Representation and Ethics in Animation

Steve Rose believes that Rio 2 is a bit problematic with the casting of the characters. The main characters of Rio are played by white americans even though Anne Hathaway's main character is brazilian and all the other brazilian characters are played by African Americans. Rose also talks about there being a racial hierarchy with white americans at the top then white british other ethnicities below then darkest skins at the bottom. Dr Charles Da Costa talks about PEPs which stands for Problem Contexts, Entertainments Contexts and Performance Contexts, and he talks about how black people are comic relief in films or villains. With characters such as Chris Rocks comical Zebra in Madagascar as well as Jamie Fox and Will.i.am characters in Rio 2. He also talks about how we get these stereotypes because of how quickly animation creators have to make characters and there performances must be made quickly in order for the design processes to commence and advance. In Turbo the human characters are stereotypical Mexicans that run a taco stand and comical relief side-kicks voiced by Samuel L Jackson and Snoop Dogg while the main character Turbo is played by Ryan Reynolds this suggests that social mobility is only available to white characters and its the job of non whites to facilitate it.