OT : Episode II Trailer
quote:
Originally posted by mayaxiong:
However, I don’t think those little ewoks were ‘created’ with as much greed as JarJar,
Oh, I couldn’t disagree more. The Ewoks were originally supposed to be Wookiees and (despite the typical George Lucas retro-fitting of his decision-making) were changed to cute, teddy-bear-esque creatures after the success of marketing the alien characters (especially Yoda) to children. The Ewok situation is based purely on greed and marketing potential, while they at least gave Jar-Jar some character and personality (whether or not that character or personality is *appealing* is another question, but they at least were able to create something that had more dimension than the Ewoks).
quote[quote]and is it just me….or did they make him out to be some kind of big dumb Rastafarian? I was sort of uncomfortable with this comparison, I thought it was in poor taste to mimic a culture with such obvious disdain.[/quote]
No, it’s not just you, many people have made the same comparison and drawn the same conclusion, but I don’t agree with this either. Ahmed Best, an African-American actor, developed the vocal characteristics of Jar-Jar’s character, and has continually stated that he did not (at least conciously) base it on any one particular group of people. People have tried to level accusations of racism against Episode One because of this character (plus the collaborating Trade Federation leaders, who some claim are anti-Asian stereotypes, while they actually sound more like people with heavy Asian accents imitating Bela Lugosi), while ignoring the treatment of the Gungans as a whole — they’re technologically advanced, great warriors, and honorable (Boss Nass is more of a blustery, though ultimately genial, politician than the boob some people try to paint him as).
Jar-Jar is evidently modeled on silent movie comics (many of his schticks are copied directly from silent comedies) with a heavy dose of Jerry Lewis as far as his mannerisms go (he’s not really *stupid*, I’d argue…just extremely awkward, clumsy and naive). And I don’t think that his vocal characteristics can be branded as racist or discriminatory. He doesn’t really sound like *anybody*.
–Aleck