Has political correctness actually gone mad?

Tbf wasn’t there a load of shit kicked up recently when an actress cast to play a black woman was considered to be just a little too white?

In other words, people care about this sort of thing but only when it affects their ‘team’.
 
2 man midfield said:
Tbf wasn’t there a load of shit kicked up recently when an actress cast to play a black woman was considered to be just a little too white?

In other words, people care about this sort of thing but only when it affects their ‘team’.
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A few people got upset when Zoe Saldana played Nina Simone and others got worked up over the idea that Will Smith might play Richard Williams in a movie. Both were too light apparently, but to be fair they were or are playing real people.

This latest one is just a cartoon character in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter what colour the actress is as long as she's right for the role.
 
stevoc said:
A few people got upset when Zoe Saldana played Nina Simone and others got worked up over the idea that Will Smith might play Richard Williams in a movie. Both were too light apparently, but to be fair they were or are playing real people.

This latest one is just a cartoon character in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter what colour the actress is as long as she's right for the role.
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My point exactly, who gives a shit?
 
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The travesty.
 
It must be horrible for her to win that role, then have to read shit like #notmyAriel.

'Can she act?' is the only question that matters.
 
nimic said:
The corpse of Walt Disney is furiously scratching a swastika into the inside of his coffin right now.
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I'm going to buy it just so I can put my foot through the TV in disgust when she comes on.
 
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2 man midfield said:
My point exactly, who gives a shit?
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If no one gives a shit then why change it? It's pretty clear people and companies do give a shit.

My personal opinion is that companies these days, Disney included, thrive on creating controversy as a means of advertising. Giving 0 fecks, in spite of their preaching, about creating a more cohesive society but trying to profiteer from discord instead.

I'm certainly all for more racial inclusion in Hollywood. I'm all for promoting more stories and more movies written, acted and voiced by people of diverse heritage. More Mulans, more Moanas etc. Simply replacing a character in a Hans Christian Andersen story with a black sketch and voice actor is pretty half-hearted and hamfisted attempt at creating diversity. And while I don't give a feck about what Disney do with their stories, I do care about its effects on the current political climate and discourse.
 
Omg Scream has become more reflective of American society.

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MadMike said:
If no one gives a shit then why change it? It's pretty clear people and companies do give a shit.

My personal opinion is that companies these days, Disney included, thrive on creating controversy as a means of advertising. Giving 0 fecks, in spite of their preaching, about creating a more cohesive society but trying to profiteer from discord instead.

I'm certainly all for more racial inclusion in Hollywood. I'm all for promoting more stories and more movies written, acted and voiced by people of diverse heritage. More Mulans, more Moanas etc. Simply replacing a character in a Hans Christian Andersen story with a black sketch and voice actor is pretty half-hearted and hamfisted attempt at creating diversity. And while I don't give a feck about what Disney do with their stories, I do care about its effects on the current political climate and discourse.
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Or, hear me out here, she was just the best fit for the role. It's only ham-fisted and half-hearted if you assume she got the job just because she is black, just because Disney want to create discord, just because they want to create controversy.
 
If you're going to make The Little Mermaid again you really do need to update it quite a bit regardless. Even when I was watching it as a kid in the 90's the "men like women who don't talk" type stuff seemed weird.

It would also be bizzare for a studio remaking a film in 2019 to keep the cast of characters as overwhelmingly white as it was in originals that came from a time when minorities were clearly underrepresented. I mean it would actually take effort, excluding whole throngs of talent from your film in a pointless desire to keep an utterly irrelevant detail the same. Why on earth would anyone do that?
 
MadMike said:
If no one gives a shit then why change it? It's pretty clear people and companies do give a shit.

My personal opinion is that companies these days, Disney included, thrive on creating controversy as a means of advertising. Giving 0 fecks, in spite of their preaching, about creating a more cohesive society but trying to profiteer from discord instead.

I'm certainly all for more racial inclusion in Hollywood. I'm all for promoting more stories and more movies written, acted and voiced by people of diverse heritage. More Mulans, more Moanas etc. Simply replacing a character in a Hans Christian Andersen story with a black sketch and voice actor is pretty half-hearted and hamfisted attempt at creating diversity. And while I don't give a feck about what Disney do with their stories, I do care about its effects on the current political climate and discourse.
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At the end of the day I think you have to trust the producer, in this case Disney, that their casting choice isn’t for reasons other than simply because she’s the best person for the job. But it is interesting how far it can go before you would encounter pushback. You couldn’t cast a man in this role, for example. Or could you?

It's a bit like when people kick off over an able-bodied person being cast as a character in a wheelchair. "Oh, there's plenty of actually disabled people who could have played that role..." Yeah, and? Maybe the director didn't want them. It's about who fits the role the best, so why should he cast someone who isn't necessarily as good just to appease your group? So what if she isn't actually disabled, that's literally what acting is. She's pretending, that's kind of the point...
 
I can understand an outrage if the character played in based on someone real and there is a clear difference in terms of skin color/gender/etc etc... However a fecking cartoon ?
The same shit happened to the actress on "Titans " who was played Starfire but that was even worse as she is supposed to be from outer space but she still received plenty of racist messages on her social media accounts
 
Saw a yacht called Moonraker today so got me thinking about a minority (Asian, black..) James Bond...
Came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t matter a jot if he was Asian, White or Black cos that wouldn’t be important.
Not sure all die hard Bond fans would agree but what says the caf?
 
utdalltheway said:
Saw a yacht called Moonraker today so got me thinking about a minority (Asian, black..) James Bond...
Came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t matter a jot if he was Asian, White or Black cos that wouldn’t be important.
Not sure all die hard Bond fans would agree but what says the caf?
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Think Idris would make a great Bond. Hope he's the next one. I do feel it should be a British actor though, even though Brosnan did a good job.

If you look at all the actors put forward to take over, he just seems the most Bond like to me. Gillian Anderson is an interesting idea too, can you imagine if that happened!
 
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utdalltheway said:
Saw a yacht called Moonraker today so got me thinking about a minority (Asian, black..) James Bond...
Came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t matter a jot if he was Asian, White or Black cos that wouldn’t be important.
Not sure all die hard Bond fans would agree but what says the caf?
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I'm fine as long as they don't cast the babyfaced weirdo from twilight for it too.
 
This is Ian Fleming's own sketch of Bond:
Fleming007impression.jpg

Yes, he's white - but he doesn't look like Roger Moore or any of the other actors who've played him. Cumberbatch could look fairly similar to this, but I couldn't see him in the role. Elba would be a good Bond.
 
A few issues here need to be seperated. Is it ok for a fan of something to want some form of the adaption to stay true to the original? of course imo. Do companies that create these adaptations owe it to those 'hardcore' fans? No imo. Its simple market factors at work. The company has made the calculation that the new fans they get will replace n possibly outnumber the old ones.
On a side note i saw the new spiderman last night and they made mj a black girl and peter parkers class was basically a benneton ad. None of these things bothered me but it does feel forced.
 
utdalltheway said:
Saw a yacht called Moonraker today so got me thinking about a minority (Asian, black..) James Bond...
Came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t matter a jot if he was Asian, White or Black cos that wouldn’t be important.
Not sure all die hard Bond fans would agree but what says the caf?
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I think Elba would make a good bond. It’s tricky with Bond though, because he’s almost a caricature. He’s got so many well established features, I don’t think he could be played by a woman for example. It would totally change the character and what the films are about. I don’t see why the actor couldn’t be black though.

I think it comes down to this: Is Bond meant to be the same character as the novels, and across each film? Or is James Bond just a code name and each actor is a different character? If it’s the latter then make them whoever you want, it doesn’t matter. But if you’re trying to remain true to the same character as the others that have played them, it does sort of need to be a man imo.
 
Penna said:
This is Ian Fleming's own sketch of Bond:
Fleming007impression.jpg

Yes, he's white - but he doesn't look like Roger Moore or any of the other actors who've played him. Cumberbatch could look fairly similar to this, but I couldn't see him in the role. Elba would be a good Bond.
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Cumberbatch is too goofy looking for the role in my opinion. It needs to be some suave and steely.
 
2 man midfield said:
I think Elba would make a good bond. It’s tricky with Bond though, because he’s almost a caricature. He’s got so many well established features, I don’t think he could be played by a woman for example. It would totally change the character and what the films are about. I don’t see why the actor couldn’t be black though.

I think it comes down to this: Is Bond meant to be the same character as the novels, and across each film? Or is James Bond just a code name and each actor is a different character? If it’s the latter then make them whoever you want, it doesn’t matter. But if you’re trying to remain true to the same character as the others that have played them, it does sort of need to be a man imo.
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Aye, I think that's right.

Really the changes that make sense depend on the character. For example, with the Doctor in Doctor Who you could happily have actors of different race, gender or nationality playing the character without the character fundamentally being different.

In Bond's case though I'd say his two defining characteristics are that he is British (even if the actors who play him aren't) and that he is a man. The latter being particularly relevant in terms of his relationship with female characters. Bond's attitude towards women has remained the same throughout the series, even as changing times saw the films themselves become quicker to describe that attitude in terms such as "sexist", "chauvinist" and "misogynist". Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who will be writing on Bond 25) said that, while the film has to treat women properly, Bond himself doesn't as that wouldn't be true to character. I don't think you could make Bond a woman and keep that fundamental characteristic as the power dynamic wouldn't stay the same.
 
SquishyMcSquish said:
I'm guessing she means the character has to be British, as long as the actor can do a good enough accent then there's no issue.
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I just meant it as a bit of a joke. But yeah Bond would have to British, we've already had the non British Bond film in Bourne Identity series and the Tom Cruise tries endless to kill himself on screen for millions of dollars Mission Impossible films.
 
Now I’m thinking of a female Bond, where she treats men similar to how the male Bond treats women. It could be interesting.
Get the right person and with a good script I think it could work.
 
MadMike said:
If no one gives a shit then why change it? It's pretty clear people and companies do give a shit.

My personal opinion is that companies these days, Disney included, thrive on creating controversy as a means of advertising. Giving 0 fecks, in spite of their preaching, about creating a more cohesive society but trying to profiteer from discord instead.

I'm certainly all for more racial inclusion in Hollywood. I'm all for promoting more stories and more movies written, acted and voiced by people of diverse heritage. More Mulans, more Moanas etc. Simply replacing a character in a Hans Christian Andersen story with a black sketch and voice actor is pretty half-hearted and hamfisted attempt at creating diversity. And while I don't give a feck about what Disney do with their stories, I do care about its effects on the current political climate and discourse.
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Did Hans Christian Andersen ever describe the Little Mermaid as being porcelain skinned? Let's face it, the story is about a mythical crypyozoological creature. It would be akin to kicking off about the genie in Aladdin being blue.
 
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