[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

@Snow
I agree with you about anime. To be honest, I feel that caucasions end up working better for the most part as most live action adaptation anime.
Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter... I don't think they would work well at all played by asian actresses. Sailor Mars definately needs a japanese actress, and Sailor Mercury could actually work either way (She could actually even work with an african acress)
With Ah! My Goddess, it's pretty obvious that Belldandy and Skuld are intended to be European/nordic in appearance, with Urd being half caucasian, half african, with most (if not all) other characters intending to be japanese.
But of course, Ah! My Goddess is one of the few series that's handled very realistically when it comes to races. (Fujishima doesn't even use unrealistic hair tones, save for Urd. And pure white hair isn't *that* outrageous).

I will say about Pokemon... the producers behind the anime, and the game makers understand they have a global audience, and I appreciate how hard they work to make sure they don't offend anyone. Japanese really don't find as much problem with stereotyping, especially for humor, and they tend not to care as much about political correctness as other areas in the world. But the Pokemon people tend to go out of their way to make sure it's as inoffensive, and openminded as possible. (The Pokemon Jynx was intended to poke fun at an extreme fasion trend amongst japanese teenaged girls, but when they realized americans interperated it as "Black face" they quickly changed Jynx' basic look). And in the games and anime, they've long included "Ambiguously brown" characters that could be interperated as a number of races. And coming to now, with Black and White, they have characters specifically intended to be african decent. (Iris, gym leader in the games and main character in the anime, as well as another gym leader who plays a much bigger role than most gym leaders in the past in the game)

Also, congratulations, you are the first person I've ever met who defenced TLA movie, in any form!
I agree I feel people gripe on the race issue way too much. My brother even gets angry that it "Here comes the white man to liberate everyone!" Which I don't get that impression at all.
I don't even feel the movie is *that* bad from a story telling standpoint. I just feel it's way too short, and way too condensed. It honestly needed to be treated *more* like LotR, and had at least another hour added to it. With that extra hour, the events they had could have been paced better, with greater focus on characterurization.
It also needed to have more of the trademark Avatar humor. (Especially from Sokka and Uncle)
Another thing it gets unfairly attacked for, is the "mispronunciation" of names. Especially by people who really don't get that it's the cartoon that's mispronouncing the names. Shyamalon is such a stickler for detail, and puts so much thought into the things he does, he's going to make sure the names are pronounced correctly. And he did.

All in all, I think had he been given another hour to decompress his movie, it would have flowed so much better. At the very least, I'd hoped for an extended director's cut edition for DVD, that included the Kyoshi Warrior scenes he filmed.

Pretty much agree with all of that.
Though the names, I have to side with the cartoon on since even in 'mispronounced words from other cultures' it is the series 'bible' so to speak. My main gripes though are the lackluster ending avatar state, and the lack of the pro-women rights fight to change the northern water tribe's culture. That second aspect made the north more well rounded by having flaws, whereas the movie made it seem like a water bending utopia.

Anime fans tend to annoy me though. Their pro-asian stance while ignoring a character's actual heritage within the literature itself is just as bad as the race bending they claim is going on. They do it with such conviction too while never checking a character's nationality. That same friend I've mentioned before is also adamant that Ubuu from DBZ is black, when it's kind of obvious he's probably arab or middle eastern or persian or east indian considering the entire "Majin/djinn/genie" roots of his character.

Of course I've never understood why people get in a huff over dubs either, for me it depends on the location it takes place in.

If an anime is occuring in an english speaking area(blood the last vampire being on an american army base, Gunsmith Cats being in Chicago), it doesn't make sense for all the background characters to be speaking japanese. Just like with stuff that takes place in feudal japan(Samurai Champloo, Samurai X) or tokyo, it doesn't make sense for them to be speaking english unless it's a relevant story point or they are a tourist.

Future stories and fantasy realms can vary based on whatever their influences are, but by nature since they aren't of this world or time they can skate as either or.

Quote:

Originally Posted by synapse17

Yes thats true but I was talking about the movie. I cant think of his name (starts with a r I think) but you are absolutely right.

Robert "Robbie" Robertson.