And that’s about a third of the movie wasted. The first fifteen or twenty minutes of the film is spent setting up the conflict between Bob and Horatio, introducing Talia, the crackers, and then setting up the relationship between Owen and his wife.Īnd then it’s like another 10 minutes before the concept of the animal crackers gets introduced and explained. Where to begin? The script from a plotting, pacing, and just a general writing standpoint was terrible. There are people much more qualified to talk about it than me.īut seriously, this type of shit shouldn’t be tolerated. The whole debate about representation is a topic for another day and another post. I won’t say anything about that since this was an American-Chinese co-production, and they don’t get enough characterization to be offensive. There is a small group of Chinese acrobats in the circus, but they don’t speak, and they’re mainly background characters. It kind of rubs me the wrong way, especially since none of the other main characters are POC. He is the team’s muscle and, at the film’s climax, turns into a half man-half bull. He is huge, hulking, and doesn’t talk all that much. There is also an African American character in the film, who is one of Horatio’s henchmen. She is pretty, kind, and pure, and attracted to the handsome, kind, pure, and equally bland Bob. Esmerelda is played by Harvey FiersteinĪnd Talia, which can’t forget about her even though the movie forgets to give her a personality, mainly exists to be a sexy lamp for the brothers to fight over and to be a pretty face in the circus. The two Romani characters in the film are the circus’s fortune-teller – an enormous, unattractive woman named fucking Esmeralda and her niece Talia, who is thin and beautiful and whose appearance at the circus causes a rift between the two brothers. The stereotypes as pickpockets, swindlers, and scam-artists come from hundreds of years ago by racist Europeans. During World War II, it is estimated over half of Europe’s 2 million Roma were killed by Nazis. There also doesn’t appear to be a long tradition of witchcraft, fortune-telling, or magic.Īnd this is doubly important considering yesterday (Aug. Though some were nomadic, many settled in certain countries. They have different religious beliefs – most are Christian, some Muslim, some Hindu and others practice their own religion.
I don’t care if Disney used it – it was wrong then and it’s wrong now. The g-word was made up by some asshole Europeans. That is what they call themselves and what they want to be referred to as. So let me say it again, the g-word is a racial slur. Okay, this is one of my main contentions with the film, so it’s first. I’ve studied over a few pages and articles and nobody brings up the racism, so I guess somebody that white people actually listen to is gonna have to. So what the fuck happened here? Sure, everyone is allowed to have some bad films but that does not excuse this messy, racist ass film. It may appear mean but several of the lead production staff have all been on successful productions before… And honestly, maybe it should have never been released at all. and didn’t get a release until July 24 of this year on Netflix. The film originally premiered in 2017 at the Annecy Film Festival and premiered in China a year later.įor these reasons, the film didn’t get a theatrical release in the U.S. This film has an unusual production and release history -which is the only reason why I wanted to review it- and that it had an intriguing concept that in more talented, competent, and less racist hands could have been something amazing. The fact it was a Chinese-American co-production doesn’t excuse any of this.
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