At the Trailer Park: The Last Airbender; 2012; ZombieLand; Ponyo
By John DeNardo |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at
12:22 am
A whole new slew of trailers comin’; at ya’…
The Last Airbender
Release Date: July 2, 2010.
Verdict: My daughter will probably drag me to see this whether I want to or not.
2012
Release Date: November 13, 2009.
Verdict: Looks like some amazing apocalyptic special effects. And who doesn’t like John Cusack?
ZombieLand
Release Date: October 9, 2009.
Verdict: Can it ever compare to Shaun of the Dead? I don’t think so. And there’s something about a smack-talking Woody Harrelson that just seem…I dunno…wrong.
Ponyo
Release Date: August 14, 2009.
Verdict: The next film by Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki? Automatic must-see.
Related posts:
- At The Trailer Park: Dark Knight, Clone Wars and Ponyo on the Cliff
- At The Trailer Park: The Half-Blood Prince, The Spirit, Race to Witch Mountain, 2012
- More Casting for A Scanner Darkly
- At the Trailer Park: The Day The Earth Stood Still (Extended)
- At The Trailer Park: LOST, Watchmen, Bolt, Push, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus, Outlander
Filed under: Movies
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Okay. M Night and crew couldn’t find a single East Asian to be a lead actor in the Last Airbender but he found Indian actors to cast. Pathetic.
It’s 2009 and the yellow man still can’t catch a break in Hollywood!
Zombieland wins just for the Purell(spelling?) joke.
OK, that part was funny.
couple of things here. Rafe, I’m getting sick of people pulling this race thing. As anti-avatar-movie as I am, the race thing is just a terrible argument. First you would have to win the argument that Avatar is anime and even if you did win, you’d have problems:
Even the East Asians in anime often don’t look asian. So first, if you have a problem with the way races are portrayed in anime, look to the Japanese. Second, what makes you say Aang is supposed to be East Asian? Third, this show was created by white Americans (not asians) and they created a white (looking) lead character. If that bothers you, fine. But you’ve got to start there!
I guess in keeping with the negativity (sorry), does anyone else think Ponyo looks rubbish?
lol
I thought Indians were East Asian…..plus you know if you consider them not east asian,which is odd, it is not as if they get into a lot of hollywood movies.
Your understanding of the problem many people have with the Avatar casting is completely Fail A_Z.
It doesn’t matter if Avatar is anime or not, that’s not part of the argument. (It’s anime-influenced American animation obviously)
It doesn’t matter what East-Asian characters look like in anime either. That’s irrelevant.
The argument is simply – look how the characters are drawn, they’re clearly not all white. Aang isn’t. Katara and her brother aren’t. Zuko is though.
What makes Aang not a white character is how he’s drawn: It’s a show made by Americans, but it doesn’t star a white-looking main character.
And it’s not just Aang that’s the problem
Have a look at this : http://fantasyecho.livejournal.com/241542.html
The pictures at the top speak for themselves.
Well ET, I just completely disagree with how you see the characters. You think Zuko is white and Aang is not? Racial discernment fail.
So you recognise that you misunderstood the argument many people are making about the casting for Avatar?
On the specific identification of the race of each character, did you even follow the link I left last time?
Zuko is an interesting case – if you follow the link, you’ll see the contrast between his skin tone and that of Katara and Sokka. He could be read as Persian, or otherwise, not necessarily white – but he is certainly not indian. (No criticism of the guy who plays him intended, I’m sure he’ll do a good job – he was great in Skins)
Whether Aang is asian – well given the lack of distinction between asian and white characters in many anime styles (sometime characters intended to be recognised as white are given blonde hair and blue eyes as markers) – and the fact that Avatar is clearly very anime inspired in it’s style – he could be read in different ways, check out these links though:
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/avatar/images/thumb/5/5d/Aang_avatar_state_002.jpg/250px-Aang_avatar_state_002.jpg
http://shop.shaolingongfu.com/images/wushu19.jpg
(Don’t ask me what the title in that second link is about, I just did a random google search for “shaolin boy martial arts” and grabbed the first one that looked a little bit like Aang)
However in the interests of balance the white boy they got to play Aang does a fair job of looking like him too:
http://uk.imdb.com/media/rm3013707776/tt0938283
However that doesn’t mitigate the travesty that is obvious from my first link:
http://fantasyecho.livejournal.com/241542.html
No matter where you stand on this debate about the casting of Asian-Americans in films, you can’t deny the fact that very few good roles are offered to Asian-Americans. The majority of the roles fall along stereotypical lines but as an actor/actress, you take what you can get. It’s a shame really.
who cares as long as the acting is good