Personally, I didn't think many characters in the animated series were "clearly" from a particular race. The world they inhabit is based on Asian culture, but it's a fantasy world. Doesn't really mean anything.
Watched at midnight...huge huge fan of animated series. I won't go much further than saying I was pretty disappointed. It was cool to see the effects from the cartoon in a live action movie however as I said before, it would be very difficult to capture the charm of the series. B- and that is biased because of the cartoon series.
It's worse than that! Origin of the The Sixth Sense - A Kids' Show on Nickelodeon The Story You Know: Haley Joel Osment sees dead people, then it is revealed that *SPOILERS* Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time and somehow never notices that other people aren't talking to him. *END SPOILERS* After a few years he started seeing M. Night Shyamalan's career, and then his own. It became one of the highest grossing films of all time and would be nominated for six Oscars, all seemingly on the strength of that one mind-blowing twist. This baffled some critics; after all, wasn't the whole thing just a two hour-long Twilight Zone episode, complete with the gimmicky revelation at the end? What Inspired It: The truth is quite a bit stupider than that. This Academy Award-nominated classic was inspired by something off of the same children's television network that introduced the world to Rugrats, Clarissa Explains It All and Doug. Yup, Nickelodeon. Technically, SNICK. It turns out that Shyamalan was one hell of an unofficial member of the Midnight Society in the 90s, since his magnum opus was inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. The episode in particular, "The Tale of the Dream Girl", is basically the same story as The Sixth Sense except it was written for the same audience that followed Salute Your Shorts. Just like The Sixth Sense, "The Tale of the Dream Girl" tells the story of a kid who is able to eerily and unwillingly communicate with the dead. In this case, his name is Johnny Angelli, and he's portrayed by the same pretty-boy who played Scott Hope on Buffy. At first it appears that Johnny is being stalked by a girl who is clearly way out of his league, but not only does Johnny think that she's dead, there's something strange going on with Johnny. You see, he has this ring which he can't get off his finger, nobody seems to recognize him at work and his mother is so pissed that you would think he wrecked the car, or something. Only Johnny's sister believes in him. In fact, she's the only person who has really been speaking to him. Oh, and there's this dramatic scene with the ring, and a totally unexpected--because it was original--twist where... well... Five years later, Shyamalan gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best "Original" Screenplay. Hell, considering the work he's done since then, it might pay for him to get some more Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes on DVD (it had a nice run of seven seasons) and see what else he can dig up. There's enough cinematic gold in this season alone to keep Shyamalan busy for decades. Also, it's worth noting that "The Tale of the Dream Girl" aired on March 26 1994, which means Shyamalan had to be at least 23-years old during that life-changing Saturday night he was at home watching SNICK. Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_1858...nic-pop-culture-franchises.html#ixzz0sRLm0CB0 http://www.cracked.com/article_18585_the-7-most-wtf-origins-iconic-pop-culture-franchises.html
What a shock that this movie is getting piss-poor reviews. I mean, after "The Happening," what idiot thought it would be OK to let Shyamalan continue making movies? And that one even had Zooey Deschanel, and even she couldn't make it any less a waste of my life. I didn't think it was actually possible for the guy to make a worse film, but if Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed (The Happening - 18%, Avatar - 6%), he's somehow done it.
Supposedly their is more to the story. Most of the supporting characters are actually Asian (I think it's more apparent then the little kid in the show itself) and he replaced most with white actors. Also in the movie the Water element people ("good guys") are all white and all the Fire element people ("the bad guys") are all middle eastern/Indian. This is what I've read from a few reviews so far, I haven't actually seen the show..
That is a bit different than the complaint that OMG the lead characters are WHITE KIDS! I could see why that would draw attention, if that's the case.
Despite the fact that the creators of the series have often mention that the characters/world are indeed of Asian/ethnic origins, I can understand the need/desire to whitewash the cast... its a business. The problem i have is with people denying the obvious and instead become offended and criticize those who point out the whitewashing. This includes the director Manoj who in interview has denied whitewashing the cast based 1, one of the leads is asian and 2. he chose the best actors for the part. First, in his defense Manoj cites the casting of dev patel as one of the leads, when in actuality he had originally casted the great thespian/actor jesse mcartney (i think he was some teen pop star). It was much later when mcartney had to drop out (and long after the controversy started) that Manoj/thestudio (some say was forced) casted someone of ethnicity in one of the four starring roles. The second defense often cited by the studio and Manoj is that they casted the best actor for the part regardless of race... this argument is ridiculous enough when the two of the actors in question were, Jess mcartny and jackson rawbone. And judging from the reviews out none of the young actors cast have acquitted themselves well. Furthermore if indeed the casting was done without ethnicity in mind why was it necessary that Caucasian specified for the casting call for the 4 lead roles yet excluded from all the other roles? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBP9niW1hQ8&feature=player_embedded
His directorial career.... pretty much since 6th sense.... my favorite scene in the happening, mark walburg and crew running away from wind......
Spoke too soon my friend. http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/705922/Breaking-News-Wonder-Woman-Wears-Pants.html
Critics hate M.K.S. I never look at a M. Knight shyamalan movie review and say that I won't watch the film. shyamalan has more talent in his pinky that any critic could ever possibly have. Signs and Six Sense were classic films and every film that I've seen of his there is interesting moments.
