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"Code of Honor" Ligonians: Humans or Aliens?

SonicRanger said:
...But consider how all-CGI aliens in the SW prequels are called racist portrayals just because of their accents or manner of speaking.
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Not entirely true. It wasn't just their accents, it was their character and their movements.

Watto's large hooked nose, beady eyes, and covetous personality evoke anti-Jew stereotypes, especially with the voice they gave him. Jar Jar's movements, bug-eyed, scaredy-cat behavior are pretty minstrel-show, and the "meso youso" speech pattern is the just the icing on the cake. Then there's the Nemoidians with their pseudo-Thai accents, far east costumes, duplicitous nature and diagonal (read squinty and slanted) pupils.

I don't think I need continue, and I feel the urge to wash my hands.
 
Maurice said:
SonicRanger said:
...But consider how all-CGI aliens in the SW prequels are called racist portrayals just because of their accents or manner of speaking.
Click to expand...
Not entirely true. It wasn't just their accents, it was their character and their movements.

Watto's large hooked nose, beady eyes, and covetous personality evoke anti-Jew stereotypes, especially with the voice they gave him. Jar Jar's movements, bug-eyed, scaredy-cat behavior are pretty minstrel-show, and the "meso youso" speech pattern is the just the icing on the cake. Then there's the Nemoidians with their pseudo-Thai accents, far east costumes, duplicitous nature and diagonal (read squinty and slanted) pupils.

I don't think I need continue, and I feel the urge to wash my hands.
Click to expand...

None of those caricatures would have caught on with people if those characters/aliens spoke an alien language that needed subtitles instead.

The Watto designers and animators had no input into how he would sound, and if you look around the internet, people have varied ideas about what his accent sounds like, everything from Arab to Yiddish to Greek to Italian.
 
The voices play into it, but it's not just the voices. The physical appearances reinforce the voices.
 
Spock/Uhura Fan said:
@Nerys Myk - That's true, but I don't think it's definite gold. Sean Penn was nominated for I Am Sam, but he didn't win, just off the top of my head. If the performance is good, a nomination is probably likely, though.
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The "Gold Baby!!!!" was a joke. Its not always a sure thing,but performances like that, in the right hands, tend to stand out. Murders, psychos and characters with over the top personalities resonate with the public and the academy.
 
SonicRanger said:
consider how all-CGI aliens in the SW prequels are called racist portrayals just because of their accents or manner of speaking.
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Ironic, since the actor (Ahmed Best) who voiced Jar-Jar and came up with his voice and mannerisms actually IS black. Is he not allowed to do what he wishes? :confused:
 
^ He's allowed to do what he wishes, but other people are also allowed to take issue with it and not like it. I looked up what he had to say and found this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMSYL_LUyA

It does say something to me that he’d only ever done shorts and student films before he got that role, and obviously you don’t bite the hand that fed you.


Nerys Myk said:
Spock/Uhura Fan said:
@Nerys Myk - That's true, but I don't think it's definite gold. Sean Penn was nominated for I Am Sam, but he didn't win, just off the top of my head. If the performance is good, a nomination is probably likely, though.
Click to expand...
The "Gold Baby!!!!" was a joke.
Click to expand...

I took it as a joke, but I also wanted to make a point from it.

Its not always a sure thing,but performances like that, in the right hands, tend to stand out. Murders, psychos and characters with over the top personalities resonate with the public and the academy.
Click to expand...

Very true. :)
 
SonicRanger said:
So I was looking at the new Blu-ray "Code of Honor" screencaps at Trekcore to look at the production design and search for cultural references in the designs.

First, I noticed that Lutan's chair is vaguely similar to some West African chieftain stools:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x04/codeofhonor_hd_202.jpg

Then I got distracted by how sheer the fabric of Yareena's shirt is:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x04/codeofhonor_hd_208.jpg
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A fantastic selling point for the new blu rays.

Can't wait for all those counselor troi camel toe scenes in HD.
 
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