The Big Picture: Orphan, Black? - A Look At The New Annie

[Tumedus]

Fwiw, the racial controversy I saw wasn't so much about Annie being black, but that the primary white role in the film (Cameron Diaz) was a villain. Although taking a quick look at the cast it seems that Rose Byrne is playing Grace so that seems a bit hollow too.

But yeah, Orphan Annie airdropped into combat would make for a much more interesting movie. Throw in some random monsters too.

 

[maximara]

I'm guessing no weirdness either. The original Land of Oz books were full of weirdness like girls being transformed into boys and back again [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Ozma], but the 1940 Judy Garland film has pretty much cemented that presentation of Oz in the mass culture. So instead of mining Baum's 18 or so Oz books, which are all public domain now, Disney instead puts out a completely new film channelling the 1940 movie.

Part of that is due to "Return to Oz" (which was by Disney) was more faithful to the books...and was a disaster in terms of making money. That the film took Baum's material and made it darker certainly didn't help any.

Truth be told few movies are faithful to the original material and going back to the source can be jarring to say the least.

Peter and Wendy (Peter Pan) is much darker in tone then nearly any movie adaptation we have seen (Peter and the Pirates series comes closest IMHO). In the novel Hunchback of Notre Dame all the main characters die and there is no happy ending and so on.

I strongly suspect few people even know the book versions anymore.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Well if people tried to make new things, rather than black versions of existing things, there'd be fewer complaints.

So white (or non-black) remakes are OK, though?

 

[Maxtro]

Again?

What is the deal with all these established characters being re-imagined as black?

What is wrong with making an original story with original characters and having them be non-white?

 

[Remus]

"Orphan Black" and it's not about these girls

Color me disappointed.
A musical, with possible political commentary... I think I'll take a pass. I remember Annie from the 80s movie and I could do without the showtunes getting stuck in my head for months.

 

[teh_Canape]

I think I would go see "Annie in Afghanistan".

"AfghAnniestan"
sounds good, I'd watch it

 

[DaWaffledude]

Dammit, for a second I thought this would be about the Canadian Sci-Fi series. Ah well.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

I've been saying Annie in real life would be Black for years! Now I have proof XD

(lets hope there's no twerking in this film )

 

[Darth_Payn]

Hilarious video as always. Great to hear a variation of the COMICS ARE WEIRD tagline! I'd like to hear more analyses of newspaper comics. If there was any where too improve, it would be including sound effects for the funnier parts.
As for those relatives on Facebook posting those batshit conspiracy theories, I think my brother's turning into one of them, but from the far left. Once he asked me if it would have really been so bad if Max Zorin's plan to destroy Silicon Valley in "A View To A Kill" succeeded, and I told him "Yes it would be bad, you idiot! That movie's set in 1985, so besides the millions of people killed and technology destroyed, I'd be dead, Mom & Dad would be dead, and you wouldn't exist on account of our parents being too dead to conceive you!" So I stopped following him on Facebook an don't read his blog.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

The biggest controversy of this is that there is no controversy. It's a complete non-issue. The new Karate Kid was black. The cast of The Wiz was black. About half of the movies Eddie Murphy ever made were "black versions" of other films.

http://i.imgur.com/x5HPYOd.gif

The thing that pissed me off about 'The Karate Kid' was actually the puzzling lack of Karate.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

People are upset about her being black? I haven't noticed. I've actually haven't even heard they are remaking it. Also Bob, each week you sound more and more like a sjw.

 

[Therumancer]

"You talk about racial equality, how we're making progress. The problem with that progress is it's always a day away. Tomorrow, tomorrow-you love that!-because it's always a day away. I'm here to stick out my chin today! Today! Give us an African-American Spider Man! Give us a black that can run faster than a speeding bullet and leap over tall buildings in a single bound! Not tomorrow-today! Today! The sun needs to come out today! Not tomorrow, your Honor! God Almighty! Give the American people a black Orphan Annie. It's just not good enough to say she doesn't look the part."

I can't believe no one has mentioned this from Boston Legal.

Boston Legal predicting controversies a full 10 years before they happen.

I would Love it if Al Sharpton just gave that speech again regarding this issue.

My basic argument is simply why do they need to make Annie black. Why not simply create a black child-hero and try and see if it can succeed on it's own. My basic attitude is that this kind of thing, whether it's Heimdall or Annie is just a political statement for the sake of causing controversy and getting attention.

See, if someone wanted to do a black child hero, my recommendation would be for Disney to actually use the "Abadazad" license they have apparently been sitting on for ages and has pretty much killed anything being done with it. Part of the premise of "Abadazad" which is a darker take on the whole fantastic child adventures thing, is that Dorothy was black, and Oz was actually a biography, but she was whitewashed by the publishers. She acts as a sort of mentor to another (white) child hero, but Dorothy's own adventures figure prominently into the story, and one could always do an entire series based off of that under the "Abadazad" name where things are substantially different from Oz (in a rather twisted fashion at times) without arguably invoking a lot of the same problems, since it wouldn't actually be "Oz" per se but a different world loosely based off of it. Albeit it would properly be a prequel series, or the first couple of seasons of a show intended to go multi-generational from the beginning. There are of course other examples beyond this one.

Also in response to say "Boston Legal", my basic attitude is why you'd want a "Black Spider Man" as a sign of progress other than to annoy people like they did with Miles Morales. After all there are already a number of perfectly good black super heroes out there, that simply need to be promoted (which also applies to the other comments about black super heroes in a general sense). Not to mention if more blacks go into comic writing and artwork (given enough interest more will succeed over time) you'll see more such characters "earned" and "created" through contribution rather than just given as a political statement, and really that's half the issue I think, this kind of political stuff might earn some short term kudos, but a real victory needs to be earned with characters and success happening on their own in a genuine sense. The very fact that it's noteworthy that they are making the new Annie black, or turned Heimdall black, and becomes a promotional message is exactly why it's fairly pointless, and in 5-10 years people will still be trying to make the same statement as "Boston Legal" because most who care won't think that these previous things really mattered much (and really, beyond being an affront to canon, and getting some political attention they really don't).

I'm not going to argue the point at the moment, just giving my opinion on the matter. I imagine this will get 15 minutes of fame and within a few years it will be like it never happened. Sort of like when they did "The Wiz" and "Motown Fairy Tales" (I think it was).

 

[Zenron]

I knew the trailer existed for this but I didn't even watch it, it really doesn't appeal to me. I think I just hate Annie by reflex because I had to sing The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow when I was younger in front of a big crowd. Awkward memories for little introverted kid Zenron.

I think Quvenzhané Wallis being Annie is actually the only thing that would make this film worth seeing, considering how good she was in Beasts of the Southern Wilds.

The history was interesting, I thought this was going to be like a video form of outrage twitter and was happy to see that it wasn't.

That being said, the title of this video is still better than the video itself. Orphan Black kicks all kind of ass.

 

[Makabriel]

The biggest controversy of this is that there is no controversy. It's a complete non-issue. The new Karate Kid was black. The cast of The Wiz was black. About half of the movies Eddie Murphy ever made were "black versions" of other films.

The new Karate Kid was a remake. The Wiz was a re-imagining. And yes, Eddie Murphy did a lot of re-imaginings.

YES I'M THAT PERSON! I admit it. My feathers got ruffled when I heard Little Orphan Annie was going to be recast in this manner. The same way I rolled my eyes at the recasting of Kingpin. And I absolutely love Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP big guy).

Though, I suppose I can temper my annoyance by seeing this as a re-imagining. The same way I'm looking at the casting of the Fantastic 4. I think I still have the red marks form the face-palm that caused...

 

[Clunks]

The thing that pissed me off about 'The Karate Kid' was actually the puzzling lack of Karate.

That bugged me too. I reckon they could have called it "The Kung Fu Kid", billed it as a kind of spiritual sequel to The Karate Kid and still cashed in on the brand recognition.

 

[Jacco]

Well if people tried to make new things, rather than black versions of existing things, there'd be fewer complaints.

So white (or non-black) remakes are OK, though?

Where in the hell did he say that?

OT: What people don't seem to get with this whole race issue, is that making a character like Annie black serves absolutely no purpose to anything, racial diversity or otherwise. All it is doing is making a character black to make them black. That's not being diverse. It's the opposite. It's bringing attention to race and racial differences where there should be none. It's like the GLBT movement constantly making new labels for people. All it ends up doing is making more divisions.

Annie is simply not a black character. She's just not. Just like Michonne is simply not a white character. They are characters that happen to be the races they are.

 

[Jacco]

Annie is simply not a black character.

But she could be. Does she not have black enough traits to you? Is that way? The simple fact is this; you could have annie by black without changing anything else about her and it would 100% work. This is because ultimately there is no fundamental difference between a black person and a white person. What does "The black version" mean to you? I don't see how a film can be different simply by swapping the race of some of its lead characters. Black people can have the same motivations, experiences, feelings, personalities as a white person can. They can be the exact same character.

It's like saying; Annie simply isn't a blonde character.

Of course she COULD be black. But she's not. I could be black. But I'm not. Michonne could be white. Or Asian. But she's not. Lara Croft could be Hawaiian. But she's not.

Whether someone COULD be something doesn't mean they are.

And of course there are no fundamental differences between races. Of course black people can have the same motivations, experiences, etc. that white people do. That's why it is all the more insulting when something like race is forced like this. If someone wants to make a musical about a spunky black orphan, happy doody for them. But that spunky black orphan is not, and cannot be Annie.

 

[shogunblade]

This was a very good video, MB. I really don't mind that Annie is Black, In fact, I'm looking forward to the Remake, just because it looks kind of cute, and a little stupid, yes, but it is a kid's movie, so why worry about it? If there is nary a fart joke in the film (I have high hopes it won't), it just depends how good of a movie it is, and it will probably be innocuous.

I'm not big on Cameron Diaz as Ms. Hannigan (I do not like Cameron Diaz AT ALL), but I'll be willing to overlook her role if the movie is good.

I never realized how big of a life Little Orphan Annie had before the movies. That's the stuff I love to hear about on this show, random, but interesting things like Annie's history in the funny papers/comics days.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Well if people tried to make new things, rather than black versions of existing things, there'd be fewer complaints.

So white (or non-black) remakes are OK, though?

Where in the hell did he say that?

Where he specifically mentioned "black versions." If he was concerned about originality rather than race, then he would have just referred to "remakes" - not black ones specifically.

Also, the "fewer complaints" thing is telling, as people typically don't get as upset about remakes that don't switch race. It's essentially validating racist attitudes - the implication is; "if you don't want these complaints, keep everything white, as it should be."

OT: What people don't seem to get with this whole race issue, is that making a character like Annie black serves absolutely no purpose to anything, racial diversity or otherwise. All it is doing is making a character black to make them black.

So, what's wrong with that? It doesn't do any harm. And it does increase diversity, because it gives more leading roles to black actors.

That's not being diverse. It's the opposite. It's bringing attention to race and racial differences where there should be none.

So, casting a white person wouldn't be a racial issue, but casting a black person is? Hmmm.

And why should there be no attention paid to race and racial differences?

Annie is simply not a black character.

Why not? Characters can be whatever their writers and directors want them to be.