple and make James Bond black and see how not-a-big-deal it is.

    Posted 18 May 2009 at 9:05 pm ¶

70. brownstocking wrote:

    @ BSK: no need re bond. I foolishly held my breath for a Black Dr Who and Britpress and white fans lost their minds! I contemplate not watching the new series out of piqué; we’ll see.

    I am so ready to picket this Airbender crap.

    Posted 19 May 2009 at 1:29 pm ¶

71. DJ wrote:

    FYI- Originally the Villian was supposed to be White actor Jesse McCartney but after the success of Slumdog Millionaire he was dropped for Dev Patel. So basically the whole cast would have been White had Jesse not dropped out and Dev signed on.

    Posted 19 May 2009 at 11:40 pm ¶