Quote from: Malleus Arianorum;279389If we're considering hapa as asian for casting purposes how about Keanu Reeves? He's been in alot of successful films, not all of which were kung-fu movies. And before Smalltown there was yet another Superman tv show (Lois and Clark?) with Superman played by a hapa who was the spitting image of my hapa brother.

Huh.  Learn something new every day.  From a quick search, that would be Dean Cain, birth name Dean George Tanaka.  

In general, I think that there are a lot of hapa who generally pass for white (or some other race), so I do think that it is something of a distinct but related case from Asian casting.

Quote from: CavScout;279285

I haven't seen a single episode of Avatar, so can't comment on the background stories, but like many anime stories the characters don't look particularly Asian.

Absolutely none of those characters seem remotely Asian to me.  The central character is CLEARLY European. He has pale whiteskin and blue eyes. Their dress and physical appearance suggests not Asia, but some generic fantasy world drawing from European fantasy (D&D fantasy) and Asian fantasy, a melange of the two.

Actually, looking at this image, I'd say the only way you could cast actors who look like that is to cast white people.

Which is one of the weird things about this thread.  Near as I can tell, the white actors that have been cast are perfect physical matches (skin tone, hair color, eye color) for their animated sources.  And given that the cartoon characters have European voices, I'm starting to think maybe all of this angst is extremely misplaced.

Quote from: Jackalope;279391Near as I can tell, the white actors that have been cast are perfect physical matches (skin tone, hair color, eye color) for their animated sources.  And given that the cartoon characters have European voices, I'm starting to think maybe all of this angst is extremely misplaced.

It sounds as if you haven't actually seen the show.  Is that right?  It seems to me that you are missing something.  Here's are some more detailed images:

Prince Zuko

Prince Zuko's voice actor Dante Basco (i.e. part of the "European voices")

Proposed cast Jesse McCartney


Here's Sokka with his family of the Southern Water Tribe


And proposed casting Jackson Rathbone


I am not saying that these images along prove that the casting is poor.  I am offering it as a bit of extra input for those unfamiliar with the show.  

Ultimately, I think that someone should see the show and judge for themselves.  It's not like there is only a single possible opinion of casting for a given source.

Adding a bit:  Here is Prince Zuko's uncle Iroh, my favorite character of the series,



And here is his voice actor, Mako,


Here is Sokka's sometime-girlfriend Suki


and her voice actress Jenny Kwan

Yes, there are also plenty of white members of the voice cast.  I'm not trying to say that the voice actors are majority Asian -- I'm just disputing that the voices are "European".  The voices are all fluent English-speaking, including actors of various ethnicities.

Quote from: beejazz;279387Isn't Dr. Who half human? I haven't watched much, so I might be confusing this with something else. In any case, his human parent may determine his limits in terms of appearance.

That was something from the Fox TV Movie that didn't fit at all with anything from previous canon, and has since been explicitly dismissed from canon (could be explained as the freshly-regenerated Doctor's addled brain just speaking nonsense, I guess).

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;279435That was something from the Fox TV Movie that didn't fit at all with anything from previous canon, and has since been explicitly dismissed from canon (could be explained as the freshly-regenerated Doctor's addled brain just speaking nonsense, I guess).

RPGPundit

Thanks for the clarification. I've only seen a little of this stuff, and that was a long time ago.

M. Night.
I had to admit THE HAPPENING blew my mind, but not in a good way.
When Mark Wahlberg went in to negotiate for peace with a plastic plant I nearly wet my pants.
And the rest of the movie- being chased around a field by the prop crew with a giant fan to make the grass wave? The genius of horror on no budget.