Looks cute and Taron Egerton has a magnificent singing voice, BUT the story line of a young gorilla whose dad is in a gang, commits robbery, ends up in jail, and whose gang members wear gold chains is a poor choice: were all other animal species unavailable? What next, a light-colored gorilla as President and unarmed gorillas being shot in the back by cops? Why are the cops rhinoceroses and not pigs?
shareI think you might be the issue here. I didn't notice any racial undertones with gorillas with Australian voices being in a gang of bank robbers.
But people will find racism in just about anything these days.
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Just because you are too stupid to understand it, it does not mean that it is a plot hole
Why use gorilla's to represent gold chain wearing criminals? The latter is a stereotype of black people and it is common for people to call black people gorilla's. The association is not forced.
shareHave you seen anything beyond the trailers?
*NO SPOILERS*
The gang has to be primates because of the physicality involved in the commission of their crimes and subsequent illegal actions. The ability to swing from place to place and enormous strength is essential. The accent, the clothing, the gold-ish jewellery you see and automatically (racistly?) think BLACK PEOPLE are actually portraying a vague criminal type found primarily in the northwest of England. Think "Snatch," the Crays, "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels." That is the regional accent Egerton, Serafinowicz, and the rest of the gang adopted.
Matthew McConaughey lived in OZ for a year to try on the accent, but had to admit he couldn't do it justice. He chose to play the part of a koala raised outside Australia. It happens.
The More You Know...
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The accent is not from northwest England. It is a cockney accent, from East London, and it's associated with fast-talking conmen (called spivs in English slang) and criminals. Think of the accents in another Taron Egerton movie "Kingsmen".
A northwest England accent would either be Scouse (from Liverpool, think The Beatles) or Manchester.
Australian "voices"? i think you mean accents.
they're not Aussie accents. if you don't have a passport and can't leave your country then start with the movie Snatch and then do some research on the inner city crims of the part of the World that film is based in.
c'mon people.
if you're not sure don't comment. it makes these forums isht.
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Australian?? Their accents are clearly cockney London, there is not a single Australian vowel. Cockney Londoners stereotyped here, not African Americans!!!
It is a class thing, not a race thing.
But people will find racism in just about anything these days.
Brought that up as well in my own thread. There's going to be quite a bit of triggering in US audiences about this, no doubt.
shareYou are the racist my friend, why are you associating gorilla's with black people, just because they have black fur they're automatically representing blacks?
shareYou must live a lovely, sheltered life if you've never heard the term "Gorilla" used to describe a dark-skinned person of African descent.
shareYes, "Gorilla" is commonly known. But it is a racial slur. And that slur is never used in the movie trailer. So if somebody tries to make a link to the actual slur, than that's on the person, not the movie. THEY were the one who made the connection between the movie's gorilla and a black person, not the movie.
share"that slur is never used in the movie trailer"
Its very occurrence is the slur, for better or worse.
"So if somebody tries to make a link to the actual slur, than that's on the person, not the movie"
No. it's noting/acknowledging the strong culturally-current slur being touched/triggered.
Right, racists associate Gorilla's with black people yet when someone points that out they are the "racists". Please, keep you head in the sand.
shareI legit never think of this until you brought this up. istg, not everything is about racial issue. really.
"I love films that make me react emotionally and physically when you walk out of the cinema."
You're not meant to think of it because there's nothing there.
It's quite clearly nothing to do with race and the OP is ignorant and not very intelligent for bringing it up. It's IMDB's version of a clickbait YT video. The OP is the one jumping to and forming the link between a gorilla's colour and the colour of certain humans.
There is no issue of race here because Gorillas aren't a race, they are a species.
Maybe you're not black and never been called a gorilla because your race.
shareROFL when I saw the trailer I instantly went "yup, I'm sure someone is saying that's racist" went to this board and to no surprise there's a person saying it's racist.
They are portraying them as bad guys, as thugish, rough, hard, mean. There isn't too many animals capable of portraying that. I guess you could argue maybe crocodiles, or other 'mean' looking animals.
But meh, people literally go day to day looking for things to be offended/outraged by.
If you recognize it as being potentially viewed as racist than no doubt many others have as well. THERE IS REASON WHY MANY WOULD PERCEIVE the characterization as being racists, which makes me wonder why the producers decided to do it.
sharePersonally, I think if you immediately associate them being based on an entire race, then you are looking for it. As for me, i assumed the gorillas were thieves because they were strong enough to break through walls/doors and nimble enough to scale buildings. Besides, they're all English. My mind went to a stereotypical English gang of thugs, but that's just me.
People will see what they want to see, think what they want to think, regardless.
Personally, I think if you immediately associate them being based on an entire race, then you are looking for it
So... you're perpetuating it?
shareIf someone associates blatant racism with an animated, British gorillas in a children's movie about being yourself and following your dreams, then yes, personally I think they're looking for it.
shareI agree: I was pleasantly suprised that it wasn't what i thought it was going to be due to the racist tropes in pop culture but i imagine it was more of an early focus group change: like they got push back on it in some way and decided to make the gorilla's english instead. But yeah the racist gorilla/black/criminal trope was definitely somewhere in the mix in a weird way.
shareWell, I suppose it makes up for the villains in "Zootopia" being all white sheep doping the minorities with mind-altering substances.
All's fair in racism and propaganda, after all!
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