JuliusHackebeil said:
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. |
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Withewahsing happens, quite frequently actually. Hollywood was quite found to it, it's becoming less common because minorities have purchasing power now. The idea of whiteashing is the same when you turn LGBT character non LGBT, Fried Green Tomatoes, great movie, but still they "straightwashed" the two main characters. Sometimes the whitewashing happens just because it's easier and less expensive to cast white people, they are the majority in USA media anyways. I only bring a list of Hollywood movies, but in Harry Potter Lavender Brown was cast as a black woman up to the fifth movie, and magically turned white on the sixth. Albeit the book never stated whether Lavender was white, black or whatever it was a ironic decision producers originally introduced her as black when her roles were close to irrelevant, but turned her white when she finally had lines and screen time.
The change is Motoko's story was done in a way it would have some logical explanation for her being white, but it sounds and an obviously excuse: They wanted an hyped actress to bring Avengers fans into the franchise. This is again whitewashing on its full form. The Last Airbender characters being all white is not only a matter of the movie sucking hard, but a lack of confidence that people would connect with asian actors. Again, there is no word for it other than whitewashing. I'm a huge Avatar fan and I remember my immediate facepalm when seeing the movie the first time, does anybody ever think Katara as a white girl? Like... at all?
Changes in source material are quite common, most Disney stories are nothing but botched versions of their originals stories, changes to be appealing to mainstream audiences. Chinese people specially hates Mulan because of the changes Disney in the lore.
How big is anyone threshold for accepting and supporting changing is personal bussines, but @JWeinCom explained quite well how the recent backslash in changes on source material mostly happens when it comes to minorities because it immediately takes political undertones. The same way in past Hollywood wanted their casts to be all white straight people because it used to help than to sell, now they want diversity in ethnicity and sexuality for the very same reasons.
People tolerated far more drastic changes in source material when it comes to background stories, actions and personalities of characters, for instance Star wars prequel, people were outranging about changes in source material, sure, Anakin being so different from Vader was a point many fans complained, but it was never seen as a political treat that needs to be systematically boycotted and destroyed
Overall, conservative people is inclined to not bother with whitewashing, because it's pandering to them. But they go crazy when Hollywood start to pander minorities. I watched The LM live action, It was boring, but the Ariel is identical in everything to the animation except skin color. I'm sure "anti woke" people wouldn't mind she's to be a completely different character as long she looks identical (i.e. being white and redhaired) to the original
