Perhaps the truth about Jar Jar is more horrible than we could have imagined…
http://www.brunching.com/features/feature-jarjartruth.html
Wasn’t there supposed to be a Jar Jar cartoon show in syndication? Unless I’m missing something, we seem to have at least been spared that!
“Appealing to kids” should not be synonymous with “insulting to adults”. The original Star Wars appealed to me as a kid without having to resort to using anything similar to Jar-Jar. Worse, he killed my suspension of disbelief- two jedi knights are on a top secret mission so they bring along a loud, trouble-making, Scrappy Dooish character?
I think the character of Jar Jar will evolve.
I mean, come on! He’s obviously going to have a purpose…
Look at how annoying Lando was…(sorry, I used to visit the old Star Wars Humor Site when it was around…killing Lando was an old joke over there)…
As far as Darth Vader being white…um, d’uh! I"m hoping that was serious sarcasm there. After all, Luke and Leia are pretty white.
Well, maybe. The thought is either scary or intriguing. Possibly both.
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/movies/jar_jar_holy_fool_000414.html
Biggirl, Lando betrayed Han in Empire Strikes Back to try and save his mining colony from Imperial interference. However, he later saved Leia from Vader and joined the Rebel Alliance. In Return of the Jedi, he piloted the Millenium Falcon and destroyed the Death Star II. By your theory of symbolism, he should have become white when he joined the Alliance.
Please, please people! Don’t make me have to use smilies in order to denote sarcasm.
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong on every level.
One: That legend is totally untrue. Originally Lucas’s idea was to have Wookiees as the primitive race that manage to defeat the Imperials, but he decided to have a Wookiee as a main character in the first movie instead, and so the primitive aspect no longer really applied the same way. So he cut the Wookiees in half, and turned their name inside out. (Wook-ee = E-wok) The fact that they’re marketable teddy bears is just a genuine coincidence.
Two: He may not have to pay one actor to play Jar Jar (though he did, Ahmed Best), but he does have to pay computer modellers, computer animators, computer effects compositors, stand ins, and more, to make him real. Yeah, that really saves money - NOT!
George doesn’t really care much about profit outside of the usual need to make his money back. I know, it doesn’t seem like it, with all those toys, movies, and video games he’s churning out, but that’s where his appeal to kids thing is being played out. When he was a kid, he loved toys related to his movie and TV idols - and he’s just following up by producing toys that can be played with, or collected, by the market that demands it.
Nobody’s forcing anybody to buy that stuff, you know. You can’t make a profit from stuff that doesn’t sell. They want it, he wants them to have it.
Incidentally, I know some things about Episode 2, as I have a friend who worked on it. This movie will be a lot more like the original trilogy, in terms of action and character. Definitely!
Thanks for the clarification Guanolad.
Turn Jar Jar evil.
Hey it works in pro wrestling when they contrive a good guy that no one likes.
How about because these were all still played by humans (and I can think of several villains with no accents)? One of the things that bothered me the most about TPM was that most of the alien species knew and spoke English (and often only English). In the original trilogy, you can count the number of alien species who spoke English on one hand. There were plenty of subtitles or the larger implication that this “world” had numerous multi-lingual individuals. The fact that GL felt he had to have everyone speak English seemed like the further dumbing-down of a series that, let’s face it, wasn’t all that cerebral to begin with.
Furthermore, his defense of Jar-Jar as innocent comic relief is tremendously lame. I don’t remember having to deal with robofarts and android turds in the original series passing for “comedy”. Makes one wonder how exactly his sense of “humor” has evolved all this time. The fact that GL is directing the second one (unlike his wise decision to hand off Empire 20 years ago) does not bode particularly well, IMHO.
THE AWFUL TRUTH:
EP2 SPOILER
Boba Fett = Jar Jar Binks
::d&r::
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Renton_lvr *
**
It’s a matter of representation. After a semester of studying media representations of women and minorities, I take this issue VERY seriously. I’m all for having the comic relief/villian be played by a woman/minority actor. Hell, that’s one step toward getting Hollywood less white-male centric! But when ONLY those characters are played by minorites, that’s what’s offensive. Example: there was controversy when The Lion King came out, because Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, as the villians, had what some thought were extremely ethnic-minority characteristic voices. OK, but the main leader was Jeremy Irons, and the hero and his family at various times in the film (young Simba, young Nala, and both of Simba’s parents) were voiced by African-Americans. So that’s not a valid argument of stereotyping, as there was equal representation there.
But in PM, the only positive minority character is Mace Windu, who is on screen a total of, what, 5 minutes? Combine that with the fact that you have plenty of negative representations, and, yea, I’m offended. Like I said initially, one characterization is just that: a character. But when you get more than one in a related light, (Jar Jar: stupid, doofus, can barely be understood, suceeds out of luck rather than skill. Asian aliens: sneaky, backstabbing, conspiring, traitors, but not all that creative or bright, as they rely on Darth Sidious for any REAL leadership) a pattern emerges, which is what media psychologists pay attention to. Remember the rule that every film student learns the first day of class: NOTHING in films is accidental. Sloppy continuity is one thing, but sloppy character choices are deliberate.
Hope this makes you feel better about the representation:
In interviews with both Lucas and Samuel L Jackson, Mace Windu’s role in TPM was described as an “emerging character” meaning he will play a much more important role in the next 2 films.
I’m of the stripe that found Jar Jar Binks thoroughly annoying, though I’m all for seeing him in the next Star Wars movie. I’d like to see him get killed withing the first five minutes in a scene that has nothing to do with the rest of the plot, and then have no one ever talk about him again.
Seriously, it’s obvious that Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans are based on Jamaicans. I don’t see this as offensive, though. Furthermore, I think it’s strange that no one is bothered that the race that violated the trade treaty that created much of the plot of the movie seem to be based on the Chinese, or that the slave-driving fly-like creature that owned young Annikin on Tatooine was vaguely French. I don’t see any of this as reason to get upset, since Lucas wasn’t indulging in blatant stereotyping or offensive attacks on any ethnic groups.
One thing I have to give Lucas credit for when it came to the Gungans was that big battle scene toward the end of the movie. Lucas incorporated old Buster Keaton scenes into the Gungan movements, and complimented this genius of physical comedy very well. I can’t remember the name of the Keaton picture that Lucas borrowed from, but he did it very well (though the Gungans, unlike Keaton, didn’t do all their own stunts.)
As a huge Keaton fan, I can think of few things more insulting to the legacy of this genius than this alleged “tribute.” (though for the life of me, I can’t think of a single Buster film that could actually apply)
[QUOTEBut in PM, the only positive minority character is Mace Windu, **[/QUOTE]
What about Anakin’s friend Kitster? What about Captain Panaka? What about the fact that every member of the Jedi Council who is human is a minority? How about the fact that Leia’s adopted father, Bail Organa whom everyone assumed would be white…is being played by Jimmy Smits in Episode II? Heck Boba Fett isn’t even white (hope that doesn’t spoil anything for any of you).
Personally, I think it’s silly to quibble over the race of the actors, when most of the characters are of different fucking SPECIES, for crying out loud. I mean, think about it: race, as far as black, white, Asian, etc wouldn’t really make a big difference in the Star Wars Universe when you have an alien with two head tails (Twilek) and something like Jabba the Hutt.
Does anyone else read the novels? My favorite character of all time is Mara Jade.
Boba Fett and his Dad are being played by Maori! (Daniel Logan and Temuera Morrison respectively) Is that cool or what? Being Maori myself, I say that is exceedingly cool!!!
JarJar? A Jedi? Unlikely. The Farce is not the same as The Force.