Sunday, January 20, 2013

Production Of Django Action Figures Halted

The heat surrounding the controversial film “Django Unchained” just got turned up another notch or two following the release of action figures based on African American characters from the movie.

The movie, which is set in the years just prior to the Civil War, follows the story of a freed slave who enlists the help of a German man to free his wife from her evil owner in Mississippi.

According to reports, Critics of the film, which was both written and directed by decorated director Quentin Tarantino, originally blasted it for its use of the “N word” when referring to the African Americans in the movie.

Now, however, the 8 inch tall dolls depicting Django, the protagonist in the movie, his wife and the German bounty hunter have taken center stage and production of the figures was stopped on Jan. 18.
The central reason why the dolls were put on the shelf was that they were considered offensive to African Americans.

The president of the National Action Network said the doll was offensive to the ancestors of today’s African Americans as well as the entire black community since they are geared toward children and could be used for entertainment and “making a mockery” of slavery.

 
As someone whose ancestors were not brought to this continent in bondage, I may not be the one to comment on the wisdom of producing a line of dolls based on the motion picture, Django Unchained, one of my favorite movies of 2012. I was looking forward to adding these to my collection because they look to be of high quality and design. I wanted a nice Mego-sized cowboy in my collection. 
 
NEC is a company that does good work, especially with the photo-realistic representation of it's movie characters. The sets which have been completed will instantly become highly sought after collectibles but will be priced out of my reach. Maybe one day I will find a Django and Shultz in box for a steal.
 
I would like to see similar protests against the marketing of images of rappers or killers from the movies which also happen to be played by black actors. I remember McFarlane Toys made a Candyman figure (played by Tony Todd in the film of the same name) for it's line of movie monsters. There was no protest when that figure was released. 
 
It seems that Django gets targeted because Tarantino is a white director and the movie is so high profile, giving those who need an issue an issue to rile up their base. It's not like they are producing a plantation playset with whip wielding overseer but a film company like the Weinstein Company has to be sensitive to each demographic in it's audience.
 
But to be truthful the 'slave' is the hero of this picture. Anyone one who had seen the film would hardly say it's painting the whole institution of slavery in a positive light. If anything, it's makes the whole institution and the white masters to be buffoons and targets for ridicule. I found the whole exercise refreshing to be honest.
 
What do you think?
 

6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I would think only adults would collect these, as no child should see that film.
Which was excellent.
And I'll take a Christoph Waltz figure.

Kal said...

I agree with you. They are the kind of figures that stay in the box that you can't buy at Walmart.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I heard about this earlier in the month on the "Comic Dorks" podcast. Much like yourself my "white guy" kinda voids my opinion. Personally, I don't think Tarintino uses the N Word very responsibly in his movies and I don't feel comfortable with a lot of themes I've heard about this movie in general. I'll probably wait to see it on DVD for a more informed opinion down the road.

As for these figures, I'm reminded of a time when I was at the theater for "Dark Knight" and there was an issue of the girl at the counter was telling me about her day trying to total up all the children's admission sales. A movie as violent as Dark Knight should only charge adult prices, much like figures from an R Rated movie should not be targeted at kids. If these figures are being stocked between Ben 10 or Power Rangers toys then thats the fault of the store and not the film or the figure's makers.

These appear to be collector's items geared towards a specialty market. If a big box store is carrying them as kid's toys than I think thats the bigger problem than the figures themselves.

Hobgoblin238 said...

I would tell Al Sharpton to go fuck himself...The man is a parasite to the black community.

csmith2884 said...

I agree these are collector items, not toys. If you let your kids see any Quentin Tarantino movie, your wrong not the movie. While I might be white, having married a black woman and raised to adulthood 2 black kids. I think I can have an opinion on race in this film. It's parody.. spaghetti westerns are not a definitive telling of the old west. Why would this movie be? My son (20 black,as opinionated as me) went with me. We both laughed our asses off. He later asked me if Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone made spaghetti westerns, did QT and Jammie Foxx just make a fried chicken western? Oh and just another thought, Oscar nominations for Christoph Waltz and the screenplay should be a shut the hell up. To the Spike Lee crowd. I hate reverse-racism as much as racism. If it was so important that a black man made this movie, one should have.

Kal said...

That was the best reaction to this movie that I have read and that's the truth. Fried Chicken Western is brilliant. QT would like that description.