The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predicta

I don't think I'm crazy when I say Larry David shouldn't play Superman and Melissa McCarthy shouldn't play Aphrodite.

I have nothing but love for both of them, but they don't fit those roles even just by taking them at their physical profile. In almost every area of normal life, things like that shouldn't matter. The acting business is one of the extraordinarily rare exceptions.

 

I could see how being British is inherent to the character but don’t see the same for race. There are obviously a lot of non White people in the UK. It’s usually the left accused of focusing on race where it’s arguably not relevant. The attention to race by some on the right in this context is interesting to me.

 

James Bond is definitely one of the more borderline cases in my opinion because it's a fictional character derived from books, where I'm not sure the race is ever explicitly mentioned.

And he's been depicted in the movies by shorter guys, taller guys, light hair, dark hair, brown eyes, and blue eyes.

Is race swap such a visual contrast that it will be distracting to the audience and feel different from its predecessors? I think it can reasonably go either way.

 

Princess and the Frog is also a very good movie. Moana and Tiana have good stories.
The remakes are just trying to score points with the woke. If you go woke, sometimes you go broke.

 

Yeah, I'm sure the execs did discuss the pros and cons of casting Hailey Bailey. I'm saying that "identity politics" probably wasn't a deciding reason. They had to have considered it a short term negative knowing there would be at least some racist backlash, and they film would do terrible in Asia. But I have to be honest here, blaming "identity politics" and DEI for her casting feels a bit racist. I'm sure they auditioned many white girls, but that someone can't even consider that Hailey Bailey nailed the casting to the point that they -- the execs obsessed with making money have creating classic blockbuster films -- had to look past the negatives and say "yeah, we can make this work" ... and then she by all reviews nails it in the movie. Even the "bad" reviews talk her up as the "bright spot" of the film. I mean, why can't we give the black girl credit instead of claiming she's an unwanted DEI square peg in a round hole...

 

I dont understand why there are "rules" for anything? If someone was making a movie about Superman as a retired old man, Larry David would be great. If someone wanted to poke fun at feminine standards of beauty in a satirical comedy, Mellissa McCarthy would be a great choice as Aphrodite.

 

But you wouldn’t understand anything about rules or standards for that matter.
Your whole schtick is about breaking rules.

 

I see you more like…

 

Does that make you George McFly?

 

No.

 

Cant be Marty, too much of a rule-breaker and rebel

 

Nope, but you can still be Biff.

 

Ok, I will keep shoving you into metaphorical lockers around here then

 

Disney and corporate America keep tripping over themselves because they view rural America through the type of binary that you do. Disney and corporate America could be more profitable if they listened rather than resorting to accusations of -isms and -phobias as a first resort.

Disapproval of unnatural storytelling is not tacit racism. Many non-racist people will accept diverse and inclusive choices in storytelling. It just needs to feel authentic to the story being told. You would think based on the reactions in this thread that racists are mad every time a movie is made with Denzel Washington, Will Smith, or Halle Berry.

Many people love movies starring those characters, including myself. The difference is Hollywood made good stories that felt natural for those characters. When Hollywood has done that it has been accepted with great enthusiasm by the same people who are dumping on Disney for The Little Mermaid. There is not an uproar by the people you accuse of being racist every time a new Denzel Washington movie comes out. How do you explain that?

 

But I’m not included in your metaphorical scenarios.
I’m in the audience watching you make an ass of yourself.

 

Audience members dont typically interact with the talent, is this one of those meta/high concept productions? Seems a little outside of your meat and potatoes approach.

 

Do you think a capitalist corporation cares about selling to dying markets left behind by capitalist "progress" or entering more lucrative ones in other countries that have expanding numbers of wealthy people? Which is the more sure road to profit?

 

Very high level. Yes.