It's an audience reaction, and it's got citations, so it can stay. But that said, claiming that "it's racist to see racism" really doesn't stand when "black people are gorillas" is racist imagery that's been around literally for centuries. You can't just ignore historical context entirely.
Well, you can. And they did. And while I don't think anything was intended by it, it's damn impressively tone-deaf.
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> But that said, claiming that "it's racist to see racism" really doesn't stand when "black people are gorillas"
"Really doesn't stand"? According to who? You? What authority do you have? Because some people associate gorillas with black people, it doesn't mean the movie did... And it didn't, because the gorillas are played by caucasian actors.
The only tone deafness is in ignoring that the movie was obviously going for subverting the expectation (if anything), due to the complainers not doing even cursory research, and instead reveling into the subconscious unfortunate association.
And just because it's sourced doesn't mean it should stay, specially if it's the complaint what has the unfortunate implication, not the movie.
Edited by phylos
So, the nice guy gorilla who doesn't fit in with his daddy's tough guy life sings... Elton John? (Gay) Coding, much? Is it just me? Am I reading too much into this? It just seemed oddly specific that Johnny would choose an Elton John song. I mean, yes, the lyrics fit the situation between him and his father.
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As a gay guy who doesn't particularly care for Elton John and is not generally considered "nice" by my friends, I think you are reading too much into it.
I think we should mention here how Eddie never got to sing in this movie, and he's voiced by John C. Reilly.
Most of what's in here are comparisons to Zootopia (a movie released quite a bit after this one wrapped production anyway) repeated over and over. Shouldn't that be condensed? As much as Zootopia is the superior movie, it's not precisely ground-breaking either, being 48 hours in a world of funny animals.
It's specially weird since quite a lot of the animated movies released this year are about anthropomorphic animals anyway. Is it that every movie with such cast, from now on, is somehow a copy of Zootopia?
Regarding Unfortunate Implications, I don't think it's valid. Some... people might have cried foul because they think gorillas represent black people, but the only racism in that commentary is theirs, not the movie's.
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