Avatar's Whitewashed Cast And What You Can Do About It

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I actually know nothing of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s one of my geek-gaps. But I have friends who love it. And while most of the things they talk about sound like “blah blah blah” to me—like anything you don’t know about—in the last few days I have learned two things about it:

1) It’s a cartoon where the main characters are—gasp—brown peeplz.
2) Except apparently in the upcoming live-action M. Night One-Hit-Wonder Shyamalan movie.

So we finally mainstream a fantasy world that doesn’t default to Western culture and Caucasian people,* and M. Night Whattatwist says to himself, “YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS MOVIE GREAT? WHITE PEOPLE!”

So I may not be a fan, but that’s okay: marag has a nice little explanation on this ridiculousness for us non-fans. And for fans and non-fans alike who think maybe this is kind of a stupid thing to do (because if there’s one thing Hollywood needs it’s MORE WHITE PEOPLE!), here’s a spot that’ll get you started if you want to send a nice letter to the producers asking them to see if they can’t explain this one. Let’s see if we can start to prod Hollywood a little in the right direction, shall we?


*Hello the slightly tangential rant! Here’s something I’ve always wondered about Fantasy Worlds: so you build a map and make a history and populate Fantasy Land with dragons and unicorns and orcs and smeerps** and Your Elves Are Different, and yet somehow all the people look like any race from Earth? There’s no genetic drift that gives them some features that’d make them look like you can’t quite categorize them in any Earth-human ethnic/genetic background? Oh, I’m sorry, I see, you were saving that for the elves, you say? Well, dude, your elves may be different, but welcome to my extreme fantasy world: My Humans Are Different! Beat that.

**Don’t actually click that link. It goes to TV Tropes.

Comments

[shadesofmauve]

Not the first time a colorful fantasy world has been whitewashed for video. Ursula Le Guin rants about it.

Frustrating as all hell.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I remember when that whole kerfuffle came out--stupid SciFi. I know I sorta came off grumpy with Left Hand of Darkness, but I keep meaning to tell you--I really liked it, and I like her. By damn, Ursula does it right, even if morons around her don't.

I liked her because that was kinda how I set my stories, and it was good to have a precedent.

[shadesofmauve]

I didn't think you came off grumpy. I enjoyed your linguistic take on it.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Ursula le Guin is made of win, as always.

It is amazing how much Hollywood insists on dropping color out of it's movies... and then, in the weirdest reversal ever, made major plot changes to Matheson's "I Am Legend" in order to include black characters in the two spin-off movies! What is wrong with this picture?

[zimwifepgk.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. That's just...just...WHAT. I too am not an Avatar fan, and my experience with it comes only from seeing pictures on deviantArt, but even I know that most if not all of the characters are not blinding pale white folks. Honestly, like they could not find actors of color who have just as much or more talent as anyone they did cast? What the. Honestly, what goes through people's minds when they do things this stupid?

Are the actual creators of the show pissed off about this, I wonder, and is there anything they can do about it, too?

[marag.livejournal.com]

Rumor has it the creators aren't happy, but generally once creators have sold the rights, there isn't much they can do. And they're often under gag orders so they're not allowed to complain.

We'll have to wait and see...

[zimwifepgk.livejournal.com]

Oh wait. This is M. Night we're talking about. All his movies HAVE to have some kind of ~unexpected twist~ in them!! THAT'S WHAT THIS MUST BE! All the fans are expecting a cast that might remotely resemble the characters, but instead, they'll be seeing the story of "Avatar" played out by white people!! M. Night is so edgy and sophisticated in his moviemaking, fer shure.

[toast-zombie.livejournal.com]

I am an Avatar fan and....uuuhhh... I just lost what little respect I had for M. Night...

Jesse fucking McCartney for the angst-ridden,brooding Prince Zuko.... No, just no. That goes against the laws of nature, not only in ethnicity, but character wise too. I had to reboot when I saw that name in the same sentence as Zuko's.

[lycheetwist.livejournal.com]

God, I know!

Seriously. They could have just kept the original voice actors as some of the characters. Dante would've done a great job as Zuko because he's freaking Rufio for one and he IS Zuko.

Sure he's 33. I personally think Zuko would be just as good a character had he been a little older, like his 20's. Dante could pull that off really well.

Jesse McCartney? Ah. God. It's High School Musical meets Avatar. My friend and I were joking that Miley Cyrus will end up being Toph.

[marag.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link :D

[tay421.livejournal.com]

WHAT A TWIST!

I wanted to be an Avatar fan 'cause it seemed interesting, but I never got around to watching it (mostly because they stopped airing it on regular Nickelodeon, from what I've seen, and I hate watching TV most of the time anyway), so I'm long since left behind on that bandwagon. Still... meh!



My Elves Are Humans. :D

[placetohide.livejournal.com]

Beat me to "what a twist!" :(

I'm not an Avatar fan because it seemed like another American made anime-wannabe stealing from decidedly non-American cultures for entertainment's sake, but even I think the casting choices are nuts. Anybody can see the characters from the show AREN'T WHITE.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Actually, it sounds like they went about it right--from what I've heard, the idea was to make relatable characters from other cultures, instead of token exotics. And Mara points out that they got a whole research team and cultural experts (from people in the actual cultures they were experts on, no less) to advise them.

It also gets rid of the total whiteness of Fantasyland, which is frustrating enough to someone like me. I can't imagine how annoying it is for someone who is rarely represented.

[tay421.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, there was that, too.