IcaroRibeiro said:
.___. Still pissed they cast Scarllet Johanson to play Motoko |
There are 2 major things I want to adress here. The first is the list of examples you provided through the link:
Nobody gave a crap about the source materials (if there even is one?) or the real events inspiring the following movies: warm bodies, a mighty heart, wanted, the human stain, argo, drive, whisky tango foxtrot, speed racer, exodus: gods and monsters (is there even a source material (other than the bible of course)?), aloha, a beautiful mind, 21, the lone ranger, 30 days of night, the social network (people care about Zuck alright, but not about anybody else), stuck, edge of tomorrow. When people don't care about the source it becomes infinitely easier to do (to whitewash).
To the ones people do care about:
Prince of Persia: Jake totally looks the part, making it way easier to swollow the change. And it released 13 years ago.
Dragon Ball Evolution: it got everything wrong and cannot be taken seriously as an adaptation anyways. And it released 14 years ago.
Batman Begins: Liam could pass as arab. And it released 18 years ago.
Death Note: it got almost everything wrong and cannot be taken seriously as an adaptation. And when you change setting, it is logical (though not necessary) to also change character ethnicity.
The Last Airbender: it got almost everything wrong and cannot be taken seriously as an adaptation. Also M Night changed all the races around in a wild mix. It was not just making people white.
Pan: released 8 years ago.
Ghost in the Shell: released 6 years ago. You seem to be a fan so correct me if I am wrong, but was it not so in the movie that Scarlettsl's character was supposed to be asian? She had an accident and her mind was transformed into a different (artigicial?) body. It was an asian ghost in an artificial shell. And that shell did not look particularly asian in the anime. (In Jin Roh characters are actually drawn to look asian for example.)
Dr Strange: I gave that very example (Tilda) in my comment above as a counter to myself.
I will say this, accounting for the examples of whitewashing you provided, correcting my initial comment: it can be done. But surely not to a character on the level Ariel. Really do imagine a white Blade for a second. -Thats right. The backlash would mean financial ruin for the company. Which leads me neatly into my second point.
My second major point would be this: I don't care much about whitewashing or changing races otherwise. I care about selective outrage. About double standards. So you only have half an argument posting a link about the worst cases of Hollywood whitewashing. Next you would have to find me an article from a major outlet dicussing the worst cases of blackwashing. Because it would mean that not only changing to white, but to anything from anything is seen as a problem. Otherwise you would have to find me an article of a major news outlet discussing how whitewashing is as little a problem as changing from white to other races. Than you would have a point.
