Fox's reboot of the Fantastic Four has been controversial to say the least. A stream of, what looks like, poor casting decisions has been the prime concern. Jamie Bell as the Thing? Really? The kid from Billy Elliot?
But the biggest controversy appears to stem from the casting of Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm. Let's address the elephant in the room here, he's black!
Now casting a black Johnny Storm seems to be an issue. First things first, Michael B Jordan's credentials as an actor seem ok. I haven't personally seen him in anything other than a couple of guest TV roles. However, he has been in The Wire, one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the last 20 years. This is a good thing. Hopefully Fox cast him because he is a good actor. We can only assume this, because Josh Trank has cast him for a second time in a movie. To think otherwise would be really patronising of Fox, and hopefully not something an up and coming young black actor would want to be part of.
For me the biggest issue in the casting of a black actor for Johnny Storm isn't even his casting. For me I think it is the laziness of Fox being to scared to go the whole hog with it. They should of cast Sue as a black actress too. This is a brother and sister, who have a very close upbringing due to being hauled around the world being brought up by an Army dad. After Mum was gone, there is no new relationship for dad, no time for a step parent. If you want to be progressive in pushing forward good black role models, why stop at one half of a brother and sister team, all this does is make it look like a token casting, even when it may not be. If you have a black brother and sister team, the sister of which marries a white guy, then you are setting up good role models for kids on respect for other cultures and heroes black kids can associate with.
Marvel have a very white character base over all, some of which has been adjusted with the Ultimate Universe (Nick Fury) and they introduced the first black hero in Black Panther (Where the hell is this movie!)
I am one of the first people to moan when things aren't exact to the
comic books. Why make the movie, if you don't want to do these
characters? However I don't think changing a characters colour to give a little more balance makes too much difference as long as the story properly reflects it. (No they don't have to come from Harlem just cause they are black, but having two white parents would be weird, unless adopted.)
Yes some characters need to be certain races. As examples, Black Panther is black, from an African country, full of black people, with a black heritage, The Thing is Jewish, and it is a core part of his character. But sometimes, it really is just a case of "does it really matter?"
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Saturday 21 June 2014
Monday 9 June 2014
Kids TV, quantity over quality.
I'm getting older. I know this. I realised I
had reached the threshold a few years ago when phrases started becoming more
frequent in my vocabulary.
"Kids these days" "in my day" "back in the day" "when I was growing up we had..."
I became more and more aware of my dislike for new things and change. Which is quite weird as I like new things, especially gadgets. So I thought about comparing things between my childhood and my daughters (she is six.) I want to see if she has it better now or I had it better then. But more of a comparison than competition.
Now let's get a little understanding here. Firstly, I had a pretty good childhood. My parents loved me, I was well looked after and I had friends. More than some people can say. This isn't about "woe is me." Secondly, I understand there will be major differences, she is a girl and I am a boy. There will be different types of toys and programmes, but I don't see that as a problem, as I will try to take that into consideration. Thirdly, and most honestly, I will be biased towards my own fond memories. The rose tinted glasses will be in evidence, as many things may not stand up now. However I am writing it, so tough.
Children’s TV is available 24/7 now, there is just too much! It just doesn't feel special at all anymore. Constant streams of repeats. When I was at school it was much more limited, with a choice of C-ITV or CBBC between 3.10 and 5.30 on weekdays. With a Saturday morning show, and some cartoons on a Sunday morning.
Most of the younger children's programmes seem pretty similar to my era. Start Something is like Play Away. The cartoons seem to be a bit more educational, with aims of teaching friendship, team work and sharing. I don't remember things like that when I was younger, but I'm sure they must have been in there.
Moving to slightly older and CBBC/CITV. They would start with the younger programmes and getting older through the 2 hours. Short cartoons to begin, followed by a serial animated series (Mysterious Cities of Gold, Round the World with Willy Fog) on BBC. With Newsround at about 5, followed by Blue Peter or a children's drama like Grange Hill or Round theTwist. All hosted by a man with a puppet gopher in a broom cupboard, reading out birthday cards, generally being silly and posting out song sheets. ITV had basically the same premise. With usually Looney Tunes starting things off, followed by a range of cartoons, He-Man, Thundercats, Dangermouse, and ending with something like Press Gang, or even better, Knightmare! The basic premise behind Knightmare was genius, 3/4 contestants went in to a virtual reality world of the dungeon, progressing down to reach the prize. You could never see that now, and yet it was brilliant. Both channels had art shows too. I grew up with Hart Beat featuring Tony Hart and Morph, and on ITV they had the also fantastic Art Attack, which I am pleased to say Disney Junior has revived (although it's not the same without Neil Buchanan.)
Saturday mornings was the other mainstay of children's TV. From The Multi-ColouredSwap Shop, to Saturday Superstore, where kids from around the country would phone up to swap toys they no longer wanted, for something they did. Then followed by Going Live and Live and Kicking. On ITV you had, Tiswas, No.73, Get Fresh. The Wide Awake Club was also on in the gap between Breakfast television and the morning magazine show. They all featured a range of celebrities with interviews including live phone-ins, cooking features, fun games and cartoons. I was always a BBC man on Saturday mornings, but quite often turned over for the cartoons on ITV too.
Lastly, we have the holidays. This is where they put more programming on for kids, mainly during the mornings. I remember Wacaday being on on ITV. This was hosted by the "brilliant" Timmy Mallett and quite often featured Transformers as the cartoon, I don't remember any other one on there. It also featured a game called Mallett's Mallet, a version of a word association game, but involving getting hit on the head by a foam mallet. I don't recall any other programming on ITV during the holidays, mainly because I turned to BBC after that. With programmes like Junior Kickstart and Why Don't You. This was a magazine style program designed to give you ideas of what to do, and where to go out and about. Each week it would be hosted by a group of kids in a different part of the country. They would also show some of the BFI kids films, and there would be other movie which I was gripped by, Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, and where my love of Sherlock Holmes came from.
"Kids these days" "in my day" "back in the day" "when I was growing up we had..."
I became more and more aware of my dislike for new things and change. Which is quite weird as I like new things, especially gadgets. So I thought about comparing things between my childhood and my daughters (she is six.) I want to see if she has it better now or I had it better then. But more of a comparison than competition.
Now let's get a little understanding here. Firstly, I had a pretty good childhood. My parents loved me, I was well looked after and I had friends. More than some people can say. This isn't about "woe is me." Secondly, I understand there will be major differences, she is a girl and I am a boy. There will be different types of toys and programmes, but I don't see that as a problem, as I will try to take that into consideration. Thirdly, and most honestly, I will be biased towards my own fond memories. The rose tinted glasses will be in evidence, as many things may not stand up now. However I am writing it, so tough.
Children’s TV is available 24/7 now, there is just too much! It just doesn't feel special at all anymore. Constant streams of repeats. When I was at school it was much more limited, with a choice of C-ITV or CBBC between 3.10 and 5.30 on weekdays. With a Saturday morning show, and some cartoons on a Sunday morning.
Most of the younger children's programmes seem pretty similar to my era. Start Something is like Play Away. The cartoons seem to be a bit more educational, with aims of teaching friendship, team work and sharing. I don't remember things like that when I was younger, but I'm sure they must have been in there.
Moving to slightly older and CBBC/CITV. They would start with the younger programmes and getting older through the 2 hours. Short cartoons to begin, followed by a serial animated series (Mysterious Cities of Gold, Round the World with Willy Fog) on BBC. With Newsround at about 5, followed by Blue Peter or a children's drama like Grange Hill or Round theTwist. All hosted by a man with a puppet gopher in a broom cupboard, reading out birthday cards, generally being silly and posting out song sheets. ITV had basically the same premise. With usually Looney Tunes starting things off, followed by a range of cartoons, He-Man, Thundercats, Dangermouse, and ending with something like Press Gang, or even better, Knightmare! The basic premise behind Knightmare was genius, 3/4 contestants went in to a virtual reality world of the dungeon, progressing down to reach the prize. You could never see that now, and yet it was brilliant. Both channels had art shows too. I grew up with Hart Beat featuring Tony Hart and Morph, and on ITV they had the also fantastic Art Attack, which I am pleased to say Disney Junior has revived (although it's not the same without Neil Buchanan.)
Saturday mornings was the other mainstay of children's TV. From The Multi-ColouredSwap Shop, to Saturday Superstore, where kids from around the country would phone up to swap toys they no longer wanted, for something they did. Then followed by Going Live and Live and Kicking. On ITV you had, Tiswas, No.73, Get Fresh. The Wide Awake Club was also on in the gap between Breakfast television and the morning magazine show. They all featured a range of celebrities with interviews including live phone-ins, cooking features, fun games and cartoons. I was always a BBC man on Saturday mornings, but quite often turned over for the cartoons on ITV too.
Lastly, we have the holidays. This is where they put more programming on for kids, mainly during the mornings. I remember Wacaday being on on ITV. This was hosted by the "brilliant" Timmy Mallett and quite often featured Transformers as the cartoon, I don't remember any other one on there. It also featured a game called Mallett's Mallet, a version of a word association game, but involving getting hit on the head by a foam mallet. I don't recall any other programming on ITV during the holidays, mainly because I turned to BBC after that. With programmes like Junior Kickstart and Why Don't You. This was a magazine style program designed to give you ideas of what to do, and where to go out and about. Each week it would be hosted by a group of kids in a different part of the country. They would also show some of the BFI kids films, and there would be other movie which I was gripped by, Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, and where my love of Sherlock Holmes came from.
I think children nowadays miss out on a lot of great programming, because it is there 24hours per day, I feel the quality in a lot of it lacks. Having 20 episodes of Peppa Pig in a row, or access to Netflix and Amazon Prime, meaning they can series mash Go Diego Go and Dora the Explorer (with her bloody map and back pack) means that it feels less of a treat. Although I try to restrict my daughters viewing time, and encourage her to play games and with her toys, I find it hard as it is easy entertainment. Trying to encourage her to watch more movies and less constant repeats of the same shows we have seen 100 times.
I'm not saying it's all bad, at all, but I do think there has been an overall drop off in quality over quantity. Let me know in the comments what you think, what do you remember as your favourite programmes from your childhood, and leave links for YouTube videos of the themes for us to look at. My list is by no means exhaustive, and it would be great to see what others watched too.
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