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Marketing Up’s Asian-American Lead Character

Posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 by David Chen

russell-pixar

As an Asian-American, I have occasionally lamented the status (or lack thereof) of Asian-Americans in American cinema. Often, Asian-Americans actors are relegated to secondary characters, or worse, see roles ostensibly intended for them being whitewashed when they hit the big screen. That’s why I was surprised to learn that this summer, Disney/Pixar is releasing a film with an Asian-American as one of its lead characters. Even more surprising was that it was a character in a film I had already seen: Russell, the child Wilderness Explorer in Disney/Pixar’s newest film Up.

russell-jordan This is certainly not the first time that an ethnic minority has played a lead character in a Disney/Pixar film before (See: Mulan, Pocahontas). However, it’s interesting to me that there’s been virtually no mention of Russell’s ethnicity anywhere in Pixar’s publicity materials (Russell is voiced by Jordan Nagai, pictured right). While Russell’s appearance in the film indicates that he might be Asian, no references are made that would indicate either way, although a brief shot of one of his relatives seems to corroborate the idea. The character also has no last name, which is unhelpful.

peter_sohn

One of the few places where it’s essentially been confirmed is in an interview that Scifiwire did with Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera. When asked who they based the character of Russell off of, Docter responded:

Yeah. … [Pixar animator] Pete Sohn. He’s just such an entertaining guy that we thought, “OK, when you’re looking to create memorable characters, … if you can climb a couple stairs on your way up by basing it on someone that you know or whatever, that’s a great head start.” And he’s definitely a character.

Compare this to Disney’s upcoming film, The Princess and the Frog. Many film sites and publications (such as the Washington Post) made hay of the fact that that Tiana would be Disney’s first African-American princess. In one of Disney’s first press releases for the film (back when it was called The Frog Princess), they specifically identified her as such:

The Frog Princess will introduce the newest Disney princess, Maddy, a young African- American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter.

So what does all of this mean? Russell, who is voiced wonderfully by Nagai, is certainly a huge part of Up’s storyline. In fact, during a year when Disney/Pixar’s main summer release is a film about an geriatric man trying to float a house around the world, Russell, whose innocent and energetic demeanor helps drive the film, is probably going to be one of the main draws for kids (and I’m sure Pixar is hoping they will turn out in droves for the film). Why have Disney/Pixar chosen not to highlight the idea that he’s Asian-American?

If you choose to look at it cynically, you could say that Pixar purposefully wants to make Russell’s ethnicity ambiguous, so as to make him more relatable to more of the American target audience for Up. I thought about this possibility, but it seemed a bit incongruous given Pixar’s past track record of films with progressive themes. After some consideration, I’ve decided to take a more charitable, and maybe more hopeful viewpoint: When an Asian-American can play the lead character in a major summer tentpole release without any notice or fanfare, that’s progress.

Discuss: What do you guys think? Did you know that Russell was an Asian-American character? More importantly, does the way Pixar is marketing his character have any implications for minority characters in film?

Disney/Pixar’s Up opens in theaters everywhere tomorrow, May 29th. David Chen can be reached at davechensemail(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Comments

Robin Grahm

"When an Asian-American can play the lead character in a major summer tentpole release without any notice or fanfare, that’s progress."

Exactly! It shouldn't matter at all which ethnicity a character in a movie has. I'm glad Pixar didnt mention this. It shows, as you say, progress :D

Delta Assault

I hope they don't market him as being really good at math. That would be pretty lame.

DocHolliday24

I had no idea that he was an Asian-American. Thanks for giving me the heads up. That's definitely interesting, and even more so that no one is making a big deal about it. Maybe we're moving in the right direction after all - even though they probably could have done a little more to better communicate his ethnicity for clarity's sake alone.

JoJo

Yet you fools complained about Goku being white?? He isn't suppose to be asian too! He is an alien so he really could be any color or race.

Pedro E

I agree with the point made at the end. It doesn´t really matter and it shouldn´t be a selling point. Doing so would be the same as using the "but I have black friends" argument.

But, I really don´t see the controversy here. Maybe because I´m from Brazil and probably don´t really understand why the US is so race-obsessed. Yeah, film should highlight differtent cultures and experiences. And, mostly,they do. Maybe not in Transformers or Terminator. So grab some Kitano, some Agnes Jaoui, some Almodóvar or some Chan-wook Park.

I still don´t understand why on an older /Filmcast Mr Chen got so worked up over "Lost in Translation", claiming it was racist and patronizing. What he failed to see it´s that the film is about Bill Murrays point-of-view of Japan. It´s about culture shock and feeling left out (in the world and in his personal life, as we can tell by the phone calls with his wife). So it makes sense to show the crazy TV shows, the dizzying Akihabara lights and all that. Mr Chen was missing the point of this beautiful film. (This lead to a whole other talk about how the PC culture is ruining our world. But that´s for another time).

This "Up" discussion shouldn´t even exist outside a race-obsessed culture. But hey, that´s just me.

Keep up the good work /film guys. I´m a longtime reader and frequent clicker.

David Chen

1) I don't see a controversy either, but we thought the fact that Russell is Asian-American, and how Pixar is handling it, might be worth bringing to people's attention

2) I don't remember getting terribly "worked up over" the film, nor did I say it was "racist." I understand what the point of the film is, but my point was that a lot of its humor derives from outright mockery of another culture (or at least rendering them as outrageously quirky or bizarre). If you want to discuss "Lost in Translation" further, feel free to e-mail me (as this comment thread is for the above story). But your points about "Up" are well-taken.

Pedro E

It's ok. No need to prolong this.

I just mentioned this once to my girlfriend, who's the daughter of japanese parents and has been several times to Tokyo, and she told me that "Lost in Translation" is actually a pretty accurate description of all the madness that goes on in the city. Well, not really a "description" and more of an impression, if you know what I mean. And she also said that for a "gaijin" in Tokyo this impression would be even more spot-on.

That's why I thought it was the whole point of the film to portray the city the way it does. And it actually made me want to visit Tokyo even more.

Anyways, that's about it. Thanks for the reply, man. Keep on bringing them /filmcasts.

Thrillhouse

1. I knew he was Asian.

2. I don't think Pixar should call attention to it - it would come off as self-serving.

3. The think the MEDIA are the ones who SHOULD call more attention to it, because as David Chen points out, it is kind of a big deal.

I think we're at a point where a variety of races in fictional media is becoming fairly standard - and slowly we're seeing them take on a bigger presence as far as screen time. That comes with having a more global society and it's very refreshing.

I think it comes off as shallow when a company promotes their own product this way. They shouldn't have to say "hey, look at us - we're diverse!"

The media should be the ones that applaud Pixar for doing it.

Rick Gershman

I can't really improve on Thrillhouse's points--I agree with them entirely.

I actually did not realize the character was Asian, but on the other hand, he didn't exactly strike me before as, for lack of a better term, "super-white."

(OK, there probably was a better term, but I couldn't think of one.)

Pixar's definitely earned my giving them the benefit of the doubt on this issue. And I don't see, in 2009, how having an Asian kid in the lead (as opposed to a "white" kid) is going to ward off any moviegoers anyway.

I applaud Pixar for not making a big deal out of it: He's a kid. It makes no difference at all what his race is. To bad Hollywood in general still hasn't figured that out.

(BTW, David, I didn't know about that deal with 21 changing Asian-American characters to white ones. That's revolting. Glad I never watched or rented that film--and now I never will.)

Carl Lee

It is a rare event when I chime here, but it is whole-heartily needed.

The fact remains, America has a race problem. Though part of it resides with Asian-Americans having the tendency to remain as wallpaper--arguably, it's not in our culture to be narcissistic, much of it has to do with not being acknowledge as part of the American population. Asians are always considered the "smart math kid" or the "computer nerd" or some other stereotype, underlining the minority attribute with another characteristic outside of the mainstream.

This way of thinking will change when there are more stand-out Asians doing things outside of those stereotypes. Aggressively reporting on screenwriters like Alex Tse or highlighting Asians as they become "public figures" is the easy path to make Asian-Americans part of the commonplace.

shameless

you forgot another asian stereotype: "the bad driver." the fact of the matter is, asians in america are just as racist towards other cultures as those cultures are towards them. the sooner we all drop these ethnic labels the better.

snowballa

@Pedro E: Are you kidding me? Brazil is one of the world's most culturally mixed countries and all you ever see on TV are the ones of European descent. The racism and colorism in your country is rampant and I'm surprised that you are commenting about American's obsession with race when your country is the same. America isn't there yet with complete equality and possibly never will, but ignoring it like Brazil is not the solution.

Jonah Rose

Here's a really great article on Asian American racism in the movies:

http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-...

Truong Luu

I've still been wanting to see a film adaptation of Frank Chin's "Chickencoop Chinaman"

Pedro E

@snowballa: Hey, I don´t agree with my country´s solution for the problem. Not at all. Actually, there are way more thing wrong with Brazil overall than most countries. Race is but one more problem over there.
All I´m saying it´s that things like "Up" should treated naturally. And that seeing race everywhere, to the point of undermining the film´s merits (liek "Lost in Translation"), is just kinda too PC for me.
But overall, like I said, I compeltely agree with Mr Chen´s point on the post.
Just out of curiosity? Where are you from? I applaud you on your knowledge. I don´t really know much of what´s the image of Brazil outside of here. But, in the US, I know it´s just non-existent. Even though we´re kind of big in the map, most American can´t even point at it.

mixmasterangel

just remember it is an "north" american movie, not an asian produced movie, imagine park chan wook casting african or latin characters ¿?... and im from venezuela, a south american country, who seems to be a character in this movie plot, and as usual nobody point that out and no ones cares in the end

Jeez

Dave - Let it go. Your constant ramblings about racism against Asian Americans on the /FilmCast make it nigh unlistenable at times - a standout example being your inability to appraise Gran Torino as a movie about generational rather than racial differences.

You persistently try to hunt out instances like these and seem to revel in being personally affronted. You're like a broken record with this topic Mr Chen - and the song is shit.

shameless

i recommend that you stop complaining about ethnicities not receiving enough film time. do you care that bollywood mostly employs folks of indian descent? what about when asian films have all asian casts and crews? if asians aren't marketable in the US then they shouldn't market them.

adamluo

And if you can't add something intelligent or thoughtful to a conversation, you shouldn't join one.

Bull

Did you read the article? I recommend that you shut the fuck up.

Fir3Wolf

I did know he was asian after seeing him for the first time. No offense but I knew cause of the way he looked, it wasn't that hard to tell. I'm a minority myself and to be honest how some movie portray "my kind" doesn't usually bother me even if its in a bad way. I just don't let it bother me all that much. Why feed into it you know, just let it be.

Scott

I never even realized he was Asian until now...

UpUpANDaway

to clarify further, the character is actually half Korean.

Marc_Shake

I'm with Scott over there. I didn't know he was Asian, too.

Besides that I don't give the literal flying f... what ethnicity somebody comes from. And I am german ;)

But, to be serious and honest: I think the whole race-discussion is one internal barricade ALL people have to climb and leave behind them. Whenever we talk about races, we should not talk about the color of the skin but about the races of indianapolis or even "Cars".

In my opinion the whole concept of "race" is outdated.

Solid

That's easy to say online, much harder to do in every day life. If I even dare step foot in the wrong neighborhood, I'll be in jail for at least a night. It's bad out there, internet.

joshi38

I've been staying away from marketing for this film, but saw a trailer today while at the Cinema and thought that he looked a little Oriental.

I like that they've not made a big deal out of it and didn't do it just for the sake of doing it.

Henrik89

Why would they need to tell everyone that he is asian all the time? Is the race of characters that important?

guest1234

I always thought he did look slightly asian. Never looked at it as a positive or negative. Pixar is good at making their characters look how they do and you accept it.

ANGRYBROOMSTICK

dude, we're not talking about racism here. We're talking about the fact that Hollywood ignores Asian characters or Asian actors in films. When a film with a black lead, such as HANCOCK, is released, there is a lot of drumfare about "Hollywood's first black superhero."

ANGRYBROOMSTICK

I agree. Let's not forget that many Brazilian models are WHITE and barely look South American to me. Oh, and there's that fact that George W. Bush asked someone if there were any Black people in Brazil... oh, the idiocy.

Rafael

"Let's not forget that many Brazilian models are WHITE and barely look South American to me."

Well, just because a person is white doesn't mean he or she doesn't look South American. The ethnicity of South American people varies from region to region, since we are not as racially homogeneous as Europeans for example. On certain regions, the population can be mostly white (Argentina, south of Brazil), black (northeast of Brazil), indigenous (Bolivia, Peru), or mixed. It's not an easy task to define what the typical South American looks like, even though most people take for granted that we are all Mexicans. :D

By the way, I didn't mean to disagree with your observation about racism in Brazil, I just wanted to clarify what would be the "South American look" you mentioned.

Dude_Diggler

Hey, I'm Brazilian and am white with blond hair and blue eyes. The fact that many successful brazilian models are white is simply because that's the standard of the fashion industry, hell the standard of western culture I guess. I agree that Brazil has many racial issues, but it certainly is not as PC obsessed as the USA. You can decide for yourself whether that is good or bad...

ANGRYBROOMSTICK

uh, right, and the costumes, along with the scenery and names aren't Asian influenced?

YoungZer0

They are but Asian Influence is does not make you an asian.

JakePT

So?

Like I said, if someone were to create a fantasy culture influenced by western culture, does that preclude the possibility of non-whites appearing in that work? Absolutely not.

Also, I wouldn't be mad if they cast the Avatar characters with Asians, my point is it doesn't matter, because the characters aren't Asian (in the biological sense), because they don't, and never did, exist.

Urkel

I'm a minority but I absolutely hate this necessity people have to see more minorities in film. It just doesn't matter to me because I'm enjoying the characters and shoe-horning in anyone that the writer didn't initially envision always turns out to force an unnecessary spotlight on them. I absolutely hate "movie gangs" where the urban neighborhood has 2 black guys, 2 hispanic guys and the white guy with his tilted hat. If you're in a bad neighborhood then whats wrong with making a gang all black or all asian? I'm not offended because I've seen it before.

As for Up. I noticed he was asian from the start and I was indifferent because my love for ANY character has more to do with how they are played than what ethnicity they are.

sean p

Asian?? I thought he was a Chinese kid, not Indian. Weird. Maybe there's a section of Bombay that has lighter skinned people that look Chinese or Hawaiian. Are Russian people considered Asian?

JKW

Agreed. As an Asian-American cinephile myself, the first time I saw the kid with his hair and the more Asian-looking eyes he had, I wondered the same. I have the same opinion in regard to our representation in cinema...and it's pretty depressing. What makes Russell so progressive is indeed the fact that ethnicity is NOT the major quality people would define him by, which to me is wonderful. You don't need to identify him as the Asian boy like you would Jackie Chan as the Asian cop or John Cho as the Asian starfleet officer. He's not there as a sign of making films more PC like the Princess and the Frog, and the fact that audiences will love him (all the girls I knew who saw the trailer involuntarily went "AWWWW!" at him) without needing to define him solely on ethnic lines is a true sign of progress. I don't think he looks ambiguous or that it's done out of shame or anything, it's just the fact that we've seen enough varied art styles that he may not necessarily be Asian just on the account of people possibly imposing their own ethnic ideas because it's animation (can anybody really tell if Carl comes from an Italian, Irish, German, whatever background?). Regardless, epic win for Pixar to be quietly progressive and not in-your-face about it.

Travis Cowan

I deeply respect that Disney/Pixar has not made Russell's ethnicity a part of their marketing. Thinking as an optimist I see this as a step forward. The Princess and the Frog might as well be "The Adventure's of Disney's First Black Princess" and it will suffer for it. Russell's ethnicity doesn't matter, it is his demeanor and charm that makes him interesting. I am horrified to think about what UP would be if Russell's ethnicity was a key point to the film. Lest we forget Short-Round.

No time for barroons Mr. Car-rle!

ziggi

i didnt know he was asian-american either.
i thought he was just a typical fat kid.

BryanS

Knew he was Asian and didn't care...I'd see up if he was black, white, yellow, orange, red or green...

The sooner people drop the HYPHEN the better!!! If living in Africa am I an American-African? Are there Russian-Mexicans or African-Brazilians? And don't forget those Asian-Englishmen!

Funny how people who's families have been here in the US for generations need to have a hyphen while those just coming here want to be called American...

simon2it

I don't see why Asian is getting all the attention? Who cares! The problem here is that there's a fat kid in the lead. What is up with that?

Luke

From the first time I saw the poster for the movie and I looked at his eyes, I knew he was Asian-American immediately. It was so obvious. Just look at the eyes and the spiky black hair. Nobody had to tell me this.

graham7x

I always thought boo from monsters inc was asian.

joe

I honestly thought he was white before I read this article.

evanz

Ditto. He's about the whitest Asian dude I've ever seen.

YoungZer0

I had no idea that the fat kid is asian-american and i don't really give a shit.

Larry

HYPHENATED AMERICANS UNITE!!!!!!

In Idiocy.....and I am not even American

Larry

I just read snowballa's comment to Pedro and have to say this.

Ohhhh bicho burro eh tu oh macho, tu nao sabe de nada e quer falar merda.

So there you go snowballa, have you ever watched brazilian TV? Ever been to Brasil?

I would have to say no..

NickN328

My friend said to me a few weeks ago that he thought the character in Up was Asian, and I was like "No, he isn't" and when he pointed out he had slanted eyes I thought it was because he was chubby. Basically, Pixar doesn't feel there's a need to focus on it simply because it doesn't help them in any way, nor is there a point to it. And I agree with your last line.

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