The Voice Acting in the New Prince of Persia is Racist

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Voice of Samurai Jack is done by a black guy and he is awesome at it (AND I'm Asian!).

So in short, just because the guy who does the voice isn't the same race doesn't mean he won't kick ass. Hell if Samurai Jack was voiced by say...Jet Li then it would sound more racist and wrong then it really should be.
 
Even beyond voices, in movies actors of certain races play characters of another race. It happens all the time and nobody cares because there's absolutely nothing racist about it. If anything, it's anti-racism, symbolizing unity among all races, sending the message that we're not different enough for it to matter.
 
[quote name='Koggit']1. White guy voicing a Persian is not racist at all. Absolutely in no way. People of one race voice characters of another race all the time -- in games, cartoons, anime, etc. Sometimes girls voice guys, also. Or guys voice girls. Absolutely nothing is racist about it (and nothing is sexist about one gender voicing another). You're being ridiculously oversensitive.[/QUOTE]

He's not saying that it's racist because it's a white guy -- he's saying it's racist that they aren't even trying to make him sound Persian. I'm not sure that'd I'd use "racist" here either, but you're misreading what he wrote.

[quote name='Koggit']2. I'm a Caucasian 22yr old and I've been pulled aside at the airport too. Many, many people have, it's sad that you just assume it's because of your race and get upset and consider them racist.

Maybe you should stop playing the race card in situations where race plays no role...[/QUOTE]

You don't know the frequency or circumstances under which he was stopped, and the fact that you've been stopped has no bearing on what happened to him.

Anyway, it's actually kind of an interesting point. I can understand why they'd go with Jake Gyllenhal (sp) for the movie (Who else are they going to get? Tony Shaloub?), but why not just get a voice actor who can do a middle eastern accent? It's not that tough. It's Ubisoft, and they've been consistently good about this sort of thing, so I doubt any kind of racism, but I'm reminded of the 2003 animated Sinbad movie removing any Arabic cultural elements for fear of an unpopular reception, and the many years of Hollywood casting white actors as Asian and Latin, while actual Asian and Latin actors watched from the sidelines. So while I'm pretty sure that the ghost of Medgar Evers could post on CAG and get told to stop being so oversensitive, what the OP's talking about *does* happen, and sometimes it *is* racist.

Whether it's happening here is another story.
 
Looks like everyone took a shit on the OP just because he used the word "racist". People are so sensitive.

Suppose Niko Bellic , Roman Bellic, and Dimitri sounded like regular American white guys, wouldn't it be stupid and not as good as the accented version? I enjoy Niko's accent and if the actor just spoke in a Caucasian accent then it just wouldn't be the same. Now, as far as I know, the guys are played by American dudes, but they're making an accent to fit the character. The black guy who talks for Samurai Jack uses are much softer tone of voice to fit the character rather than an obnoxious stereotypical black accent (Augustus Cole) . I'm not asking them to actually look for a Persian person and put them in the game, but why they would give him an accent that completely doesn't match his character is beyond me.
 
[quote name='bardiya27']I do know there are Persians outside of Iran dumbass. I am one. I am asking you how are you Persian if both of your parents are Afghan and you were not born in Iran.

Sounds to me like you are Afghan.[/QUOTE]

This doesn't seem like rocket science. His parents could be Persian and moved to Afghanistan etc.

As for the topic, I don't see it as racist. Just laziness for the voice acting and video game movies all suck balls so it's no surprise they put no effort into finding a persian actor for the lead.

Plus, as for giving him an accent--given the character and the setting the prince shouldn't even be speaking English. This isn't GTA with an immigrant coming to the US. Having him speak english is just a way of getting around having it in Arabic or whatever with english subtitles which would be the most authentic. I guess having an accent would be a bit more authentic, but it's not worth getting bent out of shape and playing the racist card over IMO.
 
[quote name='leveskikesko']You shouldn't throw around the word racist so carelessly. It's not a good habit.

Or do you actually think it's racist?[/quote]

Well said, this is inaccurate, not racist.

Everytime someone shouts and stamps their feet about something like this being racist, it just gives people more of a reason to roll their eyes and say "political correctness gone mad" when something really IS racist.
 
[quote name='miyamotofreak']Now I'm a completely chill guy when it comes to being politically correct and I'm even currently serving a 6 month ban on Neogaf for supposedly being rascist. [/quote]


I find this first sentence funny. Thats like saying "my Klan costume is for historical reenactments, but I'm not a racist". Hopefully CAG will institute the 6 month ban for starting dumb threads.
 
[quote name='trq']He's not saying that it's racist because it's a white guy -- he's saying it's racist that they aren't even trying to make him sound Persian. I'm not sure that'd I'd use "racist" here either, but you're misreading what he wrote.[/QUOTE]

Test:
1. How many Asian game characters get American voices in games?
2. How many movies based off of historical foreign characters get played by Americans speaking English?
3. How many movies are based in other countries with Americans speaking English?
4. How many movies/cartoons/games are based on other planets with Americans speaking English?
5. How many people whine about it?


Answer key:
1. Lots
2. Lots
3. Lots
4. Lots
5. Only the OP
 
[quote name='heavyd853']Yeah c'mon, Robert Downey Jr is playing a black man in the tropic thunder movie!


Thats not racist![/quote]
Actually this
800px-Minstrel_PosterBillyVanWare_edit.jpg



is very racist but Downey's role in tropic thunder is satirical.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']I find this first sentence funny. Thats like saying "my Klan costume is for historical reenactments, but I'm not a racist". Hopefully CAG will institute the 6 month ban for starting dumb threads.[/quote]
Meh, Neogaf has some of the most jackass and bipolar mods.
 
Yeah, I gotta go with the flow here. The use of anyone non-Persian for a simple voice acting gig doesn't feel like a big deal. Maybe if the civil unions felt a Persian voice actor applied and was turned down because he wasn't white you'd have a case. But it's all about displaying a proper tone and accent. If it was played up (think if Barrett from FFVII was voice acted!!!) then you could call it racist. But if it's a respectful performance by a trained voice actor? No biggie. People study accents and dialects professionally and I hope the new voice actor is one of those.

Although that screenshot of Jake Gly... Gyl.... whatever, as the Prince for a movie? That's just fucking stupid. I'll be crossing that off my list of movies to see.
 
It is bad voice acting? Maybe. But in historical context he wont even be speaking any kind of English at all. Same with most Hollywood movies (except for Mel Gibson's recent movies)
 
[quote name='miyamotofreak']I'm not crying foul because he isn't voiced by a Persian. I'm crying foul because he doesn't SOUND like a persian. [/quote]If the guy came out with a thick persian or arabian accent, every one would cry foul that the game was racist for using stereotypes.

[quote name='62t']The old Dynasty Warriors had tons of problem with voice acting, the biggest being names that were mispronounced.[/quote]Thanks for reminding me of a great example. OP, have you played Koei's Samurai Warriors series? Kenji sounds like he's from the deep south. Not like Miyazaki or Kagoshima, south. But like Kentucky or Alabama, south. That is the exact same issue, and no one calls Koei racist.

We reserve our criticisms of Koei for important issues. Like the fact that the games are horrible.



[quote name='The Crotch']That's because British accents are major aphrodisiacs.

Even Cockney?

Especially Cockney.[/quote]
ew. No no no. Cockney = horrible. Irish, maybe. ...fine, definately.



This thread will most likely be closing soon. But we'll let it stand a little longer in case any sanity comes to town.
 
[quote name='miyamotofreak']The Nathan Drake voice is distinctively caucasian [/quote]I didn't know Caucasian was a language.

If the character isn't really speaking English, why should he have an accent anyway?
 
[quote name='guinaevere']
This thread will most likely be closing soon. But we'll let it stand a little longer in case any sanity comes to town.[/quote]

Even the word hopeless has hope in it. :lol:
 
Let me get this straight... You're calling the casting of a white voice actor in the role of a Persian racist? So by that same train of thought Star Wars must be racist against white people because the voice of Darth Vader was a black man even though Anakin was white.

Were you also this outraged that Aladdin from the Disney movie was voiced by a Caucasian guy? Your thread is stupid. Please go fail somewhere else.
 
Right. The points have been made, and who will wins? We (everyone who isn't the OP) wins.


I'm closing this because I dont want to see the poor guy run out of town.
 
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